Unlocking pixel pipelines in Riva Tuner

Numbchuck · Nov 22, 2005

I recently bought a Saphirre Radeon X800gt, the X800gt is based on any of ATI's R4XX GPUs that have manufacturing defects meaning that some of the sixteen pixel pipelines are not fully functional.

Does anyone know how to unmask some of these pipelines with Riva Tuner?
Also, are there any serious dangers in unlocking pipelines?

Numbchuck · Nov 22, 2005

I found a guide for turning a X800pro to a X800XT on this link; http://www.i-hacked.com/content/view/61/42 . Will this method work for a X800gt too? I think I only have 2ns GRam though.

ASUS · Nov 23, 2005

Have a read here:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/radeon/rx800-3.html

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/x800-3.html

Numbchuck · Nov 24, 2005

Sweet man, you rule! I'll reply when I've tried it. I'm sticking a Zalman sink on it too so I'll be ok with the OC'ing.
Whats the worst that could happen to my PC/graphics card here? Surely unlocking broken pipes cant be that bad..

Numbchuck · Nov 24, 2005

Oops, I forgot one pretty important thing, i've got the AGP version.. not PCI Express. I'm gonna need the AGP flashrom and bios aren't I? Are they the same?

DavidGP · Nov 25, 2005

sleepygamer213 said:

There are 40 cards that a bios flash wont work on, we have know way of knowing which 40 it is.. All i can say is it worked on my PowerColor X800GT and i gained over 700points in 3DMark05.

If your going to try this do so at your own risk...

You MIGHT have 12 or 16 pipelines, you might only have 8... They recently began laser cutting the extra pipelines and you would have to take off the heatsink to be able to mess with them.
Click to expand...

Now their is the crux ( highlighted bits in bold ) this is pure guesswork and while some may like to experiment, that is their choice as they will take the responsability for dead hardware.

40 cards it wont work with and its a lottery to which ones it will work with? not good odds to be honest!

You might have 12,16 or 8 pipelines.... after the flash you "may" end up with only 4 or none!

Note: These bioses are ONLY for the 256 MB version! If anyone has the 128 MB version, please post the bios and I will mod it.
Click to expand...

No-ones mentioned what memory size x800 card Numbchuck has? is it 128 or 256mb... makes a big bit of difference as he could be flashing the wrong GFX bios.

Numbchuck said:

Whats the worst that could happen to my PC/graphics card here? Surely unlocking broken pipes cant be that bad..
Click to expand...

If you get it wrong then your card could die, or at worst the pipes may end up lower than what you have, "is that bad" ... well ask yourself if your wanting to increase the amount of piplines in the GFX card and you end up with a lower amount, then that both defeats the purpose of unlocking extra and will reduce the speed of graphic data being processed by your card... in short I wouldnt think you would be happy with a under performing card?

Balls in your court as to what to do Numbchuck,

Numbchuck · Nov 25, 2005

I've got the 256Mb version, but its AGP, so I'll be flashing the wrong bios anyway. Hmm.. ending up with a €200 card with the same processing power as an ice cream wafer may well suck. I'll just put on the Zalman cooler and overclock it till it explodes. Also this is a new Sapphire X800GT and the pipes are more than likely cut.

Thanks anyway lads.

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Unlocking pixel pipelines in Riva Tuner

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