OC-ing a x800 pro into an XT

[Moose on the Loose]

yes this is what I've been pondering on lately. I've decided I just dont have the money to buy a x800 XT, but I still would really like one, hence the idea of flashing a pro into an XT. I've never done anything of the likes, but after googling a bit I found an article that explained it pretty clearly (I think). Now I would just like some feedback from people who have experience with this kind of stuff (Tin Canary's input would be very welcome ). I'm pretty confident about my computer skills, and I pick up stuff quickly.

So now I'm thinking about buying a Powercolor x800 Pro (VIVO) and go for it, unless someone tells me not to. What kind of stuff would I need to attempt this? Would I need much extra cooling and power?

[Tin]

im pretty sure youd need some extra cooling since the X800 XT runs significantly faster than an X800 pro. the X800 pro has only 12 pipelines, flashing one to an XT unlocks the other 4 pipelines giving you 16, like an X800 XT. this mod is like the softmod to change a 9500 pro to a 9700 non-pro. chances are, Omega will release drivers that unlock the other 4 pipes without you having to flash the BIOS. Omega has drivers that do the 9500pro -> 9700 mod and 9800SE -> 9800 pro mod. i dont see why they wouldnt release a similar driver for the X800 pro. the only drawback of flashing an X800 pro, those 4 extra pipelines may be damaged, hence the reason they decided to use 12 instead of 16. if you have a card with damaged pipelines, you will get mad artifacts after the BIOS flash in your games and benchmarks. the best thing about using a driver instead of a BIOS flash is that its easier to undo if something goes wrong. try and find out what the success rate is for that project before you attempt it. if the success rate is 50% or above, its worth a shot, cuz either itll work or it wont. if it doesnt work, just uninstall the driver and itll be fine again.

[kram 2.0]

I believe all you need is a flash of drivers, like Tin said, that would enable the extra four rendering pipelines. It's kind of like the Radeon 9500 non-pro -->Radeon 9700 trick in that sense - ATI may have used it as a non-pro 9500 simply because it was damaged. I've heard the success rate is pretty slim on it, though - had a few people try it, only about 1 in 5 showed any success of upped FPS and benchmarks scores. Doesn't hurt to try though - just remember that you are voiding your warranty by doing so.

Hope that helps,
kram

[Moose on the Loose]

okay, thanks that was reallly helpful

Well if I don't manage to pull it off I can just game with an x800 pro, I won't die if I dont have the XT So I would need to buy a separate GFX card cooler as well, or is it some other type of cooling I would need? I was thinking about using the Coolermaster Centurion with 2 fans in it (I think Hi Ho said it didn't have a very good airflow)

[imbest123]

You will need better cooling and the VIVO X800 Pro's are guaranteed X800 XT's. And you dont void your warranty if you flash it back to a X800 Pro

[Moose on the Loose]

Yeah I heard it was the VIVO I wanted to buy. So if I buy a Powercolor x800 Pro VIVO - I can make it into an XT without any problem? The second part of your post sounds good

Any recommendations on the cooling I would need ?

EDIT: After doing some research on this Omega thing I have a few more questions. So the Omega drivers should be compatible with the x800 from what I read, but won't they give problems with FE some games? Are they really just as good as the retail ATI drivers, only that they add OC capabilities? Its not possible to use the omega drivers just to OC the Pro into an XT and after that just use the XT drivers from nVidia?

[Moose on the Loose]

From what I've read you need to flash the BIOS of a VIVO card to unlock the 4 extra pipelines. I have no experience with this, and quite frankly the words 'flashing bios' scare me. Could not find anything about the Omega drivers doing that for you though.

[Moose on the Loose]

anyone? I'm still kinda stuck on what to do. The odds of it succeeding are pretty high, but I'm afraid I might kill the card, void the warranty and be left without a video card at all.

[Tin]

Originally Posted by Moose on the Loose anyone? I'm still kinda stuck on what to do. The odds of it succeeding are pretty high, but I'm afraid I might kill the card, void the warranty and be left without a video card at all.

welcome to my world. you gonna sit and fondle them dice or are ya gonna roll em? the warranty is voided on every part of my system lol. RAM is running up there, video card has used modded drivers and is overclocked, using a beta BIOS on my mobo, running modded drivers on the mobo, CPU is running 1000MHz above stock...you name it.

[Moose on the Loose]

any feedback on the posts I made above ? Imbest123 said that I could just flash the bios back to its original form and if something should go wrong the warranty wouldn't be voided.

Thanks tin, you're a life saver.