Which 9500? L-shaped ram???

[AmdEmAll]

Hi, It's time for me to get a new video card. I have a GeForce 3 now and it's getting a little slow for me. I've heard a lot about the Radeon 9500 and soft modding it to a 9700 pro. I checked newegg out and found one that at least for one person it worked.

Newegg 9500

Will this one most likely work? And what is this L-Shaped ram?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

One person isn't exactly what I'd call a staggeringly high success rate.

There seems to be a lot of support for the Sapphire 9500s since they have the 128-bit memory bus (IIRC) and are built on the 9700 PCB.

L-shaped RAM just means that the ram is arranged in an L, not a straight line like the one shown. Think of how a knight moves in the game of chess.

- M4H

 

[AmdEmAll]

Well I only saw one person that even tried to softmod it and they suceeded. Also if you look at the picture it is a sapphire but the ram isn't in an L pattern. Hmm i'll wait and see what some others have to say.

 

[nick1985]

wont work with that particular card. M4H described it well with the knight move in chess

 

[AmdEmAll]

So you have to have the L-shaped ram for it to work at all?

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: AmdEmAll
Well I only saw one person that even tried to softmod it and they suceeded. Also if you look at the picture it is a sapphire but the ram isn't in an L pattern. Hmm i'll wait and see what some others have to say.

It also has to be on a red PCB. Even if you find it, the chance of the mod working is very low, under 50%. I'd reccomend dishing out a little more for a 9500 Pro or even a 9700 non pro which is only like $10 or $20 more.

 

[zsouthboy]

I thought they stopped making the ones with the 9700 pcb....?


Plus, there's the chance that the chip itself has problems in the other 4 pipes (which is what you enable when you softmod)...

 

[Ambrosius01]

Here is someone on ebay selling one. You can see the picture for reference as to what they mean by the L shaped ram.

Video Card

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

Originally posted by: AmdEmAll
So you have to have the L-shaped ram for it to work at all?

to have a chance at it working yes
theres no guarantee
its less than a 50% chance
most of the time what happens is if even one of the extra 8 pipelines dont fucntion as they are supposed to, all is down the drain
checkerboard effect is common symptom of mod not working

chances are very close to nil if you buy a brand new card now, as i think the 9700 pcb is no more for 9500's

id either buy one off someone else who can guarantee the softmod works, or if a store "pretested" it already

 

[Corporate Thug]

IMO, the odds of sucess is about 20% from what i have read

 

[Creig]

Actually, the success rate is around 60%. I have all the info posted right here.

 

[Justin218]

well, I just got a sapphire 9500np with the L shaped ram from newegg and it won't mod correctly. I get the checkerboards.

 

[JeremiahTheGreat]

buy it if you would be satisfied with a 9500np performance ...

btw - mine wouldn't mod

 

[AmdEmAll]

Eh guess it's not worth it. I'll just save up for a 9700 or 9800.