What are the risks of Flashing my 9550 256Mb to a 9600 Pro?

[Harry]

Hi

I am thinking of flashing my Sapphire 9550 256Mb card to a 9600 Pro.

I have sourced a Sapphire 9600 Pro 256Mb bios and I have tested the
clock speeds on my 9550 with Atitool. As far as I can tell my card
will run at 400/227 which is the same as the 9600 bios I have.

The only difference is the memory chips. My 9550 has 5ns Samsung chips
and the 9600 bios is rated for 4ns Samsung chips.

Does anyone see and long term/ short term issues with doing the flash?

cheers

Harry

 

[Augustus]

Hi

I am thinking of flashing my Sapphire 9550 256Mb card to a 9600 Pro.

I have sourced a Sapphire 9600 Pro 256Mb bios and I have tested the
clock speeds on my 9550 with Atitool. As far as I can tell my card
will run at 400/227 which is the same as the 9600 bios I have.

The only difference is the memory chips. My 9550 has 5ns Samsung chips
and the 9600 bios is rated for 4ns Samsung chips.

Does anyone see and long term/ short term issues with doing the flash?

The risk is winding up with a dead card that won't allow flashing back to
the original BIOS. And if it does work, the gain is marginal.Usually they
will flash back if something goes wrong. Don't even think about doing this
without a PCI video card on hand and a copy of the original BIOS. Seeing as
how you can pick up an MSI 128Mb 9600 Pro with 400/600 clocking for $100 on
newegg, and your card is $92 on newegg, why did you not spend $8 more?

 

[Harry]

The risk is winding up with a dead card that won't allow flashing back to
the original BIOS. And if it does work, the gain is marginal.Usually they
will flash back if something goes wrong. Don't even think about doing this
without a PCI video card on hand and a copy of the original BIOS. Seeing as
how you can pick up an MSI 128Mb 9600 Pro with 400/600 clocking for $100 on
newegg, and your card is $92 on newegg, why did you not spend $8 more?

Because here in the UK the difference in price is substantially more.
I got my card for £45 and the 9600 costs £61

If the flashing goes well then the final product is going to be OK
isnt it? Yes, I know the flashing risks are there.

many thanks

Harry

 

[Augustus]

If the flashing goes well then the final product is going to be OK

isnt it? Yes, I know the flashing risks are there.

many thanks

If the flashing goes well, it should work. But to get the best boost the GPU
and RAM need to be both boosted to a similar level. You core can take a
150Mhz boost to 400MHz, but this coupled with slow RAM that can only be
boosted 25-27Mhz will hold you back. Still, you can try. I used to have a
Sapphire 9100 card (250/200), same core as the 8500. I could take the GPU to
320, but the ram was rubbish over 217 or so. Fastest 3DMark01 on a Barton
3200 was 9700. Picked up an 8500, which I clocked at 325/315 without any
issues, and it got 11,800 on the same bench. The point being that the
greatest gains come when you can boost GPU/RAM by similar margins.

 

[Harry]

If the flashing goes well, it should work. But to get the best boost the GPU
and RAM need to be both boosted to a similar level. You core can take a
150Mhz boost to 400MHz, but this coupled with slow RAM that can only be
boosted 25-27Mhz will hold you back. Still, you can try. I used to have a
Sapphire 9100 card (250/200), same core as the 8500. I could take the GPU to
320, but the ram was rubbish over 217 or so. Fastest 3DMark01 on a Barton
3200 was 9700. Picked up an 8500, which I clocked at 325/315 without any
issues, and it got 11,800 on the same bench. The point being that the
greatest gains come when you can boost GPU/RAM by similar margins.

As a 9550, with AtiTool I could only push the RAM to 227 and the GPU
reached 430. I reckon the GPU may even go further, but the RAM has
definately topped out at 227

Think I mught Flash the card tonight and see what happens

cheers

 

[Veritech]

i almost bought a 9550 too, just buy the 9600 alot less risky then flashing
the gpu bios. check dabs and ebuyer.

a working cards better than a dead one

 

[Harry]

If the flashing goes well, it should work. But to get the best boost the GPU
and RAM need to be both boosted to a similar level. You core can take a
150Mhz boost to 400MHz, but this coupled with slow RAM that can only be
boosted 25-27Mhz will hold you back. Still, you can try. I used to have a
Sapphire 9100 card (250/200), same core as the 8500. I could take the GPU to
320, but the ram was rubbish over 217 or so. Fastest 3DMark01 on a Barton
3200 was 9700. Picked up an 8500, which I clocked at 325/315 without any
issues, and it got 11,800 on the same bench. The point being that the
greatest gains come when you can boost GPU/RAM by similar margins.

I now have a 9600 Pro and its working like a dream!

Flashing went well and XP had no touble recognising the card. I think,
because I used the Sapphire 9600 BIOS (and its a Sapphire card) it
helped the process go much smoother.

Played various games last night in the small hours of the morning and
it was flawless.

Im very very tired, but mega happy.

Cheers

Harry

)

 

[Todd]

Great stuff!

I love getting these "freebies." I just overclocked my Sapphire 9600 Pro from 400MHz to
500, and the memory from 300 to 315. Not much jump from the memory but the core overclock
has made this card pull a lot harder. Used to be about 3400 in 3DMark 2003 and now it's
almost 4000!

That's closing in on 9600XT territory for a lot less dough