Will flashing 9800 to pro, last as long? or be as safe?

[Flav_cool]

Hi,

I am seriously considering buying the 9800 non-pro and flashing it to pro. However, it is extremely hard to find here, it's out of stock everywhere. I will find out if I am in luck tomorrow, but I have some questions

1. Will the card last as long? (I heard the memory on the non-pro is slower, so it will have to overclock, adding pressure)

2. If I flash it back, can the store tell it's been tampered with and take off the warranty?

[pinoy87]

if your worried about the added stress then why dont you flash it to pro then download powerstrip and underclock the ram and gpu to the non pro speeds.

[Flav_cool]

Why would I do that, the whole point is to get it up to PRO speed.

[pinoy87]

the difference between pro and non pro arent only the speeds.

[Flav_cool]

Still, I think I will do it. It doesn't add much more pressure does it? I think it'll be fine....Many people have done it.

Correct?

[pinoy87]

It should be able to handle it. Just make sure you have proper case cooling.

[Flav_cool]

The *video card* also has a fan itself, does it not? I'm building my first computer, and hopefully it will be tomorrow. The case has a fan in the back, and an air duct in front of the cpu. Should be good.

[Eladijaz]

Originally posted by pinoy87
the difference between pro and non pro arent only the speeds.

¿Qué?

Hi pinoy87,
Please enlighten us ... do you have a link?
The only difference that I am aware of is that the 9800pro may sometime use DDRII RAM (but the 9800 can also) ... and you certainly can't flash to upgrade that .
Maybe you are thinking of the 9700/9800. There is a difference between those two ...

Cheers,
Elad.

[tgxiii]

Yeah, if you go to ATi's product comparison page and compare the 9800 Pro 128 MB and 256MB with the non-Pro, you'll see that the only differences are the core and memory clocks. I didn't see any other differences....

[Sweeper]

If you are planning on taking your 9800 to 9800 Pro with a BIOS flash you "MUST HAVE SAMSUNG" memory chips on the card. If you do not have the Samsung (Preferable 2.8ns) chips, DO NOT FLASH THE CARD. You will most likely get a blank screen on boot. Just FYI.
Now if you do decide to flash and your board has another brand of memory say (Infinion 3.3ns) Please post your results. That's the only reason I have not done the MOD. The Infinion 3.3ns chips are rated to speeds around 324MHz Max where if your card has the Samsung 3.3, 3.0 or 2.8ns DDR memory modules you can reach as high as 350MHz or higher.

Before flashing make sure you have any ATI Radeon 9800 Non-Pro with Samsung 3.3, 3.0 or 2.8ns DDR memory modules.

Failing to do so will result in a damaged card.


Sweeper