Radeon 9800SE AIW>9800PRO AIW

[mightynimrod]

Just received my Hercules 9800SE AIW card and soft modded it to a 9800PRO AIW......All for £155....how happy am i

Doesn't artifact in any 3D Mark tests at all or Aquamark....

I get 5983 with it clocked to 410 core 350 mem in 3D Mark 03.

Go for it anyone that's hesitating.....it's only £155 and a bloody good card if it doesn't anyway.

[nips]

Where did u purchase it from??

[mightynimrod]

overclockers.....

i know about the ones at bestontheweb...

after i got this, but hey still good

[Austin]

Lowest have put that price up to within £20 of every one esle now so you might as well use retailer that's more respected or go for a card with a better/certified brand. 9800SE_AIW should all be 256bitDDR and 380/360 so are effectively 9800PRO_AIW BUT with the all important pipes cut in half. That drops them to Rad9600XT / 9500PRO speeds but unlike those they hardly o/c (XT & PRO often get 15% and 25% o/c's resprctively) BUT as you found you do stand some chance of soft modding to get all 8 pipes and a 100% true 9800PRO_AIW (yummy). As you say good stock perf anyway with soem chance of getting a full 9800PRO with AIW!

[mightynimrod]

Originally posted by Austin
Lowest have put that price up to within £20 of every one esle now so you might as well use retailer that's more respected or go for a card with a better/certified brand. 9800SE_AIW should all be 256bitDDR and 380/360 so are effectively 9800PRO_AIW BUT with the all important pipes cut in half. That drops them to Rad9600XT / 9500PRO speeds but unlike those they hardly o/c (XT & PRO often get 15% and 25% o/c's resprctively) BUT as you found you do stand some chance of soft modding to get all 8 pipes and a 100% true 9800PRO_AIW (yummy). As you say good stock perf anyway with soem chance of getting a full 9800PRO with AIW!

Actually the 9800SE's come standard at 380/340 out of the box.

The 9800pro AIW's come standard at 325/310 according to Sapphires spec.

Just in case some people are confused about memory speed out of the box

[nips]

Ok i've justed ordered one of these babies, any advise on how abouts i go to obtain the softmod......or the process involved?

[Swafe]

google for it if someone doesnt tell you, i belive you just install hacked drivers and it installs it as a 9800 pro (thus opening all 8 pipelines)

[Austin]

Of course the 256bitDDR 9800SE should use 380/340 (not 380/360), I got the stock 9800PRO clocks (380/340) wrong, ooops! Are you sure the 9800PRO_AIW come in at only 325/310 as those are the exact clocks of a 9800 (hence 9800_AIW) not the 9800PRO, you'd be virtually identical to a 9700PRO_AIW (325/310). To attempt to enable the 8 pipes on a 9800SE (ie softmod) all you do is patch the drivers (via RivaTuner) and then install those patched drivers. Unless you want to try hardmodding that's all there is to it. Apparently chances of success are as high as 50% with 9800SE_AIW although I'd be more skeptical myself.

[mightynimrod]

You can get the softmod drivers from HERE
Austin, i got the clock speeds for the 9800pro AIW from Sapphires site.
HERE

[mightynimrod]

Forgot to say, uninstall your original display drivers via add/remove programs, then use driverclean to clean out the last remaining traces of them, reboot then install the new "modded" drivers with your new card.

good luck

[Austin]

Well it certainly states 325/310 which definitely doesn't warrant the naming of 9800PRO_AIW as you are exactly the speed of a 9800 or 9700PRO. Not that that's a bad thing but certainly not a 9800PRO. Since Sapphire are regarded as one of the very best manu's I'd have to imagine that is a normal clock for a 9800PRO_AIW and would therefore mean the 9800SE_AIW (all 256bitDDR & 380/340?) successfully softmodded is superior and a true 9800PRO_AIW. Buy two and chances should be good that one will mod meaning you can sell the other 2nd hand?

[shamus21]

The more i read about these cards the more tempted i am to get one, i ve been thinking about the 9800 pro`s on the komplett site for 220.00 but is it worth the risk trying to save 50.00 to 60.00 on a 9800 se aiw when with 9800 pro you are getting a better spec gpu and memory . has for the TV tuner not that important for me on a gaming rig.
On the other hand why not just wait until next springtime for the r420 gpu`s now they would beworth the 350.00 to 400.00 they are now charging for the 9800XT. (what a Riipoff).

[Austin]

Well the 256bit version of the 9800SE has the same RAM as the 9800PRO (5% slower than 9800XT), it's just the core that's halved due to 4 pipes vs 8. Clocks are the same and in fact the 9800SE_AIW should have FASTER clocks than the 9800PRO_AIW so if you mod it you get something superior! If you are a gambler the 9800SE are really the way to go, as said before stock perf is still very decent. If you aren't a gambler it makes more sense to get a 9600PRO/XT as although they'll never mod to 9800PRO levels they will o/c very well. If you can afford the £200ish asking price the 9800 (and PRO) are the best choice at the mo.

With particular reference to the 9800XT (and even 9600XT) I'm very disappointed in ATI's efforts, they have had a huge break to trounce nVidia much of which they've wasted ... in fact that applies to almost everything they've done since the 9500PRO release just after the 9700 series ... it's been one disappointing launch after another. 9600 was inferior to the 9500, their top end card is still only marginally faster than their 9700PRO and only 5% faster than most 9700/9700PRO could achieve when o/c'ed. They should be on 0.13mu with all 8 pipes for their flagship by now but instead they're content to release cards virtually identical to their predecessors and give nVidia the breating space they need. Go ATI ... who knows you can be the next Matrox if you keep it up!

[mightynimrod]

Originally posted by Austin
Well it certainly states 325/310 which definitely doesn't warrant the naming of 9800PRO_AIW as you are exactly the speed of a 9800 or 9700PRO. Not that that's a bad thing but certainly not a 9800PRO. Since Sapphire are regarded as one of the very best manu's I'd have to imagine that is a normal clock for a 9800PRO_AIW and would therefore mean the 9800SE_AIW (all 256bitDDR & 380/340?) successfully softmodded is superior and a true 9800PRO_AIW. Buy two and chances should be good that one will mod meaning you can sell the other 2nd hand?

Austin, you say that the 9800SE is a superior card but surely for someone guarenteeing performance with the AIW features then the 9800PRO AIW with all of it's 8 pipelines and 256 bit architecture from the factory, is the sure winner.

It's only the fact that the softmod can be done on this card which makes it such a high performer and bargain to boot.
ATi had to give it the 380/340 clock speeds as the 4 pipelines were removed to warrant giving it a "9800" badge.

Had the softmod not worked you end up with a reasonable performing card but no-where in the performance stakes of the 9800PRO AIW.

Just my opinion for what it's worth

Cheers m8

[Austin]

" I'd have to imagine that is a normal clock for a 9800PRO_AIW and would therefore mean the 9800SE_AIW (all 256bitDDR & 380/340?) successfully softmodded is superior to a true 9800PRO_AIW."

Anyway factor in price...

9800SE_AIW = £140-170

9600PRO_AIW = £180

9800PRO_AIW = £380

The 9800SE_AIW should use 380/340 clocks with 256bitDDR making it a tad faster than the 9600PRO_AIW. The 9600PRO_AIW should o/c well unlike the 9800SE so should retake the lead BUT the 9800SE stands a chance (10%?, 50%?) of becoming a 100% true blue 9800PRO_AIW (or superior if the 9800PRO_AIW = 325/310). The 9800PRO_AIW is really the 'best' card but it costs twice the price of the 9800SE! Bottom line at stock the 9800SE_AIW should be better than the 9600PRO_AIW (which still costs more) and you stand some chance of getting a true 9800PRO/XT_AIW out of it.

[d_fresh1]

ah back frm a long absence

the modding success rate is something like 60-70% + , this is including new batches as well...i expect that to decrease by at least a quarter in the next few weeks tho