Possible to do that flash to 9700P from 9500P anymore?

[Joony]

Well, my current MAD DOGG (Crapusa Special) Geforce 4 Ti4200 dosen't have DVI! I'm going to need it for my future Dell 1800FP . Video cards are very expensive these days...Does newegg still sell any radeons that can be modded to a speedier one? I figure that the manufacturers of the cards caught on that people were modding them so thats why i'm asking...

 

[FearoftheNight]

the moddable ones were the sapphire L shaped....ati forced them to discontinue them....some are still around but they are rare....

 

[Codec666]

newegg still has em i think my friend just bought one like 2 weeks ago, looks like you missed em, as long as its not the black PCB and its a saphire 128 meg version its good. I have one and its running 410 core 310 mem

 

[AnAndAustin]

It's a BIG gamble trying to get a Rad9500 (non-PRO) and mod it to a Rad9700. For a VERY brief time the 9500NONPRO were made on the 9700PCB mostly to get the early cards to maket while a 4 piped PCB was finalised, these cards had the 4 RAM chips all in a line along the top of the card. To make the mod possible you need a 9500nonPRO on a 9700PCB with 128MB which would give you the 256bitDDR and 8 pipes although 4 would be dormant. You then needed to mod the card in order to force all 8 pipes into being used, the 8 pipes is by far the most important part as with 4 pipes perf plain sucked. Even if you did/do get a 9500nonPRO based on the 9700PCB with 128MB and could awaken the dormant pipes the chances of the pipes working was under 50%. If you could get 8 pipes and had the 256bit DDR you then had a 9700nonPRO and by flashing the BIOS you could enable clock alterations and all 9500-9700 seemed to exceed 9700PRO speeds so basicly it was then easy to get a 9700PRO out of your 9500nonPRO .... if you could find the right type of card and were lucky enough to have 8 fully functional pipes. Considering the chances were tiny even back when the 9500 series was widely available I'd say it totally a waste of time now. Even back then the 9500PRO was a much better choice as you got 8 pipes guaranteed and a simple BIOS flash could almost always yield 9700nonPRO perf.

At stock speeds...

9500 is much slower than a 4200, you need to enable FULL AA & AF to compete with a stock 4200, the GF4TI were never designed to use FULL AA & AF (medium AA & AF is best).
9500PRO is significantly faster than a 9500 and you're at GF4TI4400/4800SE speeds, but enabling full AA & AF you'll be a lot faster than a GF4TI4600/4800.
9600PRO is a step down from 9500PRO, clock speeds are very high but now you're stuck with 4 pipes so are about 15% slower than 9500PRO so AA+AF to one side you're as fast a s a 4200.

So if you want to mod a card to a faster one it's back to the old method of choosing your card carefully and o/c'ing. There is a slight chance the 9800SE will be a moddable candidate. The 128bit DDR version (Rad9500PRO speeds IMHO) MAY be moddable to a 256bit version but it would only be a very short term thing and is unlikely. The 9800SE 256bit DDR (Rad9700nonPRO perf IMHO) may use a 9800PCB but again it's only likely to be a short term thing, that would give you a chance of enabling 8 pipes and effectively having a card faster than a Rad9800pro as it seems the 9800SE will be 4 piped 0.13mu! I wouldn't hold your breath though...

 

[Joony]

Ah darn, well, would a refurbished 9700 Pro from newegg be better for me?

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: Joony
Ah darn, well, would a refurbished 9700 Pro from newegg be better for me?

Yes it would. Another card to consider is the 9700 Non Pro...

 

[modedepe]

With the 9700nps now costing only around $200 it's barely worth it to attempt a softmod at all. A 9500np will cost you about $140, so all you're saving is $60..if the mod works that is. Not a bad deal if it works, but if it fails you have a card with a pretty poor price to performance ratio. Looking at a refurb 9700pro/np would be a better bet IMO. With one of those you'll be sure what you're getting.

 

[Maddscientist]

To make the mod possible you need a 9500nonPRO on a 9700PCB with 128MB which would give you the 256bitDDR and 8 pipes although 4 would be dormant.

Thats funny I thought it was the the 9500pro that went to --->9700nonpro 9500np ------->9500pro and finaly 9700np to ---->9700pro that the software mod was capable of doing. Im pretty sure Every guide I have ever read "never" said you can take a 9500np--->9700 had to be the 9500pro.....Could be wrong but im pretty sure of myself.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Not from what I've heard and read, this is how the cards differ...

9500 . . = 4pipes 128bitDDR 275/270
9500Pro = 8pipes 128bitDDR 275/270
9700 . . = 8pipes 256bitDDR 275/270
9700pro = 8pipes 256bitDDR 325/310

You could reach the card above by simply o/c'ing, hence the 275/270 cards could do 340/310 which was roughly enough for the 9500 to at least get closer to the 9500pro, the 9500pro could yield 9700nonPRO perf (ie make up the lack of 256bitDDR) and the 9700nonPRO could be a true blue 9700PRO. The 9500PRO had its own 8piped 128bitDDR PCB from the off so there was no way of truly making it a 9700 but the 9500nonPRO for a VERY breif time used the 9700PCB to get the cards to market quickly and presumably many were destined to be 9700's but 1-4 pipes were defective. If a 9500nonPRO used the 9700PCB (very unlikely) it has 256bitDDR but only if the full 128MB is used, then you simply need to wake up the other 4 pipes to get a full 9700nonPRO, o/c and you have a true blue 9700pro. You could also find a 9700pro on the floor the next time you walk down the road too though LOL!

 

[Creig]

All the common 9500/9700 answers can be found here.