# I soft moded my ATI 9800SE and I am getting artifacts.



## MadMax82 (Nov 16, 2004)

How can I get the artifacts away??    I tried with Rtools and it made no difference.   It is only during game play.
THX


----------



## YawAKooL (Nov 16, 2004)

Unsoftmod it. It doesnt work with your card.


----------



## MadMax82 (Nov 16, 2004)

Why is it not supported?    It is a brand new powercolor.... And I checked and it should be supported. Any ideas?


----------



## YawAKooL (Nov 16, 2004)

You think every 9800 SE can be modded to 9800 Pro? Some of them have too bad Ram chips, or they are too slow or just bad quality. There are 3 Types: 9800 SE Lite, 9800 SE Standard and 9800 SE Enhanced - Lites can 100% not be modded to 9800 Pro, Standards can be modded with a 50% succes and enhanced have guarantee, that they can be modded.


----------



## MadMax82 (Nov 16, 2004)

First of all thanks for all this info.
How can i find out what type of VID i have??


----------



## kRaZeD (Nov 17, 2004)

well considering the fact that it doesnt softmod properly then i would say u have a standard.


----------



## BossXPRO (Nov 19, 2004)

What all have you tried to do besides the using rtool ????? There are a few other things you could try to do like going into your reg and changing z formats settings and other stuff.


----------



## wazzledoozle (Nov 19, 2004)

WTF are you people talking about? The reason a 9800SE is sold as a 9800SE is because manufacturing defects cause one or more of the pixel pipelines to not work correctly, so companies buy these from ATI, disable half the pipes so only 4 are active compared to a Pro's 8. Some good GPU's make it into the SE cards though, where all the pipes work. Some cards have 128 bit memory bus's that can be modded to 256 bit but thats rare.

If your getting artifacts when 8 pipes opened your card is working how it was intended.

Though how severe is the artifacting? Your card might be overheating. What kind of cooler does it have now?


----------



## MadMax82 (Nov 19, 2004)

What video memory (chips)  should i have? 

Is there any way to find out the temperature?

Is there any special settings using rtool , or ati tool?

Also what is the Reg Key to edit, and what value.


----------



## MadMax82 (Nov 19, 2004)

When using softmod it will require to have additional cooling even if im not overclocking the card?


----------



## wazzledoozle (Nov 19, 2004)

MadMax82 said:
			
		

> When using softmod it will require to have additional cooling even if im not overclocking the card?


Most likely, as it opens another 4 pixel pipelines.


----------



## MadMax82 (Nov 20, 2004)

wazzledoozle said:
			
		

> Though how severe is the artifacting? Your card might be overheating. What kind of cooler does it have now?



In NFUG2 the artifacts are very low, 
In StartWars battlefront it has black squares all over the screen.
IT has the standard cooling system from factory, what would U recommend.


----------



## wazzledoozle (Nov 20, 2004)

Do you have a picture of your current cooling system?
Otherwise I would recommend an Arctic silencer- http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-186-113&depa=1


----------



## MadMax82 (Nov 20, 2004)

That is a nice GPU cooling system,    I will definitely buy it, but before I place the order, what type of heat sinks would U recommend for the memory.


----------



## MadMax82 (Nov 20, 2004)

I was checking this website, what would U recommend.
http://www.directron.com/gpucoolers.html


----------



## wazzledoozle (Nov 21, 2004)

bad links


----------



## Glenn (Nov 25, 2004)

better late then never You can hard mode via bios to 9800pro it may work becorse of the gpu gets more power from the bios chance mode remember too save old orginal bios on disk


----------



## kRaZeD (Nov 25, 2004)

i wouldnt flash it, that to me is a stupid idea... if it doesnt work with the softmod, it most likely wont work with a bios flash


----------



## wazzledoozle (Nov 25, 2004)

kRaZeD said:
			
		

> i wouldnt flash it, that to me is a stupid idea... if it doesnt work with the softmod, it most likely wont work with a bios flash


Just what i would say

Though try softmodding with a new cooler


----------



## Slayerstaps (Nov 25, 2004)

Won't work if the pipes are broken no cooling in the world will make em work.............


----------



## formalentity (Nov 26, 2004)

Slayerstaps said:
			
		

> Won't work if the pipes are broken no cooling in the world will make em work.............



agreed.. but you can restore your original Bios.. but you'll be stuck with 9800SE of course..


----------



## kRaZeD (Nov 26, 2004)

thats the risk of buying a video card that is already half broken...


----------



## wazzledoozle (Nov 26, 2004)

Slayerstaps said:
			
		

> Won't work if the pipes are broken no cooling in the world will make em work.............


Well the artifacts he described dont seem to be severe as broken pipes.

Anyways if the pipes are broke, the new cooler will let him oc further.


----------



## Glenn (Nov 26, 2004)

its all Stupid if you dont no what to do. it may work and it wont broke becores of it.
I don it my self some time ago, with a pci grafik kart you can ondue it later if it dont work. there only thing is you got to have samsung ram thats importen, and as i say the 9800pro bios program load more volt/power to the GPU and MEM.
if some pipe line is broken then bring back to normal that it.


----------



## MadMax82 (Nov 26, 2004)

So, I should try flashing the VID bios to the PRO without the hardmod?


----------



## Glenn (Nov 26, 2004)

MadMax82 said:
			
		

> So, I should try flashing the VID bios to the PRO without the hardmod?



you have samsung ram on it ?
Yes dont use hard mod your garenti vont cover it then.
if some of the 4 extra pipe line is broken you color vell be very vrong to look at then you just flash it back, and if you can't boot with your 9800se then you have to use a old pci grafik kart to boot from.


----------



## Slayerstaps (Nov 26, 2004)

MadMax82 said:
			
		

> So, I should try flashing the VID bios to the PRO without the hardmod?



You need to do the hardmod first or else flashing won't do anything....
ur just stuck with what u paid for


----------



## MadMax82 (Nov 26, 2004)

Slayerstaps said:
			
		

> You need to do the hardmod first or else flashing won't do anything....
> ur just stuck with what u paid for



I would love to hardmod it but my problems is that I get artifacts with softmod, so before I hardmod it I want to be sure it will works, if it doesn't I would stuck with a 9800pro with artifacts.


----------



## Slayerstaps (Nov 26, 2004)

Does it artifact like really bad??? show a screen or explain how bad the artifacting is...


----------



## Frozen (Nov 26, 2004)

Listen up:

If it screws up and artifacts with the softmod and Rtool doesnt help, then youre stuck

No Flashing.

No hardmod.

No 8 pipes....


----------



## MadMax82 (Nov 26, 2004)

Slayerstaps said:
			
		

> Does it artifact like really bad??? show a screen or explain how bad the artifacting is...



When i am playing NFSUG2 the artifacts are only in back window of the car but they are tiny.
When i try star wars battle front or UT04 i get moving black squares all over the screen.


----------



## Slayerstaps (Nov 26, 2004)

Moving black squares is some heavy broken pipeline artifacting...nothing u can do about that..i think u just have to be happy with 4 pipes..


----------



## Vasot (Nov 26, 2004)

Man these may sound a little cruel




but what happened to u is because you were asking for it

SOFTMOD = DANGEROUS Crap
If you damaged your card is your fault only, from the time that you decided to use softmod


----------



## MadMax82 (Nov 26, 2004)

Vasot said:
			
		

> Man these may sound a little cruel
> 
> 
> 
> ...




My card works 120% with the original ATI drivers + ATI tool , that it is not the problem.


----------



## MadMax82 (Nov 26, 2004)

Slayerstaps said:
			
		

> Moving black squares is some heavy broken pipeline artifacting...



Question. Why am I not getting the squares in NFSUD2, it has minimal artifacts.


----------



## kRaZeD (Nov 27, 2004)

Frozen said:
			
		

> Listen up:
> 
> If it screws up and artifacts with the softmod and Rtool doesnt help, then youre stuck
> 
> ...


Why the hell dont people listen to things like what Frozen said???

FFS, as the saying goes: you get what u pay for!

You paid for a cheap video card, and you got a cheap video card.


----------



## formalentity (Nov 27, 2004)

MadMax82 said:
			
		

> Question. Why am I not getting the squares in NFSUD2, it has minimal artifacts.



Perhaphs Heat Issue?, Or you've manage to damage something else?, Or maybe your Pipelines are partially damaged, if thats the case theres no solution..


----------



## Glenn (Nov 27, 2004)

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/105
YES slayerstaps is rigt you got to hardmod there is a trik to remove
the silver from the cards pol 2-3 bot anyway i vell kep my 9800se ass it 
is if I were you. I now rember My cart was a Sapphire 9800 I then mod to pro.
after the mod it ran from most 9800pro in OC.


----------



## Nergal (Nov 28, 2004)

I got a 9500NP@PRO

At the start I always had artifacts, but only very few concentrated right below, so it didn't bother me. However, after some time, they dissapeared, so i was like: wtf?!? 

Anyway, since I installed NFSUG2, they are back, in some games. 
I suppose you can try clicking different options on/off in your display menu.

If nothing works, then try lowering your screenres. 
If I play on 1280*1024, the artifacts are in the middle of my screen, if I use 1024*786, they are right bewlow, and on 800*600 they are gone!
Perhaps you can solve it by setting it on 1600*1024 or so?
because the artifacts will also get smaller.

I think it's best to do the softmod, because the speed you gain is amazing
from 2200to4500 3Dmark03 points!

gl


----------



## dp69_2001 (Nov 28, 2004)

mines weird. I never get artifacts in ATITool. Even clear up to where it freezes and I either have to restart or the drivers reset themselves.


----------



## Twilight (Dec 5, 2004)

First thing you musk ask yourself is that artifacts your card produce are because of broken pipelines or because broken HyperZ system in unlocked pipelines.
If you got in Q3 something like that: 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 where you cas see under the walls, then it's only HyperZ problem  But if it's something diffrent things like black chessboard in every game then it may be broken pipeline and nothing can help you  but try things that I will talk about here later.

So if you have bad HyperZ try disabling Z-Mask in Rage3dTweaker in Direct3d Section. If it works then eneble it and decrease Z Compression to LOW because it works for my r9500@pro and has less inpact in performance that disabling Z-Mask.
If lowering Z-Compression works for you then you may want to do the same for OpenGL, and here RadLinker comes in handy. But it has one bug that I send do author and you must set Z-Compression to MEDIUM (at least on my softmod 4.11beta drivers   )

And remember one thing: chessboard artifacts can't be obtained by overheating the card. OC cause random pixel artefacts or pisplaced triangles artefacts, and never chessboard in any instance.

Pozdrowienia z Polski  4U

ps. I don't think that r9800se is cheap card


----------



## Slayerstaps (Dec 5, 2004)

kRaZeD said:
			
		

> Why the hell dont people listen to things like what Frozen said???
> 
> FFS, as the saying goes: you get what u pay for!
> 
> You paid for a cheap video card, and you got a cheap video card.



Nobody listens to Frozen and me around here cause they think they kno better themselfs..or the stuff can still be fixed eventhough we and more people are saying it can't be fixed...

I don kno how i can hold myself around here..I'm prolly gonna freak out sometime soon....


----------



## kRaZeD (Dec 6, 2004)

*Slayerstaps* dont freak out man, as far as i know, ur a good contribution to these forums


----------



## fr33ze (Dec 6, 2004)

Been on these forums a long time and the old forums as well and I think a lot of you are missing to the point, listen to people like Slayerstaps and Frozen, they know thier shit.

@ Glenn
I don't think you understand the concept of hardmodding, you need to flash the bios AND alter the contacts near the core. This WILL NOT sort out any problems with a card that is artifacting, if it does not work with a softmod 100% it will not work with a hardmod 100%, this has been said time and time again.

@ MadMax82
Sorry mate but you were unlucky, the card aint gonna work as a pro but it's still worth getting the better cooler and ram chips as you can overclock more.



			
				YawAKooL said:
			
		

> You think every 9800 SE can be modded to 9800 Pro? Some of them have too bad Ram chips, or they are too slow or just bad quality. There are 3 Types: 9800 SE Lite, 9800 SE Standard and 9800 SE Enhanced - Lites can 100% not be modded to 9800 Pro, Standards can be modded with a 50% succes and enhanced have guarantee, that they can be modded.


where'd you get that rubbish from??


----------



## bim27142 (Dec 6, 2004)

MadMax82 said:
			
		

> When using softmod it will require to have additional cooling even if im not overclocking the card?



what softmod you refer to? i think if you softmod, the result will either be pipes unlocked or the card is OC'ed to somehwere higher speed ratings.... i don't think anybody would like to softmod their cards and getting lower clock speed instead?....


----------



## wazzledoozle (Dec 6, 2004)

YawAKooL said:
			
		

> You think every 9800 SE can be modded to 9800 Pro? Some of them have too bad Ram chips, or they are too slow or just bad quality. There are 3 Types: 9800 SE Lite, 9800 SE Standard and 9800 SE Enhanced - Lites can 100% not be modded to 9800 Pro, Standards can be modded with a 50% succes and enhanced have guarantee, that they can be modded.





			
				fr33ze said:
			
		

> where'd you get that rubbish from??



Exactly what I thought.

Tsk Tsk


----------



## kRaZeD (Dec 7, 2004)

i think there is too much bs in this thread, as such we should all ignore it from now on


----------



## 15th Warlock (Dec 7, 2004)

Please lock this thread


----------



## wazzledoozle (Dec 7, 2004)

15th Warlock said:
			
		

> Please lock this thread


If I were to get mod powers I could


----------



## fr33ze (Dec 7, 2004)

sure it won't be long before Frozen or Slayerstaps are back in here to lock it.


----------



## Nergal (Dec 7, 2004)

I would keep it on, this id a nice place for tose who want to tell/respond with something more off-topic, without actually spamming, like this


----------



## kRaZeD (Dec 8, 2004)

no, its called spam


----------



## wazzledoozle (Dec 8, 2004)

kRaZeD said:
			
		

> no, its called spam


WHy are you on these forums if you have an Nvidia card?


----------



## 15th Warlock (Dec 8, 2004)

It shouldn't matter what kind of video card we have, as we we all are fellow overclockers


----------



## wazzledoozle (Dec 8, 2004)

yeah but its *ATI*tool so wouldnt he be able to get mroe help at nvidia focused forums?


----------



## kRaZeD (Dec 8, 2004)

im not here to ask for help about my video card, im here to help other people.

As to the question "WHy are you on these forums if you have an Nvidia card?" because i made a silly purchase. Was the cheapest and best thing i could get at the time.

Still overclocks like a bat out of hell 

390/700 Stock -> 530/930mhz  O yeah, thats with stock cooling!


----------



## wazzledoozle (Dec 8, 2004)

Is it 256 bit? How many pipes? Sorry I dont know much about Nvidia cards.


----------



## kRaZeD (Dec 8, 2004)

FX 5900 SE/XT
NV35
128mb DDR
256bit
4x2 pipes.

Overclocks to a card that retails at twice as much as what i paid for it. Uses the same core as the 5950Ultra. Which is how far it overclocks


----------



## Nergal (Dec 8, 2004)

put an 5950 bios in it, it's possible you'll even get it further with OC.


----------



## kRaZeD (Dec 8, 2004)

tryed that, but it does shit all to my overclocks, and it gets rid of TV-Out and reverts to 4x AGP (not that big a deal for the 4x AGP, but i like my TV-Out). I should try changing the device ID of a 5950 bios to a 5900XT. Should work hopefully.


----------

