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Potential HOT ATI 9500 --> 9700 mod

M

may

Senior member
Get a cheap 9500 and turn it into a 9700!!!

It is time to stock up ATI 9500 128mb video card before the current batch w/ 9700 pcb board sell out!

From rage3d.com

Guys from Overclockers.RU made some experiments with 128 MB card RADEON 9500 from Sapphire, as a result they converted it in... RADEON 9700 card!
Card on ATI RADEON 9500 have 128-bit or 256-bit bus, depending on a quantity of video memory. Since these boards are done on PCB from RADEON 9700, it equipped 64-bit half-sized versions, which have exactly half of chips, from RADEON 9700, i.e., 128 bits. Then the 128-megabaytnye boards, which have 8 chips of memory, installed exactly as on RADEON 9700, have the "valuable" 256-bit bus of memory.
For alteration it was required


To solder one of the resistors, located on the base layer of chip RADEON 9500 of position (2-3) to position (1-2) or to install analogous, with the resistance 6,8 kOm
flash a hack BIOS for Hercules RADEON 9700 downloaded from warp11


Read the whole article on Rage3d.com here: link
 
I wouldn't consider this unless you would also be happy with simply getting a plain 9500. It seems that there is a good likelihood that there are no longer any 9500 boards that actually use the 9700 PCB. They only used that PCB in very early board designs, and the change was possibly made before they were shipping to vendors in large quantities. IF you already have a 9500, or you can look at the board itself before you buy, you may want to consider doing this mod. But I wouldn't go out buying a 9500 expecting this mod can be done. Could be a crap shoot, and you won't know until you've opened the box.
 
i'd wait for alot more 'on the street' feedback on this.. so far i haven't heard of anything sucessfully doing it yet (mostly b/c they just ordered their 9500's yesterday)
 
There is a hack that lets you overclock your locked 9500 Pro. (you will get the performance of 9700 Pro)
 
anything that involves soldering isnt a hot deal, since you can easily ruin it if you mess up


thanks for the info though

better in off topic or video forum
 
The hardware mod does make the card a 9500 Pro though. So at least you're saving yourself $20 or so if you can pull it off, regardless of which R9500 you buy. The memory bus width of the 128MB cards is what makes it a valid "R9700" but you're right, it's not the Pro unless you OC the RAM past what most manufacturers put on the cards.
 
Soldering expensive hardware just seperates the men from the boys. But it is probably easier to just buy the more expensive 9500 Pro and bios hack it rather than to do this. But it appears to be an easy "pick and place" mod if you ask me, and if you own a pair of heat adj. hot tweazers like I do, this is going to be a peice of cake.
 
No offense, this thread needs to be locked considering there's 2 lenghty ones going on currently....one here and one in general hardware.

Chiz
 
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