ATI: Soft Modding Your ATI Radeon 9500

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Comments

  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    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..
  • edited October 2003
    is there any way to overclock it without flashing the bios? i really dont want to chance it again
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    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.
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited October 2003
    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.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    SimGuy is right; the 9600 series is a totally different architecture, with a 4-pipeline, 128bit memory bus at the core.
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited October 2003
    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. :(
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    (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.
  • edited October 2003
    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.
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited October 2003
    WTG! 3DMark03 or 01? :)

    This is a Sapphire 9500 right? :)
  • edited October 2003
    Please answer either question:

    Does it have to be manufactured by Sapphire?

    Can anyone here report a success with a non-Sapphire card?
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited October 2003
    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.
  • edited October 2003
    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
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited October 2003
    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.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    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.
  • edited November 2003
    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?
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited November 2003
    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
  • edited November 2003
    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.
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited December 2003
    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. :)
  • MachineGunKellyMachineGunKelly The STICKS, Illinois
    edited December 2003
    Powercolor Evil Commando here. Was 10900 on 3dm2001 before, 12300 with no overclock after.
  • edited December 2003
    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:
  • edited January 2004
    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!
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