9500 Mod?

edited August 2003 in Hardware
Which cards can be turned into 9700?

Isn't it the 9500 but isn't there 2 different versions out there? care to share some info please :D
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Comments

  • dydxdydx Cymru, UK
    edited June 2003
    The 9500 NON Pro can be modded to 9700 NON Pro.

    So you go from 275MHz core, 4 rendering pipelines, 128bit memory bus, to 275MHz core, 8 rendering pipelines, and a 256bit memory bus. Quite a boost in performance.

    I think ATI have caught on and the mod wont work anymore.
  • karatekidkaratekid Ogdensburg, NY
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by dydx
    The 9500 NON Pro can be modded to 9700 NON Pro.

    So you go from 275MHz core, 4 rendering pipelines, 128bit memory bus, to 275MHz core, 8 rendering pipelines, and a 256bit memory bus. Quite a boost in performance.

    I think ATI have caught on and the mod wont work anymore.
    Oh yea, ATI caught on. For one thing it is getting hard to find any 9500 (Pro or non Pro.) Also, last I knew of 9500s that had a Red PCB could be modded, but those with Black could not. That may have changed by now.
  • edited June 2003
    the 9500pro's that xtasy makes are all red PCB.
  • edited June 2003
    Xtasy? eyyyy :)

    BTW thanks for quick replys :D
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited June 2003
    I thought soon there will be no more 9500pros or non pros due to the inferior 9600's. Something about the 9600 are cheaper to make.
  • dydxdydx Cymru, UK
    edited June 2003
    Yep. ATI have ceased to make 9500s and replaced them with the 9600 which isnt as good as the 9500.

    The 9500s are becoming hard to find, especially the ones that can be modded.


    mD
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited June 2003
    Oh yea, ATI caught on. For one thing it is getting hard to find any 9500 (Pro or non Pro.) Also, last I knew of 9500s that had a Red PCB could be modded, but those with Black could not. That may have changed by now.

    Thats kinda right although some black pcb's were modable, but there were more failures with them. Then ati caught on and the phyical layout of the non pro pcb board was changed to that of the pro board i.e. all mem modules in a line of 4. All you can do now whith those boards is 128mb 9500 into 128mb 9500pro with rivatuner. Still gives a good performance boost though, cos I did it on mates board.

    Jim :)
  • edited June 2003
    well guys... only a PCB with an L shaped memory layout can be soft modded. it doesn't matter what color the PCB is, even some of the red PCB's cannot be modded.

    This is what the card should look like:
    http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=14-102-271-08.JPG/14-102-271-09.JPG/14-102-271-11.JPG
    notice the L shape of the memory chips.

    and it looks like Newegg still has them.

    here is wizzard's link for using the soft mod if you have an L shaped 9500 NON pro:
    http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/

    of course I've only done this on my Radeon 9500, and that was what I looked for when I bought my 9500, the L shaped mem chips. I'm sure someone else can shed more light on this

    -DG
  • edited June 2003
    My ram is in one line and i have mine soft moded in to the 9700pro.
  • karatekidkaratekid Ogdensburg, NY
    edited June 2003
    That can't be, you have a 9500 Pro anyways. If I remember the story correctly, since ATI decided to produce the Pro cards themselves, they of course spent the money to develope a different PCB for the 9500 series, which used a bus which was half the width of the 9700 series. So 9500 Pros are completely unmodable. Regular 9500s were modable since 3rd party companies were making the cards and would not spend the money to develope a different PCB. So they used the 9700 Pro reference PCB, complete with its full width bus, just hacked to only be half the width.
  • edited June 2003
    i have the mod done to my 9500pro ask xzgohan hes seen it.
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited June 2003
    )
    i have the mod done to my 9500pro ask xzgohan hes seen it.

    Well my built by ati 9500pro shows up in everything as a 9700pro becouse of the bios update but it's not. A quick look at 3d2003 benchmark results confirms it online. it did however boost my marks by 300 points with no Overclocking or any thing.

    I went from 3200 to 3500. After tweaking and Overclocking The highest I have gotten it to is 4090 which is a sweet score in my book :)

    if I had to give it a name it would be a 9500pro+ since it still will not out perform a 9700np (at least I think it wouldn't)
  • edited June 2003
    why wouldnt it out perform the 9700np?
  • edited June 2003
    what are your 3dmark numbers matt? this is a quote from wizzard:

    Q: Will this work with a 9500 Pro card?
    A: Nope. 9500 Pro can't be turned into anything.

    or if ya did get it to work, how did you do it? that'd be good for people with the pro cards.

    -DG
  • PyobliEPyobliE UK
    edited June 2003
    If your in the UK, non-Pro 9500's are available on eBay, which the seller says are softmoddable, or your money back. It is eBay, but he looks relaible, has good feedback etc....

    Link: eBay
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited June 2003
    Matt, run the diagnostic on rivatuner, what I think you'll find is that you're 8x1 pipelines but only a 128bit bus. I thought I'd got the mod to take on mates new style 9500 pcb card card but it had merely turned it into a very fast 9500pro.

    Regards

    Jim
  • edited June 2003
    it shows up in riva-tuner as a 9700pro 128-bit (8-1) with 128mb ddr memory. im thinking of doing the 9500pro to 9800pro mod.
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited June 2003
    Yeah thats what i thought it would, i presume you've flashed the bios then, if so which one did you use?

    If the mod had taken properly it should have shown as a 9700pro, 256bit bus. Its only a 128bit bus cos of the physical layout of the cards pcb.

    Its still a great, fast, cheap card so dont worry about it.

    Regards


    Jim
  • edited June 2003
    DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW CAN I ENABLE 256BIT BUS ON A 9500 PRO?

    Sorry no can do with a Radeon 9500 Pro! Non-Pro model is possible with hardware mod.


    got this from rage3d.com
    so with the 9500pro there is no 256bit
  • edited June 2003
    not possible because the 9500 pros were made on a different PCB than the 9700 Pro
  • edited June 2003
    Originally posted by DarkGuarDN
    not possible because the 9500 pros were made on a different PCB than the 9700 Pro
    whats not possible?
  • karatekidkaratekid Ogdensburg, NY
    edited June 2003
    It is not possible to enable the 256bit bus on a 9500 Pro, as DarkGuardDN said, it has a different PCB than the 9700 Pro.
  • edited July 2003
    Hello, I have Rivatuner and a nonpro 9500 with the ram that's in the L shape. I was wondering, what can i softmod this into, a 9500 pro or a 9700? Also, I was wondering if anybody can give me specific instruction on how to softmod my nonpro 9500 with Rivatuner, thanks.
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited July 2003
    You can soft mod it into a 9700 but you may get the infamous checker board effect. Still give it a go as its completely reversable.

    For instructions on how to do it go over to guru3d.com I believe their are instructions on how to do there.

    guru3d soft mod

    regards

    Jim
  • edited July 2003
    Is there any way that I can get rid of the checkerboard effect without reversing the changes?? If I have to, what does it mean by reversing the changes?
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited July 2003
    Hi Jono,

    No there is no way I know of of getting rid of the checker board effect if it rears its ugly head. It usually means, according to current thinking, that some of the disabled pipelines, which you have enabled using the soft mod, are damaged.

    When I said reversing the changes I meant exactly that. Undoing (or reversing) the changes Rivatuner has made to 2 of the driver files. This easily achieved by uninstalling the drivers and then re-installing the original ATI drivers.

    Hope thats fairly clear.

    Regards

    Jim
  • edited July 2003
    when I used the RivaTuner, I got checkboard effects on my R9500. when I used wizard's modded drivers I didn't get any of the checkboard artifacts. that's why I'm lookin for the new modded Cat 3.6's if they are out there. I do have wizard's modded Cat 3.4's if you want them. PM me if you do.

    -DG
  • edited July 2003
    @ osuperjohno and DarkGuarDN: What brand card do you guys own. Sapphire, Powercolor, Atlantis? I heard that Connect3d was very succesful. And DarkGuarDN, that is quite impressive that you got a board that had artifacts to work with the wizard mod. Have you posted any of this at the GURU3d forum?
  • edited July 2003
    I got a Sapphire card with a Red PCB. The way I could tell I had artifacts are that in the Lobby benchmark in 3dmark2k1 his sunglasses had a bunch of white dots. This happened to me when I used the Rivatuner even without OC'ing. the more OC that I did with it, the worse it got. So that why I use the wizard mod now. I just ran the benchmark and no artifacts. I can't explain it, but that's just what happens. and no I haven't posted this over there. I'm surprised no one else has come across this.

    -DG
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited July 2003
    Jono,

    I found this guide on how to mod the 9500np, it uses the omega catalyst drivers & looks to be the easiest way.

    Omega 9500 soft mod

    Regards


    Jim
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