Turn X800 Pro into X800 XT PE with Bios Flash

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darkwaffle

Member
Sep 19, 2004
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I'm curious, has anyone tried this with the HIS Excalibur IceQ II version of the X800 Pro? I've been looking for one of the HIS Excalibur IceQ II x800 XTs, but I haven't any luck hardly, and I figured this a viable alternative. Very few places seem to carry HIS cards, and even fewer (if any) have the hi-end ones in-stock. :(

I was able to find this image in a review, and it appears that they have the "yellow connector", and I'm quite sure (from many pictures of the cards) that it has the VIVO port. Here is the yellow connector taken from the review here. So I'd suspect it would support the softmod, but I'd love a second opinion.

Just a thought also, due to it's higher-quality cooling unit, would this perhaps increase stability at regular x800 XT PE speeds? And perhaps allow one to go even further? Thanks for your input.

Newegg link for anyone interested.
 

MegaWorks

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
3,819
1
0
Originally posted by: darkwaffle
I'm curious, has anyone tried this with the HIS Excalibur IceQ II version of the X800 Pro? I've been looking for one of the HIS Excalibur IceQ II x800 XTs, but I haven't any luck hardly, and I figured this a viable alternative. Very few places seem to carry HIS cards, and even fewer (if any) have the hi-end ones in-stock. :(

I was able to find this image in a review, and it appears that they have the "yellow connector", and I'm quite sure (from many pictures of the cards) that it has the VIVO port. Here is the yellow connector taken from the review here. So I'd suspect it would support the softmod, but I'd love a second opinion.

Just a thought also, due to it's higher-quality cooling unit, would this perhaps increase stability at regular x800 XT PE speeds? And perhaps allow one to go even further? Thanks for your input.

Newegg link for anyone interested.

wiley1 posted this on the third page of this thread.

Great!!!
HIS Excalibur X800PRo with vivo now an XT Platinum.
with 16pipes.

using the default 520 core and 560 mem. ATI Tool had no errors @576 MHz mem

Now have 2x unknown devices related to the XT platinum primary and secondary, not sure what those are about yet. Installed the New Catalyst drivers.

Works Great. thanks

 

DoobieOnline

Golden Member
Jan 12, 2001
1,397
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Anything over 560 mem gave me some artifacts with ATI Tool so I located an X800XT (500/500) bios and flashed again. With ATI Tool, the core got all the way up to 583 before my rig locked up. :D I decided to run 550/550 and after playing games and running benchmarks all night it appears to be stable. I scored 6008 in 3DMark05 at 550/550 using the latest Omega's. That's 800+ marks better than my BFG 6800 Ultra OC scored in this same rig! :Q I was kind of bummed that the mem wasn't stable at 560+, but the core more than makes up for it. I may bump up the core a few MHz, but I doubt it since 550/550 is running great and I don't want to push it too hard. ;)

Thanks again for all the helpful info guys!

doobie
 

darkwaffle

Member
Sep 19, 2004
42
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0
Ah. Thanks for the reply MegaWorks. I had run some searches prior to posting, odd that it didn't pick that post up during the search, perhaps I should have used the advance search, oh well.

Good to know, by the way. I'll definetly consider that option, though I can't say I wouldn't rather have a real X800 XTPE :D
 

MegaWorks

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
3,819
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Originally posted by: DoobieOnline
Anything over 560 mem gave me some artifacts with ATI Tool so I located an X800XT (500/500) bios and flashed again. With ATI Tool, the core got all the way up to 583 before my rig locked up. :D I decided to run 550/550 and after playing games and running benchmarks all night it appears to be stable. I scored 6008 in 3DMark05 at 550/550 using the latest Omega's. That's 800+ marks better than my BFG 6800 Ultra OC scored in this same rig! :Q I was kind of bummed that the mem wasn't stable at 560+, but the core more than makes up for it. I may bump up the core a few MHz, but I doubt it since 550/550 is running great and I don't want to push it too hard. ;)

Thanks again for all the helpful info guys!

doobie

Are you sure with that speed your core would last that long? Well I mean 550mhz on the core is a lot!!!!
 

DoobieOnline

Golden Member
Jan 12, 2001
1,397
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Testing 500/500 vs 550/550, I played a ton of BF Vietnam, Far Cry, and Doom 3 today and I really couldn't tell a difference in gameplay. I'm sticking with 500/500 all the way around now, so this card should last until the next gen comes along. I almost hate to say it, but gaming with this card is a better experience than using my BFG 6800 Ultra OC in the same rig. :Q The graphics are super-sharp, colors are better, and it's just as smooth as the Ultra. I probably have to chalk that up to the latest Omega drivers, though. They are unbelievably fast and IQ is excellent. I'm liking it so much that I'm seriously considering selling my 6800 GT and my 6800 Ultra and picking up another X800 Pro VIVO to mod or just buying a retail X800XT.

doobie
 

BuRnInICE

Junior Member
Oct 10, 2004
4
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This sounds really interesting :)
I've got an Asus AX800Pro Vivo 1.6ns that I want to flash. I've gone to techpowerup and seen that they have a bios there for the ASUS AX800XT. If I do this mod can I use that bios instead of either the giga-byte one or ati retail mentioned in the "how to"?
 

MegaWorks

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
3,819
1
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Originally posted by: BuRnInICE
This sounds really interesting :)
I've got an Asus AX800Pro Vivo 1.6ns that I want to flash. I've gone to techpowerup and seen that they have a bios there for the ASUS AX800XT. If I do this mod can I use that bios instead of either the giga-byte one or ati retail mentioned in the "how to"?

Sure try it, but always backup your original bios.
 

BuRnInICE

Junior Member
Oct 10, 2004
4
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0
Hmmmm so far i've tried

Asus X800XT bios - No luck getting 16 Pipelines to show in ATITool 0.0.22
ATI X800XT bios - No luck getting 16 Pipelines to show in ATITool 0.0.22
ATI X800Pro 16 Pipelines bios - No luck getting 16 Pipelines to show in ATITool 0.0.22

Looks like this card can only do 12 Pipelines :(

Wait! OMG YAY Success. Well I should have tried the Giga-byte one first :)

My new Asus X800Pro VIVO is now an ATI X800XT Platnium Edition with 16 Pipelines.
At 520/560 with Fan control set to 85% it's sitting at 44 Idle which is 4 degrees up from stock.

I'm going to underclock this down to 500/500 I think, especially now I have the 4 extra pipelines.
 

BuRnInICE

Junior Member
Oct 10, 2004
4
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Just did a 3dmark 2005 comparison.

Stock standard Asus AX800 256mb VIVO 1.6ns Samsung - 3790 marks
Modded to ATI X800XT PE 256mb with 16 pipelines and @ 500/500mhz - 5389 marks

Almost 1600 marks increase.

Temps during the benchmark was from 43 degrees idle to 51 degrees load

My card has the stock standard Asus Cooler on it with 4 ramsinks on opposite side (One on each memory chip) I've ordered an Arctic Cooler ATI 4 to help keep it even cooler.
 

MegaWorks

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
3,819
1
0
It's official, use only the Gigabyte bios to update your X800 Pro VIVO to X800 XT PE.

BuRnInICE, it's good know that the Gigabyte bios worked with your card. This really shows that this mod works 100% with any X800 pro VIVO. :D
 

onoffon

Junior Member
Oct 11, 2004
3
0
0
Excellent Info! Know of anyone trying this with a Sapphire Toxic x800 Pro VIVO? New to moding and wondered if this would provide an adequate solution to heat concerns?
 

Uhtrinity

Platinum Member
Dec 21, 2003
2,263
202
106
Originally posted by: onoffon
Excellent Info! Know of anyone trying this with a Sapphire Toxic x800 Pro VIVO? New to moding and wondered if this would provide an adequate solution to heat concerns?

The card looks identical to my Powercolor. With good ventilation the heatsink should be adequate as it is all copper. Kinda of pricey though at $200 more than I paid :(
 

BuRnInICE

Junior Member
Oct 10, 2004
4
0
0
Originally posted by: MegaWorks
It's official, use only the Gigabyte bios to update your X800 Pro VIVO to X800 XT PE.

BuRnInICE, it's good know that the Gigabyte bios worked with your card. This really shows that this mod works 100% with any X800 pro VIVO. :D

Yup on the first post of this 9 page thread, the Giga-byte flash option (Floppy B) is the what should be used. For those who haven't done the flash yet, it doesn't make your card a Giga-Byte card, it actually makes it appear as an ATI X800 XT Premium Edition. So it's basically like using the Giga-byte flash program and a special ati bios rom.

GVF11 -f -p A:\r80x256v.f1

Originally posted by: onoffon
Excellent Info! Know of anyone trying this with a Sapphire Toxic x800 Pro VIVO? New to moding and wondered if this would provide an adequate solution to heat concerns?

Thanks mate....and nah I don't sorry. The important thing before you do any flashing is you make sure you run atitool and set your clocks at 520/560 and go into options and go to fan control and set your fan speed percentage pretty high (mines 85%) then run the 3d view for about 10 mins. This tests whether or not your card will boot with the new clocks until it reaches windows where you can then setup atitool to underclock it.

Also be aware that the atitool fan settings don't apply until you actually get into windows and atitool modifys it on startup. You should hear your fan get faster.

Can I ask, does anyone see any problem with running the fan at 100% all the time?
 

onoffon

Junior Member
Oct 11, 2004
3
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0
Originally posted by: Uhtrinity
Originally posted by: onoffon
Excellent Info! Know of anyone trying this with a Sapphire Toxic x800 Pro VIVO? New to moding and wondered if this would provide an adequate solution to heat concerns?

The card looks identical to my Powercolor. With good ventilation the heatsink should be adequate as it is all copper. Kinda of pricey though at $200 more than I paid :(


If you don't mind me asking how much was the powercolor card? I was able to find the toxic for 469 us. As the avalibility of these seems random at best I found this to be acceptable, but perhaps I am mistaken if you found yours for 269.
 

solice

Junior Member
Oct 16, 2004
1
0
0
thanxz guys i was able to get 16 pipes on a regular ati card from comp usa. cant overclock though. card runs at 55 normally
 

TasCaan

Junior Member
Oct 16, 2004
1
0
0
Originally posted by: BuRnInICE
Just did a 3dmark 2005 comparison.

Stock standard Asus AX800 256mb VIVO 1.6ns Samsung - 3790 marks
Modded to ATI X800XT PE 256mb with 16 pipelines and @ 500/500mhz - 5389 marks

Almost 1600 marks increase.

Temps during the benchmark was from 43 degrees idle to 51 degrees load

My card has the stock standard Asus Cooler on it with 4 ramsinks on opposite side (One on each memory chip) I've ordered an Arctic Cooler ATI 4 to help keep it even cooler.

That's quite an increase! For some reason I can't get THAT kind of a boost. What are your system specs? What other processes did you have running, or did you kill most of the in Task Manager? I'm just puzzled as to why I can't reach that "5000" mark..

Any suggestions would of course be great! ;)

This is my score before the flash:

Score: 3807

Date: 2004-10-16
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 2203 MHz
GPU: ATI RADEON X800 PRO
432 MHz / 477 MHz
OS: Microsoft Windows XP
Res: 1024x768@32 bit

And this is the score after the flash:

Score: 4725

Date: 2004-10-16
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 2203 MHz
GPU: ATI RADEON X800 XT PE
519 MHz / 558 MHz
OS: Microsoft Windows XP
Res: 1024x768@32 bit