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How to change your Radeon 9500 into a 9700
Ian Bell writes "We have just posted a very difficult guide to turning your ATI Radeon 9500 into a 9700. But you have to have the correct 9500. A 9500 with 4 rendering pipelines, modified to enable all 8 pipelines, will effectively double the memory bus, if you have the extra 64 Meg of memory to attach it to. We will explain below which card to acquire for this awesome graphics card transformation. Check out how to do this yourself and get the power of a 9700 at half the price." Update: 01/19 18:33 GMT by T : And for those running Windows, Sanity writes "Aside from the hardware mod, there is a program called Riva Tuner that has, among other things, a software mod for unlocking those gates, plus overclocking to a full 9700 pro! Gives me more $$$ to spend on cool stuff."
Well, you might get lucky and have good memory in the new 'enabled' section, allowing you to have the 9700.
Or, you might get zilch - since that's why those are 9500's and not 9700's. That memory is suspect.
This mod and its possible failure modes have been discussed on the rage3d forums.
It seems the best theory as to why some checkerboard and some do not, is that the 9500 uses binned chips, where not all eight texture pipelines necessarily operate correctly at normal speeds, voltages, or possibly at all.
The mod apparently works by unlocking or changing a hard-wired ID field, which then allows the 9700 bios to be used on the 9500 board.
Yet today's article says:
Oh yeah! "We". I'm sure you thought of it first. Not even a single mention of the Russian hackers who first came up with this easy hack. Not really brain surgery. Few people I know hacked up the board in less than few hours.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1042
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&t
It wouldn't be allowed by ebay because you are not allowed to sell modded items on ebay.
It [bans] circumvention of protected copyrighted works.
No, 17 USC 1201(a) bans circumvention of access control on works under any Title 17 monopoly. Copyright is only a small part of Title 17, which also includes protection of original circuits (chapter 9) and original vessel hull designs (chapter 13).
What copy protection scheme does this mod allow us to circumvent?
This mod circumvents the part of the board that controls access to the extra Radeon 9700 functional units on the chip. Because the chip's layout is a mask work under 17 USC chapter 9, it's a "work protected under this title" for the purposes of section 1201.
Will I retire or break 10K?
It would be hard for me, if I cared, to know that those pixel pipelines were sitting there, unused. You know, "because they were there." It looks fun to do, regardless of whether you need it or not.
Well, in answer to your first question, most likely they're charging more for the top of the line product to help make up for R&D costs. "But that same R&D made both boards, so why shouldn't the 9500 pay the same amount for it?" Cause then they get undercut on the low end. Welcome to how the computer business works. The early adopters who absolutely gotta have the latest greatest toy end up subsidizing R&D.
As for the second part of your post, it's worth noting that it's not unusual in cases like this where you have two different levels of chips, that the chips used in the lower level are actually defectives from the premiere chip - in other words, they tested it, found out some of the pipelines didn't work and sold it as a 4 pipeline 9500. Intel used to do the same thing with non-math coprocessor chips and AMD has done the same thing with the Athlon MP's.
Why?
For the soldering part that is:
1) Use low heat and good solder a 63/27 tin content.
2) Use a small tip, and I mean small, not the stock screwdriver tip!
3) Use flux, most people don't and wonder why the solder doesn't melt.
4) If you dont want the little SMD to "stick" to anything else, cover the other solder point with a little oil (just clean it when you are done)
5) Don't get frustrated, just take a break if you feel yourself getting worked up.
6) Do use an ESD strap and make sure you and the strap are grounded.
7) If you have not done much soldering don't do it, unless you have money to burn along with your finger tips.
This SIG pulled due to lack of funding. (This damn war is costing too much!)