AIW 9800Pro or X800 VE?

[m]

Hi. I have a 9600 Pro AIW which is beginning to give me problems. I am
looking for a relatively cheap AGP replacement and I have an option of
getting either a refurbished 9800 Pro AIW or a refurbished X800 VE
AIW. I'll be using this primarily for TV capture, but want to be able
to play some 3D games as well.

I know quite a bit about the 9800 Pro and I know it will give me close
to 2 times the performance of the 9600 Pro, but I can't find anything
at all about the VE version of the X800 AIW card other than that it
has 256 Mb memory as opposed to the 128 of the 9800 Pro.

Can anyone tell me which of the 2 cards is likely to give a better 3D
graphics performance? Is the X800 VE better because of the newer
chipset & the 256 Mb memory, or is the performance so hamstrung by the
fact that it is a bottom of the range card that I would be better off
with the older 9800 Pro ?

Many thanks.

 

[Augustus]

Hi. I have a 9600 Pro AIW which is beginning to give me problems. I am
looking for a relatively cheap AGP replacement and I have an option of
getting either a refurbished 9800 Pro AIW or a refurbished X800 VE
AIW. I'll be using this primarily for TV capture, but want to be able
to play some 3D games as well.

I know quite a bit about the 9800 Pro and I know it will give me close
to 2 times the performance of the 9600 Pro, but I can't find anything
at all about the VE version of the X800 AIW card other than that it
has 256 Mb memory as opposed to the 128 of the 9800 Pro.

Can anyone tell me which of the 2 cards is likely to give a better 3D
graphics performance? Is the X800 VE better because of the newer
chipset & the 256 Mb memory, or is the performance so hamstrung by the
fact that it is a bottom of the range card that I would be better off
with the older 9800 Pro ?

At a first glance, one might think that the X800VE AIW would be a better 3D
performer but there's some serious issues with the cards GPU that arent
found with ANY other X800 card, even the SE. It's a 4 pipe card. And I don't
think it's

 

[Augustus]

I know quite a bit about the 9800 Pro and I know it will give me close

to 2 times the performance of the 9600 Pro, but I can't find anything
at all about the VE version of the X800 AIW card other than that it
has 256 Mb memory as opposed to the 128 of the 9800 Pro.

Can anyone tell me which of the 2 cards is likely to give a better 3D
graphics performance? Is the X800 VE better because of the newer
chipset & the 256 Mb memory, or is the performance so hamstrung by the
fact that it is a bottom of the range card that I would be better off
with the older 9800 Pro ?

I would avoid the X800VE AIW like the plague for any 3D gaming.
Unbelievably, it is a 4 (yes, 4) pipe card and is not flashable from every
post I've seen. This is pretty bad, considering the X800SE has 8 pipes and
the others 12 and 16 pipes. A 9800 Pro AIW has 8 pipes.

 

[Bob Smith]

I would avoid the X800VE AIW like the plague for any 3D gaming.
Unbelievably, it is a 4 (yes, 4) pipe card and is not flashable from every
post I've seen. This is pretty bad, considering the X800SE has 8 pipes and
the others 12 and 16 pipes. A 9800 Pro AIW has 8 pipes.

Apparently you can unlock another 4 pipes, and overclock quite a way above
the stock 425/400. About half way down this page:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=4491&page=9

Looks like I will have to dig out an old floppy drive to put a new BIOS in
mine...

Mine s

Bob

 

[Augustus]

Apparently you can unlock another 4 pipes, and overclock quite a way above

the stock 425/400. About half way down this page:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=4491&page=9

Looks like I will have to dig out an old floppy drive to put a new BIOS in
mine...

Yep, I already read that. There's also another post from a guy doing exactly
the same thing as you are planning who's now sticking in an old PCI card to
reflash his X800VE back to stock because he wound up with a dead card.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/archive/index.php/t-4491.html

 

[Bob Smith]

Yep, I already read that. There's also another post from a guy doing
exactly the same thing as you are planning who's now sticking in an old
PCI card to reflash his X800VE back to stock because he wound up with a
dead card.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/archive/index.php/t-4491.html

Looks like he burned an ordinary BIOS into an AIW card, but he got it back.
Then he goes on about buying another cards cos his is dead?

Mine has the same fuse readings as the guy on the last page, so I am hopeful
I can get it working. Some of the earlier ones say they have to do the
bridging mod as well, but he does not mention it.

Bob

 

[Bob Smith]

Yep, I already read that. There's also another post from a guy doing
exactly the same thing as you are planning who's now sticking in an old
PCI card to reflash his X800VE back to stock because he wound up with a
dead card.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/archive/index.php/t-4491.html

I have modded the bios with a hex editor, and I have done the "hard mod"
with a pencil, with no luck.

Is a pencil line conductive enough? I am not sure if the pencil line is a
good enough link, or if the card is un-unlockable as you say. Any tips on
failed pencil mods? More pencil? Retry the laquer scraping?

Solder would be the best link maker, but I know I would get it in the laser
cut, and the whole thing is just soooooo small!

Bob