I did a search and didn't turn up anything here in the forums about this so I thought I'd share my results. If this is already well-known, please forgive me.
A few days ago I installed the first ATI card I've had in one of my systems since I upgraded from a Mach32 to a Matrox Millennium years ago. I've been a staunch devotee of Gainward's video cards since their first GeForce card. However, all the great press, reviews, etc. that the Radeons have been getting is hard to ignore. Finally, I broke down and ordered an OEM "built by ATI" 9500 Pro.
I was immediately struck by the richness of display when I first booted up with the drivers installed. I was a little disappointed though when I ran an initial test with 3DMark2001SE and scored lower than my (overclocked) Gainward Geforce4 4200.
After hunting around online I learned of a hacked bios that unlocks 9500 Pro's overclocking abilities. I was a little skeptical but I kept reading glowing testaments about it so, after some thought I figured, "what the hell."
Over the years I've easily flashed two dozen motherboard bioses, router and cd-rw firmware, etc., so I'm generally comfortable with the process. Nonetheless, I still felt the instinctive tightening of certain body parts as I pressed "enter."
After the bios flash WinXP reported that I had new hardware: a Radeon 9700 Pro. I re-installed the drivers and ran 3DMark2001SE. Here are the results:
before bios flash: 12089 3D Marks
after bios flash: 13497 3D Marks
Not too bad, huh?
A few days ago I installed the first ATI card I've had in one of my systems since I upgraded from a Mach32 to a Matrox Millennium years ago. I've been a staunch devotee of Gainward's video cards since their first GeForce card. However, all the great press, reviews, etc. that the Radeons have been getting is hard to ignore. Finally, I broke down and ordered an OEM "built by ATI" 9500 Pro.
I was immediately struck by the richness of display when I first booted up with the drivers installed. I was a little disappointed though when I ran an initial test with 3DMark2001SE and scored lower than my (overclocked) Gainward Geforce4 4200.
After hunting around online I learned of a hacked bios that unlocks 9500 Pro's overclocking abilities. I was a little skeptical but I kept reading glowing testaments about it so, after some thought I figured, "what the hell."
Over the years I've easily flashed two dozen motherboard bioses, router and cd-rw firmware, etc., so I'm generally comfortable with the process. Nonetheless, I still felt the instinctive tightening of certain body parts as I pressed "enter."
After the bios flash WinXP reported that I had new hardware: a Radeon 9700 Pro. I re-installed the drivers and ran 3DMark2001SE. Here are the results:
before bios flash: 12089 3D Marks
after bios flash: 13497 3D Marks
Not too bad, huh?
Facebook
Twitter