New X800 Pro -> XT Mod! Try it...

[5150 Joker]

I just ordered a gigabyte x800 pro VIVO and I'm hoping it comes with all 16 pipes unlocked like some of the guys here are reporting. Can't wait till it arrives...

[Mister_Frosty]

Originally Posted by Davekap

Sapphire x800 Pro VIVO at this link. Cheapest price I can find anywhere so I suggest it since I was looking all over for someone else's suggestion.

http://www.mypcgoodies.com/mypcg/c_c...t.asp?type=942

Once it reaches my door, I'll probably be asking this thread how the Sapphire soft-modding works. :-)

thx for the link. I noticed that there are 2 cards listed there. "Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 Pro" for $439.00 and "Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 XT" for $435.30. The product numbers are "AT100X800P-1" and "AT100X800P-V" respectively. Now the second card does have 16 pipes, while the first has only 12, but I dont think it is really an XT... at least not at $435 when an x800 XT is closer to $600+ everywhere else.

Is this card an XT or a Pro with 16 pipes open?
Is there a way to tell if it is the 1.6ns ram?
Is the second card VIVO?
Does anyone recommend another brand over Sapphire?
(I currently have a Sapphire 9700 Pro)


thx,
frost

[Davekap]

Yes, I bought the second card, the XT. When you do so, it comes up telling you you're purchasing an x800 Pro VIVO. What I think the site is doing is flashing the BIOS making them into XTs and selling them as such, but I'm not completely sure. I do know, however, that the Pro listed on that same page, is NOT a VIVO card, so make sure NOT to get the Pro, but the XT. I'll answer your questions even though I honestly don't know the true answers.

This is all assuming that what I've bought is
http://www.sapphiretech.com/vga/x800-pro.asp VIVO and with the hack already on.

Is this card an XT or a Pro with 16 pipes open?

Pro with 16 pipes I believe.

Is there a way to tell if it is the 1.6ns ram?

I have no idea.

It is 1.6ns ram.

It should be. I don't know why it wouldn't be.

Is the second card VIVO?

Yes, the second card is the VIVO while the first card is not.

Does anyone recommend another brand over Sapphire?

I see a lot of people buying the 3D Club ones, but they're European and overpriced.

[babyelf]

hey guys

Just got my Gecube x800pro VIVO.. i'm in australia.. it's got 1.6ns ram and rage theatre chip on it..

wish me luck..

btw.. if i remove the heatsink will it void my warranty?

[Darkoz]

Originally Posted by Davekap

Yes, I bought the second card, the XT. When you do so, it comes up telling you you're purchasing an x800 Pro VIVO. What I think the site is doing is flashing the BIOS making them into XTs and selling them as such, but I'm not completely sure.

Is there a way to tell if it is the 1.6ns ram?

Firstly, if they are selling flashed Pros and advertising them as XTs, then what they are doing is ILLEGAL.
And secondly, you can check to see what type of RAM the card has by checking the printed number on the chip itself. The last two digits will either be 20 (2.0ns) or 16 (1.6ns)

[The Death]

How many of you have done this with the Powercolor X800 Pro VIVO?? I've had one since the first of july but havn't had enough balls to do it. I can confirm I have 1.6ns memory and a Rage Theater chip.

[ZeroDamage]

Originally Posted by Mister_Frosty

thx for the link. I noticed that there are 2 cards listed there. "Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 Pro" for $439.00 and "Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 XT" for $435.30. The product numbers are "AT100X800P-1" and "AT100X800P-V" respectively. Now the second card does have 16 pipes, while the first has only 12, but I dont think it is really an XT... at least not at $435 when an x800 XT is closer to $600+ everywhere else.

Is this card an XT or a Pro with 16 pipes open?
Is there a way to tell if it is the 1.6ns ram?
Is the second card VIVO?
Does anyone recommend another brand over Sapphire?
(I currently have a Sapphire 9700 Pro)


thx,
frost

I would recommend you stay away from such a site.

[Mister_Frosty]

I also wonder why the first card (12 pipe non-vivo @ $439) is more expensive than the second card (16 pipe vivo $435).

[The Death]

probably because its not a real XT and only cost them the price of the Pro ViVO, which means sell it for less, and get more customers, which means more money in the long run.

[EasterEEL]

With an X800 vivo with 12 pipes, how is it determined which 4 pipes are closed by the bios? If they closed following ATI quality control then surely they must differ from card to card?

I have found that once the Gigabyte bios is applied 16 pipes are enabled no matter what subsequent bios is then applied (including the original). Therefore if opening up 16 pipes causes a problem, is there anyway after flashing back the original bios to return to 12 pipes? How would you ensure the same 4 pipes opened up are then closed?

One possible explanation is that the vivo cards always contain 16 working pipes and the bios just disable 4. And that chips used on non vivo cards have a laser cut which varies to specifically disable the failed 4 pipes?

regards....EasterEEL

[highpingdrifter]

if i remember rightly you can return to 12 pipes by using your origional bios with the gigabyte flash util

[Mister_Frosty]

but wouldnt a x800 pro vivo cost more than a x800 pro non-vivo ?.. and yet it is $4 less? just seems wierd.

anyone have an opinion on visiontek x800 pro? I am interested in visiontek for their lifetime warranty. my sapphire 9700 pro has started freaking out with mutlicolored vertical bands and checkerboard effects. that is why I am looking to upgrade.. to replace it. It has this wierd effect even during boot up... on the bios screen. I pulled out the card and cleaned it with can-o-air cuz I thought maybe it was a heat issue due to dust buidl up, but it had no effect.

[The Death]

well yes and no; the price of an X800 Pro is actually 399.. but the store needs profit, so the ViVo versions cant be that much more. Basically they're doing the "sell for cheap, get more customers" approach.

[ZeroDamage]

GameVE now has the Gigabyte X800 Pro Vivo retail available. GAMEVE

I have to say that their policy on shipping only to your billing address sucks and their customer support are rude.

[The Death]

I've been scanning around and digging around the X800 Pro ViVo to XT softmod. I've got a few questions:

1)Is the GigaByte XT Bios XTPE or just XT (I'm assuming XTPE because XTs havn't been release yet)

2)If my card rejects the 16 pipelines, would it be possible flash back to my old bios with the Gigabyte flasher (im hearing the other tool doesn't write over the # of pipelines) or will I be screwed??

3)I believe my card is safe and ready to do it;
There is a Rage Theater chip on board, Samsung 1.6ns memory and the device ID in ATiTool is 4A49 (i read somewhere about this device ID being a determining factor for it (i also read it will be changed when you flash, of couse)). I overclocked to XTPE speeds and my temperatures barely changed, and it shows no artifacts, and i could have kept going, which i may.

temps at stock speeds : 40c idle/71c load
temps at XTPE speeds : 43c idle/71c load

the idle speed at XTPE speeds is very slowly making its way down to 40, drops one degree (like 44 to 43), argues a bit between the 2 (down to 43 back up, back down, back up) then goes steady at the lower temperature. Im running on the stock cooler with no RAM sinks (i may purchase later)

4) Do you think I should take the risk?

[kali81]

I've done it and it all works fine. there are however possible problems, and here are the ones i know about


1. The best card for oc'ing to xt is Club3D ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB DDR3 VIVO TV-Out/DVI (AGP) as they seem to go way beyond xt speeds (some cores are getting up to 575mhz!!)

2. Most vivo pros wont run at xt speeds, so ppl use the gigabyte bios to unlock the pipes, and then go back to their orginal bios with all 16 pipes working

3. After installing the gigabyte bios, some ppl are finding that they are getting better results from other xt bioses, but you'll have to look that up

4. So far all sapphire cards have modded to 16 pipes but can rarely get to xt stock speeds

5. you will find that you cant oc the card so much using the xt mod, i think its a voltage prob.

Hope this all helps guys

Good luck

[The Death]

vivo cards rarely hit XTPE speeds?? boy do i feel special, my powercolor hit xtpe speeds and can keep on going.

[5150 Joker]

Originally Posted by ZeroDamage

GameVE now has the Gigabyte X800 Pro Vivo retail available. GAMEVE

I have to say that their policy on shipping only to your billing address sucks and their customer support are rude.

I ordered mine from the last night and says they're already on back order. Said in stock when I ordered so they better not screw me.

[ZeroDamage]

From my understanding, if you flash back to your original Pro bios, you can OC better than if you stick with the Gigabyte Bios. I've seen this mentioned everywhere. I am sure it has to do with voltages and possibly RAM Timings.

[Slater]

Slater
hey i have a x800 pro vivo done sotmod and opend to 16 pipes
then i flashed back to x800xt samsunge biose.
ati tool i can get to 500 core and 550 mem iam wondering if flashing back to the x800pro biose would work better all i am realy trying to do is get is to run at xt stock speeds.
also iam running a regular case with no case fans, do i need a vidio card cooler to run 800xt speeds.
and would a coollance case help my system and card.
my card is runing anywere from 50 to 70 on temp case seems warm but it realy warm in my office.
I just want to run 520-560
system specs.
pent 4 3.0 pros.
p4g800-e deluxe motherboard
2 sticks corsar pro 4000 ram
soundplaster audigy 2zs sound card
x800pro softmoded
enermax 400 watt power supply
what should i be able to do with this system help please i can only get core to 500 and mem to 540 with x800xt biose seems like i could do more with this system.

[Slater]

mine is a sapphire x800 pro vivo

[hamm3rhead]

Just reporting another Gigabyte X800 Pro VIVO that came with 16 pipes enabled. My memory tested upto 598.xx with atitool, core was 531.4.

[Davekap]

Slater I think that you're supposed to flash to the ATi BIOS, not the Samsung BIOS. Try that and report back.

[The Death]

Add me to the success list!! Worked like a charm!







and my ViVo works!

[Davekap]

The Death: What brand? Good job!

[-is2-]

Originally Posted by Slater

Slater
hey i have a x800 pro vivo done sotmod and opend to 16 pipes
then i flashed back to x800xt samsunge biose.
ati tool i can get to 500 core and 550 mem iam wondering if flashing back to the x800pro biose would work better all i am realy trying to do is get is to run at xt stock speeds.

First: Get some airflow in your case.
Second: Do the pencil mod to increase core voltage. So did I(couldn't reach XT core clocks either).
Third: Enjoy your new X800 XT PE!!

[WaterSign]

I've got the extra pipes on my PowerColor X800 Pro VIVO unlocked! Woohoo! I'm experiencing a few crashes playing card-intensive games (Far Cry) for long periods of time. I've clocked the core/mem both down to ~500 and still have the occasional hiccup.

Any suggestions would be TOTALLY AWESOME, PLEASE! (c;

WaterSign

[koldphuzion]

Originally Posted by WaterSign

I've got the extra pipes on my PowerColor X800 Pro VIVO unlocked! Woohoo! I'm experiencing a few crashes playing card-intensive games (Far Cry) for long periods of time. I've clocked the core/mem both down to ~500 and still have the occasional hiccup.

Any suggestions would be TOTALLY AWESOME, PLEASE! (c;

WaterSign

Have you flashed to the ATIX800XT bios or are you still on the Gigabyte bios?
Try doing the pencil mod to increase your voltage to the memory? http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=817&s=1
What version of the cat drivers are you using? Try going doing a hybrid of the drivers. Cat WDM 4.6 and Driver 4.7 using manual/custom install. Make sure you have got rid of all the Cat drivers before doing this though, then install 4.6 first then only install the drivers section of 4.7, not the WDM 4.7.
Possibly flash back to your backup X800Pro bios, it wont re-lock the 4 pipes.
Make sure you have enough cooling and fine tune your clock speeds.

My 3D Mark 2003 results at the moment are:
Core 519mhz
Mem 552mhz
11486.

[spyre]

Can someone please email me the unpacked version of the XT PE BIOS as I dont have a floppy disk drive these days

Thanks

[GazC]

Originally Posted by spyre

Can someone please email me the unpacked version of the XT PE BIOS as I dont have a floppy disk drive these days

Thanks

YHEM