Price VGA card upscale general, never go down even though the technology and newer cards have appeared on the market. What then happens is that these top-class card disappear from the market because its production is stopped. Looking for cards used in the hope that can get it at a low price is almost impossible because the price is still expensive.
One answer to the question above is overclocking. This is possible because the upper-class VGA cards have a variant which is sold at relatively cheaper and affordable. With a little trick to overclocking, these variants can be modified so that their performance VGA card to match the upscale high-priced.
This paper attempts to provide guidance about overclocking chipset VGA card ATI Radeon 9800 SE is the series that will be modified into a Radeon 9800 Pro. Radeon 9800 SE is intended as a cheaper variant of the Radeon 9800 Pro. Modifications performed by specific software that is not at risk of card and does not eliminate the warranty.
The success rate is quite high card modding. From 5 pieces of sample output Radeon 9800 SE is the author manufacturer PowerColor trials, 2 of which can be modified to the Radeon 9800 Pro to perfection. 3 others while also successfully modified, but when tested with 3DMark03 build 340, resulting in less checkerboard (squares resembling a chess board appears on the screen) so that the modification was considered a failure. When testing, the PC devices in use are:
AMD AthlonXP (Barton) 2500 + @ 3200 +
Abit NF7 v2.0
LLPT Corsair PC-3200 2 x 256 MB, timing 11-2-2-2
PowerColor Radeon 9800 SE 256-bits 128 MB RAM
Enlight 340 Watt
Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP 1
DirectX 9.0b
3DMark03 build 340 test results on the Radeon 9800 SE which has been modified to the 9800 Pro has
increased nearly 50%.
Early Introduction
Before making modifications we should know in advance the two cards are the Radeon 9800 SE and Radeon 9800/Pro. The first time you need to know that the variant Radeon 9800, Radeon 9800 Pro and Radeon 9800 SE using this type of chip or the same core of ATI's R350. Comparison and third variant cards can be seen in the following table.
Radeon 9800 SE
This card is the economic version of the Radeon 9800/Pro where the Radeon 9800 and Radeon 9800 Pro has 8 pixel pipelines while the Radeon 9800 SE active though also has a number of pipelines 8 but only 4 active, 4 other pipelines disabled by ATI. The four pipelines that are not active which is the specificity and attractiveness of the SE version.
There are 2 models of Radeon 9800 SE. The first model with 256-bit memory architecture of an L-shaped layout of memory chips (L-shape). The second model has a 128-bit memory architecture which shaped memory configuration I (I-shape). Both models can be modified into a Radeon 9800 Pro, but the performance and ease of modification of the model 256-bit better than the model 128-bit. Thus, although the VGA card used here is a model of artificial PowerColor 256-bit, but soft modding methods described here also applies to the Radeon 9800 SE cards from other manufacturers, including a 128-bit memory architecture.
Why Can Be Pro SE?
Not all cards are Radeon 9800 SE on the market can be successfully modified to the Radeon 9800 Pro. Card is how and why in fact this can be modified SE card? As is known R350 core used in the 9800 SE and 9800 Pro manufactured by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.. - Red). So, why have 2 variants circulating namely R350 R350 and R350 with 8 pipelines with 4 pipelines, while TSMC only make 1 type of R350 core with 8 pipelines?
Not all the R350 core manufacturing processes went perfect. Imperfection is caused by several factors such as stress can make a number of chips on each wafer is not functioning normally. But discard chips that are not perfect is certainly harmful.
ATI chose to continue to use and enable the side which is still good, while the damaged pipelines disabled. Card with 4 pipelines chip is sold as a Radeon 9800 SE. Such chips can not be modified because pipelinesnya obvious physical defects. Any attempt to activate the disabled pipelines that will produce artifacts that are visually damaging.
Further development
The longer the making of R350 by TSMC more perfect because it has undergone many improvements compared to when it was first launched. That is, the latest chips are mounted on the Radeon 9800 SE is actually the chips are not defective at all pipelinesnya. So, if the latest R350 core has a lot of physically perfect why are still sold as a 9800 SE, should not it for the 9800 Pro?
However ATI could not resist the power and market demands. If demand for the 9800 SE card fixed or higher then ATI could not help but remark and was forced to sell the R350 chip is perfect as a 9800 SE with how to disable the four pipelines that actually works well. The chip is already diremark physically no different at all with the R350 chip for the 9800 Pro. Radeon 9800 SE with a chip like this is very easily modified to the 9800 Pro because 4 pipelines are already in the switch can be reactivated without generating artifact and checkerboard.
Thus there are 3 types of cores used R350 SE 9800. The first type is the kind of perfect. 9800 SE using this core can be modified to the 9800 Pro completely without problems. Second is the kind that can be modified to the 9800 Pro but not perfect because it produces artifacts or checkerboard. This is caused by one or several pipelines that enabled suffered permanent damage. Third is a type of R350 completely can not be modified because one or a few pipelines disabled suffered permanent physical damage. Cards that use the core of this type will not be able to function if pipelinesnya which tries to enable disabled. A little note for the R350, this core is not possible to run with 5.6 or 7 pipelines. Core This only works with 4 or 8 active pipelines only.
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| Image above is a VGA Radeon 9800 SE and the bottom is the Radeon 9800 Pro from the same manufacturer. Two cards are identical from the outside only differentiated by color heatsinknya. | | | | | | | |
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| Zalman ZM-80C with fan optional ZP-0, coolant used in modding 9800 SE to 9800 Pro |
Cooling System
Before doing the modding, it is recommended to first change the default HSF 9800 cards are the same as those used Radeon 9700 Pro which uses the R300 core, which is used because R350 Radeon 9800 SE has more transistors that make it more heat than the R300. Modding by starting the four pipelines will certainly make it hot again. It is also advisable to install ramsink in his memory. The heat that is not addressed properly will make the card performance was not optimal.
Before installing the new HSF, apply a quality thermal paste on the R350 core. Please note, thermal paste should be thick enough as there are retentions around a core that is also quite thick. Retentions serves as a protective core of a large heatsink pressure....
Warranty Issues
SoftMod Radeon 9800 SE will not remove or damage any warranty because it is not done physically. If after SoftMod card is not working then only need to restore it to its original state with the standard drivers ..
Problems replacing a cooling system as mentioned above will also not be a problem because the label is not affixed to the warranty usually HSF. If the release of HSF done carefully so everything will be good.
Tools SoftMod
SoftMod 9800 SE to 9800 Pro can be done in 2 ways. First by using the official drivers from ATI Catalyst which is then patched. The patch used here is developed by OCFaq. Once installed, this patch will modify the driver Radeon 9800 SE to 9800 Pro to activate all (8) pipelinesnya. Patches can be selected from this OCFaq in http://softmod.ocfaq.com/download.php
SoftMod second way is to use a driver that is developed by Omega. Omega Catalyst drivers are drivers that have been modified and tweaked to improve performance and image quality in this case, of course, modify the 9800 SE to 9800 Pro to activate the 8th pipelinesnya. Omega drivers used here are the Omega Drivers for Windows 2K-XP version 2.5.58. This version of the drivers and other software used here can be downloaded at the site www.omegacorner.com.
The first and second mode can be selected depending on the desire. As a suggestion, it's good to try both of the above to obtain the best performance of the card that was in modding, because both of the above after tested gave a different outcome scores although the difference is not great. Other tools needed for the testing are ATITool and software 3DMark03 build 340.
9800 SE SoftMod
After the cards are Radeon 9800 SE is ready and installed in an AGP slot, plug the power 4 pin Molex connector and then on the PC. If earlier there are other good VGA driver Catalyst drivers even then you should uninstall it in advance from the system until they are clean. Then install the Omega Driver. Simply click 2 times the file icon to start the installation process. Will appear a screen like below, then click Next.
Click Next again until the following screen appear. In this section, click the third option "Soft-Mod 9800SE Omega Drivers" and click Next.
When the screen below appears watch carefully. In this section you will find 3 options regarding the additional utility of the Omega Driver. ATItools and RadLinker should be installed for testing after SoftMod and is required if you want to overclock beyond 9800 SE that has been in-modding, is Multires not very important and can be ignored. Click next after that to go to the next screen.
When all that is required for the installation process is complete it will display a confirmation like the screen below. Click Next.
This will bring up pop-ups to ensure the installation process once again. Click Yes.
When the confirmation screen WHQL-certified as below appears, ignore it and click Continue Anyway.
After the installation is complete, the installer will ask to restart the computer. Click Finish and let the computer restart.
After reboot, the Radeon 9800 SE has functioned like the Radeon 9800 Pro, it's easy right?
Card Testing Results SoftMod
After the above process is complete, run the software ATITool to see the success of this SoftMod process. Click the Settings button to display the screen below.
Consider the Active Pipelinesnya, the picture on the left before SoftMod (4) and right images after SoftMod (8).
Then after a successful switch 8 pipelinesnya, run 3Dmark03 Build 340 software to see if modding perfect or produce artifacts or checkerboard. If both are not met then SoftMod done otherwise finished with excellent results.
Success and Failure
1. After installing the Omega drivers the computer can not boot back into Windows. If this happens then the possibility of these cards use a core that can not be modified, because of the damaged some pipelines that are not enabled. This damage was not visible from outside the physical. If this happens then uninstall the Omega drivers earlier and return to the standard Catalyst drivers.
2. SoftMod successfully but when tested with 3Dmark03 or game demos contained artifacts or checkerboard. If this happens then most likely one or more pipelines suffered minor damage. Leave this card and the other test. Notice the two pictures below to see what works and what SoftMod cause checkerboard.
Image above is a screenshot for a successful modification process. While the picture below is a screenshot of the modification process is not perfect due to the inability of cards. See who shaped checkerboard chessboard on the right.
3. SoftMod successful and everything went well after tested with the software mentioned above.
Still Can Be Improved
Card Radeon 9800 SE which has been successfully disoftmod to the Radeon 9800 Pro still can be improved by increasing performance with core speed and memory speed is to use software or ATITools RadLinker above. Even if you are lucky, core speed and memory speed to match the Radeon 9800 XT (412/365), whose price is well above the Radeon 9800 Pro. If you wish so, try to increase little by little and test their ability gradually.
Conclusion
When you have VGA card Radeon 9800 SE or plan to buy it then you can tweak it to 9800 Pro. For those who already have it there is no assurance that SoftMod will work perfectly but if it is successful then the performance obtained is comparable or even more than the work done. For those who plan to buy it then make sure the card can be in SoftMod to the 9800 Pro.
In a test with 3Dmark03, the increase in scores obtained nearly doubled from the previous. Heavy games such as Doom III and FarCry that require high-power graphics have also been tested on this card SoftMod results and runs well at high resolutions.
With facts like these there is no reason to let 9800 SE runs on standard conditions. If any SoftMod is not successful then the owner will not lose anything because it can easily be restored to its original state, but if successful it is obtained is a high performance with cost free.
As always, remains to be reminded that in the process of overclocking, no matter how small the risk may still exist. This paper provides what you need to know in the process SoftMod 9800 SE to 9800 Pro. The author is not responsible for the risk of damage that may occur. Congratulations to modding.
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