Radeon 9800 NP w/3.0nsec memory question

[Megatomic]

I have a Radeon 9800 NP with 3.0nsec Infineon BGAs. I was wondering if any of you with the same card were able to flash your card to a 9800 Pro? If you did it and it worked, could you please contact me, I have some questions for you. Thanks.

 

[Megatomic]

Well, I tried to overclock the card using Radclocker to 330/330 and even that failed so I guess the Pro BIOS is out of the question. NM...

 

[stardust]

are u sure its 3ns? if it failed at 330/330? im running a 3.3ns saphire 9800np @ 400/333 flashed pro bios

 

[Megatomic]

Infineon BGAs are marked with their speed in a non-cryptic manner. It is definitely 3.0nsec memory. The chips will run at 320MHz (640MHz DDR) with no problem though. I'm using Radclocker to run the card at 330MHz/640MHz now and it is solid. I'm pretty happy with this setup.

 

[Corporate Thug]

megatonic, what brand is the 9800 NP? sapphire?

 

[Regs]

Well with my Built By ATI non-pro my memory can't stay stable after 310 Mhz. For me though it doesn't seem to matter. My benchmarks stay the same in 3dmark after overclocking the core by 80-100 Mhz. So I'm guessing im stuck at a barrier between my CPU bus and memory.

 

[KillaBong]

The 9800pro bios has lower ram timings than the np bios. If you flash it, the ram will run much faster than you can get it to now. And no, timings don't help the performance anywhere close to how much clock speeds do, so I would have to suggest flashing it to a pro.

 

[Megatomic]

I have a Built by ATI retail 9800 NP, complete with the box and all the cables and adapters. It's a nice kit for an ATI card.

About flashing it to Pro, it does concern me that I can't run the memory at even close to Pro speeds. Wouldn't I be giving myself an unusable card if I do this flash now?

 

[rickon66]

You would need to underclock the memory a bit, but you should have no problem with the core.

 

[Megatomic]

Well, I just ordered some BGA ramsinks and fragtape, maybe that'll help me be able to o/c the RAM to Pro levels. I've been hearing that the Pro BIOS itself adjusts memory timings (like KillaBong was saying) and that I might be able to hit Pro levels that way, too. I'll just wait until I have the memory cooled before I try though, I don't want to chance damaging this card.

 

[stardust]

i don't think heat is an issue at 320mhz/640mhz actual
but try ur best

 

[patrickj]

Is the BIOS that people are using to flash their 9800np to a 9800Pro provided by ATI, or is it something somebody put together?

 

[Megatomic]

I think it's a Pro BIOS written by ATI. Someone just did a BIOS dump of their Pro card (my educated guess).

 

[stardust]

yup, then they get tons of traffic on their website from ppl wanting to dll and they get the advertisment fees.

 

[Megatomic]

Well, if my memory does o/c better after I get the coolers installed then I am definitely going to try to flash the BIOS to a Pro. I'll just keep a PCI vga card nearby in case things go awry. :Q

 

[Balex99]

Let me know how it goes. I just found the limit to my 3.0 memory and it is 325mhz. I have some ram sinks I made from an old K6 heatsink that I am going to try out. I am going to use tape instead of the epoxy mainly because I still have some warrenty left on the card and don't want to be stuck(no pun intended) with ram sinks.

 

[stardust]

bios for u

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Balex99
Let me know how it goes. I just found the limit to my 3.0 memory and it is 325mhz. I have some ram sinks I made from an old K6 heatsink that I am going to try out. I am going to use tape instead of the epoxy mainly because I still have some warrenty left on the card and don't want to be stuck(no pun intended) with ram sinks.

Will do. Oh and I had a new kit of Arctic Silver Adhesive on the order ticket with the BGA coolers but I changed it at the last minute for some fragtape for the very same reason.

And thanks for the link stardust!!