I may buy one in real life since they are fairly inexpencive... so what should I do? Why would a 9500 Pro be better than buying a 9600 Pro?
I wanna buy a good version of one of these, for both project and RL. So, For an Overclocker wanting the best performance for a cheap price, and hopfully a 256MB version(unless it's peformance increase is neglegable), what would be best to buy?
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LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited September 2003
I'm telling you, see if you can find a 9500 Pro and soft mod it to 9700 Pro. It's performance won't be quite 9700 Pro, but will be within 5-10%.
Well I am having trouble finding a 9500 Pro, much less ANY 9500 with 256MB of Memory. Plus is this softmod an OVERCLOCK or Bios Mod or what?
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LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited September 2003
It is essentially a BIOS mod to the video card. Apparently the 9500 Pro's hardware was/is almost the same thing as the 9700 Pro - so close that BIOS instructions identifying the 9500P as 9700P enables the latter's range of performance. Overclock? Not really.
Let me pull up some sites to confirm what I just posted. If I'm wrong, I'll update this thread.
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LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited September 2003
RWB,
Sorry, but I'm having a hard time finding the sites that I researched before my 9500Ps' soft mods. As to 9500P vs 9600P, I'm not quite sure on the performance difference. I think in most cases, the 9500P outperforms the 9600P.
I'll personally vouch for their Sapphire Atlantis 9800, as I just purchased one from them this afternoon for a friend of mine and the mod worked perfectly for them.
Must not be looking too hard to a 9800 Non-pro then... i myself just bought a 9800 Non-pro maybe two weeks ago. The night i got it i quickly did the Non-pro to pro bios mod and it worked perfectly, windows recognized it as a 9800 pro and my benchmarks went up accordingly. Heres my benchmark results:
3D Mark01=2% better after conversion
3D Mark01 16x Anistropic 6x FSAA=11% better after conversion
3D Mark03=12% better after conversion
3D Mark03 16x Anistropic 6x FSAA=14% better after conversion
As long as the card has the Samsung 3.3ns or 2.8ns RAM, you can perform the soft-mod. Anything else and you start running into artifacting issues and stability issues.
Leonardo said I'm telling you, see if you can find a 9500 Pro and soft mod it to 9700 Pro. It's performance won't be quite 9700 Pro, but will be within 5-10%.
Leo, how does this work? I've heard about the 9500 Non-Pro softmod of course, but I haven't heard about the 9500 PRO softmod... the Pro only has half the memory bus that the 9700 does... so what do I do to softmod it... I've got a 9500 Pro already...
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LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited September 2003
GH, I can't explain the architecture of the the cards, except that they both have 8 pipelines (whatever). But yes, you can soft mod, via video card flashing, the 9500 Pro to 9700 Pro specs - well, at least nearly 9700P specs.
I wound up getting more RAM instead :P I have been told so many things since I have inquired about this that I decided to not risk it, although I may still get one, but not just yet.
From xtreme systems I was told that it was with the 9500 NP version and that those kind of cards have been hard to come by for the past 6 months or something and that you'd be lucky to actually get one that would work.
It has to be a 9500 NP, and they've been hard to find since ATI recalled them. As far as I'm aware, you've NEVER been able to mod a 9500 Pro into a full-fledged 9700 Pro.
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LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited September 2003
As far as I'm aware, you've NEVER been able to mod a 9500 Pro into a full-fledged 9700 Pro
That sounds about right. You can though, mod it very, very close to a 9700 Pro. AquaMark03 for instance: the true 9700 Pro guys are turning in scores in the low 40Ks fairly consistently; both of my soft mod 9700 Pros turn in scores of 38K+.
Comments
You'ld be better off with a 9500 Pro, 9600 Pro or a regular 9700/9800 (Non-Pro)
Are 9500 Pros still to be found retail? But yes, I agree - I'd go with a 9700Pro over a 9800SE.
Buyxtremegear.com has the card I speak of... seems too good to be true.'
EDIT SORRY! I just realized I was seeing the SE version lol, the Pro version was $295, SE is $209
I wanna buy a good version of one of these, for both project and RL. So, For an Overclocker wanting the best performance for a cheap price, and hopfully a 256MB version(unless it's peformance increase is neglegable), what would be best to buy?
Let me pull up some sites to confirm what I just posted. If I'm wrong, I'll update this thread.
Sorry, but I'm having a hard time finding the sites that I researched before my 9500Ps' soft mods. As to 9500P vs 9600P, I'm not quite sure on the performance difference. I think in most cases, the 9500P outperforms the 9600P.
Your best bet? Find a Sapphire Atlantis 9800 Non-Pro and BIOS-mod (ie. flash the BIOS) to the 9800-Pro BIOS.
Instant 9800 Pro for the price of a 9800 Non-Pro.
Check sig for the guide on how to do it.
The only Non-PRO 9800's I can find are 9800SE... and form has been said thus far, that is no good.
You could try ordering the Sapphire 9800 Non-Pro from a hardware vendor in Canada, but I'd check with them on whether or not they ship to the USA.
http://www.pccanada.com/inventory.asp?cat=videocards
I'll personally vouch for their Sapphire Atlantis 9800, as I just purchased one from them this afternoon for a friend of mine and the mod worked perfectly for them.
3D Mark01=2% better after conversion
3D Mark01 16x Anistropic 6x FSAA=11% better after conversion
3D Mark03=12% better after conversion
3D Mark03 16x Anistropic 6x FSAA=14% better after conversion
http://gameve.com/store/gameve_viewitem.asp?idproduct=1300
Thats the one i bought and it worked perfect, but it seems like everyone is rushing to buy them so you will have to wait bit.
http://www.fticomputer.com/cgis/detail.cgi?product=VB-PC-ATI-R98SE-C3&ses=&cat=VB
Leo, how does this work? I've heard about the 9500 Non-Pro softmod of course, but I haven't heard about the 9500 PRO softmod... the Pro only has half the memory bus that the 9700 does... so what do I do to softmod it... I've got a 9500 Pro already...
Below is the results of the modification:
From xtreme systems I was told that it was with the 9500 NP version and that those kind of cards have been hard to come by for the past 6 months or something and that you'd be lucky to actually get one that would work.
That sounds about right. You can though, mod it very, very close to a 9700 Pro. AquaMark03 for instance: the true 9700 Pro guys are turning in scores in the low 40Ks fairly consistently; both of my soft mod 9700 Pros turn in scores of 38K+.