X800VE AIW 4pipes to 8, 12 or 16 ?

[gorber]

No it works fine for me, just dont expect to get monster FPS in Halflife2. As a multimedia card it very good, as all AIW

 

[kali.mist]

Cheers Gorber,
I returned it for a 7800 GS. Feck it, the kid can eat bread and water this month

 

[juhha84]

No it works fine for me, just dont expect to get monster FPS in Halflife2. As a multimedia card it very good, as all AIW

I'm thinking of buying that videocard my self and I was just wondering what kind of fps you are getting at cs:source with 4pipelines? It's really the only game i would want to play. Is it any good for that particular game?

 

[jaja_com]

X800VE AIW GPU / lasercuts

Hi guys,
I just bought such a card, well it's not a Powercolor, it came in a white box, and there is just an ATI sticker on it. Under the fan and the heatsink, there seems effectively to have 2 lasercuts there.
first question : Is what I put in a red circle those lasercuts (I would prefer to be sure) ?
second question : What is the best solution if I don't want to solder ?
third and last question : Will it be sufficient, or I'll have to flash my bios (and for what type of bios ?)

Thanks

 

[dolf]

Hi guys,
I just bought such a card, well it's not a Powercolor, it came in a white box, and there is just an ATI sticker on it. Under the fan and the heatsink, there seems effectively to have 2 lasercuts there.
first question : Is what I put in a red circle those lasercuts (I would prefer to be sure) ?
second question : What is the best solution if I don't want to solder ?
third and last question : Will it be sufficient, or I'll have to flash my bios (and for what type of bios ?)

Thanks

Yes the lasercuts are exactly there. But before the hard mod do something simple (get the fuse values): http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=5367 and post them here. After that will be clear whether you can flash (hard mod) to something better .

 

[jaja_com]

Here it is : config fuses X800VE

Tell me if it wasn't what you expected...
And if it is, how can you see what is possible to do with it ?

 

[dolf]

Tell me if it wasn't what you expected...
And if it is, how can you see what is possible to do with it ?

The fuses show that one more quad could be opened. How to get that? It could be necessary to connect right bridge (on your core you have both laser cutted). Before to start you have to clean the contact dots of the right bridge with something shark because they are covered with insulating varnish. After that use some conductive compaund (conductive paint, varnish or rear window repair kit) to connect the dots but around the laser cut trace (don't fill it with the conductive compaund!). After the successfull hard mod see the fuses again (there should be difference in CONFIG_SUBSTRATE_FUSES). Post the fuses result after the hardmod.

As a beginning save and post your BIOS to mod it to 8 pipes. After that you have to flash it and to see whether 8 pipes will be working. If not a hard mod have to take place. These cores should work at 500-560MHz - what is your max. overclock with 4 pipes?

 

[jaja_com]

max O/C

Last time I tried, it goes until 594 MHz before crashing & reboot, WHAOU ! (didn't try memory O/C). I'm trying to make a bios dump, I read it was possible with AtiTool, looking for how-to.

 

[jaja_com]

Found !
Here is the file...

 

[dolf]

Hi here you are BIOS moded to 8 pipes. Flash it using the following:

1. Prepare bootable floppy disk (option in Windows XP when you want to format the disk).
2. Copy the original BIOS (not in archive and not longer than 8 symbols - "bios4p.bin"), copy the moded BIOS (bios8p.bin) and atiflash on the same disk
3. Boot from the floppy
4. Type (in DOS mode): atiflash -f -p -newbios 0 bios8p.bin and press "enter", wait few seconds
5. Remove the disk from the floppy and restart
6. Test the number of pipes with ATITool or RivaTuner (if ATItool still shows 4 pipes uninstall it but don't keep the profile file when it prompts to and reinstall it.)

Take a screen shot of the fuses if nothing happen and post it again. Only then hard mod will be needed.

Success

 

[jaja_com]

Thanks, I'll try it tonight and tell you what happens then. Hope it won't need hardmodding, just a flash is really more simple, and with no too many risks... What offset did you change in the bios file ???

 

[jaja_com]

Hi there !
Well, for the flash, it looked good, nothing special happened while flashing, ouf !
But after reboot, I went back into ATItool, and it still told me my card was a 4 pipes. So I reinstalled it, just like you told me, but nothing better. I post here the new fuses. Thanks for your help Dolf, but seems like it won't work without hardmodding

 

[dolf]

Hi there !
Well, for the flash, it looked good, nothing special happened while flashing, ouf !
But after reboot, I went back into ATItool, and it still told me my card was a 4 pipes. So I reinstalled it, just like you told me, but nothing better. I post here the new fuses. Thanks for your help Dolf, but seems like it won't work without hardmodding

The flash were correct and the fuses are OK for 8 pipes but the problem is on hardware level. Usually on some X800SE cards the left bridge is connected and the right is cutted. On the other cards both bridges are cutted. I will suggest you (if you decide to hardmod it) to start with the left bridge and if the pipes remain 4 to connect also the right. If you do that please post the fuse values on every stage of the hardmod.

Good luck

 

[jaja_com]

Of course I will try hardmod !
I bought this card in replacement of my 9800PRO, and it has just a bit more performances ! I want to make it rock . I'll do this, but not for the moment, I don't have time. Perhaps next week. You said it has some protection (varnish) on the bridge, what kind of product could take it off ? I have some acetone, would it be good ?
Again, thanks.

 

[dolf]

Of course I will try hardmod !
I bought this card in replacement of my 9800PRO, and it has just a bit more performances ! I want to make it rock . I'll do this, but not for the moment, I don't have time. Perhaps next week. You said it has some protection (varnish) on the bridge, what kind of product could take it off ? I have some acetone, would it be good ?
Again, thanks.

Knife edge will remove it better than to use solvents. I have done mistake in the previous post - start with connection of the right bridge not the left (but you can connect both when you start).

 

[jaja_com]

I found time to do it yesterday !
BUT I didn't read your last post before, so I think I have connected the wrong bridge... Well, the important thing is : my card is now a V8 instead of a flat-four and damn, it rocks !!! Now I can play Ghost recon 3 without problems while 2 days ago the best FPS I could obtain was something like 10 or 12...
So... Here comes :
-a photograph of the realisation, made with a product called (in France) "Loctite circuit+" and a screwdriver used to scrape the contacts before applying the product.
-2 screens of ATITool which show that I have now 8 pipes, and the new fuses (Hope will be usefull for you)

Thanks a lot Dolf !

 

[dolf]

Nice. You shouldn't fill the laser cut with the conductive compaund (it could be problem) but to make the connection around to the laser cut. Anyhow you can now test for max core again and max. memory (probably you have 2.0ns - 500MHz). If you use RaBit 1.7 for instance you can edit your 8 pipe BIOS and to increase the clocks to 520MHz core like on X800XTPE but (only if you discover max. stable overclock 540-530MHz). On principle for the core can be set 10-15 MHz less than the stable max. and for the memory 15-20MHz less than the stable max.

Finally you can connect the remaining bridge to see whether is possible to get more pipes. If you do that a new fuse picture will be necessary after the connection .

Doing taht you will gain even more performance .

 

[jaja_com]

Thanks, but for the moment 8 pipes is sufficient for me, and idem for the frequencies... Thanks again for your advice about not filling the lasercut, I'm gonna do the mod again for a friend, so i'll try to make it better. Still I have some questions :
-Was the flash necessary or it would have worked without it ?
-If I try and open more pipes, but some problem occur, I heard that it was impossible to close them again, is it true ?

 

[dolf]

Thanks, but for the moment 8 pipes is sufficient for me, and idem for the frequencies... Thanks again for your advice about not filling the lasercut, I'm gonna do the mod again for a friend, so i'll try to make it better. Still I have some questions :
-Was the flash necessary or it would have worked without it ?
-If I try and open more pipes, but some problem occur, I heard that it was impossible to close them again, is it true ?

In the BIOS has set number of active quads - 1,2,3 or 4. In your BIOs only one was set. I have change it to 2 quads. But to have them in reality they should be "permited on hardware level" - in your case are permited 2 quads. You can open or close arbitrary mumber of quads (1,2,3 or 4) but on the BIOS level. The core will only work with these quads that are not disabled on-die .

 

[jaja_com]

You mean that hardware modification is not sufficient if I want to unlock 4 more pipes ? So I should reflash ?

 

[dolf]

You mean that hardware modification is not sufficient if I want to unlock 4 more pipes ? So I should reflash ?

Absolutely. There are 2 levels of pipe number limitation:
1. On-die (it could be moded or partly moded only for R420 and R423 which have bridges on the front side).
2. If we accept that all the 4 quads (16 pipes) are "good" and aren't disabled on-die the card should have 16 working pipes. But ATI says to his partners that GTO must be with 12 pipes! But the all ramaining R430 (R480) cores are with 16 working pipes? They disable one quad on BIOS level (it is easy and can affect more pipe quads - 2 or max. 3)
The BIOS level (software level) isn't problem but the on-die disableing is. You can flash BIOS with 16 pipes enabled on card with on-die restriction and the result will be always one and the same - no change in the number of the active pipes .

 

[jaja_com]

Absolutely. There are 2 levels of pipe number limitation:
1. On-die (it could be moded or partly moded only for R420 and R423 which have bridges on the front side).
2. If we accept that all the 4 quads (16 pipes) are "good" and aren't disabled on-die the card should have 16 working pipes. But ATI says to his partners that GTO must be with 12 pipes! But the all ramaining R430 (R480) cores are with 16 working pipes? They disable one quad on BIOS level (it is easy and can affect more pipe quads - 2 or max. 3)
The BIOS level (software level) isn't problem but the on-die disableing is. You can flash BIOS with 16 pipes enabled on card with on-die restriction and the result will be always one and the same - no change in the number of the active pipes .

OK. So if I want to change the number of active pipes into the bios, I can do it with RabIt for example, and then connect the remaining dots on the processor, no ? But what offset of the bios should be modified, and to what ? where do you find data about such detailed informations ?

 

[dolf]

Don't bother about the BIOS modification I can do that but care about the "hardware level" disableing. The fuse values whisper me all that information (CONFIG_DIE_FUSES 0xFFF33FFF) 3 means that only 2 pipe quads in that core can work. Usually on X800VE you can find not 3 but 1 there - which definitely means 1 quad.
The number of the active pipes (in BIOS) can be changed usind BIOS editor (RaBit only shows the number of the pipes).

 

[ehabh]

can i unlock?

I have the following CONFIG_DIE_FUSES 0xFFF31FFF
can i get 8 shaders??

btw i got this card foe gaming the no box so i thought i would get a good x800 even pe would have been nice but this ve is crap the should not label it x800

 

[dolf]

I have the following CONFIG_DIE_FUSES 0xFFF31FFF
can i get 8 shaders??

btw i got this card foe gaming the no box so i thought i would get a good x800 even pe would have been nice but this ve is crap the should not label it x800

Unfortunately not. Uor core has one working quad (4 pipes). .