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Radeon 9800SE soft mod to 9800 or pro $183

farstar

Senior member
I was checking pricewatch and I found these 9800SE cards at United Micro for $183, $185 at Xtreme Gear.

I did a google for 9800se hack and found http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/download.php

which has a driver that it says will push this to 9800 or 9800 pro levels. If this card can go to pro this is an extremely hot deal. 9800 pro cards with 128mb are running $295.

 
You may want to read up before going gung-ho into battle. I have yet to read anyone successfully add the 4 pipelines that the 9800se's are lacking to make it comperable to a 9800pro. Best deal around is still to get a 9800nonpro, IMO. Get samsung memor, flash it to 9800pro, infineon - overclock the bitch out of it.
 
Looking at the board layout, it looks like the 9800se only has a 128bit bus. So even if the hack were to succeed, it would only perform like a 9500pro + a degree of boost due to higher clock speed.
 
In theory, it seems extremely similar to the 9500 -> 9700 softmod, but I'd still like to hear of just ONE success story before I go blow $200. Anyone with an SE already want to try?
 
can't tell ya anything about the se but i got a 9800 non pro and flashed it to a 9800 pro and its running great. clock speeds are at 410/365. after i flashed it i was able to get the memory 20mhz higher than before because of the added voltage to the memory
 
I've heard of several failures, but no successes by people who have tried this mod. As for the 128 bit memory interface thing--there's 2 versions to the 9800se. One has 128 bit, the other has 256 bit. I don't know which the one at xtreme gear is.
 
Well, I read somewhere or another (had about 15 windows full of forum posts/reviews) that the softmod success rate for the 256-bit memory interface cards is about 35-45% (I question the reliability of the source, however). I did read a few success stories, though... some folks in New Zealand got one running as fast as a 9800 Pro, and OCFaq.com says, "Exact numbers on the success rate are yet unknown but it works."

Added: Word is that the PowerColors and the Club3D's are the cards to get if you want to try the softmod.
 
I read a couple success stories at rage3d.

Edit: You need to be sure to get the 256 bit version of this card for the softmod.
 
u lose! hehe

the powercolor 9800SE original version has the 8 pipelines. You gotta find out which version they are selling to see if it'll work. Like the 9500np, just look for the L shaped memory. It works exactly the same. However, the powercolors are so hard to find now since people know that that's softmoddable so good luck!
 
The 256bit Powercolor 9800SE's also have generally been about $240 (vs. roughly $180 for their 128bit version). Just buy the 9800 non-pro from newegg if you really want Pro speeds. It's $243, vs their powercolor 9800SE which is $239, so for $4 you've guaranteed yourself that all 8 pipes work. If you really only want to spend ~$170 or so, then just buy the 9600 pro, or the 9600 XT.
 
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