9800SE to 9800PRO/XT??

[Cpt.Orgasmo]

Hey my m8 has a 9800SE and he wants to upgrade it to a 9800PRO at leats but preferably a 9800XT, i told him bout the fact that it has only 4 pipelines enabled and the other 4 can be enabled and hes up for it, i know the easiest way to do it is to softmod it with omega drivers or summit like that but we tried it and it just made his system run very very slow.

So i had an idea about flashing the BIOS to a 9800 PRO or XT BIOS and wondered if it would enable the other 4 pipelines? i have flashed the BIOS on my fx5900XT with a 5950Ultra BIOS and it works fine so i know how to do it and the risks of it but if i did put a 9800 PRO or XT BIOS on there would it enable the other pipelines and would it work kool? there is extra coolign on the card already so no worries bout overheating or anything..

your help wud be appreciated!

Orgasmo

 

[Didou]

If softmodding doesn't work, it means the extra pipelines were defective. Flashing it with a 9800 Pro/XT Bios will only force those pipelines to be constantly active resulting in visual artefacts & strange performance behaviours. It's best not to try it.

 

[PreservedSwine]

I'm not so sure a new BIOS will open up the 4 pipes, I think a driver mod will still be needed, unless you physically wish to solder the pipes yourself.

(My R9500np still needs a driver hack to give it the full 8 pipes, even w/ an R9700 or R9800 BIOS, currently running an R9800 BIOS)

Are you sure his 9800SE has the correct PCB that has the pipes to be opened physically present? The ram configuration will be in an "L" pattern in the PCB. If the ram chips are all in a straight line, the PCB simply doesn't haver the pipes there.
If he has the right PCB, re-try Omega's, even if the pipes are damaged, system speed shouldn't slow down at all, you'll just see plenty of corruption.

Since he had an entire system slowdown, I'm guessing he may have to re-install some other driver, perhaps chipset, after he installs Omega's. (assuming he has the proper PCB)

 

[Cpt.Orgasmo]

Cheers

ok guys thanks alot for your help when i next speak to him ill get him to check the card and reinstall the drivers cos he formatted his HD and has re installed windows Pro so it may not slow down now, thanks again for your help!

Orgasmo

 

[Didou]

Are you sure his 9800SE has the correct PCB that has the pipes to be opened physically present? The ram configuration will be in an "L" pattern in the PCB. If the ram chips are all in a straight line, the PCB simply doesn't haver the pipes there.

That has nothing to do with the disabled pipelines. The "L" configuration for memory chips is for cards that have a 256-bit memory bus. If the memory chips are in a straight line then the card has a 128-bit memory configuration. It does not imply anything else.

 

[Cpt.Orgasmo]

Kool beans

right i asked my m8 and it has the L shape memory so that means that it as 256-bit memory? which is nice!

so im gona download omega drivers for him and sort it out and that shud open up the pipelines shudnt it?

cheers guys ur a big help!