Radeon 9500 to Radeon 9700 Mod

[Unregistered]

@DOA: thx.

I am getting the following results

Fill rate (single-texturing):1541.3 Mtexels/s
Fill rate (multi- texturing): 2173.9 Mtexels/s

the card is not overclocked.

So it did work I believe... what do you think?

@all: I got my card @ www.vibecomputers.com

Satanic-Vomit

[Nomad]

Looks like that worked well ;)

Do a full run through 3D Mark and let us know what your scores are.

Nomad

[Unregistered]

alright.

How do I export the data? I cant select it from the results window it just sits there, the other choice is to send it online but I have a cracked version of the software so I should not do that.

Satanic Vomit.

final score is 7213 3d marks.

[DOA]

Originally posted by Unregistered
alright.

How do I export the data? I cant select it from the results window it just sits there, the other choice is to send it online but I have a cracked version of the software so I should not do that.

Satanic Vomit.

final score is 7213 3d marks.

Santanic Vomit. Creative name. Hey why dont you register?

[Nomad]

Originally posted by Unregistered
alright.

How do I export the data? I cant select it from the results window it just sits there, the other choice is to send it online but I have a cracked version of the software so I should not do that.

Satanic Vomit.

final score is 7213 3d marks.

7213 ? mmm...what's your system specs? I get 9092 on my overclocked standard 9500 so you should be flying past me with a modded 9500.

And register on the forum. Only take 30 seconds and you become more a part of the community :)

atb
Nomad

[Satanic-Vomit]

@nomad

amd 1ghz
1 gig of pc133
ati 9500 np 128->softmoded 9700
via kt133 chipset latest via drivers/bios

i'm getting more than 80 fps in the nature demo.

[Satanic-Vomit]

Car L: 80.2
Car H: 23.9
Dragothic L: 139.4
Dragothic H: 73.5
Lobby L: 80.0
Lobby H: 34.0
Nature: 85.0

units are fps of course.

fill rates are the same as in my post above.

the card is not overclocked

[Nomad]

Ok that explains it. Your CPU is holding you back at the moment. I have an XP1500+ and even that is a bit of a bottle neck in the system.

Your frame rates for nature are good, certainly well within the ball park.

Can you try a few games and let us know if you get any artifacts?

atb
Nomad

[Vinny]

Where can I still buy a confirmed moddable card at?

[Nomad]

It's a bit of a problem now Vinny. These things are becoming scarce. What part of the world are you in ?

Nomad

[satanic-vomit]

I have no artifacts in sof 2, rally trophy , tactical ops. I can't play GTA3 anymore, the game doesnt load.... :( It must be the drivers because the other stuff works, I also tried the car paint ATI 9700 demo and it runs perfectly.

finally, I also cannot play DVDs with hardware acceleration the picture is a blur of colours. Exactly the same as when I had some faulty/old drivers for my Geforce 2 GTS.

I believe that my problems are due to the fact that the patch mod works with catalyst 3.0a and not with 3.1. Do you guys think I should go for the hardware mod? I just need to use some conductive glue so it should be "low risk". I dont see why the bios flash should go wrong. Anyone knows if the rivatuner will support 3.1 catalyst drivers soon?

[Nomad]

Vinny - Take this link : http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/
and download the Cat 3.1 drivers and the patch to go with them. Follow the instructions and you will be up and running witn Cat 3.1 in no time. It's what I use.

As for the hardware mod. I really wouldn't advise it. What if you get a hardware fault on your card. How will you be able to get it replaced...you'll have voided your warranty.

There's also the chance of damaging your card whilst doing the mod.

atb
Nomad

[Vinny]

I know that, I found this place, http://www.computerblocks.com/Qstore/p000264.htm

just wondering if I could find a place where I didn't have to pay 50 bucks more for something I could do myself

[Unregistered]

I was wondering. Those that have gotten artifacts, have you tried UNDERCLOCKING the cards a little to get rid of the artifacts.

[Vinny]

Ok, shouldn't of posted that here...

Sold out a few mins before I was going to order....

[Nomad]

Bad luck there Vinny. I'm sure there weill be some around somewhere...but next time i think you'll be keeping that links secret..at least until you have one in the bag ? ;)

As for underclocking to get rid of the artefacts. I don't think that would work as generally beleived they are caused by faulty pipelines. So i think the only way to get rid of the artefacts would be to disable these extra 4 pipelines again and revert back to a standard 9500.

Nomad

[DOA]

Originally posted by Nomad
Bad luck there Vinny. I'm sure there weill be some around somewhere...but next time i think you'll be keeping that links secret..at least until you have one in the bag ? ;)

As for underclocking to get rid of the artefacts. I don't think that would work as generally beleived they are caused by faulty pipelines. So i think the only way to get rid of the artefacts would be to disable these extra 4 pipelines again and revert back to a standard 9500.

Nomad

Correct.

[Unregistered]

Has anyone else found a location that sells these cards? I hope I can find one. :(

[Nomad]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Has anyone else found a location that sells these cards? I hope I can find one. :(

Would help if you gave us your location ?

9500's are in short supply at the moment. Most vendors are awaiting deliveries.

The only manufacturer I know of now still producing the old type moddable card is Connect 3D. Not sure how much longer they can hold off pressure from ATI though!

[Unregistered]

www.vibecomputers.com

[Ioman]

Originally posted by Unregistered
www.vibecomputers.com :sponge

doesn't link to anything in particular.

[Unregistered]

allstarshop.com still sells the ones with the red pcb, they are 175.00

[Unregistered]

Sorry, but if you looked at the video cards you would see this...

http://www.vibecomputers.com/index.cfm?loc=iview&if=y&vID=137796

[Unregistered]

Hi! All

I am seriously thinking to get a ATI 9500 Non-Pro and softmod to 9700. As you know, those modable boards are going quickly.
Please take a look at http://www.pcpart4less.com/product/vcrdn00024.html
It has L shape memory, but it is black. Do you guys think that it can be modded?

Dose anyone know other modable 9500?

Thank you in advance!

[Unregistered]

Satanic-Vomit,

I noticed your system specs are very similar to mine. I have 256 mb ram and a Radeon AIW that I bought about 3.5 years ago. I was thinking about upgrading to 768mb Ram and a Radeon 9500Pro or 9700.

What type of video card did you have before your 9500 and can you tell much of a difference?

Does the extra ram make much of a difference in your opinion?

Does anyone else have an opinion?

[Vinny]

The one from pcparts4less.com is moddable. I just got mine in today, ordered it about 10 days ago. But mine is the red PCB board, not the black. But mine does have the L shapped memory.

[Unregistered]

After you change the card what drivers do you use 9700?
And after the change can you overclock to make it better than the 9700 Pro?

Jynxman

[ECA]

Originally posted by Unregistered
After you change the card what drivers do you use 9700?
And after the change can you overclock to make it better than the 9700 Pro?

Jynxman

I wonder 'HOW manny READ the whole 12 pages'?
REALLY, I posted 1-2 posts on ALL you needed from this thread about WHICH card. AND the beginning tells WHICH card and the configuration of the Moddable card.

This is getting to be so much fun.
We should LOCJ this thread, so that they have to READ the other 12 pages.

[Shadow 850]

My card is ruined im afraid, i cannot live with it and i think its been ruined by default. I cannot live with the tremendous FPS drop on SOF2 down to as low as 35 - FPS during alot of scenes with soldiers on screen on multiplayer it is stupid.. ive formatted at least a total of 5 times trying it by default.. installing drivers ETC. it seems the route of the problem is coming from the hardware acceleration TAB in the graphics setup options. i have it set on the 3rd bar from the top, "Disable all cursor and advanced drawing accelerations. Use this setting to correct drawing problems" it did actually correct random slowdown.. however the game still runs too slow with soldiers i even compared to a person who uses a 9000 radeon and the same CPU and he gets faster FPS than me in those area's?! over 90. ok i think its time to BIN this card, looks like i wasted a total amount of money on it.. i will probably buy a new one with my 18th birthday money.. or not! i might get a geforce 4 or something this thing is doing my head in

[Shadow 850]

it also does it when you play music in kazaa, put graphics on full acceleration and you know the swirl blue animations when music is playing when you click theater? well ive formatted 2 more times again.. installed default drivers and its still the same. Those gits wrecked my card with the stupid software mod. now ive totally wasted all that money when i dont have much.. i would give them a big punch square in the eye if i ever seen them.

[shagnscoob]

shadow was one of the ppl who said his card was doing awesome wasnt he? thats why im not modding, and yes, this thread needs ot be locked

[shadow 850]

YES it was doing well until i finally noticed things anyway who asked you?, thats what usually happens. and for some reason the slowdown only happens when the application with graphics is not actually highlighted.. i tested this theory in kazaa by right clicking on the blue swirls for the menu to pop up.. the swirls did not lag any more ( with full acceleration enabled ) so maybe there is a way around this slowdown.. although i dont know what but there has to be some way if i can do it like that but its pretty useless since when playing a game it has to be highlighted.

[shagnscoob]

sounds like the mod just isnt that gr8

[ninethirty]

You all have convinced that gambler in me to take a shot at it. It was time for a new video card anyway; the possibility of a big deal whetted the appetite.
It looks like www.memorymedia.com has the RED pcb card. Their resellerrating isn't very good, but my initial contact with them has been fine -- talked to a friendly CSR and they called me to confirm my shipping address. I'll tell you my results mid-week when I get the card in (and put it on the poll, of course). I'll be doing software mod only.
Unfortunately, it looks like odds are not in my favor, based on current poll results.
It is disturbing that Shadow850's card apparently suddenly went bad..? This is no good. I havne't heard of this effect before.
Hoping for the best...
And for shagnscoob: you're right, it's a gamble. More money for a sure thing is always a trade-off.

[ECA]

And to think, I posted a NO-COMMENT warning about modding.
YOU MOD at your OWN descreation(sp).
If that card was pre-modded from a company, you may be able to return it. But if your friends did it.. Sorry charlie.

Q:
What did you have the RAM, and card accellerated at? OR was/is it accellerated?

ONLY thing I can suggest is to RE-install the original Bios.

[Vice Vice Baby]

hey, its awesome to find this forum

I found it today and read all pages of it. I need your advice!!!
I have a 9500 Pro and it runs Counter-strike like **** in opengl any resolution. My older Ti 4400 was running it fine. Any solutions?-Got the most up to date Driver. No mods or hacks at all. (retail)

I want to buy the radeon 9500 L shape mamory, any links that still sell them right now???

Thanks a lot, I might make Designtechnica my homepage, its so nice.

[Vice Vice Baby]

hey guys!

has anyone tried the beta bios (wrap11) for the 9500 Pro.
Just asking cuz its beta, any problems?????
or is there now a final?

[shagnscoob]

how could u do this to us? that has abosolutely nothing to do at all with this topic, and u keep it going...

[Vice Vice Baby]

shagnscoob is that reply towards me?
If it is I am sorry, what is the topic then?
I read 9500 mod to 9700

[Shadow 850]

Hey ECA. Just to ask would re-installing the original BIOS actually fix the problem im having? the card was accelerated to speeds i said in this thread before.. its back to normal now but still problems.. how can doing a SOFT mod on drivers change the bios>? i thought drivers were an external thing that do not affect the bios in the GPU in no way at all after installing official ati drivers??. please get back to me on this. thanks for your interest in help, by the way.. i think you mean reinstall bios for original 9500 that it already was?

[shadow 850]

All i want to say is in respect, the card itself even though using official drivers after a format of hacked drivers my card still acts as if its been modded by that i mean its still got glitches in games ( white lines in the ends of textures ) and slow down.

[Shadow 850]

if there is any way i can get the card back to its original 9500 state anyone please tell me how, i dont see how a bios reinstall would fix the problem because how can drivers affect the bios in the first place?

[ECA]

Originally posted by Shadow 850
Hey ECA. Just to ask would re-installing the original BIOS actually fix the problem im having? the card was accelerated to speeds i said in this thread before.. its back to normal now but still problems.. how can doing a SOFT mod on drivers change the bios>? i thought drivers were an external thing that do not affect the bios in the GPU in no way at all after installing official ati drivers??. please get back to me on this. thanks for your interest in help, by the way.. i think you mean reinstall bios for original 9500 that it already was?

The 9500 Non-pro, seems to be a ONE=OFF 9700 card. When they ran there Hardware evaluation, It did not meet the 9700 specs, so they renamed it 9500. IF there was an ACCUAL/REAL hardware problem, then your card has failed to be a 9700. It is NOW a 9500, with the restricted pipes and all the rest. The BIOs opened those pipes when you flashed it. If you had a good flash prog, then it should have KEPT a copy of the OLD bios, unless you have over written it (if you reflashed the card, again). The flash prog SHOULD be able to RE-flash the bios, with the copy of the OLD. 50/50 chance you have not Killed the card, only exceeded the specs of the 9500 with those of the 9700.
It shouldnt cause a problem WORSE then you have. Try it.

[ninethirty]

In case anyone isn't scared off yet, I just got a Radeon 9500 card from MemoryMedia.com (this link should work (http://www.memorymedia.com/cgi-bin/webcart/webcart.cgi?CONFIG=mountain&RET=25&RCATS=AGP+128MB&FIRST_TIME=Yes&START=1&DOSEARCH=YES&CODE=461) ) and it is the red card with L-shaped memory. It's still $159. Another forum (anandtech, i believe) reports that GoogleGear has the red board for $178.
MemoryMedia doesn't have great resellerratings, but I had no problem with them. Shipped pretty quickly (not Newegg quick, but fine for me).

I'll let you all know how the mod goes.

[Unregistered]

I just bought a 9500 from googlegear and it has a pic of the red pcb, but when I got it today, it is the black Pro pcb with the memory on top. Hope I can return it.

[Hawk]

Too bad the new ones cant be hacked!!

[ninethirty]

I'd sure like to be able to say the mod worked...I'd like to say I'd even tried to apply it yet...but I still can't get it to run through 3dMark 2k1 WITHOUT the mod. Once I get any driver/setting combination to love me, I'll see what we can do about making this a 9700pro.
p.s. folks on the anandtech forum seem to be having quite a bit of success, so perhaps our poll paints a more dismal picture than it should.

[ECA]

Originally posted by ninethirty
I'd sure like to be able to say the mod worked...I'd like to say I'd even tried to apply it yet...but I still can't get it to run through 3dMark 2k1 WITHOUT the mod. Once I get any driver/setting combination to love me, I'll see what we can do about making this a 9700pro.
p.s. folks on the anandtech forum seem to be having quite a bit of success, so perhaps our poll paints a more dismal picture than it should.

have to remember that those that WORK, dont ***** and moan. This site also dont edit BAD info as ALOT of sites do.
Few dreams here, only reality. And reality SUCKS.

[ninethirty]

Yeah, i think you're right ECA. Those that worked well are probably not as likely to come back to put their results in the poll. They're probably deep into Splinter Cell instead :)
Just wanted to give a heads up for those that are discouraged by the poll results (which right now show about 66% failure, I think) that their chances may be a bit better than that.

That said, I just did a fresh Windows install and will be trying it out today.

[shagnscoob]

as much as id hate to give another reply to this blakc hole, i had to say, ECA is ****ing hilarious!

[ninethirty]

so good and bad: getting very good framerates, but with the software mod there are about 40 pixels in two staggered vertical lines that are stuck black. Not the normal chessboard artifacts, though. For right now, i've undone the mod, since i get perfectly good framerates for what I want (NOLF 2, at the moment) using just an overclocked 9500 (can't get to 9700 pro speeds, but close). The mod adds about 15-20% in some games and 3dMark, but very little in others. If I start playing a game that really needs the extra boost, I'll put the mod in -- it just takes switching a .vxd file and rebooting. The errors are not very distracting for me.

The folks who make Rivatuner are incredible :)

[steve mobley]

I need help! I bought correct 9500 board as stated in article and am getting 9700 performance. The only problem is when I start playing games like counter strike. I press "esc" to back out and quit the game and the monitor goes black. What gives? I reboot the machine and it runs fine until I attempt to leave a game utilizing the "esc" button. The card works fine on 3dmark where numbers were 12641 and 12420.

System: Pent 2.4 ghz
Intel 845 BVGL
512 RAM
Saphire ATI 9500
13 Gig Maxtor
Sony 52x CD ROM
Sony 40X CDRW
Sound Blaster 5120

[ECA]

Originally posted by steve mobley
I need help! I bought correct 9500 board as stated in article and am getting 9700 performance. The only problem is when I start playing games like counter strike. I press "esc" to back out and quit the game and the monitor goes black. What gives? I reboot the machine and it runs fine until I attempt to leave a game utilizing the "esc" button. The card works fine on 3dmark where numbers were 12641 and 12420.



Are you changing resolutions..
What res is your Windows, and what res is the game??

[shagnscoob]

im having the same problem with my 9700 pro, but ive got a simple solution. dont alt-tab out of cs.

[ECA]

Originally posted by shagnscoob
im having the same problem with my 9700 pro, but ive got a simple solution. dont alt-tab out of cs.

Also which DirectX are you running.. 8.0, 8.1, 9?

[nformd1]

Does disabling the 9500 128 non-pro Radeon's Hyper Z & hierchial Z nullify the benfits of the extra 4 pipeleines. I'm doing it to alleviate artifacts in Morrowind & NOLF2.


Thanks

[ninethirty]

The short answer is "not entirely". I can't give a technical explanation; going through ATI's whitepapers or a little googling will probably turn up what hyper Z and hierarchical Z really are. But performance-wise, my experience was about a 20% synthetic performance boost with the mod alone (the actual performance boost depends on the game) and perhaps a 15 or 17% performance boost with the mod but those settings turned turned off. So you loose perhaps 20% of the mod's performance gain by turning off the hierarchical Z, but it doesn't cancel out the whole mod. I'd be interested to know if your performance results were different.
Again, from the technical perspective, you'd have to read the literature to find out what's actually happening there. If you find out, I'd be interested to know.

Do you need to turn off both of them? I only turned off one of them (i believe it was Heirarchical Z...whichever I said in an earlier post). Turning off the other did nothing for me.

[nformd1]

Thanks ninethirty!

I'm going to investigate this weekend. I guess I do not need to disable both. hyper & hierc Z. It does not significantly decrease the performance of my fillrate scores in either 3DMark2001 SE or 2003. I wish I would have obtained an overall score previously.

I was thinking that I should achieve an overall score higeher than 10,000 in 2001SE, but I'm not.

MSI KT3 Ultra 2
Win XP Pro SP1
Athlon XP 1600+ (143Mhz * 10.5 = 1501.5)
256 DDR ram @ 143 Mhz CAS 2.5
Sblive!

[ninethirty]

hmm..yes, i think you should break 10,000. Before the "3dmark is just a crap test" comments fly, I'll say that it really matters just how well framerates are in the games you want to play. But my game system is quite similar (Athlon 1700+, Gigabyte 7dx+ (amd 751 chipset), wd 800 jb HD, 768mb or so DDR, win98se, onboard <gasp!> sound) and my scores are just under 12,000 with the mod, just a bit over 10,000 without. The only slow points I see for you are RAM (XP is an incredible memory hog, so if you have extra cash DDR is getting very cheap) and maybe hard drive, if you don't happen to have a 7200 RPM drive (but that's not common at all).
Not sure what else could be holding you back there.

[nformd1]

Thanks again,

That confirms it. I'm under 10,000 WITH the mod ( hyper Z & hierchial Z disabled). Actually, I thought that Win98SE doesn't manage memory over 256MB very well. However, I agree that Win XP is more resource hungry. I just disable all the desktop frills. Yes, both of my drives spin @ 7200 rpm

I'm going to test various configs when I get home.

[shagnscoob]

im pretty sure i have directx 9

[keith]

so, from reading this i got rather optomistic about this, but then shadow's died

just wondered, how many have got one running nicely (i dont plan to go over the top with overclocking), altho i suppose if its working without problem, u wont b visiting this thread will ya lol

and how many people have had major problems, im skint so anything that saves me money is good :)

btw, could shad problem have been caused by overclocking to far, or is it deffo a mod problem?

[ninethirty]

well keith, there's a poll that shows just under 50% satisfaction, but I think you're right that people who got it working perfectly aren't speaking as loud. On other forums (one on Anandtech springs to mind) the success rate sounds more like 80%. It's hard to say.
Personally, I'm very happy with my results; I'm running Unreal 2003 at very nice framerates.
But it's been long enough that it's probably very difficult to get a moddable red PCB now if you don't have one already. If you have one already, there's little or no risk in trying the software mod; except for possibly Shadow I haven't heard of anyone damaging their card by just performing the mod. Personally, I overclocked mine about 20% and it just recently started messing up (probably heat related), but bringing it back to more normal clock speeds fixed it.

[keith]

nah i dont have one, but my plan was to email retailers and ask em. I dunno if ill b able to get hold of one tho as u say

one question, is if i get one, and if it doenst mod, how does a basic 9500 compare to other cards of a similar price (roughly £130 here in merry old england)

is it better/worse than a ti4200 8x for example?

[steelski]

To anybody who is interested.........There is a driver that enables the pipelines by default. its based on the Catalyst 3.2 drivers and works with the 9800 mod. I havent compared the two mods yet...even though they both wotk fine.....:D :D :D :D...............I couldent get the mod to work through Riva tune,( i must be a spacca) But it worked with other ones like this instead.....:)http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/ for the 9700 and 9800 mods (a little work needed)

http://www.omegacorner.com 9800 mod with no work needed....

[llbbl]

I bet you guys can't keep this thread going till ten pages :P

[ninethirty]

oh, is that a challenge? :)
For the sake of volume, I could add that I almost got another 9500 (from Newegg) for another computer but I opted for the 8500LE instead (half as expensive, and Newegg wouldn't guarantee that it was a red card).

Feel free to tell me that I'm a wimp.

Newegg has the red card in their product picture, but I don't know where you can find guaranteed red cards anymore.

[superart]

w00t!! first post!!

Ok, I just readd eavry page, and Im excited, but skepticle. I wish I could have gotten one of those pre-modded cards when I had the chance. What are the chances of being able to find a modable card now?

Also, aa question noone has touched on, what about linux? If I do the hardware mod, will linux be able to run it at 9700(pro) speeds? What about a software mod? Is there a software mod for linux? If I go for the hardware mod, would I just install it like a regular 9700 card?

[superart]

I was thinking of going to ebay to get the right 9500 card, but then i thought, "wouldnt that be the first place pepole would go to get rid of their cards that didnt mod well?"

[Tateman]

I just ordered a 9500 today. Hopefully, it will take the mod :) I was thinking of ebay before as well, but I think most if not all have been tried. I had emailed about 6 sellers, and almost all of them said they tried the mod, but it didn't work. A couple said "what mod?"

[madmouse]

I got the red pcb sapphire 9500(non-pro) I've already installed it and was wondering how to do the soft mod? Also if the soft mod doesn't work will I end up with a expensive paper weight or can I go back to the original drivers.

[superart]

no the soft mod is perfectly safe. If it doesnt work its completely reverseable.

[madmouse]

Thanks I'll try it in the morning. Which ones should I use. Wickeds or Riva Tuner?

[ECA]

LOCK THIS THREAD, 65 pages is ENOUGH....

PLZzzz.

[superart]

before locking it, i think we need to make some kinda FAQ. Its a real pain in the ass reading through 63 strait pages, a lot of which is repetition( i know because I did it). If there are other people who want to do this, I would be more than willing to help.

[llbbl]

Ok thread has been locked, please move on to new threads. :D