Radeon 9500 pro

[Piano Man]

Still have mine. Unlocked it with the BIOS flash. WoW played fine on it at 1152*864 with medium settings. Great card, I'll keep it until I do a major upgrade and move to PCI-e

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
the original unlockable card :thumbsup:

Only 9500/9700 were unlockable to 8 pipes.

I still have this card (it's in a PC that's now my dad's), but it didn't budge in terms of overclocking. Instant artifacts within <10 MHz.

 

[paulxcook]

Originally posted by: xtknight

Originally posted by: ElFenix
the original unlockable card :thumbsup:

Only 9500/9700 were unlockable to 8 pipes.

I still have this card (it's in a PC that's now my dad's), but it didn't budge in terms of overclocking. Instant artifacts within <10 MHz.

I keep reading that, but I swear I flashed to 9700 pro and the speeds were 9700 pro speeds. I'll try to confirm this when I get home from work today.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: paulxcook
I keep reading that, but I swear I flashed to 9700 pro and the speeds were 9700 pro speeds. I'll try to confirm this when I get home from work today.

There was a BIOS flash to make it 8 pipes? I thought the 9500 PRO didn't have the needed circuitry (odd that 9500 would)? I must be speaking of solely the softmod then.

 

[drum]

I still use mine in my main rig. currently powering a 2005fpw

 

[mooncancook]

Originally posted by: xtknight

Originally posted by: paulxcook
I keep reading that, but I swear I flashed to 9700 pro and the speeds were 9700 pro speeds. I'll try to confirm this when I get home from work today.

There was a BIOS flash to make it 8 pipes? I thought the 9500 PRO didn't have the needed circuitry (odd that 9500 would)? I must be speaking of solely the softmod then.

If i remember correctly, the 9500Pro was already an 8 pipe card. It has the exact same gpu as the 9700Pro except with 128-bit memory and with locked clock. The bios flash was to unlock the clockspeed so you can OCed it to 9700Pro speed since they are the same chip (later ppl were able to OCed it with software only). You still don't get the 256-bit memory bus but for roughly half the cost of a 9700Pro it was a pretty hot deal back then.

 

[coldpower27]

The day of having a high end GPU at mainstream price of 199US is bascially over since Nvidia/ATI typically have 3 GPU to cover the 3 segements now. You just won't find a R580 core and G71 Core from the get go at 199US. You may eventually when AT/Nvidia have to dump inventory, but likely with some locked pipelines/disabled pipelines nowadays with the advent of so many of them.

Putting out 200mm2 die at the mainstream price point is expensive hence why you always have the core at mid range typically is less then that.

 

[paulxcook]

Originally posted by: mooncancook

Originally posted by: xtknight

Originally posted by: paulxcook
I keep reading that, but I swear I flashed to 9700 pro and the speeds were 9700 pro speeds. I'll try to confirm this when I get home from work today.

There was a BIOS flash to make it 8 pipes? I thought the 9500 PRO didn't have the needed circuitry (odd that 9500 would)? I must be speaking of solely the softmod then.

If i remember correctly, the 9500Pro was already an 8 pipe card. It has the exact same gpu as the 9700Pro except with 128-bit memory and with locked clock. The bios flash was to unlock the clockspeed so you can OCed it to 9700Pro speed since they are the same chip (later ppl were able to OCed it with software only). You still don't get the 256-bit memory bus but for roughly half the cost of a 9700Pro it was a pretty hot deal back then.

Yes, I think this is what I did, actually. It was already 8 pipes, the flash was for overclocking, and at the time I doubt I understood much about 128 vs 256 bit memory bus.

 

[Skunkwourk]

Great card. Ran Doom 3 just fine with medium settings, haven't tried BF2 but thats just cause I got a 6800gt (9500 pro is in a secondary system now). Of all the cards I've ever owed, my 2 favorites have been my Geforce 2 pro and the Radeon 9500 pro (I also thought the 9700 pro was great but the 9500 pro definitley got the most bang for buck).

 

[urayoan]

I have one and have been considering what to upgrade to. I don't want to go with a full system upgrade just yet, just the video card.

Anyway, what would you guys recomend as the best bang for the buck agp replacement for the radeon 9500 pro?

Thanks

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: xtknight

Originally posted by: paulxcook
I keep reading that, but I swear I flashed to 9700 pro and the speeds were 9700 pro speeds. I'll try to confirm this when I get home from work today.

There was a BIOS flash to make it 8 pipes? I thought the 9500 PRO didn't have the needed circuitry (odd that 9500 would)? I must be speaking of solely the softmod then.

this needs clearing lol


9500pro 8 pipes 128bit memory....memory was arranged in I shape down the edge of the card. you can clock to 9700pro speeds and beyond....thats it

9700NP 8 pipes, 256bit mem memory arranged in a L shape. same clocks as 9500pro at 275Mhz/270Mhz....you can clock to 9700pro

the 9500NON PRO was a bit special. they were 4 pipes running at 275/270, but some had ram arranged in the L shape, ie 256 bit, using the softmod you could open the extra 4 pipes and then overclock giving you a 9700pro

 

[lorlabnew]

Hi guys,

I also still have the original retail Radeon 9500 Pro in my desktop; I came to this thread by trying to find moderately priced low-profile AGP card that would give similar (or better) performance then this R9500P. I'd like to move my system to MicroATX case, and realized that the cases which I'd probably want to use (Minuet 300 for instance) wouldn't fit R9500Pro...

Last game I played with this card was Doom3 some year ago, and the game ran very nice at 1280x1024 and medium detail if I recall it correctly. I use Zalman fanless heatpipe instead of the original ATI HS/fan - I like it quiet; the card gets very hot under the full load, but works fine. The only game that kept overheating the card (and causing artifacts) was the "Soldiers: Heroes of World War II".

Any suggestion of replacement for R9500P that would fit slim MicroATX? I'd want fanless card - I'm looking at newegg right now but since I didn't pay much attention to new hardware for last 1-2 years, I don't know what to get...

Thanks for advice.

Dave