W1zzard, Urlyin, babalou, NRP .......... any1 plz tell me

[tom_12345]

1. How to find out the voltage of my ASUS AX800 pro/ TVD (VIVO) card??? R there any siftwares for it or anything??


2. Also i dont understand how to flash the bios. What files do i copy to the boot disk (will any boot disk do?).??? And how do i load them after rebooting??


3. Plz provide me with the exact commands that i will have to execute to flash my bios to a XT pte.

4. Another thing, since my card makers r ASUS, isnt it logical to flash the ASUS X800XT bios instead of the ATi X800XT bios??? Has any1 with the same card i own tried to flash the ASUS X800XT bios?? Was it successful?? R there any risks??? R there any differences between the two Bioses (i.e. The ASUS X800XT and ATi X800XT). I have also seen some people saying to change the name of the bios file, is it necessary?? Also some people go on about renaming the .bin files, but W1zard in his original article made no mention of it. So it is necessary to do it?


5. R the ASUS AX800 Pro TVD (VIVO) cards rated at 1.4v??? Is there any1 who knows it? This is REALLY important to me, plz try to give a definite (and helpful) answer to it.

6. And if its NOT rated at 1.4v, what do i do?? I have heard people talking about some pencil method, dunno what it means.




7. By the way, my vram chips r rated at 1.6ns, the same Samsung ones on a REAL X800XT Pte. Am i likely to face any probs like artifacts or visual gltiches.


THX in advance to all u guys.

 

[NRP]

Tom_12345,
Welcome to the Forum. I'm going to address your questions in order, as well as discuss options.

1. You have to measure the voltages using a voltmeter. Urlyin wrote an excellent article here. W1zzard explains the voltage terms here.

2. W1zzard wrote an excellent article on Bios flashing here. Any bootable floppy will work. All you need is W1zzard's modified flashrom and the Bios you want to use (each is available from the above link). Be sure to rename your Bios file to an 8 character name.

3. To reflash your Bios, just insert the bootable floppy (with the flashrom and the Bios file) and reboot. After your computer boots into DOS, backup your original Bios by typing this command at the A:\ prompt: "flashrom -s 0 backup.bin" (without the quotes, and that's a zero, not the letter O).

Next reflash your Bios by typing: "flashrom -p -f 0 biosfile.bin" (where biosfile.bin is whatever 8 character name you chose earlier for the new Bios file). That's all there is to it.

4. It's impossible to tell which Bios works best with your particular card. You'll just have to try them all with games and benchmarks to see for yourself. Different Bioses have slightly different memory timings, which affect performance and overclocking ability. I am unfamiliar with the ASUS Bios, but most people feel the ATI X800 XT PE Bios is the fastest one; however, since it has the most aggressive memory timings, it doesn't work well on all cards. I don't know if you have to rename the Bios file extension to .bin, but I've always done it and I've never had problems.

5. You'll have to measure the voltages yourself, because each card is slightly different (they are mass-produced). See #1 above.

6. You may not need a voltage modification - it really depends on what you want. The X800 XT runs at 500 MHz core/500 MHz memory. The first thing to do is download ATI Tool and use it to set your card's core/mem speeds to see if you can run 500/500 for at least 15 minutes with no artifacts or lockups (set the core/mem speeds, then select "Scan for Artifacts", ATI Tool will tell you if it finds even one wrong pixel). Do this before you change your card's Bios. If you can run these core/mem speeds without artifacts or lockups, then you don't need a voltage modification.

If you want to try an X800 XT PE Bios (which runs at 520 core/560 mem), use ATI Tool to test these speeds just like before. You really only need a voltage modification if you want to run your card at 520/560 or higher (in which case you will need a better heatsink and fan such as the Zalman ZM-80D or the Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer 4). If you decide you do need to increase your card's voltages, see Urlyin's article in #1 above.

6. The 1.6ns RAM chips are the good ones, but they don't guarantee you'll be successful. As far as I know, visual artifacts can be caused by physically defective pipelines or insufficient voltage to either the gpu, the memory, or both. If your card is really a VIVO, then you'll most likely be successful, but please understand, there is significant risk involved with this endeavor.

Before you do anything, first use ATI Tool to manually increase your card's core/mem speeds to see if you have any problems. This will tell you if you need to increase your card's voltages. After this step, then you can reflash your Bios to unlock the extra 4 pipes. If after unlocking the extra 4 pipes you suddenly get artifacts at the same speeds you sucessfully tested at earlier, then you either need to increase the card's voltages (the extra 4 pipes do consume more power) or, if that doesn't help, then it means at least one of the newly-unlocked pipes is physically defective. In this case, there's not much you can do. You'll have to reflash your original Bios and live with a 12 pipe card. However, you're probably going to be fine.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[tom_12345]

--------"I hope this helps. Good luck"


"hope"......."helps"............ It SAVED me. I initially understood the whole process wrong and anything could've happened to my card. But thx to u, i am running my AX800pro at 520/560 with 16 pipes!! ANd it seems everything is stable as well (didnt test 3d mark loop thing though)!!!!! Does it mean my card is 1.4v??

Well anyway, i really cant thank u enuff. Its for good people like u that we, the less learned ones, can still afford a smile. THX again

 

[tom_12345]

Greetings NRP,

I have been running a XT for some time, and no probs (didnt tyr the 3dmark03 looping though). But i re-read ur reply here, and i immediately flashed back, becos some new questions r buzzing me. Here i go again-


In ur 9th para, u said that if i want to run at 520/560 speeds i need to voltmod.


What if my card is 1.4v by default?? The X800XTs r 1.4v out of the box, and so r most of the X800proVIVos (W1zzard says so). Surely a "good" company like ASUS would equip their proVIVOs with 1.4v. But ofcourse, nothing is a certainty.


And if i can run at 520/560 (or more) in the Ati tool, do i really need to voltmod before flashing it to a XT.

W1zzard says the X800pro VIVOs and XTs r physically the same cards. So do u think they would need more juice after flashing it to a XT.

As u can understand, i want to avoid voltmodding. IF my ASUS card surives 520/560 speeds in ATi tool, can i skip voltmodding and simply just flash the card.

So far a lot of people in this forum have flashed their proVIVOs to XT, and some have had problems afterwards. Can u PLZ give me an account of what kind of problems occur if my card can run stabely at such speeds??

Can u plz search the www and find out if ASUS X800Pro/TVD's r 1.4v right out of the box. It seems that 2 users here (namely Fahim and ND) have the same card as i do and they didnt need to voltmod before flashing.


THX TO U AGAIN, LONG LIVE GREAT MEN LIKE NRP

 

[NRP]

Tom_12345,
Congratulations on your successful mod! Initially, I had concerns just like you, and it was great people like W1zzard, Urlyin, Mustrum, etc. . . who helped me. So all I ask of you is to "pay it forward". If you have an opportunity to help someone in the future, then do it.

I guess I should clarify the whole voltage modification issue. If you can run your card at 520/560 @ 16P with no problems, then you DON'T need a volt mod. You only need a volt mod if you notice artifacts or experience lockups.

The people on this Forum who have performed the volt mod have done so to run their cards at speeds much higher than 520/560. If your card is stable at 520/560, then you don't need to worry about your card's voltage - it's fine. Enjoy the new speed!

After flashing, you will know immediately if you'll have problems (ATI Tool is great for helping you stress test your new Bios). If your card is stable during ATI Tool testing, then your mod is successful and there's no need to worry about voltages or anything else. You're good to go!

 

[shoman24v]

I flashed using the Pro 16Pipe bios, I have the Artic cooling 4 fan and under load it does not go above 55 degrees using ATI tool. As for the looping 3dmark....i have 3dmark05 and as it cycles through the different tests, i can catch a glimpse of the GPU tems and its very low. I do not feel that 3dmark03 or '05 really heats the card up, I Would recommend using Shadermark or ATI tool to check for errors, at least with those two programs you know that the card is heating up well enough.

By using the Pro 16Pipe bios i have been able to clock 560/560 safely and get a score on 3dmark03 of 12,850 at those speeds, at XT PE speeds im able to get about 12,500 and at pro speeds im able to get about 11,500. thats all with 16pipes. When i was a 12piper my highest 3dmark03 score was 10,300 but with the 16pipe and stock pro speeds i was able to get over 11,000.

I have yet to flash using XT PE bios tho....