turn a 9500 into a Firegl x1!

[GregHess]

Quick note: The 9500 to 9700 pro mod has a 30-40% failure rate.

Alot of people consider it a success, even if they have "artifacts".

http://www.overclockers.com/tips00272/

http://www.overclockers.com/tips00269/

You can also read more about the failures at...

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=154428

http://forums.2cpu.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=14

http://www.hardforums.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=3

Be very wary when performing any types of mods to hardware. My theory is...don't mod it, unless you can replace it.

As always many people succeed...I just like to point out failures as a warning.

[sumpm1]

most of the threads there were for hardware mods by soldering. I am talking about software only, no soldering the card

[sumpm1]

I forgot to mention that this mod will turn a 9700 into a X1

[CgFX]

Turning a 9500/9700 Pro into an X1 is somewhat pointless since a Quadro4 980 XGL beats it in realworld application perf and has a street price close to $500.

[singularity2006]

I get artifacts like MAD on my system when i do that kind of modification..... it's like a starfield overlay on my desktop... >.<

[loop29]

sumppm, the 30% failure rate happens to the softmod too. It´s caused by defective rendering pipelines which where dissabled on 9500 cards. Anyway, I would suggest for somebody wanna have Fire GL X1 trys to get a 9700 np for around 270 €/US. And CgFX, 270 is somewhat lower than 500 for a 980 XGL, on the other hand a 10% advantage is not that much, I would rather save these 230 €´s and have let´s say 10 or 20 beers. But I didn´t believe that the 980 XGL beats X1 in every application.

http://www.spec.org/gpc/apc.data/apc_proe2001_summary.html
In that application specific benchmark it doesn´t look to good for the 980 XGL.

http://www.amazoninternational.com/html/benchmarks/graphicCards/atiFireGLX1/atiFireGLX1.asp
And this doesn´t support your argument too.

http://www.spec.org/gpc/apc.data/specapc_3dsm42_summary.html
hmm, and if I read that right there is no advantage at all for the Quadro 980 XGL in 3dsmax 4.2, but maybe I do something wrong.

And you should consider that not everybody is able to get a 980 XGL from that store you mentioned. For example in Germany there is only one online shop that sells Quadro´s. www.alternate.de , take a look at their price and you will notice that we are slightly 2 years behind in pricing.

I can´t remember that a Quadro 900 XGL was at 1800 € anytime, even not when it was introduced. These guys must be crazzy.

regards

[sumpm1]

True, the 980 XGL has a very impressive showing against the X1. I believe that an X1 would do better in games than an 980 XGL, comparable to the 9700 vs the 4600 naturally.

The thing that I see is that X1 is a DirectX 9 card, so get a LOT more features for upcoming games and programability that could be implemented into graphics development.

Nvidia HAS got the #1 set of drivers though.... LOL, if ATI could hire Nvidia to program their cards, they could probably get more performance out of them. It has proved that the lack of performance in some areas is due to the lack of good drivers, since in a couple of categories the X1 was beaten by its predecessor the FireGl 8800! So IF ATI gets a good driver set going, they will have a real good card.


@loop29

I think you are right, you would be way better off going with a 9700 np and softmodding than risking failure. It seems that only 2 brand cards are pretty succesful in softmodding, the Sapphire, and Connect 3d. And some have still shown failure. Some neat little tidbits to know that it is possible to do. But for the $50 price difference between the 9500 and the 9700, which will decrease even further later on, it is hardly worth the risk.


But since most cards are not capable of modification, the brand that are nutorious for succesful modding will sell like hotcakes and then they will probably change their design(seeing as a stock 9500 straight from ATI lacks the capabilities for this mod) they will adopt a new reference design. I personally hope that all vendors take this strategy for a few more generations so we can all save a few bucks.

[loop29]

Hmm, let me tell you that there could only be driver protection against SoftFire mod, it should work with all 9700 NP/PRO to change to Fire GL X1. 9500 to 9700 depends on layout of the PCB. ATI is trapped now like nvidia was, cause they identify cards only by PCI device ID, there is nothing that can stop modification on recent boards and future ones, the only change can be made with the drivers, BUT that at least assumes that there is a difference in the GPU that can be detected by the driver (different registers), if that is not the case ATI is in trouble.

That was the main reason while softfire was introduced, to prove that 9700 GPU and Fire GL Z1/X1 GPU is totally identical.
It´s like you have 3 boxes with a window on them, when you look through it will say on the first box 9500, second 9700 and third Fire GL X1, the driver modification changes code like you put a paper on that window that on every box you can read Fire GL X1, that information is taken by windows to install specific drivers, whatever is in the box.

regards

[TimeLord]

Originally posted by CgFX
Turning a 9500/9700 Pro into an X1 is somewhat pointless since a Quadro4 980 XGL beats it in realworld application perf and has a street price close to $500.

POINTLESS ??? think before postin` bullshit.. my R9500 128MB NP for 150 buck is little slower than Quadro4 card for 500 bucks. Pointless ?
Oh.. of course.. my R9500 workin` as FireGL without artefacts.
results :
Run All Summary

---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 16.05

---------- SUM_RESULTS\DRV\SUMMARY.TXT
drv-08 Weighted Geometric Mean = 69.58

---------- SUM_RESULTS\DX\SUMMARY.TXT
dx-07 Weighted Geometric Mean = 74.29

---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
light-05 Weighted Geometric Mean = 23.87

---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT
proe-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 20.61

---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGS\SUMMARY.TXT
ugs-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 22.19

[loop29]

2 : 0 I would say CgFX ;)

[GregHess]

Time,

You run the quadro with maxtreme drivers? Can double to quadruple its scores in max.

Here's a quick look at differences with the Quadro DCC with its various driver solutions in 3dsmax 4.2.

http://www2.3dluvr.com/15/10/S15A10FIL52.jpg

You'll note the greatest change is in wireframe scores, which can almost triple.

And one last note...specviewperf is a decent guage, but do remember that all manufacturers have access to it...which means many drivers are specifically optimized for higher spec scores. Doesn't mean the card is actually faster, just reports so in the benchmark. I recommend before throwing out your quadro, that you run it through some of discreet's max benchmarks and compare scores within the app directly. You may be very surprised.

[loop29]

Yeah Greg, I hope everyone realized that by now that Spec is not the best tool to prove application performance. But for plane OpenGL you can´t deny it´s the better bang for the bucket to go with an ATI FireGL X1 softmod from 9700 for 270 €.


regards

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