Radeon 9800 Pro recognized as 9800XT

[Slade54]

I just this past week bought an MSI ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and when i installed it into my comp, windows XP is reporting it as an 9800 XT

If i were to flash it the XT BIOS, and it didnt work properly, would my card be dead, or could i flash it back?

[sm8000]

Does any other software call it an XT? Maybe you got lucky.

[iceblue]

Was it an open box or refurb? You might have gotten a flashed return.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

A number of 9800Pro's that are shipping at present are in fact R360 core 9800XT's that have been underclocked, indeed in some cases they havent even been underclocked.

Even if it were an R360 9800Pro there isnt much point in flashign to an XT BIOS on, as the same effect can be had simply by overclockign the card.

What are your current clock speeds? Try overclocking to XT level (if your nto there already) and see if it holds stable, if you can go on furthur still, you may find you've got one of these "rebadged" XT's disguised as a Pro.

--Jakk:t

[Slade54]

Windows was the first thing to report it as an XT, so i got curious, and d/l ATITool, and did a BIOS dump, and that reports it as the R360 core.

I bought it retail off of newegg here (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-127-127&depa=0)

Ill try overclocking it and see what happens.

I just want to flash the BIOS so everything between the driver and what its being reported as matches up, its annoying to see XT and Pro everywhere.

[MidniteOwlLV]

I also bought the MSI Video card (From NewEgg)and it says that it is an ATI 9800 XT. This was a Retail Box so I am sure that it was not a refurb. Someone mentioned an "ATI Tool" what is that and how can I get it (or do I have it already, but just don't know :P)

MidniteOwlLV

[Yoshi]

All MSI 9800 Pros are just clocked down 9800 XTs

[BadDriver]

I have the same card. Awesome card for $195. It is indeed an XT core. Mine will easily OC to 450 core and 385 on the memory side.
If you want to do the memory x 2 stuff everybody does I get 770 on the memory with no artifacts. The card goes up in price today at 4 pm Cali time so if you want a good card with an excellent software package on the cheap. Get it now.
Just to make on thing clear. I DO NOT run my card at the mentioned speeds even though it can do it. I do that for benching only. 6730 3dmark03 with this old rig. Kicking card cause the rest of my machine is a little behind the times. 2400+ and a gig of 2700 ram.
Don't flash your bios man. Use radlinker and OC it with that. A bad flash and you are S.O.L.

[Slade54]

Yoshi, can you link to where you read that? See if i can gleam more info from it.

And as for ATITool, just search it on yahoo, and d/l it. Somewhere in the program (cant remember where off the top of my head) there is an option to do a BIOS Dump. Dont worry, it doesnt actually do anything other then create a text document that contains the BIOS (it sticks the txt file in the programs folder, default program files/ atitools). Its all in gobeldegock so dont worry bout being actually able to read it. Just fire up the find function and search for 'R360' and if it finds a match, its an XT core! If it doesnt find that, search for 'R350'. thas a Pro core.

And hey, Baddriver, what BIOS did you use? as youve already done it, i know its a safe BIOS, lol. Im kinda paraniod as to weather itll work or not as i can just dish out 200bucks very often. It was hard enough pressing the purchase button the first time through.

[BadDriver]

http://www.overclockers.co.nz/ocnz/review.php?id=04vga00r9800promsi00000r9800pro0105
Do Not flash the bios. There is no advantage to it at all. I edited my above post. Use radlinker.
I run at 412 and 365 on boot with radlinker. Radlinker rules. Use ATI tool to find your sweet spot and then back off a bit under that.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Originally posted by Slade54
Yoshi, can you link to where you read that? See if i can gleam more info from it.


Dont know about MSI cards specifically, but heres some info on Sapphire selling rebadged XT's as Pro's

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33762838&page=1

--Jakk:t

[BadDriver]

OK, I got gutsy today and flashed the card. Well not really gutsy as I was given a machine with a pci card just in case. If something went wrong I wouldn't get stuck doing a blind flash to get my card back, POS card in the free machine but it would serve the purpose if things went wrong.:)

Now, I am new around here and really don't post that much so if any of you try this and it goes bad for you it ain't my fault. Remember that! Here is a link to the bios.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33762838&highlight=9800pro

It does open up some features on the card, and NFSU is nothing played at its highest with no OC'ing at all. You get a higher default core and memory, and things are just smoother all the way around. I don't know what else it opens up but it helps other than the default rates on memory and core. It turns the card to a TRUE XT. Good luck to any who try it. It worked for me.:D

[Yoshi]

Originally posted by Slade54
Yoshi, can you link to where you read that? See if i can gleam more info from it.

.

http://secure.newegg.com/app/CustratingReview.asp?DEPA=0&item=14-127-127

Just check out what people are saying about it:t

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Theres no point doing the flash for anyone who already has an R9800 Pro as the only difference is in the clockspeeds, somethign that can be levelled up by software alone.

The only people for whom the XT flash is really worth while is for those of us with 9800NP's who want to mod up to XT, as overclocking alone wont work for us.

--Jakk:t

[BadDriver]

Originally posted by Bigjakkstaffa
Theres no point doing the flash for anyone who already has an R9800 Pro as the only difference is in the clockspeeds, somethign that can be levelled up by software alone.

The only people for whom the XT flash is really worth while is for those of us with 9800NP's who want to mod up to XT, as overclocking alone wont work for us.

--Jakk:t

Agreed, the card is NO better than it was stock other than the higher default speeds .

[zybch]

MSI released a card based on the R360 and called it the Radeon XL or XXL.
I got one of these and it overclocks to 9800XT+ speeds (I use Rage 3D for overclocking).
However I never get any programs calling it a 9800pro, they all see it as an XT.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

If i recall correctly, werent these MSI cards in-fact fully fledged 9800XT's, simply rebadged, rather than actually being R360 based 9800 Pro's?

I know there have been a batch of Sapphire cards (i think it was) recently which were basically the same, underclocked XT's badged as Pro's

--Jakk:t

[BadDriver]

Mine reports as an XT with or without the bios flash BigJak. I flashed it back to its original bios and I am not going to mess with it anymore other than to clock it to 412 and 730 with radlinker on boot. This card will run 450 core 770 mem without a problem. I do that when benching it but for everyday use it just isn't necessary. I figure why push it ?

[forgiveforget]

do you (can you) run this MSI card at XT speeds with the stock heatsink? or is an upgrade needed?

[BadDriver]

LOL, Have you seen the heatsink on this puppy? Yes you can run it OC'd with the "stock" sink.

http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=14-127-127-07.jpg/14-127-127-12.JPG/14-127-127-08.JPG/14-127-127-09.JPG/14-127-127-10.jpg/14-127-127-11.JPG

[forgiveforget]

heh, yea i saw it (i ordered one!) just wasnt sure if it was up to snuff. thanks!:t

[BadDriver]

You gonna love the card. Don't flash it. I did and went straight back to the original bios. I am just glad I backed up the stock one.

[BadDriver]

Man, I have really done it now. I have run the card at 412 and 730 so much that when I take it down to its defaults it just isn't the same. Now for the question.
Since this thing will run at 450 and 770 with no artifacts am I going to hurt it running it at XT speeds all the time? I don't mean full bore but 412 and 730.

[Bav4]

I would like to add to add to this discusion that there is a good reason to flash the bios of a 9800 pro with an r360 core to an xt as this allows a higher overclock potential, as well as the activation of overdrive and a temperature monitor. The ram on my 9800 pro would previously only overclock to 375 mhz before any serious artifacts would occour. after the flash, the ram would go up to 391.5mhz without causing any artifacts, and I now run the card at 450mhz clock, 400mhz ram. I installed ramsinks and an arctic vga exhaust AFTER carrying out this test to reduce the chance of any damage occouring to the card and its worked fine at these speeds for 5 months. I think the flash increases the voltage supplied to the ram chips.

[BadDriver]

Originally posted by Bav4
I would like to add to add to this discusion that there is a good reason to flash the bios of a 9800 pro with an r360 core to an xt as this allows a higher overclock potential, as well as the activation of overdrive and a temperature monitor. The ram on my 9800 pro would previously only overclock to 375 mhz before any serious artifacts would occour. after the flash, the ram would go up to 391.5mhz without causing any artifacts, and I now run the card at 450mhz clock, 400mhz ram. I installed ramsinks and an arctic vga exhaust AFTER carrying out this test to reduce the chance of any damage occouring to the card and its worked fine at these speeds for 5 months. I think the flash increases the voltage supplied to the ram chips.

You had a pro bios, the rx9800 has a declocked XT bios. No use in flashing an XT bios to an XT bios is there?