Sapphire X800 GTO AGP pipe unlock

[Waldoinsc]

Hey Guys I just ordered the, ARCTIC COOLING AT4 Rev2 72mm from new egg, only after I ordered did I notice that this was for the 420 core and not the 430 that I have, does it make a difference, can I still use it??

Or am I completely mistaken? I flashed my 800GT Bios to 16 pipes does it change the core number when you flash, I forgot its been so long I forgot.....

any help will be good...

The different ATI Silencer's that Arctic Cooling offers are for different physical layouts of the cards. Look at all the different models and you'll see they are for specific card types.

As you have probably discovered, most of the stock GPU coolers are loud. I have a Radeon 9700 Pro All-in-Wonder in the system I use for video work (and it doubles as an extra TV ) I wanted a quiet, efficient cooler for this card, but this is one model that does not have an AC cooler designed to fit it because the physical layout of the card is different from every other ATI board (the TV tuner interferes with the heat sink). I decided I liked the extra case cooling that would be provided by the external exhaust of the Arctic Cooling design and decided on the AC ATI Silencer 1 Rev 2, but I had to modify it to fit.

The moral of the story is that each AC Silencer is designed to only fit certain cards, and flashing the BIOS won't change the external physical characteristics of the GPU or RAM chips.

 

[ietk]

Thank you!!!

I just wanted to thank DOLF, TOOL843, THEHOLMBOY sorry if I miss any one else, but I never got to ask anything until now every question I had was answered in the forums, thanks Dolf for making that utility to flash the bios it was a snap and i mean it was like booting in safe mode if not faster, thanks tool483 for taking time to email the utility to fellow pc users in need and thank you theholmboy for setting up a downloald link for us.

I unlocked to 16 pipes no problem no temperature issues 36 idle 55 under load, have not try to overclock yet I am waiting for an ARCTIC COOLING AVC-AT5 Rev. 2 got it for $24.99 including shipping from neweeg today, I also ordered my sapphire x800gto OEM from neweeg $140.00 (I returned an xfx6800xt for high cpu usage 100% while idle).

I do have one question when I install ATI tool .24 it runs fine but after my pc is turned off or rebooted it crashes when trying to start the program anybody knows why? any help with this would be appreciated, I dont like the trixx utility.

 

[15th Warlock]

Just wanted to share with you my experience with this card.

I bought one of these cards from Newegg, got it last week, installed it on my brother's PC without problems, decided to unlock the pipelines (fuses data were ok) my card had the R430 core, so I used the "bios16" file found on this thread.

The card unlocked flawlessly, used trixx and atitool to find max core/mem clocks, both programs reached a maximum of 435Mhz for the core and 528Mhz for the mem at 100% fan speed.

Got 4800+ at 3Dmark05 using a crappy Biostar mobo, a 2.8Ghz P4 and 1GB of PC3200 RAM.

Decided against OCing the card cause it would reach about 68*C, so we set all clocks to stock speeds, I sent my brother home, and he was very happy about finally being able to play Oblivion at 1024x768 and high settings (previously he was playing it with a 9800Pro at 800x600 and medium settings)

The next morning my brother called me to tell me that he was getting artifacts on all 3D applications and even on the desktop, all this after barely 5-6 hours of use at default clocks, I told him to get to my house ASAP, there I proceeded to reinstall the original BIOS and check the card for physical damage.

After installing the original BIOS, reformatting my brother's PC, trying the card on my own PC and trying lowering default clocks, without eliminating the artifacts, I decided to RMA the card back to Newegg.
I sent the RMA request to Newegg and got my RMA number, my other brother was flying back to L.A. so I gave him the card and he shipped it on monday.

Got an email from Newegg telling me that the X800GTOs were out of stock and that they would refound my money via Paypal, got all my money back (minus shipping costs). Needless to say, I'm extremely satisfied by how Newegg handled this situation.

Moral of the story: Be very careful with these cards, don't push them too hard, Newegg has a high volume of RMAs for these cards, it seems lot of them have faulty cores, I've read of ppl have their cards die on them even without overclocking and/or unlocking them.

If you succesfuly unlock these cards, make sure you get a third party cooler, cause these cards are really fragile, and can spontaneously die, so be veryt careful with them.

 

[DChronos]

Hey, peoples, what's up?

I just got my own Sapphire X800GTO AGP card from newegg (OEM version) chancing that the pipes would be unlockable, since it seems like a high rate were, otherwise still having what's considered the best AGP card for your money. I did a search around after I recieved the card and checked my fuse data and came across one post from somewhere here from a guy with the same core and exact same fuse data, as well the one fuse and pipe select data, and someone gave him a bios flash, and it worked, not to mention the 2 fuses to check do match as F, so I'm hoping and sure this card should be able to as well.

So, of course, I'll ask to check the pic below for the data, and which flash I should use, and where to go to find the instructions to do so, but I'd also like to ask first another couple of questions about this:

As far as flashing goes, what would be the best recommendation for a flash to use (I heard that you might also be able to use X850XT BIOS) for the best performance, yet keeping a good lifetime period for the card? About that, I also picked up an ATI Silencer5 Rev.2, and found it fits just fine, and am going to use Arctic Silver to attatch it to ensure the card is cooled very well. This stock fan seems like crap, but I'll get to that in a sec.

How about overclocking? Wether it's able to flash or not, what would be a good overclock range to use without putting the card at it's limits, but keeping a little under, yet getting a little boost in performance?

Sorry about the questions. This is actually the first card I'll have that would actually be able to do anything at all (last card was a free MX400, and the one before was an *OMFG* ATi Rage Pro '98 and all its 2Mb glory), so this is the first time delving into the possibility of OCing and boosting the performance of anything on this somewhat outdated PC. I've got a SOYO Dragon 2 Platinum board and a P4 2.8C, but as of yet, haven't even begun to use any actual power it has. Also, if anyone has any tips or articles or other suggestions about anything, even if it's not about the card, it'd be great if you could help out or something, and thanks in advance if you do!

Anyway, I have one more question about the fan, hence the pic below again. When I start my PC, the fan is blaring away at 54%, loud as hell, until I go into ATiTool and set the override and reset, then it drops back to 31% as it's suppossed to be. I have no idea why, or where you could control the fan other than ATiTool being on all the time, but was wondering if there was any info about that. Also, if I need to, what would you guys say would be a good temp/fan speed settings to use to keep it cool without blaring the fan?

That question's probably not gonna matter much if I'm installing this Silencer, but if there's still some relevant info, that'd be nice, too. Again, sorry about all the questions and the long post... I'm a noob, but a very thourough noob in finding info from the pros. Thanks again!

Edit: Oh, and by the way, just uploaded the BIOS for you guys as well so you can check out anything you need to. Again, thanks very much in advance!

 

[Waldoinsc]

Just wanted to share with you my experience with this card.

I bought one of these cards from Newegg, got it last week, installed it on my brother's PC without problems, decided to unlock the pipelines (fuses data were ok) my card had the R430 core, so I used the "bios16" file found on this thread.

The card unlocked flawlessly, used trixx and atitool to find max core/mem clocks, both programs reached a maximum of 435Mhz for the core and 528Mhz for the mem at 100% fan speed.

Got 4800+ at 3Dmark05 using a crappy Biostar mobo, a 2.8Ghz P4 and 1GB of PC3200 RAM.

Decided against OCing the card cause it would reach about 68*C, so we set all clocks to stock speeds, I sent my brother home, and he was very happy about finally being able to play Oblivion at 1024x768 and high settings (previously he was playing it with a 9800Pro at 800x600 and medium settings)

The next morning my brother called me to tell me that he was getting artifacts on all 3D applications and even on the desktop, all this after barely 5-6 hours of use at default clocks, I told him to get to my house ASAP, there I proceeded to reinstall the original BIOS and check the card for physical damage.

After installing the original BIOS, reformatting my brother's PC, trying the card on my own PC and trying lowering default clocks, without eliminating the artifacts, I decided to RMA the card back to Newegg.
I sent the RMA request to Newegg and got my RMA number, my other brother was flying back to L.A. so I gave him the card and he shipped it on monday.

Got an email from Newegg telling me that the X800GTOs were out of stock and that they would refound my money via Paypal, got all my money back (minus shipping costs). Needless to say, I'm extremely satisfied by how Newegg handled this situation.

Moral of the story: Be very careful with these cards, don't push them too hard, Newegg has a high volume of RMAs for these cards, it seems lot of them have faulty cores, I've read of ppl have their cards die on them even without overclocking and/or unlocking them.

If you succesfuly unlock these cards, make sure you get a third party cooler, cause these cards are really fragile, and can spontaneously die, so be veryt careful with them.

It appears in the industry forums that the X800GTO's were manufactured with cores that wouldn't pass testing to certify them for using as X850 cores, so ATI developed the marketing idea to sell them as "revved-up" X800GT's. If you are going to tweak on these cores (moding BIOS, OCing), definitely get an upgraded cooling solution for your cards. The extra $20-$30 is definitely worth the investment.

Also ensure you set up ATITool to overclock only when a 3D application is detected, and keep the clocks at stock otherwise. This will (hopefully) maximize the GPU's lifetime while giving you the performance you're after.

 

[DChronos]

Waldoinsc:

Thanks for the advice, but I said I already got an ATI Silencer 5 Rev. 2 cooler to put on it after I find out about the BIOS and pipeline info. The fan speed - temp advice could apply to that too, though. I'm not sure if it would work on auto better or rely on the card and drivers to run it, and have the same problem as the stock HSF.

 

[x800professor]

Just wanted to share with you my experience with this card.

I bought one of these cards from Newegg, got it last week, installed it on my brother's PC without problems, decided to unlock the pipelines (fuses data were ok) my card had the R430 core, so I used the "bios16" file found on this thread.

The card unlocked flawlessly, used trixx and atitool to find max core/mem clocks, both programs reached a maximum of 435Mhz for the core and 528Mhz for the mem at 100% fan speed.

Got 4800+ at 3Dmark05 using a crappy Biostar mobo, a 2.8Ghz P4 and 1GB of PC3200 RAM.

Decided against OCing the card cause it would reach about 68*C, so we set all clocks to stock speeds, I sent my brother home, and he was very happy about finally being able to play Oblivion at 1024x768 and high settings (previously he was playing it with a 9800Pro at 800x600 and medium settings)

The next morning my brother called me to tell me that he was getting artifacts on all 3D applications and even on the desktop, all this after barely 5-6 hours of use at default clocks, I told him to get to my house ASAP, there I proceeded to reinstall the original BIOS and check the card for physical damage.

After installing the original BIOS, reformatting my brother's PC, trying the card on my own PC and trying lowering default clocks, without eliminating the artifacts, I decided to RMA the card back to Newegg.
I sent the RMA request to Newegg and got my RMA number, my other brother was flying back to L.A. so I gave him the card and he shipped it on monday.

Got an email from Newegg telling me that the X800GTOs were out of stock and that they would refound my money via Paypal, got all my money back (minus shipping costs). Needless to say, I'm extremely satisfied by how Newegg handled this situation.

Moral of the story: Be very careful with these cards, don't push them too hard, Newegg has a high volume of RMAs for these cards, it seems lot of them have faulty cores, I've read of ppl have their cards die on them even without overclocking and/or unlocking them.

If you succesfuly unlock these cards, make sure you get a third party cooler, cause these cards are really fragile, and can spontaneously die, so be veryt careful with them.

EXACTLY what happened to my first card, down to the time it took to die. Seems that some cards just do that. My OEM version works rather well, but I need to get a better cooler.

 

[15th Warlock]

EXACTLY what happened to my first card, down to the time it took to die. Seems that some cards just do that. My OEM version works rather well, but I need to get a better cooler.

Hope your new card fares better than the one that died on you, funny how both our cards died the same way, what are the odds?
Anyway, good luck with your new card, I'll get a X1600 for my brother, or wait for the 7600GS to come out for AGP, I don't feel like touching an X800GTO again in my life

 

[dolf]

Hey, peoples, what's up?

I just got my own Sapphire X800GTO AGP card from newegg (OEM version) chancing that the pipes would be unlockable, since it seems like a high rate were, otherwise still having what's considered the best AGP card for your money. I did a search around after I recieved the card and checked my fuse data and came across one post from somewhere here from a guy with the same core and exact same fuse data, as well the one fuse and pipe select data, and someone gave him a bios flash, and it worked, not to mention the 2 fuses to check do match as F, so I'm hoping and sure this card should be able to as well.

So, of course, I'll ask to check the pic below for the data, and which flash I should use, and where to go to find the instructions to do so, but I'd also like to ask first another couple of questions about this:

As far as flashing goes, what would be the best recommendation for a flash to use (I heard that you might also be able to use X850XT BIOS) for the best performance, yet keeping a good lifetime period for the card? About that, I also picked up an ATI Silencer5 Rev.2, and found it fits just fine, and am going to use Arctic Silver to attatch it to ensure the card is cooled very well. This stock fan seems like crap, but I'll get to that in a sec.

How about overclocking? Wether it's able to flash or not, what would be a good overclock range to use without putting the card at it's limits, but keeping a little under, yet getting a little boost in performance?

Sorry about the questions. This is actually the first card I'll have that would actually be able to do anything at all (last card was a free MX400, and the one before was an *OMFG* ATi Rage Pro '98 and all its 2Mb glory), so this is the first time delving into the possibility of OCing and boosting the performance of anything on this somewhat outdated PC. I've got a SOYO Dragon 2 Platinum board and a P4 2.8C, but as of yet, haven't even begun to use any actual power it has. Also, if anyone has any tips or articles or other suggestions about anything, even if it's not about the card, it'd be great if you could help out or something, and thanks in advance if you do!

Anyway, I have one more question about the fan, hence the pic below again. When I start my PC, the fan is blaring away at 54%, loud as hell, until I go into ATiTool and set the override and reset, then it drops back to 31% as it's suppossed to be. I have no idea why, or where you could control the fan other than ATiTool being on all the time, but was wondering if there was any info about that. Also, if I need to, what would you guys say would be a good temp/fan speed settings to use to keep it cool without blaring the fan?

That question's probably not gonna matter much if I'm installing this Silencer, but if there's still some relevant info, that'd be nice, too. Again, sorry about all the questions and the long post... I'm a noob, but a very thourough noob in finding info from the pros. Thanks again!

Edit: Oh, and by the way, just uploaded the BIOS for you guys as well so you can check out anything you need to. Again, thanks very much in advance!

Your card can be unlocked to 16 pipes .
Probably it will be interesting for you: http://www.savefile.com/projects.php?pid=971168

 

[x800professor]

Hope your new card fares better than the one that died on you, funny how both our cards died the same way, what are the odds?
Anyway, good luck with your new card, I'll get a X1600 for my brother, or wait for the 7600GS to come out for AGP, I don't feel like touching an X800GTO again in my life

Remember the AGP x1600 uses a 128 bit memory interface. Don't even bother with the 512MB version because it doesn't have the power to EVER need 512MB of texture memory.

 

[SPYcorp]

Yes, I agree. The x1600pro is weaker than x800gto. Thatswhy i decieded buying the GTO. of course the x1600 supports HDR and SM3.0 but it can´t display it with pleasend frames because of low Memorybandwidth

 

[15th Warlock]

Yes, I agree. The x1600pro is weaker than x800gto. Thatswhy i decieded buying the GTO. of course the x1600 supports HDR and SM3.0 but it can´t display it with pleasend frames because of low Memorybandwidth

But I don't see myself getting another X800GTO, I know about the X1600 shortcomings, but at least, I don't see so many ppl returning their cards as much the Sapphire X800GTOs

Just take a look at the first 3 reviews of the card at Newegg:

Pros: Fast, good graphics. I could set BF42 to high on everything and get no lag. Same for BF2. 3DMARK03 shows it to be nearly 8x better than the mildly OC'd 9550 it's replacing (290 MHZ rather than 250)...
.

Cons: Runs hot (61-66 C in BF1942). Had to move some wiring to get the crd in because of its length. TRIXX software. 3-day took 4. UPS tracking site showed delivery was to be a day earlier than it arrived.

Other Thoughts: Computer would not boot in the morning (wouldn't even POST, no video signal to the monitor). Swapping in old 9550 would allow boot. In the afternoon, swapped it back in and it worked. Next morning, nothing. I think it has a defective component or a cold solder joint. Being RMA'd.

Pros: Very clear graphics, easy installation....


Cons: Long card. Card was in the system for about 4 hours before the screen became pixelated. Going to RMA.... More »


Other Thoughts: Sometimes you get a bad one, let's see if the replacement card lasts longer...

Pros: Nice AGP card for a very nice price. Upgraded from a Geforce4 Ti4400, which bumped my 3dMark03 score from 1700 to 8500....


Cons: Card fried after only 2hrs of playing WoW. Never overclocked or overheated...temps never reached much higher than 50c. I kept the side panel of my case open, because I was going to install the Artic C... More »
ooler I bought. RMA'd and hoping I get better results this time.

Other Thoughts: Probably would've been an awesome card if it actually worked. The odd thing is, I bought an Antec 550w psu which failed to boot. It powered up, but just wouldn't boot. I reinstalled all of my old components and everything works as normal. I don't know if I got bad luck or UPS decided to play frisbee with the box (which was pretty dented up on one side).

And that's just the first 3 reviews! Sapphire should be boycotted for trying to sell cards with defective cores, this goes to show how "thorough" their quality controls are, trust me, stay away from this cards, unless you wan't to try your luck and don't mind having to wait 5~7 days for your RMA'd card, and don't mind paying extra shipping costs for defective cards. Shame on you Sapphire :shadedshu

The more I read user reviews, the more I despise Sapphire, never buying a Sapphire card again in my life, this is the second Sapphire card that has died on me, at least my 9200SE lasted for a little bit more than a year, not like this POS.

At least Newegg is handling all RMAs pretty well

In the end, it's going to be my brother's call, but maybe I'll advise him to wait for the AGP version of the 7600.

 

[celidee]

The different ATI Silencer's that Arctic Cooling offers are for different physical layouts of the cards. Look at all the different models and you'll see they are for specific card types.

As you have probably discovered, most of the stock GPU coolers are loud. I have a Radeon 9700 Pro All-in-Wonder in the system I use for video work (and it doubles as an extra TV ) I wanted a quiet, efficient cooler for this card, but this is one model that does not have an AC cooler designed to fit it because the physical layout of the card is different from every other ATI board (the TV tuner interferes with the heat sink). I decided I liked the extra case cooling that would be provided by the external exhaust of the Arctic Cooling design and decided on the AC ATI Silencer 1 Rev 2, but I had to modify it to fit.

The moral of the story is that each AC Silencer is designed to only fit certain cards, and flashing the BIOS won't change the external physical characteristics of the GPU or RAM chips.

Yeah obvioulsy its not going to change the physical characteristics But I didn't know if it would actually change or not after the BIOS is flashed....with that said and done, NewEgg has already shipped my silencer so I have to get the RMA thing done, someone said that I they won't charge a restocking fee for returning the item if it is not open, but as I read on the their website they said they will....don't know I guess I will find out when I get it and return it.

Oh yeah BTW, I love this card!! It renders everything so nicely

 

[error_f0rce]

Yeah obvioulsy its not going to change the physical characteristics But I didn't know if it would actually change or not after the BIOS is flashed....with that said and done, NewEgg has already shipped my silencer so I have to get the RMA thing done, someone said that I they won't charge a restocking fee for returning the item if it is not open, but as I read on the their website they said they will....don't know I guess I will find out when I get it and return it.

Oh yeah BTW, I love this card!! It renders everything so nicely

Since they already shipped it, call NewEgg. Unless something changed, they will tell you to contact UPS and have them return the package to NewEgg, before it even gets to you. No restocking fee is what the guy said. If you want to find out for sure, call them Let us know how it works outl.

 

[x800professor]

But I don't see myself getting another X800GTO, I know about the X1600 shortcomings, but at least, I don't see so many ppl returning their cards as much the Sapphire X800GTOs

Just take a look at the first 3 reviews of the card at Newegg:







And that's just the first 3 reviews! Sapphire should be boycotted for trying to sell cards with defective cores, this goes to show how "thorough" their quality controls are, trust me, stay away from this cards, unless you wan't to try your luck and don't mind having to wait 5~7 days for your RMA'd card, and don't mind paying extra shipping costs for defective cards. Shame on you Sapphire :shadedshu

The more I read user reviews, the more I despise Sapphire, never buying a Sapphire card again in my life, this is the second Sapphire card that has died on me, at least my 9200SE lasted for a little bit more than a year, not like this POS.

At least Newegg is handling all RMAs pretty well

In the end, it's going to be my brother's call, but maybe I'll advise him to wait for the AGP version of the 7600.

First, is the 7600 supposed to come out for AGP?

Second, it seems to be the luck of the draw with these cards. My first card crapped out after about 5 hours. My second card is still working after a few days and a few hours with AoEIII, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Titan Quest, Empire Earth II and goofing around with ATI Tool. I just hope is stays alive. Does this OEM version have a warranty?

 

[15th Warlock]

First, is the 7600 supposed to come out for AGP?

Second, it seems to be the luck of the draw with these cards. My first card crapped out after about 5 hours. My second card is still working after a few days and a few hours with AoEIII, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Titan Quest, Empire Earth II and goofing around with ATI Tool. I just hope is stays alive. Does this OEM version have a warranty?

1. Yes:

Of course, the main purpose of 7600GS is to get full Windows Vista Aero glass support for the AGP platform, for those not powered with GeForce series 6 or users of ATI Radeon 9200 and below.

So, if you still have an AGP machine and would not trade your Mobile Athlon XP clocked at 2.5G and nForce2 SoundStorm solution, not to worry. 7600GS just might be the answer to keep you waiting for the first wave of DX10 mainstream parts, which is currently scheduled to hit the street during CeBIT of 2007. µ

2. It seems the last shipment of cards Newegg received had the defective cards, it's impossible most of the ppl who got the card on the last month got defective samples by mere chance, if you notice most of the ppl complaining about having to RMA the card, are the ppl who bought the card recently. The OEM version is supposed to have a one year warranty. Dunno about RMA'd cards though...

 

[matesusa]

Hello all,

Nice long thread on topic of my vid card there's going on here, took me a while to finally chew thru to the end. Amazing selfish effort on behalf of dolf helping so many people; major kudos to him.


My card's version & situation seems to be the same or similar as rf900 and SPYcorp have posted they have.

I bought the card new from the store and it was already unlocked to 16 pipes!
The only logical explanation I have for it is that either store sold me some refurbished card or Sapphire supplies them with cards that didnt pass as XT or Pro versions so they're sold as GTO.

It also runs very hot, 85-90 on full load! Not good in the long run at all, I reckon. I thought my case wasn't bad as far as air movement goes inside of it but now I'm thinking I'm gonna have to buy a new case.


The card also has only 2 mounting holes for the HSF, not 5. So the AC Silencer 5 rev2 I bought for it doesn't fit


With stock cooler TriXX says it can OC it to 420 core & 512 mem, which is pretty miserable.

My 3DMark '05 score is about 4950.

With such high temps I have I'm now looking to buy a Zalman cooler, instead of Silencer that doesn't fit.

Is there really no problem fitting Zalman VF900-Cu on this card as said by a couple of fellow members in previous posts?? I mean my vid card has only 2 mounting holes yet this cooler requires 4. How did you go about that, did you attach it using just 2 bolts?

I know Zalman VF700-Cu and VF700-AlCu uses only 2 mounting holes, but they also supply a brace plate to stiffen it up better which VF900 does not have and their mounting setup is a little different.

I just worry if by using only 2 bolts instead of required 4 to mount the VF900, will it have sufficient and even contact between the cooler and the GPU?

What are your thoughts?

 

[thescoundrel]

hi,

First of all, this thread has great info for the sapphire gto cards. I bought the retail sapphire x800 gto agp card from newegg a couple of months ago, and I just finished installing the artic cooler. Now I need help with the unlocking of the extra pipelines.

Can some one give me the right bios to flash for my card? thanks very much

 

[error_f0rce]

Amazing selfish effort on behalf of dolf helping so many people

Don't you mean selfless?

My 3DMark '05 score is about 4950.

You can get it much higher than that

Is there really no problem fitting Zalman VF900-Cu on this card as said by a couple of fellow members in previous posts??

Yes, absolutely no problem. The Zalman will fit ALL X*** series cards and almost every other card currently mainstream (except 9550/9600, 7800GS & 6600 AGP's). Now that's some serious compatability... have yet to see another cooler that can do that. So when you upgrade, you can use the same cooler.

<--------Zalman VF900 on Sapphire X800 GTO w/ 16pipes OC'd to 438 | 555 stable | 47c under max load
See 3DMark05 score below.

 

[matesusa]

Don't you mean selfless?

Exactly Good spotting, thanks for the correction.

You can get it much higher than that

Hehehe I know, and certainly hope so that I will! I posted it out of frustration, more than anything else.
I gotta fix the high temp problem first though... and that's why I'm here

Yes, absolutely no problem. The Zalman will fit ALL X*** series cards and almost every other card currently mainstream (except 9550/9600, 7800GS & 6600 AGP's). Now that's some serious compatability... have yet to see another cooler that can do that. So when you upgrade, you can use the same cooler.

I know that on paper it says it should fit. But my version of the X800 GTO only has 2 holes total to mount coolers, while this Zalman 900 requires 4

So how would you go about installing it? Mount it only with 2 bolts? See that kinda worries me, esp. since there's no brace plate for that option, like Zalman 700 has...
Perhaps I should forget the 900 and just get the 700 Although like you said, it would be nice to know that the cooler would have headroom for my next upgrade in the future, which 900 has for sure, unlike the 700...

 

[error_f0rce]

So how would you go about installing it? Mount it only with 2 bolts?

That's exactly right and that's how it was designed by Zalman for the X8** series cards. As referenced by the picture you posted, holes 1 & 1 are used for the install. There is nothing negative about mounting it in this way. It works great on my card, I love it, and have heard nothing but raves from X800 fans who have it installed. You do not need 4 bolt to get a solid install, trust me, when you slap this sucker on you will feel that it isn't coming off

 

[error_f0rce]

Here's what I'm talking about:

 

[Rhayven44]

Just wanted to add something, as I was a little confused on the Sapphire X800 GTOs that newegg is selling.

There are actually two versions of the exact same card for sale. The OEM one (which is out of stock), is the one with the larger fan and heatsink, and is set at 12 pipes when you get it.

The Retail one (about 10 bucks more), is actually the one with the smaller heatsink and fan. However, there is a chance that it will already be unlocked to 16 pipes when you get it.

I had been wondering about this, and just recieved the retail one myself. AtiTool was happy to tell me that I am one of the lucky AGP owners to get all 16 pipes already unlocked. I'll post some score differences from my 9800 pro later if anyone is curious

Now I just need to pray that it maintains a reasonable temperature...

 

[DChronos]

Thanks, dolf, and everyone else for being so helpful about all this stuff. ^_^

I think I'll start off just unlocking the pipes on mine after installing and setting up this cooler to make sure everything works and stuff. So far, I've been running this card for a week just with the out of box stuff (save for the latest Catalyst drivers), and the normal tasks I do, which don't actually tax the card at all, to be honest, and everything seems to work fine, aside from that fan blaring away at 54% still (haven't set any temp stuff yet).

Just wanted to ask about any tips you might have to keep this card running perfectly fine, since it seems like there are quite a bit of defective ones from the sound of it.

 

[matesusa]

That's exactly right and that's how it was designed by Zalman for the X8** series cards. As referenced by the picture you posted, holes 1 & 1 are used for the install. There is nothing negative about mounting it in this way. It works great on my card, I love it, and have heard nothing but raves from X800 fans who have it installed. You do not need 4 bolt to get a solid install, trust me, when you slap this sucker on you will feel that it isn't coming off

I must be getting more stupid older I get, I swear

All I saw was those 4 big legs sticking out at each corner, while my mind somehow chose to completely ignore those 2 other legs.

That is why these forums are so great to consult. Always guys like dolf or error_f0rce to help you find your bearing again

I just placed my order for the Zalman VF900-Cu. Hopefully it'll get here soon and lower my temps quick, before my card fries itself. Thank you for your help, it's appreciated

Cheers, Martin