KoncreteAngel
Junior Member
- Jun 11, 2006
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Originally posted by: KoncreteAngel
Can anyone say 10.1k?
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=2064678
Originally posted by: KoncreteAngel
Can anyone say 10.1k?
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=2064678
Originally posted by: BIGFOOTPI
um- YEAH captain obvious
isnt that pretty much applicable to ALL products- you pay for $50 cheaper model and should expect it to sell $50 cheaper later?
That was obvious wasnt it?
or am I sleepy?
Agree to a point. Someone looking for a guaranteed XT should buy an XT since overclocking is not guaranteed.Originally posted by: CarlGibbs
Originally posted by: BIGFOOTPI
um- YEAH captain obvious
isnt that pretty much applicable to ALL products- you pay for $50 cheaper model and should expect it to sell $50 cheaper later?
That was obvious wasnt it?
or am I sleepy?
BIGFOOTPI, It's easy to get a 1800XL for $170 or so on ebay. It may be used but that doesn't matter to me. So I'd be paying a premium of $30 to get this XL vs one on ebay.
So assuming that the resale value of this card will be less than that of a real XT by $50 (which is only approximately right - depreciation would narrow the $50 to $35 maybe), buying a real XT is cheaper than this XL by $30 after I'm done selling it in a year or so. I don't think avoiding spending $50 more now is worthwhile when the other option puts me $30 ahead in the long run and I get to avoid the risk of this card not working at XT speeds (of which we have at least one report on this thread). It might make sense to someone who has severe cash flow problems.
Originally posted by: LordGestle
Success!!!
I recently unlocked 16pipes on a X800PRO to an X800XT and I remember seeing something about a modified flashrom used to clear the old bios of the entire configuration. I went to the article on techpowerup and noticed there was a hidden command "-newbios" if you are using atiflash.
I was using atiflash -f -p 0 newbios. This does not flash everything and the same for winflash.
To truly flash the card you need to use atiflash -newbios -f -p 0 newbios.bin.
Instructions found here.
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/34
After that I'm now able to install drivers using the ATI CC and the card is now a true X1800XT.
Time for some benching and I will report back in this same thready.
***Edit***
I'll start posting my results in that thread you started here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=31&threadid=1868758&enterthread=y
*** Edit 2****
I posted in the other thread but I have one pending issue. I'm having trouble getting the memory to pass =>750. 725 is good. I'm still testing and will post results.
*** Edit 3****
It appears the default memory timings are tigher on the XL compared to XT. I will verify this and relax them and retest.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=13011&page=5
*** Edit 4****
If you want to flash back to your saved original bios or to another XT bios perform the following:
1) Use oveclocker tool to set 2d GPU/Mem to 500MHZ.
2) Use winflash to flash back to the original XL bios of 500/500.
3) Reboot when prompted and use the ATIflash method above again with the default or new XT bios.
Not doing so will cause a screen corruption and flash failure. The flash failure locks up your machine but does not bork your card at least in my experience.
Originally posted by: whoa2
Originally posted by: KoncreteAngel
Can anyone say 10.1k?
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=2064678
geez how are you able to get 10.1k?
my specs are comparable to yours and im only getting 8.5k on a fresh xp install with nothing but 3dmark05 installed
I would recommend testing via ATI tool to make sure you can get to 600/700 at 1.3GPU volts. This may not be necessary but my only concern is that if you can't run stable at that speed for some reason it would be very difficult to flash back since you cannot set the GPU and MEM back to 500 via the process of overclock and winflash.Originally posted by: ICantAffordIt
Just so I get this right... my understanding is this:
1st - Check to make sure the card will run at default XT speed and voltage (which is what exactly?)
2nd - Flash card to XT bios
3rd - Have XT card
Please correct me if I'm wrong... my card gets here wednesday.
Fixed the file. I uploaded the original before I added the bin extension. Nice catch.Originally posted by: ItsAlive
To LordGestle: For some reason when i try flashing that MSI XT bios it says msix1800xt.bin not found. I have it named correctly and everything. I dunno if it was a bad download or what but its not finding the file.
EDIT: You have to rename the file to msix1800xt.bin because it is not a bin file
Blah that didnt work either....for some reason its still giving me a file not found error.
Originally posted by: LordGestle
Last piece of the puzzel!!!
You need the MSI X1800XT Bios! On my card no other bios would allow past 700mhz on the memory. I'm happy to report I received the MSI X1800XT Bios from BIGD and I flashed my card to a true MSI X1800XT. No Pending Issues now and my memory is clocked to 620/750 via the default OverDrive.
My CYA: As always flashing, overclocking, and/or modding your card is a risk. If you cannot afford the loss do not proceed above. Someone looking for a guaranteed XT should buy an XT since overclocking is not guaranteed.
Before Proceeding I would make sure your current MSI X1800XL card works at the advertised speed (500\500) with a few loops of aquamark, futuremark, glexcess, and/or combination with ATI Tool artifact tester. You can download ATI Tool here: ATI Tool 0.25 Beta 14 from www.techpowerup.com
This way before flashing you don't add complication if your card is faulty out of the box, can process an RMA if needed since you have not voided the waranty, and/or could troubleshoot driver/system related issues before the flash.
I will also leave it up to others if testing your card at 600/700 with GPU set to 1.3v via ATI Tool is necessary before the flash. I would lean towards this approach since it's very difficult to flash back if you cannot get into windows with those clocks and follow the procedure below for a reflash. The reason being is you cannot set it back to 500\500 via overclocker which makes the flashing process possible (or less difficult). I did not experience an issue getting back to windows but I don't feel comfortable saying everyone will have the same success
So here are the complete steps to flash from a MSI X1800XL 512MB card to a MSI X1800XT:
1) Download ATIFLASH. ATI Flash from www.TechPowerup.com
2) Make a bootable disk via DRDFlash: DRDFLash from www.bootdisk.com
3) Copy the extracted (unzipped) ATIFLASH and MSIX1800XT bios from my website to the disk you created in step 2. So you should have ATIFLASH.exe and MSIX1800XT.bin in the root of your A drive:
MSI X1800XT Bios from Torchedpc.com
4) Reboot your computer
5) When your system boots to the floppy type in this command to save your current bios: atiflash -s 0 oldbios.bin
6) Type in this command to flash the new bios: atiflash -newbios -f -p 0 msix1800xt.bin
7) Reboot your computer if successfull
8) Load into windows, install the ATI drivers if not done so previously, launch ATI Catalyst Control Center, Select Advanced View, Select Overdrive and select unlock if you want it to run at 620/750 in 3d mode.
Thanks again to BigD from techpowerup for the bios.
If you have already flashed your bios to an XT Bios and you want to revert back to your saved original bios, or to another XT bios, perform the following:
1) Use oveclocker tool to set 2d GPU/Mem to 500MHZ within Windows. Overclocker from www.techpowerup.com
2) Use winflash to flash back to the original XL bios of 500/500. If you didn't back it up here you go: MSIX1800XL Stock Bios from Torchedpc.com
3) Reboot when prompted and use the ATIflash method above again with the default or new XT bios.
Not following this order will cause a screen corruption and flash failure. The flash failure locks up your machine but does not bork your card at least in my experience.
Originally posted by: KoncreteAngel
Originally posted by: whoa2
Originally posted by: KoncreteAngel
Can anyone say 10.1k?
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=2064678
geez how are you able to get 10.1k?
my specs are comparable to yours and im only getting 8.5k on a fresh xp install with nothing but 3dmark05 installed
Im at 258 fsb, have very fast ram (pc4100 @ 2.5-3-3-8), I am using catalyst 6.5, have everything on high performance, and I have catalyst ai on advanced.
Also im using xp64 which might make a difference.
Another thing, your card could be throttling. My card throttled at default fan speed because it got too hot.
Originally posted by: LordGestle
Last piece of the puzzel!!!
You need the MSI X1800XT Bios! On my card no other bios would allow past 700mhz on the memory. I'm happy to report I received the MSI X1800XT Bios from BIGD and I flashed my card to a true MSI X1800XT. No Pending Issues now and my memory is clocked to 620/750 via the default OverDrive.
My CYA: As always flashing, overclocking, and/or modding your card is a risk. If you cannot afford the loss do not proceed above. Someone looking for a guaranteed XT should buy an XT since overclocking is not guaranteed.
Before Proceeding I would make sure your current MSI X1800XL card works at the advertised speed (500\500) with a few loops of aquamark, futuremark, glexcess, and/or combination with ATI Tool artifact tester. You can download ATI Tool here: ATI Tool 0.25 Beta 14 from www.techpowerup.com
This way before flashing you don't add complication if your card is faulty out of the box, can process an RMA if needed since you have not voided the waranty, and/or could troubleshoot driver/system related issues before the flash.
I will also leave it up to others if testing your card at 600/700 with GPU set to 1.3v via ATI Tool is necessary before the flash. I would lean towards this approach since it's very difficult to flash back if you cannot get into windows with those clocks and follow the procedure below for a reflash. The reason being is you cannot set it back to 500\500 via overclocker which makes the flashing process possible (or less difficult). I did not experience an issue getting back to windows but I don't feel comfortable saying everyone will have the same success
So here are the complete steps to flash from a MSI X1800XL 512MB card to a MSI X1800XT:
1) Download ATIFLASH. ATI Flash from www.TechPowerup.com
2) Make a bootable disk via DRDFlash: DRDFLash from www.bootdisk.com
3) Copy the extracted (unzipped) ATIFLASH and MSIX1800XT bios from my website to the disk you created in step 2. So you should have ATIFLASH.exe and MSIX1800XT.bin in the root of your A drive:
MSI X1800XT Bios from Torchedpc.com
4) Reboot your computer
5) When your system boots to the floppy type in this command to save your current bios: atiflash -s 0 oldbios.bin
6) Type in this command to flash the new bios: atiflash -newbios -f -p 0 msix1800xt.bin
7) Reboot your computer if successfull
8) Load into windows, install the ATI drivers if not done so previously, launch ATI Catalyst Control Center, Select Advanced View, Select Overdrive and select unlock if you want it to run at 620/750 in 3d mode.
Thanks again to BigD from techpowerup for the bios.
If you have already flashed your bios to an XT Bios and you want to revert back to your saved original bios, or to another XT bios, perform the following:
1) Use oveclocker tool to set 2d GPU/Mem to 500MHZ within Windows. Overclocker from www.techpowerup.com
2) Use winflash to flash back to the original XL bios of 500/500. If you didn't back it up here you go: MSIX1800XL Stock Bios from Torchedpc.com
3) Reboot when prompted and use the ATIflash method above again with the default or new XT bios.
Not following this order will cause a screen corruption and flash failure. The flash failure locks up your machine but does not bork your card at least in my experience.