I was reading round here and looking for the mod and found it myself. Some people had problems with it but i did it and it gave me about another ~2000 3dmarks (with this crappy PC2100 im using too!) Heres alittle before after new driver and 9700 conversion:
BEFORE
AFTER
If you dont know how to do it or wonder what card to get go buy the saphire 9500 128 (non-pro) for $155-160 its worth every penny. After that go here and download the Catalyst 3.2 - v.6.14.01.6307 driver (5.87mb). Then download the Patched ati2mtag.sys 280 KB (9500 -> 9700) and after extraction:
INSTALLATION
**Run Fillrate tests before changing drivers. You don't need to flash another BIOS.**
1) Run the driver installer and update your display drivers. Verify that the (still unmodified) driver works at this point.
2) Put the hacked driver file into the directory "2KXP_INF\BX_xxx" where the driver installer extracted the files to.
3) Delete the old "ati2mtag.sy_" file and replace it with the new "ati2mtag.sy_" (notice how the newer file is bigger in size)
4) Then update your Display Adapter drivers using Device Manager
**If u cant find divice manager search it in the help search**
5) Right-click on "Radeon 9700/9500 SERIES"
6) Then Update Driver
7) Install from a list
8) Don't search. I will choose the driver...
9) Click "Have Disk" and navigate to the "2KXP_INF" driver directory and select either "C2_08040" or "CX_08040" (I believe its C2=2k CX=XP)
10) go through and select "OK" then Click "Finish"
11) Reboot
12) Run 3DMark fillrate tests - expect around 2100-2500 in multitexture fillrate if it worked. (9500 128 gets around 1100-1300)
thats it! I got almost 2000 3dmarks and im pretty excited, good luck and hope this helps
SSXeon
BEFORE
AFTER
If you dont know how to do it or wonder what card to get go buy the saphire 9500 128 (non-pro) for $155-160 its worth every penny. After that go here and download the Catalyst 3.2 - v.6.14.01.6307 driver (5.87mb). Then download the Patched ati2mtag.sys 280 KB (9500 -> 9700) and after extraction:
INSTALLATION
**Run Fillrate tests before changing drivers. You don't need to flash another BIOS.**
1) Run the driver installer and update your display drivers. Verify that the (still unmodified) driver works at this point.
2) Put the hacked driver file into the directory "2KXP_INF\BX_xxx" where the driver installer extracted the files to.
3) Delete the old "ati2mtag.sy_" file and replace it with the new "ati2mtag.sy_" (notice how the newer file is bigger in size)
4) Then update your Display Adapter drivers using Device Manager
**If u cant find divice manager search it in the help search**
5) Right-click on "Radeon 9700/9500 SERIES"
6) Then Update Driver
7) Install from a list
8) Don't search. I will choose the driver...
9) Click "Have Disk" and navigate to the "2KXP_INF" driver directory and select either "C2_08040" or "CX_08040" (I believe its C2=2k CX=XP)
10) go through and select "OK" then Click "Finish"
11) Reboot
12) Run 3DMark fillrate tests - expect around 2100-2500 in multitexture fillrate if it worked. (9500 128 gets around 1100-1300)
thats it! I got almost 2000 3dmarks and im pretty excited, good luck and hope this helps
SSXeon
