X800 GTO² to X850 XT BIOS Mod

[Ruthless]

Bought Sapphire X800 GTO² from ebuyer.com 2 days ago, went to do flash this today only to discover is was already running 16 pipelines. Did some test's to confirm my finding and running 3dMark05 i get a score of 4990 which confirms my 16 pipelines out of box, so now just overclocking to do. Also it has the R430 chip not R480, Thought id report my findings as this was a surprise to me.

 

[ShadowFlare]

Dumb questions here.

Using the modified flash utility should i flash back the original bios?
1- flashrom -f -p 0 BIOS16.bin to get 4 pipes
2- flashrom -f -p 0 OLD.bin dont know why should i do that.... will it reduce my pipes?

Is this correct? If i flash back how can i keep the 16 pipes?

Cheers

To do that you have to use something other than the modified flashrom utility, like the regular flashrom version or atiflash.

The thing is, in Wizzard's article, he says to click "here" to more instructions but there is just Atiflash instructions.... i didnt find any instructions to do that with the another flash thing.
Do i need to flash back the old bios? Why?

Please Shadow, can you post the commands to do it with the modified flash utility.

Many thanks to you and Megatron.

cheers

What I was referring to is that for the steps you mentioned, you would use the modified flashrom for flashing to a 16 pipeline bios, as you mentioned. However, when flashing back to your old bios, if you want to keep the pipelines you must not use the modified flashrom. That's the part that I was saying to use the regular flashrom for.

 

[Sasqui]

VIVO Feature with Connect3D GTO???

Ok, I've got 16pipes on A C3D X800 GTO, 550/540 - everything is working fine, but I cannot figure out how to go about capturing video using this card. Is there supposed to be software included in the retail bundle? (which I have)...

Anyone actually tried capturing video with the Connect3D X800 GTO? I know, who cares... it's all about 16 pipelines and getting XT PE speeds

 

[RatusNatus]

if you want to keep the pipelines you must not use the modified flashrom. That's the part that I was saying to use the regular flashrom for.

Humm, well, i saw somewhere in this treat, someone telling to flash back to the original bios cus there are some fan problems with the modded bios.
Is there any reason to flash back to the original bios?

I'm asking this cuz I'v made a small tuto in portuguese and this questions will show up soon.
http://www.forumpcs.com.br/viewtopic.php?t=141318&start=0

Sorry, my english is very poor.
cheers

 

[enigmaxp]

Regarding the fan questions, I did some research in the past and found out that when overclocked, the voltage sent to the fan to control how fast it is running is sporradic and unstable. I've heard of a couple people have their artic cooling 5 coolers die this way with the mod. The solution provided by Artic Cooling was to get power from the fan directly from the power supply unit rather than onbard your 800GTO2. I'm not sure if this happens only because of the mod or if it affects all GTO2 Units.

You can do this by following the directions

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=61&data=6&disc=

The actual way I used was to take the power plug from a case fan which had a 3pin to molex connection adapter. I connected the corresponding artic silencer connector to the 3pin side and plugged the molex into a connector from the power supply. no cutting required! Hope this helps somebody.

Oh yeah, as for the clock speeds...everyone's cores is different...hence the reason why they didnt make it as production chips for x850xt and x850xt pe's. Like everyone else is saying, its truly the luck of the draw. I was able to get mine only to 520 for the core, but have no problems pushing my memory clock speed 600 and beyond.

 

[RatusNatus]

Regarding the fan questions,

Well, i saw here somewhere that people with the cooler connected directly to a PSU(AC) cant use an specific bios(850XT i think) and people with a cooler connected to the VGA(Zalman) has no problem.
I cant find it anymore. I tryed.
Maybe Shadowflare can tell us more.

Iv find my max OC here. My C3D GTO locked made 5250 with 535 core and 535 mem with no errors.
Is there a reason to both core and mem reach the same number? I dont care anyway...

cheers

 

[Teh Gimp]

I have a Sapphire X800 GTO². For OC'ing I can get stable 585 core/625 mem but I run it at 580 core/620 mem to include possible margin of error. I run stable with stock cooler for hours on end, no lock ups. Temps with stock cooler in my system are at 71-75C GPU load, 40-45C GPU idle. I just tried to unlock my pipes following the article here, and in DOS when I go to start the flashrom program and I type "A:\>flashrom" I get a message "error trying to read flashrom.rom". I made sure I included all the flashrom files that I got from the d/l link. Any ideas? This is my first run, I'm going to re-download everything and try a new CD burn and I'll see if the situation changes.

 

[VTwedge]

i have my c3d gto at 520/520 and i score around 6100. i can push it to 520/580 and still be stable. thats over x800xt pe speeds! i wonder why it never made it as an x8--xt pe in the firtst place. oh and am using an AC silencer 5 rev 2 idle temp is 33-35 and max in ati tool is around 55any ideas why this wasn't picked up as an x800xt pe? posted my scores below

 

[Sasqui]

Moddable Connect3D X800 Core Picture

OK, here's mine 16 PIPE 570/560, bare Connect3D X800 core:

Picture of Koolance GPU cooler (the MEM coolers were cut to accomdate the stock cooler):

Comments and flames welcome.

 

[infrared]

Yeah, i was gonna fit ramsinks to my x800xl before i realised the stock hsf overlapped the 4 ram chips on the front, so kinda left it. Getting the AC ATI Silencer for mine, which should be interesting.

 

[Sasqui]

Yeah, i was gonna fit ramsinks to my x800xl before i realised the stock hsf overlapped the 4 ram chips on the front, so kinda left it. Getting the AC ATI Silencer for mine, which should be interesting.

I used a vise to gently hold the ram chips and a dremel cutoff wheel to chop off the neccessary HS fins. The only problem is that the thermal adhesive on these is some clear 3M stuff that resembles rubber cement and started to melt as I was cutting, so I'm not sure if I compromised the interface material - the modified chips "wiggle" with a slight force, while the others on the opposite side don't seem to.

I did this this for two reasons, one to test the memory speed with the stock HS and second, so I could put the stock HS back on if needed.

I did see an improvement for sure - I was at 546 before adding the ram sinks, now at 560!

 

[poo417]

Hi, My brother has just got the connect 3d GTO from overclockers.co.uk. Looking at the info in ATI tool it is modable, all F's in the right place. I will give it a try when I see him next and see how it goes. What can go wrong with this flash? Is it just the same as a normal flash?

Poo

 

[infrared]

As long as you flash the correct bios, its usually perfectly ok, just like a normal flash like you said! If it does go wrong, and you end up with a blank screen, it's easy to Blind Flash, since there is only 1 short command you'll need to type in to recover the old bios! Just make sure you backup the original bios before flashing! ATITool has this option in the misc section.

Good luck!

 

[Sasqui]

Hi, My brother has just got the connect 3d GTO from overclockers.co.uk. Looking at the info in ATI tool it is modable, all F's in the right place. I will give it a try when I see him next and see how it goes. What can go wrong with this flash? Is it just the same as a normal flash?

Poo

Ditto to Infared - Plus I keep a Old Matrox PCI card handy just in case. It saved my ass when I flashed an MSI RX9800 with the wrong BIOS - thankfully I made a backup of the original and got it working fine again in a few minutes, then I finally hunted down the correct BIOS, which wasn't easy to find.

Good luck - make sure to do benchmarks before and after!

 

[Sasqui]

Iv find my max OC here. My C3D GTO locked made 5250 with 535 core and 535 mem with no errors.
Is there a reason to both core and mem reach the same number? I dont care anyway...

cheers

No, but there is some divider or delta that keeps the latency Between the Mem and CPU in some sort of optimal syncronization - there's options in ATI Tool for it.

 

[hankvb]

I just flashed the bios of a dual DVI card and lost the second DVI output. VGA still works on the second DVI with the VGA adapter. I need the ORIGINAL Bios to reset card. Can anybody help? Send bios for a Sapphire PCIe Dual DVI card to jerrytr@bellsouth.net. I'll investate farther an see if there was an accident in flashing. This is the first Dual DVI card I flashed, the others were DVI/AGP

 

[VTwedge]

update on scores

set the memory command rate to 1T and the scores jumped up along with increased bandwidth
heres the new scores:3dmark05:6208 i included the escell file below and a new pic of my aquamark score. card is c3dgto modded to 16pipes running 520/520

 

[nspot]

Hi. I just had a quick question about the PowerColor X800GTO. Is it able to be flash modded to an X850XT like the Connect3D or the Sapphire models? It uses the R430 core. I'm not sure about the fuses on it. I haven't purchased it yet, but it's on sale at newegg for cheap. Thanks in advance for any help.

- nspot

 

[infrared]

No, the R430 core is way too slow. Though i'm gonna try to flash mine into a X800XT soon. It should be able to handle the speeds with the new cooler, and if not, i'll modify the bios to have lower clocks. The powercolor x800xtos are usually locked at 12PP though. Your best bet would be to go for the sapphire x800 gto2 with the R480 chip. They basically ARE the X850XT's.

 

[millyons]

well there is the powercolor x800gto 16 witch comes, and is advertised as 16 pipes but its still 430, so low clocks

 

[RobTheGob]

Anyone actually tried capturing video with the Connect3D X800 GTO? I know, who cares... it's all about 16 pipelines and getting XT PE speeds

I was able to caputure video just fine with my C3D X800 GTO, using ATI Multimedia Center...

 

[Rodster]

Hi everyone great forum. Maybe someone here with a little more knowledge than me can help me out. I followed the instructions on the GTO2 mod to a tee. I'm getting what a previous poster was getting which is Error : OFLO1

I typed the command: flashrom.exe -p 0 sapphi~1.bin

The follwing message appears:

Serial Rom
BIOS Device ID = 0x5D4F
ASIC DEvice ID = 0x5D4F
Existing SSID = 0x1600
New SSID - 0x0302

SSID does not match BIOS file "sapphi~1.bin" SSID !
use '-f' to force flashing
Error OFLO1 'press '1' to continue

So next I tried flashrom.exe -f 0 sapphi~1.bin and it accessed my floppy drive no screen messages and then I got the A:\ prompt. I tried it another way flashrom.exe -f sapphi~1.bin and same thing.

I booted into Windows XP brought up ATitools, held down shift key, clicked on settings and I still see 12 pipelines. Based on the mod instructions and the info in ATItools my card is modiable. Or is it?

Is there something i'm doing wrong by chance? Any help would be greatly appreciated !

Thanks

 

[infrared]

lol... it's flashrom.exe -p -f 0 [bios name].bin

You've got to keep the -p there!

 

[Rodster]

lol... it's flashrom.exe -p -f 0 [bios name].bin

You've got to keep the -p there!

Thanks bro, you're right lol. I found my answer on another thread. Somebody else did exactly what I was doing and he was corrected as well. I read to type flashrom.exe -f -p 0 xxx.bin, I heard the chimes after it was done. I went back to Windows and 16 pipes and my card now reads X800/X850

I couldn't be happier and thanks for the reply IFR !

 

[infrared]

Congratulations man! Glad it worked for ya!