Soft9700 confusion - A case study

[J5im8yo]

Hey I believe it cannot be done by the Black PCB that's why it is not selling as expensive and popular as the "L" shaped 9500 Pro and other 9500 Pros. After all I believed that ATi had eliminated this "problem" to them, in the newer revision, the Black PCB.

 

[Creig]

I will continue to update my informational post as questions are posted. I won't respond directly to the questions, but will try to add relevent information to the post if a question is asked that my post doesn't already cover.

 

[Creig]

Updated to reflect 9700 Ultra/ATI OEM 9700 PRO. (confusing, isn't it?) 🙂

 

[DOOPYLOOPY]

we still need this stickied!!!

 

[nutxo]

9500 PRO 128 MEG - Cannot be modded, but can be overclocked. The 9500 PRO comes from the factory with all 8 pipelines enabled. And it's built on the 128 bit memory path PCB. Since this board already has 8 pipelines, all you can do to the 9500 PRO is overclock it. You can't mod it into anything else. Overclocking results can vary from board to board depending on how well the GPU tolerates overclocking and the speed rating of the memory chips

riva tunser says mine had a 256 bit memory path
so if the thing can be oced to 9700 pro speeds theres no difference?

 

[nutxo]

$ffffffffff Display adapter information
$ffffffffff ---------------------------------------------------
$0000000000 Description : RADEON 9700/9500 SERIES
$0000000001 Vendor ID : 1002 (ATI)
$0000000002 Device ID : 4144
$0000000003 Location : bus 2, device 0, function 0
$0000000004 Bus type : AGP revision 3.0
$0000000005 AGP status : enabled
$0000000006 AGP rate : 4x 8x supported, 8x selected
$0000000007 AGP SBA : supported, enabled
$0000000008 AGP FW : supported, disabled
$0000000009 Base address 0 : d8000000 (memory range)
$000000000a Base address 1 : 0000d000 (I/O range)
$000000000b Base address 2 : e9000000 (memory range)
$000000000c Base address 3 : none
$000000000d Base address 4 : none
$000000000e Base address 5 : none
$ffffffffff ---------------------------------------------------
$ffffffffff ATI specific display adapter information
$ffffffffff ---------------------------------------------------
$0900000000 Graphics core : R300 (8x1)
$0900000002 Memory bus : 256-bit
$0900000001 Memory type : DDR SGRAM / SDRAM
$0900000003 Memory amount : 128MB
$0900000004 Core clock : 324.000MHz
$0900000005 Memory clock : 310.500MHz (621.000MHz effective)
$0900000006 Reference clock : 27.000MHz

 

[Creig]

Memory bus : 256-bit Core clock : 324.000MHz Memory clock : 310.500MHz (621.000MHz effective)

If it actually has a 256 bit memory path then it can't be a 9500 Pro. If the clock/memory speeds you listed are from a stock card then I would say you have a 9700 Pro unless RivaTuner is misreporting your actual bus width.

 

[nutxo]

those are overclocked speeds, i had to back off to 310/310

 

[Creig]

Updated with PICTURES OF CARDS.

 

[Creig]

and a link to digit-life.

 

[Creig]

POWER SUPPLY recommendation added.

 

[Creig]

Added link to 3DChipset with BIOS flashing/overclocking.

 

[Creig]

Added THE MOD with links to RivaTuner and Wizzard's page. Also expanded on the 9800 mod which works fine on my 9500 NON-PRO.

 

[Creig]

Added WAS THE MOD SUCCESSFUL.

 

[Creig]

Added REPLACING THE STOCK HEATSINK/FAN

 

[Creig]

Added 9800 MOD info.

 

[ronnn]

I am getting a 9700 pro oem, and am unsure if any mods are possible, outside of removing heatsink shim.

 

[Creig]

Added 9700 PRO info.

 

[Creig]

Added FIREGL X1/Z1 MOD info.

 

[Creig]

Nothing new in a while, but I'll keep updating this thread as things pop into my head or other people make suggestions of things to add.

 

[Creig]

Back up to keep from dying.

 

[Richdog]

Originally posted by: Creig
And I didn't realize how self-important you are and that you know absolutely nothing about computers. I'll try to simplify my answers for you. The main RivaTuner site can be found here which is hosted at Guru3D and their support forums can be found here.

I vote Creig for d|ck of the month award. If you want to argue a point, do it in a reasonable, logical fashion, not like an asshole because as soon as you start insulting, most people stop listening. :beer:

 

[Slammy1]

I run the soft mod from the omega drivers 9700Pro -> 9800. I gained about 160 points in 3dMark01. Nothing exciting, really, but it seems to have helped.

 

[akaricke]

Ordered one and it is on the way........crossing my fingers

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: Richdog

Originally posted by: Creig
And I didn't realize how self-important you are and that you know absolutely nothing about computers. I'll try to simplify my answers for you. The main RivaTuner site can be found here which is hosted at Guru3D and their support forums can be found here.

I vote Creig for d|ck of the month award. If you want to argue a point, do it in a reasonable, logical fashion, not like an asshole because as soon as you start insulting, most people stop listening. :beer:

If you'd actually bothered reading the posts you'd have realized that he started with the attitude problem LONG before I countered. I can only take so much BS before returning fire. I was posting factual information and actually trying to help people while keysplayr2003 was spouting off and insulting me. Unfortunately some people aren't mature enough to be posting, yet do.