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Softmodding and OC'ing a 9700np

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OwNjaH

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 15, 2004
Messages
152
hey guys, i finally decided to overclock an ATI Radeon 9700np that came with my Dell computer a couple of years ago.

the card seems to have the infineon 3.3ns memory. when i run ati tool it tells me the default speeds are 263/263. i already know the process of softmodding a card and overclocking it, but the problem is that im really having a hard time identifying the card and choosing the right bios.

my question: are there any particular bios files i should use? i was wondering if someone could point me to the bios file that will work best with the card i have.

thanks.
 
I'm not sure if the 9700np's dell used to sell were crippled, but if the card has 8 pipes and 256 bit mem there really isnt' a need to flash the bios. What I would do is pick up an ati silencer (not sure which model suppourts the 9700 series) and some ramskinks and just push the card as high as you can get it using ati tool to oc.
 
how do i go about finding out if the card is 8 pipes, 256bit? i tried overclocking with atitool and my comp would lock up, so im thinking the card is locked.

now, if the card isnt 8 pipes, can it still attempt to overclock it?
 
ATITool will tell you all the info about that card...I can overclock that card to 305core/270memory...But I have a Artic Cooler just begging to be put on that card....Need to find some good memory heatsinks....
 
what bioses did you use to oc the card? thats my main problem, i cant seem to be able to find a bios that fits my card. (from dell, built by ati, infineon 3.3ns mem)
 
I had a 9700np and I believe it had Infineon 3.3ns memory as well.

Mine was locked also. Even if you underclock with ATITool your video will crash. The fix for me was to download the Omega display drivers from www.omegacorner.com. This allowed me to overclock with the included Radlinker and maybe with ATITool as well, I forget.

From there I overclocked a little bit but later found out that the non pro cards had slightly different BIOS's than the pros which actually hindered the overclock. Not just to say it was a locked card, but the card wouldn't overclock as high for seemingly no reason. I googled a good thread on this awhile back but don't have the link anymore. Basically people found that if they flashed with a 9700 PRO BIOS they could overclock quite a bit higher, however this varied from card to card. Google a 9700 pro BIOS that you feel comfortable with or I think some np BIOS's might have been edited to remove the limitation.

After flashing my BIOS, adding a VGA silencer Rev. 3 and copper ramsinks I finally settled on 350mhz core 310mhz memory (277/270 stock). My memory would go up to 330 before going completely haywire and the core went up past 380 I think.

edit: I found that old thread. Very useful information. http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=33667164
 
RawsonDR said:
I had a 9700np and I believe it had Infineon 3.3ns memory as well.

Mine was locked also. Even if you underclock with ATITool your video will crash. The fix for me was to download the Omega display drivers from www.omegacorner.com. This allowed me to overclock with the included Radlinker and maybe with ATITool as well, I forget.

From there I overclocked a little bit but later found out that the non pro cards had slightly different BIOS's than the pros which actually hindered the overclock. Not just to say it was a locked card, but the card wouldn't overclock as high for seemingly no reason. I googled a good thread on this awhile back but don't have the link anymore. Basically people found that if they flashed with a 9700 PRO BIOS they could overclock quite a bit higher, however this varied from card to card. Google a 9700 pro BIOS that you feel comfortable with or I think some np BIOS's might have been edited to remove the limitation.

After flashing my BIOS, adding a VGA silencer Rev. 3 and copper ramsinks I finally settled on 350mhz core 310mhz memory (277/270 stock). My memory would go up to 330 before going completely haywire and the core went up past 380 I think.

edit: I found that old thread. Very useful information. http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=33667164
Click to expand...

thanks alot for the info man, cant wait to oc this card. ima do some more reaserch on the bioses, but i might end up going with some official pro bioses and start there.

edit: i tried the omegadrivers some time ago, but i probably didnt install em right or something because the drivers were all twichy, so i had to uninstall them. however, omegacorner has some 9700pro bioses that i might try out.
 
just so you know: softmodding != flashing your bios.
softmodding is running modified drivers to unlock pipes. The 9700np just suffers from clock speeds and sometimes (and in your case) memory that probably wont' hit those high clocks without a voltmod..
 
all 9700 series (there's only two anyway) has 8 pipes so dell one should have 8 pipes is well.

have u tried powerstrip? u can always flash the bios to unlock o/c. my 9500(@9700) even got performance boost(around 5%) after flashin it with 9800np bios.
 
Chaballaman said:
all 9700 series (there's only two anyway) has 8 pipes so dell one should have 8 pipes is well.

have u tried powerstrip? u can always flash the bios to unlock o/c. my 9500(@9700) even got performance boost(around 5%) after flashin it with 9800np bios.
Click to expand...

yep, im going to be flashing the card with 9700pro bioses from omegacorner. wish me luck!

anyone have any recommended speeds i should try to oc first to?
 
OwNjaH said:
yep, im going to be flashing the card with 9700pro bioses from omegacorner. wish me luck!

anyone have any recommended speeds i should try to oc first to?
Click to expand...
not really any speed you should expect to get, but a 330/310 should be your first shot
 
diredesire said:
not really any speed you should expect to get, but a 330/310 should be your first shot
Click to expand...


so is that the max the card ill oc to?
 
in my experience with 100% reliablility, yes. I have a 9500 Pro I used the warp 11 bios on 2 years ago and I have been running it at 330/310 for those 2 years. Anything higher than that and I would get tossed out of games back to desktop.

I also dumped the thermal pad under the stock cooler ( real garbage ) and used AS3 on it. Big difference. Before I did that, I could go 280 on the core and beyond that it would start to flake out.

I got to say that the 9500 Pro or a modded NP is IMHO probably one the the greatest bangs for your buck in computing in the last few years. For 200 bucks I've gotten years of great performance and the card is still good for the latest games as long as you dont go nutz with the AA/AF. Everything else I had from that time frame is old junk now except for that card.

It wont go much longer, and for Battlefield 2 is gonna wheeze, but the 9500 Pro was/is a great card in gaming and a bargain for what you got. :cool:
 
OwNjaH said:
so is that the max the card ill oc to?
Click to expand...
no... overclocking is subjective.. your max will be different from the majority of other peoples'. You're not guaranteed any speeds, but that is a good goal to reach... i was able to hit 415/330 with an identical card (sort of), mine was a 9500 n/p softmodded/voltmodded.
 
I have a similar card, an ATI branded 9800np that I softmodded to Pro but no volt mods. In my experience, you're going to have a tough time overclocking after you soft mod, as the main reason most cards are sold as non-pros is cause they didn't bin sort higher due to chip deficiencies. Not always true, but mostly. Good luck, let us know how it goes.
 
JasonLee said:
I have a similar card, an ATI branded 9800np that I softmodded to Pro but no volt mods. In my experience, you're going to have a tough time overclocking after you soft mod, as the main reason most cards are sold as non-pros is cause they didn't bin sort higher due to chip deficiencies. Not always true, but mostly. Good luck, let us know how it goes.
Click to expand...
agh.. it's not a softmod... just a bios flash...

and the reason sometimes they dont' o/c well is because some bioses will run settings you DON'T see (clocks are visible, but timings are not, etc).
 
OwNjaH said:
so is that the max the card ill oc to?
Click to expand...

My card is likely very, very similar to yours. And as I mentioned earlier I ran it at 350/310 normally and could even go higher than that if I wanted to. I did not do any volt mods, though. I did, however, add aftermarket cooling. So it's all a measure of how far you want to go. But I would set 330/310 as a very obtainable goal. With the 3.3ns Infineon chips, though, you will not see the higher clocks that others have.

If you do want to see the most you can get out of your card, I would definitely start with ramsinks. Even taking an old cheap aluminum heatsink and cutting it up into smaller pieces can be very beneficial - so long as the bottom is flat and its applied well. If you're confident with your cooling then a slight voltmod can definitely break barriers. Best to just start testing with it. Because of the simplicity of overclocking a video card in windows, you really can find a rough estimate of your limits in 5 minutes with ATITool. And then after some fine tuning you'll be ready to put it in the BIOS permanently.
 
diredesire said:
agh.. it's not a softmod... just a bios flash...

and the reason sometimes they dont' o/c well is because some bioses will run settings you DON'T see (clocks are visible, but timings are not, etc).
Click to expand...

A bios flash IS a softmod. Here is a rudimentary breakdown of the word 'softmod' since you don't seem to understand.

Soft - Software
Mod - Modification

Therefore, a bios (which is definitely software) update to a video card would modify it. Thus, a softmod. However, there are other softmods such as the omega softmod update, which modifies software. More information is here for the intellectually inclined:

http://www.overclock.net/overclock.php?file=articles/softmod-ATI-radeon-9800.htm
 
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