ATI: Soft Modding Your ATI Radeon 9500

[SimGuy]

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<TABLE WIDTH="755" CELLSPACING ="0" CELLPADDING="0" BORDER="0"><TR><TD VALIGN="CENTER">http://www.short-media.com/forum/images/icons/icon4.gif DISCLAIMER: http://www.short-media.com/forum/images/icons/icon4.gif
The methods outlined below can cause severe system instability or artifacting on some ATI Radeon 9500 video adapters. No guarantee of success is implied.

WARNING: Attempting this modification on any ATI video adapter besides the ATI Radeon 9500 will produce undesirable results, such as random crashes or a non-booting operating system.

DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, ATTEMPT THIS MODIFICATION ON A NVIDIA-BASED VIDEO CARD. THIS GUIDE IS STRICTLY FOR THE ATI RADEON 9500.</TD><TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="CENTER" WIDTH="220">http://www.short-media.com/img/atilogo.jpg</TD></TR></TABLE>
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ATI: Soft Modding Your ATI Radeon 9500

Introduction:

You have one of the most powerful video cards on the planet and you want to push it even further. With this modification, you can utilize the official ATI Catalyst drivers & a couple of software patches to modify your ATI Radeon 9500 video card to perform like an ATI Radeon 9700. After the launch of the ATI Radeon 9700, ATI realized that they needed a product that still performed well (inline with or better than the NVidia GeForce 4 Ti4200 & 4400 series) and was more cost effective to produce. To remedy this problem, ATI disabled 4 of the 8 pipelines on the R300 GPU (used on the ATI Radeon 9700) and shipped them as the ATI Radeon 9500. With this modification, you can re-enable those 4 extra pipelines and gain a substantial increase in fill-rate.

Note: This modification can only be performed on systems running Microsoft Windows 2000 & Windows XP.


Software Required:

-> ATI Catalyst Driver 3.9 (V.6.14.10.6396) (http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wxp-w2k-7-95-031028m-011774c.exe)
-> Patched ati2mtag.sys (must match driver version) (http://www.short-media.com/img/9500mod/ati2mtag-11774c.zip)
-> FutureMark's 3DMark2003 (http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark03/)
-> FutureMark's 3DMark2001 SE (http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark2001/)


Steps To Perform The Modification:

1) Install the ATI Radeon 9500 into your PC (refer to the video card's documentation on how to do that).

2) Restart the PC and install the latest ATI Catalyst Drivers for it (currently 3.9).

3) Install 3DMark2001 SE & 3DMark2003 onto your system.

4) Run a default benchmark for each application and note the "Fill-Rate's" (both Single-Texturing & Multi-Texturing).

5) Unzip the "patched ati2mtag.sys" driver to the following directory: ("C:\ATI\support\wxp-w2k-7-95-031028m-011774c-efg\2KXP_INF\BX_xxx").

6) Navigate to the directory mentioned above and delete the original "ati2mtag.sy_" file.

7) Open Device Manager (Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager).

8) Expand the "Display Adapters" list.

9) Right click on the "Radeon 9700/9500 Series" device and choose "Update Driver".

10) Select the "I will choose the driver..." option.

11) Click the "Have Disk" button and navigate to the following directory: ("C:\ATI\support\wxp-w2k-7-95-031028m-011774c-efg\2KXP_INF\").

12) Select the appropriate driver (if you have multiple listings of drivers available, you can choose any of them as it does not matter which one you choose).

13) Proceed with the driver update.

14) Restart your PC.

15) Re-run the same default benchmarks for 3DMark2001SE & 3DMark2003, again noting the "Fill-Rate's" (both Single-Texturing & Multi-Texturing).

16) Compare the "after-mod" Fill-Rate values with the "before-mod" Fill-Rate values. You should see an increase.

Note: If you wish to enable overclocking on your ATI Radeon 9500, please download Warp11's Overclockable ATI Radeon BIOS (http://www.3dchipset.com/bios/ati/warp11/index.php) and flash your card with it.

http://www.short-media.com/img/bluedivider.jpg

Originally found @ OCFAQ.com (http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/).
Instructions originally written by Wizzard (w1zzard@gmx.net).
Instructions adapted & re-vamped by SimGuy.
Files downloaded & organized by SimGuy.

[tefleming]

Updated for Catalyst 3.5 http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/

[SimGuy]

Thanks for the update :)

Article updated to reflect new patched Catalyst 3.5's

[SimGuy]

Finally found the patched 3.6 Catalyst ati2mtag.sys driver for use with softmodding the ATI Radeon 9500.

Article updated to reflect the new patched Catalyst 3.6's

[Leonardo]

I'm too lazy to look this up; and also I'd like advice to go with the flashing files and device drivers.

I want to flash the 9500 Pro in System 1 to 9700 Pro. This has already been performed on the card in my System 2. (I purchased that card pre-owned in a private trade; so I wasn't the one that flashed it. Whatever he used, it was done correctly. System 2's 9500 Pro is definately faster than System 1's.)

[SimGuy]

You can find information regarding flashing the BIOS of your ATI Radeon 9500 Pro at this link:

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ati_radeon_9500_pro_overclock/default.asp

[Leonardo]

Thanks for the link. Good information there with other links with more specifics. I'll have to build my courage for this one. I'll get around to it.

[SimGuy]

Leonardo said
Thanks for the link. Good information there with other links with more specifics. I'll have to build my courage for this one. I'll get around to it.

The absolute worst thing that can happen during this modification is that the BIOS does not get completely flashed. If you have a backup of your original BIOS, just toss in an old PCI video adapter (leave the R9500 in there), start the system and re-flash with the original BIOS. :)

Good as new :)

[Leonardo]

Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire!:eek2: :eek: :D

I tried it. It WORKED, and how!

Check it out at this new thread. (http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2313)

[EMT]

Hey, I have a 9500 from the original buying craze. I tried the patch(es) then & got plenty of artifacts. Has anything changed? It still won't help me, will it? Figured I'd just ask instead of trying it again.

[SimGuy]

Q: What is artifacting/checkerboard effect?

A: Artifacting is when you get undesired 'dots' or patterns on screen. The theory as of now is that artifacts are caused by undocumented defects on the 9500 NP's disabled by the 9500 drivers. Worst case scenario, the unused pipelines have a possiblity of being broken, resulting crashing and not booting up. You might get a card that works flawlessly or one that doesn't. It's a gamble.

Q: I have artifacts. Is it possible to enable only 5, 6 or 7 pipelines?

A: Sorry. This is not possible. The GPU only supports running with four or eight rendering pipelines.

Q: If I have artifacts when using hacked drivers, will I also have them if I hardmod the card?

A: Yes. You will.

Unfortunately, you're outta luck EMT. It either works or it doesn't, and when you get those nasty artifacts, it didn't work. Sorry :(

[EMT]

Alrighty then. Thanks for the quick response. Just hadn't been reading up on the mod for several months.

[SimGuy]

Finally found the patched 3.7 Catalyst ati2mtag.sys driver for use with softmodding the ATI Radeon 9500.

Article updated to reflect the new patched Catalyst 3.7's

[SimGuy]

http://www.short-media.com/forum/images/icons/icon4.gif Latest Updates: http://www.short-media.com/forum/images/icons/icon4.gif
-> Added patched ati2mtag.sys file for Catalyst 3.8's

[PlasticMonkey]

Hi, i just bought a Saphire Radeon 9500 Atlantis and tried to do the softmod, but it didnt work. i followed all the steps you listed exactly but when i restart my computer after finishing the softmod, i cant get windows to start up. when windows begins it's startup it forces a restart of the entire comp and i had to run windows in safe mode and roll back the driver. could i be doing anything wrong?

[SimGuy]

Did you just purchase the card new?

The reason I ask is because ATI changed the PCB design on the new Radeon 9500's to prevent the soft-mod from working.

[Leonardo]

ATI changed the PCB design on the new Radeon 9500's to prevent the soft-mod from working :eek2:

That's bad news. But wait, I thought ATI wasn't making the 9500 anymore? Or is it just the 9500 Pro?

Well anyway, I purchased both of my cards through private deals. I don't know what their date of manufacture is - probably June 03 or earlier.

[GHoosdum]

The PCB design was changed fairly early in the production life, it's just that some of the red PCB L-shaped RAM configuration designs are still hanging around out there. ATi themselves never built the non-pro cards, just some of the Pros.

[PlasticMonkey]

heh, i decided to give the softmod a second shot and it worked this time :D

not sure what i did wrong the first time but thanks for you help!

[PlasticMonkey]

btw, i have no experience in the overclocking department and was wondering if there are any helpful guides out there to overclock my 9500?

[SimGuy]

http://www.3dchipset.com/bios/ati/warp11/index.php

Download the proper BIOS for your card and flash it (which will allow overclocking on the 9500).

Download Rage 3D Tweak @ www.rage3d.com, install it and overclock away. :)

Want a guide to OC'ing the 9500? http://forum.madshrimps.com/gotofaqlink.php?linkid=2182

[PlasticMonkey]

so heres what happened, i followed the guide on the link you gave me. i downloaded the atiflash program that the guy linked to, downloaded the correct bios for my card, ran the flash program in dos and flashed the bios to the new one that i downloaded.

but something went wrong, an error message came up and it completely ****ed over my card's bios. and now when i boot up my comp it just beeps and nothing happens.....so have i just completely trashed my new 9500 or is there any way to restore the old bios? please say there is

[PlasticMonkey]

i am currently running on my old ****ty geforce2 which is how im able to post this, but i really dont wanna spend another $155 on another 9500

[SimGuy]

You'll need a PCI video card (any old one) and a backup copy of your ORIGINAL Radeon 9500 BIOS.

IF YOUR SYSTEM REFUSES TO BOOT AFTER THE FLASH:

There is always a chance that the BIOS flash will not work (through power fluctuations, corrupted downloads or acts of god). In order to repair your video adapter, you will have to install the PCI-based video adapter into a spare PCI slot to boot your PC to re-flash your video adapter with the original BIOS you saved in step 14. If you DID NOT save your original BIOS, you are hosed as your retailer will NOT honour the warranty after they discover you screwed your card up by BIOS flashing it with a NON-SUPPORTED BIOS.

LEAVE THE RADEON 9500 IN THE AGP SLOT.

1) Power down the PC and unplug it from the wall.

2) Remove the case cover.

3) Locate a spare PCI slot and install the PCI-based video adapter you have laying around.

4) Hook up your monitor to the PCI-based video adapter you have laying around.

5) Plug the PC back in and start it up with the Windows 98 Boot Disk in the floppy drive.

6) When presented with the Boot Menu, hit SHIFT+F5 to boot directly to the command prompt WITHOUT loading any software.

7) Once at the command prompt, remove the Windows 98 Boot Disk and insert the floppy disk containing the flash software and your backup video BIOS.

8) Change to the floppy drive by typing "A:" (without the quotes).

9) Flash your video adapter with your backup original video BIOS by typing the following command: flashrom -p 0 original.bin (the "0" is the number ZERO, not the letter "O" and original.bin is the name of your ORIGINAL BIOS file that you backed up).

10) After a few seconds, you will receive a message saying that the BIOS flash was successful.

11) Shut down the PC and remove the PCI-based video adapter.

12) Hook up your monitor back to the ATI Radeon 9500 Non-Pro AGP video adapter.

13) Start the PC. You should now be back to the same position you were before you started this guide.

[PlasticMonkey]

is the bios off of warp11's site only compatible with first party cards or should it be compatible with third party brands like sapphire?

[PlasticMonkey]

cuz i dont see what i did wrong

[GHoosdum]

I think that the warp11 BIOS is for the 9500 Pro only.... Did warp11 do a 9500NP BIOS also? Anyway, I just use the overclocking function that's built-in to Omega's Radeon Catalyst driver, and it doesn't require a BIOS flash on my 9500P.

Do what SimGuy said in his "How to fix a bad flash" post there, and flash back to your stock BIOS. Then try the software OC from the Omega driver.

[SimGuy]

Yes, Warp did do a 9500 Non-Pro 128 MB BIOS that is unlocked for overclocking. I'm very surprised it didn't work.

If you need a copy of the ORIGINAL Sapphire 9500 NP 128 MB BIOS, you can grab it here, along with flashing utilities:

http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/bios.php

[SimGuy]

Sapphire's Radeon 9500's are BIOS-unlocked, meaning that you didn't have to flash them to overclock (at least according to Warp11). Just flash with the original Sapphire 9500 BIOS and you should be able to overclock out of the get-go.

Is your Sapphire card PCB Black or Red? Are the DDR memory chips in a horizontal line across the top of the card (4 in a straight line) or are they in an L-shape (2 on top of the card, 2 down the right hand side).?

This is VERY important, as you need a red or black PCB card with the L-shape memory configuration in order to perform the 9500 -> 9700 softmod correctly.

[PlasticMonkey]

ok, so i managed to get the website that i bought my 9500 from to replace my dead card. but this time through when i run the softmod, i get artifacts right away and that never happened to me last time and i went through all the steps exactly the same as i did last time doing the softmod.

theres another thing that i noticed is different as well. with the replacement 9500 card i got my 3dmark scores (before and after the softmod) are a few hundred points higher than my previous card even though they're the same model. what could i be doing wrong thats causing artifacts to come up without even overclocking the card?

[SimGuy]

Even 9500's on the red/black PCB with L-shaped memory don't guaruntee that the soft-mod will work.

These 9500's are really underclocked Radeon 9700's with only 4 of the 8 pipelines working. What the soft mod does is unlock those 4 other pipelines.

Now, this is a gamble, as there is a chance that even though you may be able to perform the soft-mod successfully, the 4 extra pipelines that you enabled with the soft-mod may not work correctly. There is nothing you can do about that then, as it is a hardware-level issue. On all of these Radeon 9500's with 8 pipelines, only the 4 that are required for normal operation are certified to work from the factory. The other 4 disabled pipelines MAY or MAY NOT work, but the factory does not check this. Because of this, even cards from the same batch don't soft-mod the same, as each card has a different chance of successfully soft-modding.

If you get artifacts after performing the soft-mod, unfortunately, you cannot soft-mod your 9500 into a 9700. It's best to just revert back to the 9500-operation mode and overclock the card.

[keto]

Wondering,

Is there anything similar for ATI 9600 Pro? I have one, it OC's like crazy, but is there something more that can be got out of it thru software? Been looking around but haven't found anything as yet..

[PlasticMonkey]

is there any way to overclock it without flashing the bios? i really dont want to chance it again

[GHoosdum]

Omega Cats: Install RadClocker during driver install. It puts a tab in the ATi Control Panel that allows overclock... and it works even on my 9500 Pro with locked BIOS.

[SimGuy]

keto had this to say
Wondering,

Is there anything similar for ATI 9600 Pro? I have one, it OC's like crazy, but is there something more that can be got out of it thru software? Been looking around but haven't found anything as yet..

Nothing that I know of yet. AFAIK, the only thing you can do with the 9600 series is just overclock the hell out of it.

[GHoosdum]

SimGuy is right; the 9600 series is a totally different architecture, with a 4-pipeline, 128bit memory bus at the core.

[SimGuy]

The difference being that the 9600 is built upon its own PCB, not the PCB of a different product (such as the early 9500's being built upon 9700 PCB's).

Hence, there are only 4 pipelines on the 9600's VPU, not 8 with 4 disabled. Because of this, there really is nothing that anyone can develop to "softmod" the 9600 into another product. :(

[Leonardo]

(such as the early 9500's being built upon 9700 PCB's)

Oh, and how sweet it is! Those modded 9500P->9700P cards sure were a bargain.

[PlasticMonkey]

seems like the Rage3D Tweak works in overclocking without flashing the bios, i managed to get my 9500 up to 315mhz without any problems. got a 1000 point boost in my 3dmark score as well.

[SimGuy]

WTG! 3DMark03 or 01? :)

This is a Sapphire 9500 right? :)

[wicked]

Please answer either question:

Does it have to be manufactured by Sapphire?

Can anyone here report a success with a non-Sapphire card?

[SimGuy]

Welcome to Short-Media wicked! :)

There were PowerColor, Sapphire and Built By ATI Radeon 9500's that the softmod could be performed on, but you can't buy them anymore.

Ever since March, they have been manufacturing Radeon 9500's & Radeon 9500 Pro's on a new PCB that cannot be modded to the Radeon 9700. Your only way to get a card that MAY softmod is second-hand through a private deal or an E-Bay auction.

As well, the Radeon 9500/9500Pro series has been replaced by the new RV350 series of cards, the Radeon 9600, 9600 Pro & 9600 XT.

[wicked]

Thanks SimGuy. I'm a regular on EOCF so I knew the rest, but appreciate it. ;)

Asking, because there are still plenty on eBay, but the most current are BBA brand cards and I thought I heard someone say Sapphire were the only ones that work. Of course with eBay, you run the risk that they have already tried the softmod and it didn't work.

AllStarShop is the only retailer that I know of that still offers the L-config PCB. It's in the red & black versions around $150.

http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?dept_id=124&pid=6538&ad=pwatch

[SimGuy]

Wizzard, the original architect behind the soft-mod, says that all you need is a 9500 NP on a 9700 PCB. AFAIK, as long as it's got L-shaped memory, it's on a 9700 PCB. It doesn't matter what company manufactured the board, whether it's ATI, Sapphire, PowerColor, Hercules, etc...

Q: Which brand should I buy?

A: There's no difference in moddability between the cards. All OEMs have to use the same GPU and PCB.

Picture below is the Sapphire model that can be soft-modded. I don't know how it relates to the AllStar model though.

Are you a gambler? :)

//EDIT: I should note that most of the successful soft-mods were made with Sapphire cards, but there were other cards (from PowerColor, BBA, Hercules, etc..) that did softmod fine, just they weren't as "frequent" as the Sapphire's.

[Leonardo]

Can anyone here report a success with a non-Sapphire card?
:D Yes indeed. Two each made by ATI 9500 Pro, one per each system below.

[Cpt_Lemur]

The new Cat 3.9 is out. Can I load those new drivers without nerfing the current Cat 3.8 abso-freakin-wonderful softmod of my 9500?

[SimGuy]

Install the Catalyst 3.9's and utilize this file (which is the patched ati2mtag.sys file for the Cat 3.9's). :)

I'll update this article as soon as I figure out where the hell I can host all these files and stuff, as my local webspace where everything is stored has once again exceeded it's monthly allowance of bandwidth... in all of 8 days. :D

[Cpt_Lemur]

Beautimous. I installed 3.9, added the tweak, and re-ran 3DMark 2003. Went from 4188 to 4246. Marginal increase, but the SM worked (which was the key).

Without the SM (on 3.8), and with a stock clock (276mhz) my machine posted 2764. With the SM (on 3.9) and a slight OC (290) it's posting the 4246. A significant difference!

Thank you for your help, and this fine guide.

[SimGuy]

Thread Unstickied

You haven't been able to purchase Radeon 9500's that can be soft-modded for ages now, so I'm going to decommission this thread. :)

When new soft-mod patches do come out, I'll make sure to update the thread, but other than that I think it's pretty much history. :)

[MachineGunKelly]

Powercolor Evil Commando here. Was 10900 on 3dm2001 before, 12300 with no overclock after.

[unipainter]

the link provided above and one to zipzoomfly have the l shaped memory and red/black pcb. are these still modable.

If not what do you guys think of the 9500 vrs the 9600 pro and non pro.

i'm looking to spend 140 or so for a new graphics card.

thanks

http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/pro...=6538&ad=pwatch

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=320702

case: File cabinent 2 80mm & 2 92mm fans
Asus a7n8x deluxe
xp 2500+ @ 2.21
radeon 7000 (yes i know it's time)
1 gig corsair xms
maxtor diamond max 9 serial ata 160 gig (aftr the rma)
some other shtuff in thier.:thumbsup:

[Cpt_Lemur]

And the amazing Catalyst upgrade pops up again. Looks like they've gone to Cat 4.1 now. I don't see anything in the "fix" list for it that concerns me, but others might. I assume we would need an upgrade to your magic file to put the Cat 4.1 drivers on our lovely modded 9500s....?

And might I add, that this car still rocks. I just put a VGA Silencer (from Arctic Cooling) on mine, and I'm getting unreal core frequency OCs out of it now. Still tweaking it to see how far it will go. Stuck at 290 for the mem freq, but that's not surprising. No special cooling on them. And the VGA Silencer is noticably quieter than the fan/heatsink that came with the card even on the higher setting.

In any case, thank you for all of your support for this beasty over the last year+. We appreciate it greatly!