Ati 9500

[lynchknot]

I have a chance to get an ati9500 (trade+just-a-little-cash). I'm testing it out in my machine as a matter of fact! I'm wondering why the scores are low compared to the Ti4400. 10,1xx and 2,7xx for both 3D marks. 2003 is higher than the Ti card but 2001 is lower - they are both low in comparision to other tests that are published. I have the cpu at 1875 and the card oc to 302x302. (steady 44c) Any thoughts on this? Thanks...

[phishhead]

ATI cards score higher on the 03 benchmarks...cheaters. but lynch beats your TNT ultra right.:p just use it and rma the nvidia

[lynchknot]

Well, either I rma it or someone else does - Which is the better card? Why isn't this 9500 getting 12,000+ scores that I see. There is even some durons getting higher scores...........

[zipp51]

Originally posted by lynchknot
Well, either I rma it or someone else does - Which is the better card? Why isn't this 9500 getting 12,000+ scores that I see. There is even some durons getting higher scores...........


My 9500 was benchmarking low when I first installed the stock drivers but as soon as I installed the latest ones the performance dramatically increased.Is your card the red pcb with the L shaped memory chips?Does it look like this?

[lynchknot]

no, it's a saphire card it was in a white box and it's dark in color. What kind of scores are you getting and which drivers? I was not able to get the latest one at 3D guru for some reason.

[phishhead]

get the best drivers here (http://www.omegacorner.com/ati.htm)

[lynchknot]

You are right. Has it really improved or is it cheating to get better scores? These are my new scores:


Score: 11114
Date: 2003-07-03
CPU: Unknown 1875 MHz
GPU: ATI RADEON 9700/9500 Series


Score: 3730
Date: 2003-07-03
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) XP/MP/4 1875 MHz
GPU: ATI RADEON 9700/9500 Series
302 MHz / 302 MHz

could 2 OC be a problem? how do I get rid of one of them?

http://www.techstarcomputers.net/~sighost/sigs/sped.JPG


*edit - nevermind, i got rid of rage.........

[FastGame]

Originally posted by lynchknot
You are right. Has it really improved or is it cheating to get better scores?
No they don't cheat, Nvidia did sort of for 3D 2003 but that was for the newer DX9 cards not the older DX8's. The ATI 9500 will score higher in 3D 2003 because it's a DX9 card & doesn't skip any test....

Why does this person want to trade ?

[lynchknot]

I don't know, maybe he needs the money ($30). I'll try to talk him down though. Is it worth a white box Sapphire 9500? There is no plug for it - I had to unplug the floppy - it was the only plug in there that was the same. The heat sink sure is small...........

Scores are up a 1000 for both tests - nice.

[zipp51]

This is right out of the box score.1.4 Tbird oc'd to 1533mhz,270 and 275 clocks respective.

[zipp51]

The other is with the softmod,Barton 2800+.and o'cd vid card 324 core,283 memory.

[lynchknot]

Do I need to softmod or are the drivers good enough?

[lynchknot]

Originally posted by zipp51
My 9500 was benchmarking low when I first installed the stock drivers but as soon as I installed the latest ones the performance dramatically increased.Is your card the red pcb with the L shaped memory chips?Does it look like this?

it is not the red one - is the black one no good?

[zipp51]

You can't soft mod yours,but you can overclock it and install the 3.5 cat drivers.Those are very respective scores for your card.Don't try and compete with the $300 plus cards cause they are getting 5900 3d marks.You got a really good deal Lynch better than what you had,and will play any game out there without a hiccup.

[lynchknot]

Is this the non-pro version? (black pcb)

http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/

[egghead]

hey zipp51,

i have the red card with the l shape

its a 9500 pro

whats the soft mod you are talking about and what can be done to this card?

[cash_site]

You should be able to Update the 9500Pro bios to the 9700 Pro, might need some slight soldering ie, changing pull-up resistors.

Will add more info when I find it... it should be here somewhere :D...

[zipp51]

I'm off to a 4th of July parade,but Eggs,there is some info that I posted about this I will have to dig it up when I get back.And yes cash site there was a resistor pull upgrade but there was an update to that in which you don't have to do any soldering or unsoldering you use conductive ink to open the other 4 pipelines and then you flash the bios.Get back to you TZers later.:D

[cash_site]

Ok did some quick finding :D

Found a couple of threads with people looking for the same thing.

Link 1 (http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=33691739)

Basically, from what I gather, it only worked on a few 9500 Non-pro boards cos they were built using the 9700 board. They said if you have the Red PCB then you have a chance, it doesnt really work with the Black PCB board or 9500 Pro.

Link 2 (http://duhvoodooman.com/9500mod/9500mod_1.htm)

This pages sort of explains the theory behind the mod. But these seem to be all Hardware mods (either changing resistor or using Conductive ink to overclock AMD... I mean to change 9500 to 9700) LOL ;)

Adding to that, a softR9700 was developed that changed the Catalyst Drivers to Interpret your 9500 Non_pro to be a 9700.

This softmod was included in
RivaTuner (http://www.guru3d.com/rivatuner/) , has a good FAQ and detailed instructions.

I hope you have the RED 9500 Non Pro, cos then you just double your performance :biggrin:

[cash_site]

Egg, if you have a 9500Pro, then you cant softmod because all 8 pipelines are opened but your mem bus is only 128bit. However, are you sure its a pro with the memory in L configuration?? Should check it, else the Softmod might work ;)

Is this the non-pro version? (black pcb)

http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/

He was one of the first guys to develop a hacked softmod, for the 9500 non-pro only.

This only works if you have a 9500 non-pro, and memory in L configuration. You might have to search further into the Internet ;) to find info if 9500 pro can be biosed flashed into a 9700, not likely though :P

[egghead]

thanks everyone.

i finally took the card out and had a look at it and it is not an L shape

it is exactly like the picture of the 9500 pro


i already updated the bios to the 9700 pro to enable overclockng


i did this the same day i bought the card

i havent kept the o/c because the card is fast for everygame i try at 1600x1200 at quality setting

i thought there was something new for the 9500 pro that would give me something to play around with :)

[zipp51]

I see that cash-site found the info.All of the 9500's are good cards no matter if you soft,hard,or bios mod them,well worth the money if you haven't got 3-4 hundred $ to spend.In order to flash my bios to a 9700 pro I have to bridge the contacts of the resistor together with conductive ink so that 8 pipelines are open.I'm hesitant to go any further with any more modifications,there must be a reason ATI didn't make this card a 9700 pro.

[cash_site]

No worries guys, I'm an avid ATi FAN - using their Original Radeon 32 DDR - not too bad for a card nearly 3 years old :D

Im looking to upgrade so doing some homework before spend hard earned cash.. from my site :eek: LOL

I might look on Ebay for some 9500 non-pro ;) would be good investment if it works ;)