om13934 Posted August 30, 2004 Share Posted August 30, 2004 Has anyone heard about this. You can take any 256bit radeon 9800se and "unlock" the additional 4 pipelines to essentially make it a 9800 pro with 128mb of memory. Sounded pretty good to me despite the risk of getting a card with a bad pipeline. I tried it using the ati omega driver (www.omegadrivers.net) and it looked fine in windows, but when I used atitool to check for artifacts, I got somewhat of a checkerboard effect. Is this because the stock cooling system is not enough to cool the extra 4 pipelines (its not the same cooler as on the other 9800's) or do I have a bad card? The checkerboard is yellow, and the additional flashes are slight variations of the background color. Any input would be great. I'm trying to decide whether to spend the money on another cooling system and some ram sinks or to just leave it stock. It has since been returned to the stock 4 pipelines. I never tried it in a game because I didn't want it to overheat. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinipig523 Posted August 30, 2004 Share Posted August 30, 2004 That just means that you have a few busted pipes in the card. Only ATi knows which of the last 4 pipes are broken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEAR Posted August 30, 2004 Share Posted August 30, 2004 Pini is correct,and most castrated GPU's were not castrated for nothing.With luck you have a true 9800PRO but looks like you have a real 9800SE(in this case the extra pipelines were not disabled for nothing). It like people attempt X800PRO VIVO mods,if they are in luck great a XT PE rises from the PRO...if not bummer I never hard mod cards,as taking chances is not my forte with video cards.I get the most brutal performer and overclock it.Unless the no hardware mods were done and the warranty is intact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
om13934 Posted September 6, 2004 Author Share Posted September 6, 2004 Yeah, that's kinda what I decided. So even with a normal 9800se, would it be worth the money to get a better cooling system and some ram sinks and o/c it? I should be able to easily get it to the pro speeds since it is a core designed for those speeds. But will the performance increase be worth the $30 (probably) cost of cooling? My guess is yes, but I'd like to hear it from someone else. Also, there's no chance that better cooling will help with the artifact issue with all 8 pipes enabled is there? Thanks and happy gaming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
om13934 Posted September 6, 2004 Author Share Posted September 6, 2004 One more thing... I have been pleasantly surprised with this card as it will run far cry smoothly maxed out at 800 x 600 resolution so I'm pretty satisfied considering it was only a $60 investment. I just thought it'd be cool to play at 1280 x 1024 smoothly. I'm also looking at just selling it and buying a 6600gt or something along those lines. Maybe I'll go for the 6800 as a christmas present to myself. We'll see... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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