Radeon 9500 Mod To Radeon 9700

http://www.vr-zone.com/Home/news175/R9500.jpg http://www.vr-zone.com/Home/news175/R9500-1.jpg

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As you know that Radeon 9500 differs from Radeon 9700 series due to reduced number of pipelines to 4. However, it is now possible that you can transform it into a Radeon 9700 and overclockability can be improved by much. When you remove the cooler, you can see some resistors on the GPU package. Just re-solder resistor at position 2-3 to 1-2 and your Radeon 9500 will be modded into Radeon 9700. Flash the Radeon 9500 BIOS using the modified BIOS to unlock the core/mem frequency default locked by the ATi to prevent overclocking. The core clock can be pushed as much as to 370Mhz and as a result, it runs faster than the Radeon 9700 Pro.

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This is pirated from VR-Zone, so take it with a grain of salt if you will. :)
Figured someone here would probably find it interesting and I hadn't seen any posts about it.

hm.. seems someone already posted about this.. I must be getting blind from old age.
Ignore this post. :)

easy enough to do if I had a hot air solder tool and solder paste, be cheaper to just buy the 9700 Pro ;)

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Originally posted by muisejt
easy enough to do if I had a hot air solder tool and solder paste, be cheaper to just buy the 9700 Pro ;)

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how much would it cost to get a hot air sholder tool and solder paste???

i mean the difference between the cards here in canada is around 350$.. so if its cheaper then 350.. then yes go its better just to get the 9700 pro

the price difference is more like $250 Canadian

to get a cheap hot air setup you are looking at atleast $600 US from what I've seen

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Originally posted by muisejt
to get a cheap hot air setup you are looking at atleast $600 US from what I've seen

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For a soldering gun and some solder wire?? Yikes.

Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong thing, but you can pick up a decent soldering kit for under or around 50 dollars. You could probably get one of those little 'pencil' soldering things even cheaper.

The question is do you really want to put the gun near your shiny new 9500?? :eek:

http://www.hand-tools-power-tools.co..._equipment.htm

This website is selling a soldering gun for 9.99

Actually I was reading about the same thing on a polish site.
http://www.pclab.pl/?art=&sid=1572
What they did was use a normal soldering gun, with some silver wire added on to the tip of the soldering gun for extensions so as to enable working on a smaller scale (most soldering guns are too big for these little things.)
They got it working, although it took them a few attempts and the solder didn't look too pretty. But who cares how it looks, as long as it works, right?
As for putting a gun to a shiny 9500, well... the payoffs IS pretty damn good, i guess it all depends on how comfortable you are with soldering. Maybe someone can get more info on this as to the rating of the resistor used, and if you can substitute it with some radioshack resistor in case you wreck the original? That would be my biggest fear, wrecking the resistor somehow.
Maybe Tom's hardware can make a video on how to do this, they seem to like to make videos. :)
Sounds like one hell of a cool Mod to me.

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Originally posted by Greg
Actually I was reading about the same thing on a polish site.
http://www.pclab.pl/?art=&sid=1572
What they did was use a normal soldering gun, with some silver wire added on to the tip of the soldering gun for extensions so as to enable working on a smaller scale (most soldering guns are too big for these little things.)
They got it working, although it took them a few attempts and the solder didn't look too pretty. But who cares how it looks, as long as it works, right?
As for putting a gun to a shiny 9500, well... the payoffs IS pretty damn good, i guess it all depends on how comfortable you are with soldering. Maybe someone can get more info on this as to the rating of the resistor used, and if you can substitute it with some radioshack resistor in case you wreck the original? That would be my biggest fear, wrecking the resistor somehow.
Maybe Tom's hardware can make a video on how to do this, they seem to like to make videos. :)
Sounds like one hell of a cool Mod to me.

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i used to assemble micro-pc boards with all those tiny resistors and capacitors. it's really not hard at all. all you need are some decent tweezers, a solder paste gun, and a soldering iron... just squirt a tiny bit of the solder paste, then hold the reistor in place and add the soldering iron to the flux/paste for about 1 sec. it's also good to have flux remover because that paste crap leaves flux everywhere... the end product is a very nice machine-made-looking solder joint. my work was such a masterpiece ;)

also i'm not sure you can damage the resistor(wreck it) without trying to... usually it's the capacitors that will get messed up from crappy soldering skills(like overheating the joint)
i could be wrong, i didnt know too much of the scientific aspects of it, just how to do the crap efficiently.

damn, now i'm going to have to go out and get me one of these boards...

hot air uses guess what, hot air! there is no physical touching required. this tool would be the proper way to solder/unsolder SMT components and is really easy to do compared to trying to do it with an pencil iron. to unsolder a SMT resistor just go back and forth with the hot air for a couple seconds and pull it off with tweezers. to solder, dab some solder paste on the pads put the resistor in place and pass the hot air over it for a couple seconds and you're done

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Originally posted by muisejt
hot air uses guess what, hot air! there is no physical touching required. this tool would be the proper way to solder/unsolder SMT components and is really easy to do compared to trying to do it with an pencil iron. to unsolder a SMT resistor just go back and forth with the hot air for a couple seconds and pull it off with tweezers. to solder, dab some solder paste on the pads put the resistor in place and pass the hot air over it for a couple seconds and you're done

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cool, i never had access to one of those... how wide is the nozzle?
btw, when you're taught how to do it the old fasion way(as long as you have good tools) it's pretty easy ;)

i couldnt imagine doing it with solder wire though... the paste gun is da business!

Ok, from what i read, this is what i understood:

ONLY the Radeon 9500 with 128 MB Ram is able to mod to a 9700. The 9500 PRO can NOT be modded, nor can the 9500 64 MB.

Ok, i've found the 9500 128 MB selling at Ncix for $280 CAN. Now, the 9700 128 MB is selling at www.pccanada.com for $365 CAN. So i'd be paying $85 more, but i wouldn't hafta solder my card (which i'm real scared of doing). So really, its not THAT much of a bargain...

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Originally posted by fobugee
Ok, from what i read, this is what i understood:

ONLY the Radeon 9500 with 128 MB Ram is able to mod to a 9700. The 9500 PRO can NOT be modded, nor can the 9500 64 MB.

Ok, i've found the 9500 128 MB selling at Ncix for $280 CAN. Now, the 9700 128 MB is selling at www.pccanada.com for $365 CAN. So i'd be paying $85 more, but i wouldn't hafta solder my card (which i'm real scared of doing). So really, its not THAT much of a bargain...

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http://www.ncix.com/canada/

edit: more specifically: http://www.ncix.com/canada/productdetail.php?sku=8933

ok, so is this mod REAL or just a RUMOR?
or can no one verify?

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Originally posted by Kero-chan


cool, i never had access to one of those... how wide is the nozzle?
btw, when you're taught how to do it the old fasion way(as long as you have good tools) it's pretty easy ;)

i couldnt imagine doing it with solder wire though... the paste gun is da business!

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I do a fair amount of SMT work modding up hardware for testing. A much cheaper method that's about as easy as the hot air guns for 2 connection parts (resistors, caps, etc.) is to get 2 soldering irons. Hold one in each hand, and use the tips like tweezers on each end of the resistor. It will come right up. This doesn't work nearly as well as the hot air guns once you get to 3 pins or more though. To resolder, don't even bother with solder paste. There should already be plenty of solder on the pad, just place the resistor on the pads where it should go, and touch both ends at once with the soldering irons. Again - use them like tweezers. The solder will melt, and the resistor drops right down. If there isn't enough solder already there, use some solder wire and melt a little onto the pad.

It's really quite easy. If you are nervous, try it on a dead board first.

Be sure you get a GROUNDED iron! With non-grounded irons there is the potential for high voltage on the tip (for PCB's anyway). Don't go to RS for your iron. Invest in a solder station. Better control over tempuature, convienance of a holder and they are grounded. I recomend the WTCPS from Weller. Around $100. Made in USA and very good quality! I have two and wouldn't solder without. Reaches 800 degrees within 60 seconds as oppose to minutes with the pencil irons, maintains that temperature all the time.

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Originally posted by videobruce
Be sure you get a GROUNDED iron! With non-grounded irons there is the potential for high voltage on the tip (for PCB's anyway). Don't go to RS for your iron. Invest in a solder station. Better control over tempuature, convienance of a holder and they are grounded. I recomend the WTCPS from Weller. Around $100. Made in USA and very good quality! I have two and wouldn't solder without. Reaches 800 degrees within 60 seconds as oppose to minutes with the pencil irons, maintains that temperature all the time.

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I second the motion. A good Weller soldering station is a worthwhile investment if you do much electronics work.

yup, the weller soldering stations are great, for smt work get a fine tip for it too. I got a 5 finger discount on mine! :D

Don't get a needle tip - get one that comes to a point, but is flattened on 2 sides. Kind of like if you made a paper cone by rolling up a sheet of paper, and then squashed it a little. Pick up the resisitor between the flat spots on the 2 soldering irons.

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Originally posted by Elxman
I got a 5 finger discount on mine! :D

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And you sure are proud of your deed. :(

As for if anyone is interested into the soldering stashion, i think that they could check this out:
http://www.crawfordtool.com/weller.html


Peace.

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Originally posted by Iceball_AARF


And you sure are proud of your deed. :(

As for if anyone is interested into the soldering stashion, i think that they could check this out:
http://www.crawfordtool.com/weller.html


Peace.

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The top station on that link is what I use @ work. 2 of those and you are set!

so nobody answered my question...

is this mod really for real? and is there anything describing where and what exactly to solder?

Lets clarify one thing. This mod would make the card a 9500 Pro, not a 9700.

The 9700 and 9700 Pro are the same, except for the lower GPU/memory speed of the 9700. Both of these cards are fit with all 8 rendering pipes in working order, and have the 256-bit memory bus. The only difference is GPU/memory speed.

The 9500 Pro has all 8 pipes working, but only has a 128-bit memory bus. This memory bus is physically limited to 128-bit by the number of trace contacts on the board and how the memory is banked.

The 9500 (non-Pro) only has 4 of the rendering pipes enabled and a 128-bit memory bus. The mod in question pertains to this card. The mod should, in theory, enabled the other rendering pipes that are disabled, bringing the card to 8 rendering pipes and 128-bit memory bus...thus a 9500 Pro, and not any form of the 9700.

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Originally posted by Un4given


The 9500 (non-Pro) only has 4 of the rendering pipes enabled and a 128-bit memory bus. The mod in question pertains to this card. The mod should, in theory, enabled the other rendering pipes that are disabled, bringing the card to 8 rendering pipes and 128-bit memory bus...thus a 9500 Pro, and not any form of the 9700.

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Wrong, the 9500 non-pro 128MB has a 256-bit memory bus and 4 rendering pipelines. What this mod does is give it 8 rendering pipelines, turning it into a 9700(non-pro) .

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Originally posted by NoTiG


Wrong, the 9500 non-pro 128MB has a 256-bit memory bus and 4 rendering pipelines. What this mod does is give it 8 rendering pipelines, turning it into a 9700(non-pro) .

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Nope, only the 9700 cards are fitted with a 256-bit memory bus.

Taken from the Anandtech 9500 Pro review.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1735&p=2

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The Radeon 9500 Pro has two 64-bit DDR memory controllers instead of the four in the Radeon 9700 Pro. This cuts the 9500 Pro's memory bandwidth to half of the 9700 Pro at identical clock speeds, and puts it in line with the GeForce4's 128-bit DDR memory subsystem.

Then there's the Radeon 9500 (non-Pro) which also has the reduction in memory bandwidth, but along with that it also loses half of its rendering pipelines. This makes the regular Radeon 9500 a significantly worse performer as it still only has one texture unit per pipeline, giving it a disadvantage when compared to the GeForce4.

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Originally posted by Un4given


Nope, only the 9700 cards are fitted with a 256-bit memory bus.

Taken from the Anandtech 9500 Pro review.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1735&p=2

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you are right... i've been to newegg and saphire, and everything says 128 bit memory bus. so at least on paper, all non-pro and even pros are 128-bit.

so... what's going on here?

Sorry un4 but thats wrong dude the 128 meg saphires are 256bit with 4 pips they say its only 128bit but in actuallity its 256 if you do the mod and bios hack.

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You all probably know Unwinder right ? He's the programmer of RivaTuner which we distribute here on Guru3D.com as we are the official English homepage/distro.

Well, I have some interesting news to share which i just received from Igor over at the Russian RivaTuner homepage nvWorld.ru

You all read about the hardware modification to turn your Radeon 9500 into a Radeon 9700 with the soldier and BIOS trick right ? This time we'll talk about modification at software level!

Unwinder's attempts to unlock additional 4 pixel pipelines in RADEON 9500 64MB have succeeded at last, so his SoftR9700 patch script can turn any 128-bit R9500 into 9500PRO and any 256-bit R9500 into R9700 without soldering the resistor on the R300 GPU and without loosing warranty!

IXBT.com is preparing a detailed review on how to do all this, and nvWorld.ru & Guru3D.com are preparing to launch new RivaTuner v2.0 RC12.1, which will contain SoftR9700 scripts.

Expect the new Rivatuner in about 1-2 weeks !

If you like to discuss this topic then please go to this forum-thread where the programmer can be found also. I must warn you though do not bug him with questions like 'how much longer until the new RivaTuner is out'. To post/reply you need to be registered to the forums.

UPDATE: I'm receiving a lot of questions on how to identify the 128 and 256bit versions. This is easy, the 64MB model is 128bit and can be 'upgraded' to an 8 pixel pipeline Pro model. The 128 MB version is 256bit and can be upgraded towards Radeon 9700. Also remember we are talking about Radeon 9500 graphics cards, not Radeon 9500 Pro!

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heres a link http://www.guru3d.com/comments.php?c...47a19a5de6d13b

Also there a huge *** thread on rage3d 20 pages long and a huge *** thread on [H]ocp

I orderd my 128 on saturday from newegg so i wont be able to post finding till tomorrow.

Edit.. more nfo
r9500 64mb = 128bit+4pipelines----hacked = 9500 pro 64mb
r9500 128mb= 256bit+4pipelines----hacked = 9700
r9500 pro = 128bit+8pipelines----not hackable because it has 8 piplines

Edit 3d marks from a modded one
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5567659 before mod
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5569623 modded to 9700
p.s its a xp 2600 no oc i took this from a user from hardocp(impulse)

Edit.. heres his xp2600 at 2400 mhz
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5569764 :eek: there aint no 9500 pro that doing that. :D