9800 non-SE to 9800 Pro

[Rand Dusing]

Does anyone know where I can get some softmod software for turning my 9800 non-SE to a 9800 Pro. I have a BBA 9800 non-SE non-Pro BTW. Is this the one with the good memory? There is 3.3 and 2.8 right?

[joker_927]

ATI RADEON 9800NP>9800PRO BY FLASHING GUIDE - Courtesy of SaturnTR

I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGED HARDWARE DURING THIS GUIDE

As you all may know, the Radeon 9800 Non Pro and the Radeon 9800 Pro as both the same cards, but the Radeon 9800NP has a lower core clock, and slower memory clocks. Hopefully this guide will help you get the most from your Radeon 9800NP card.

First, you will need a bootdisk that will get you to a DOS prompt. I recommend http://www.bootdisk.com if you don't already have a bootdisk.

Secondly, you will need a copy of the Radeon 9800Pro BIOS, which can be located here: http://www.digitalsynapses.com/9800mod/98-8004.BIN

Now you will need a BIOS flashing utility for your card, which can be located right here: http://www.digitalsynapses.com/9800mod/flashrom/

Now that you have everything you need, move the Radeon 9800Pro BIOS (98-8004.BIN) to the bootdisk, and also move flashrom files to the bootdisk.

Okay, now you have the disk containing everything you need to flash your Radeon 9800NP into a 9800Pro.

Before you flash, check to see what brand of memory is on your card. Unless you have Samsung 2.2ns, 2.8ns, 3.0ns, or 3.3ns do not flash. If you have any of the above Samsung memory and your cards memory tops at say 330MHz, you should be OK to flash, as the 9800Pro BIOS slightly raises the voltage going to the memory, allowing for higher clocks.

Now that we've passed that little hurdle, we can now prepare to flash. First, reboot your computer with the floppy disk inside of your drive. This should bring you to an A: prompt...Once you get to an A: prompt type:

flashrom -s 0 original.bin

Your original BIOS is now saved to the floppy, and you are ready to flash.

Now type this once your BIOS is saved:

flashrom -p 0 98-8004.BIN

(Important: The Char. Above is a zero, not an "o")


Once you have completed this, you should have received a message saying BIOS flash was successful. Reboot your PC, and it should take you into WindowsXP, or whatever OS you are using and detect your card as a Radeon 9800Pro.

If your memory was not able to handle this flash, simple place a PCI video card in beside your Radeon 9800, and proceed to flashing to the original BIOS that is on your floppy disk. If you don't have a PCI video card you can possibly try flashing blind, which means you will flash to original BIOS with no screen display.

I hope my guide has helped you push your Radeon 9800NP even further. My OC on original NP bios was 479/357, and after flashing I obtained 479/425 absolutely stable. Your results will vary depending on how well your card OCs.

Remember, if you screw up your card, YOU screwed it up, not me. I simply provided the needed steps and software for flashing your card. I am not a repairman.

Have fun guys!

[joker_927]

Here is the link: http://discuss.futuremark.com/forum/...=5&o=0&fpart=1

[Rand Dusing]

Joker, do you have a BBA Radeon 9800? And will this affect the warranty? I'll try it tomorrow before I ship of my free Half-Life 2 and UPC so I can take it back. ONly been 1 week.

[joker_927]

Lol. Oh man I have to laugh after that question. Sorry.

No, I bought a plain ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. The non-pro was to hard to find. I have not flashed ANY video card bios before. This is the tutorial oh how people are doing it.

Of course it will void your warranty; you're basically giving your GPU a brain transplant. The + side, is that if I doesn't work, you can usually flash it back to the old bios, or if all else fails, you can return it with no bios. What I'm getting at is that you can usually make it so they can't tell you did anything to it.

I think the 9800 NP -> 9800 PRo had a 95% success ratio. I would gamble on those odds anyday. Now the 9500 pro -> 9700 Pro has a 65% success rate..... hmmmmm That is why I just bought a 9800.

[Rand Dusing]

Uggh, can you do this with a burnt cd? I took out my floppy

[Rand Dusing]

Does the BBA 9800 come with 2.8 or 3.3ns I'm pretty sure it's one of those. I guess I will do this tomorrow, better get back to my studies.

[darrelld]

The only difference between the two are clock speeds, it would be much easier and safer to use an overclocker such as rad clocker.

[joker_927]

Actaully when you falsh the bios, it increases the voltages to the core and memory. So maybe you could only barely get to 9800 pro speeds before, but now those speeds are default, and you can overclcok a lot higher.

And yes, you can flash it using a bootable CD, just use nero. I used to flash my cd-rw's with CDs.

[Sweeper]

Before you flash, check to see what brand of memory is on your card. Unless you have Samsung 2.2ns, 2.8ns, 3.0ns, or 3.3ns do not flash. If you have any of the above Samsung memory and your cards memory tops at say 330MHz, you should be OK to flash, as the 9800Pro BIOS slightly raises the voltage going to the memory, allowing for higher clocks.

Ok, so they are saying you must have Samsung memory on the card. My ATI 9800 NP has Infinion 3.0ns. I am assuming this means DON'T TRY IT. The best I have been able to achieve on the memory is 325 before artifacts start appearing and or the screen basically freaks out. Now the core has been up to 430 easy.

I never tried it because of that quote referring to the SAMSUNG memory.....