Curse

Bgnome · Apr 10, 2006, 01:56 AM // 01:56

well, i've been in the market for a new videocard for a while. last week, i finally bit the bullet and bought a Connect3D x1800gto since it had a $50 rebate, putting it at the <$200 mark. this makes it price competitive with the geforce 7600gt i've read so much about, but gives me the 256bit bandwith for the eye candy.

anyhow, the past few days, ive been scouring around the web about how these cards "may" unlock a pixel quad, going from 12 to 16 pipelines, turning it into an exact replica of an x1800xl, which currently goes for around $300. well, heck, that kind of value is just too tempting to pass up! so i flashed my Connect3D GTO with a bios i got from techpowerup.com for a Sapphire XL, and BAM it works!

compare to the findings at ocworkbench. i was all excited and even joined their forum to post my results, but they seem to be really slow on the pickup. i have since found that changing the register in my original bios at 0x7c from 19 to 18 also accomplishes this. i have attached a copy of the edited bios for anyone who cares to look.

hopefully there will at least be some enthusiasts here to help spread the word! i will keep trying at other places..

edit: seems like some people may be having problems with this bios so i may have to remove it. until then, use at your own risk. better to edit your own, (more info at the link below).

Bgnome · Apr 10, 2006, 04:30 AM // 04:30

more info at the thread in ocworkbench
http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwbcgi/u...c/24/1934.html

banned_user · Apr 10, 2006, 03:05 PM // 15:05

Very cool stuff man. Ive been looking for a card myself and have been waiting to see if somebody could unlock one of these suckers. Im a big fan of unlocking, my 6800 is running 16 pipes right now. Unfortuantely the 128mb ram is not enough for the 20" lcd i just got. What kind of ram is on that thing? 2.0ns? Im also interested in what kind of overclock you can manage outa that thing. Your card should own a 7600gt esp if you could get some extra clocks

Bgnome · Apr 10, 2006, 03:54 PM // 15:54

i think it is 2.0ns but i am not sure.
i haven't been able to get the automatic overclocking thing to work in ATITool or ATT, but I will try to manually adjust it (maybe need to disable Overdrive?). 3dgameman shows a stable 570/1120 on the same card so thats about what i would shoot for.

i am currently downloading 3dmark06 and will try to do some more testing. i was testing it with Oblivion, and i would crash with HDR+AA on the Chuck patch. However, it would work fine if i enabled one or the other and runs stable on the omega drivers as well.

it seems to run kinda hot, idling at 70C (riva tuner is the only one that i can get to report temps). i think it was running around there before i took the fan off so hopefully i put it back on ok. i didnt realize that i had to have thermal paste to reapply and reattach it, so i just scraped up as much as i could off the sink and gooped it on the core before reattaching the fan. i definitely need to make sure i can get that core temp down before i mess with the clocks..

Blade Rez · Apr 10, 2006, 04:43 PM // 16:43

This is also the case with the x800gto2 from sapphire, which can unlock the extra 4 pixel pipes, then swap on a better cooler for around 30-40$ and overclock up, so a 200$ card back then matched an x850xtPE. ATI's best card at the time. (before they released the x1800xl +x1800xt)

Oh and some of the connect 3d x800gtos could've done this too.

I think that the cards that did not work ran on the ati 482 chip, while the cards that did ran on the ati 480 chip?? not sure. Also, some that did not work, even though they had the correct chip, was that during production, ATI laser cut the 4 pixel pipes down.

Bgnome · Apr 10, 2006, 04:52 PM // 16:52

yeah, those GTO2s were a great deal. x800GTOs can be found retail at <$100 now, but i dont know how unlockable they are.

with the x1800GTOs finally coming out on the market, it would be nice to see more confirmed reports of unlocked pipes. so far ive seen a lot of people that say it can be done but not really any definitive results. HKEPC is the only place that i know of that has reported some positive results. almost everyone else i have ran into hasn't gotten anything working yet. if you guys know of more places to check for info, i would appreciate it.

sn0w1337 · Apr 10, 2006, 06:02 PM // 18:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blade Rez

This is also the case with the x800gto2 from sapphire, which can unlock the extra 4 pixel pipes, then swap on a better cooler for around 30-40$ and overclock up, so a 200$ card back then matched an x850xtPE. ATI's best card at the time. (before they released the x1800xl +x1800xt)

Oh and some of the connect 3d x800gtos could've done this too.

I think that the cards that did not work ran on the ati 482 chip, while the cards that did ran on the ati 480 chip?? not sure. Also, some that did not work, even though they had the correct chip, was that during production, ATI laser cut the 4 pixel pipes down.

Thats what Im doin. Got it clocked at 540/590 with rev.5 cooler

Bgnome · Apr 11, 2006, 10:19 PM // 22:19

funny thing so far: NOBODY is having any luck with this. i have heard of people with Powercolor, Sapphire, HIS (non IceQ), GeCube, or Club3D GTOs trying the flash and failing. now some of those may have used a hacked bios from a chinese website that may possibly be fake, but this is very surprising to me. i have yet to hear anything from someone else with a Connect3D GTO..

prez · Apr 27, 2006, 11:53 PM // 23:53

Hey i have a 3d connect card x1800gto. I don't understand how you did this, any chance on getting a step by step as to what you did. I tried using a sappire bios using atiflash and it comes up p/n mismatch. My box even says on it xl and states 16 pipelines so i really think i have an xl that was flashed to a gto for whatever marketing reason. Any help bgnome would be so greatly appreciated.

prez · Apr 29, 2006, 04:33 AM // 04:33

ok i got this to except the sapphire bios, but it still show 12 piplines yet it shows all the sapphire bios information including the part numner. I am quite confused right now. i mean will a card take any bios or what is up with that, it took the flash no problem. I'm going to try another one right now.

prez · Apr 29, 2006, 05:18 AM // 05:18

bgnome i used your unlocked bios and it still shows 12 pipelines yet it did change part numbers again. wht's the deal do ya think, you still on this forum?

Bgnome · Apr 29, 2006, 02:48 PM // 14:48

there have been people who have been able to unlock and those that werent. check out this thread:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwb/ulti...4/1934/11.html

prez · Apr 30, 2006, 01:48 AM // 01:48

well it looks like after reading that thread over and over my card won't unlock, really sucks. I got lucky with my 6800 when i bought that, well anyway's do i still have a shot at doing that mod so i can tweak the voltages and o.c. the sh*t out of this. I was having trouble understanding how that one was done. I don't get close to the scores some of those guys had with 12 pipes, let alone 16. just strange how it changes the p/n numbers but that's it.

cropduster69 · Aug 10, 2006, 06:30 AM // 06:30

Bgnome,

do you have an idea if editing the own bios has any risks? I mean, either it works or it does not work to unlock 16 pipes, but is there a risk to screw the card?

Thx,

Michael