Flash your Hercules 9800 to a 9800 Pro!

Howto by Insider @ 2003-09-26

If you have Samsung (2.8, 3.0 or 3.3ns) memory on your Hercules 9800 (none pro) videocard, then follow this guide to boost the performance and flash yourself a Hercules 9800 Pro!
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The result

After the reboot


10. Upon loading WinXP, XP detected a "new" hardware and correctly called it "9800 Pro." WinXP automatically re-installed the Catalyst 3.5 drivers.

11. Rebooted WinXP.

12. Everything works: Core and Memory at Pro settings. I ran successful benchmarks of Q3, UT2k3 and Aquamark without artifacts.

Madshrimps (c)



Note: This is just a guide, I take no responsibillity if anything goes wrong.

I would like to thank optimummind from the Rage3D Boards.

If you have questions or comments please drop them off here.
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Comment from Unregistered @ 2003/09/26
Quote:
IMPORTANT, use the key combination ctrl-alt-del. Don't press the reset button!
Err... why?!

Does he think a cold boot will wipe out the newly flashed ROM?
Comment from jmke @ 2003/09/26
normally that shouldn't be the case, will have to get back to you on that. 3D Rage boards user may have had issues after flashing their card & then pushing the reset button.
Comment from Unregistered @ 2003/09/26
does this work with saphire 9800's as well? all the boards and the chips are basicly the same just the name and junk that comes with it is the main differences.
Comment from jmke @ 2003/09/26
actually, if you look at the original discussion on which insider based this howto you will see that the person used a Sapphire 9800 card
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthre...eadid=33695811
Quote:
just flashed my Sapphire 9800 Non-Pro last night with success using Flashrom (instead of ATI Flash Utility) and a 9800 Pro BIOS titled: 98-8004.BIN
so that should work fine if the memory can handle the higher default speeds
Comment from ShadowXP @ 2003/09/27
Hi all,
I hope someone can help me, i want to know if it is possible to flash the bios from 9700 pro to 9800 pro?
thanks!
Comment from Da_BoKa @ 2003/09/27
i don't think so because they haven another pcb

greetz
Comment from BoGuS @ 2003/09/27
Humm..., sounds nice.. but does this apply to the 9800SE edition also ? just wondering that is....


B/
Comment from jmke @ 2003/09/27
Nope, only for the None Pro version
Comment from Da_BoKa @ 2003/09/27
the 9800SE is even slower than a 9800np

greetz
Comment from Unregistered @ 2003/09/29
will this bios update work for ATI OEM cards??
Comment from jmke @ 2003/09/29
so far Sapphire and Hercules have been confirmed to be working with this Flash.. no others though.. only if the PCB layout of the card is exactly the same, you might have a chance of it working.
Comment from Da_BoKa @ 2003/09/29
i think yes because shaphire uses the same pcb as BBA cards

greezt
Comment from Unregistered @ 2003/09/30
Question: Are there any advantages to doing this vs just overcloking to Pro-frequencies "normally"? Ie. as a person with not a whole lot of extra money at the moment, do I have any reason to risk flashing over just overcloking the good old way?

Also, I've had trouble finding any discussions on whether or not this flash works how often. I've not found a single report on it not working, but have not had much success finding success reports either. Anyone care to give a link where I could enlighten myself or tell me something I don't know about the matter?

Thanks in Advance,

--Rams
Comment from Unregistered @ 2003/10/01
What really are the changements it involves ?

Does it imply an increase of heating of the card ?
Is the fan enough to contain the heat increase ?
Would it reduce the life of the card ?

What are the real dangers to put a 9800np to 9800p ?

Is it the same as a simple O/C ?
Comment from Unregistered @ 2003/10/01
Will this work with a non-hercule video card ? Because mine and hercule's have perhaps the same schema and components (Club3D).

Could this be harmless then ?
Comment from Da_BoKa @ 2003/10/01
if your club3d has the same pcb as the hercules or shaphire or 9800pro it ( with offcourse the right memchips ) will flash,

and when you flash your card the memchips and core will get more voltage and so you will oc even higher

normally the cooling of an 9800np and a pro are the same so don't worry about that

and when your flash failes, re-flash it as said in the guide

greetz
Comment from jmke @ 2003/10/02
some answers to the questions asked thanks to Short-Media
Quote:
Many people have asked me why they should bother with flashing their Radeon 9800 Non-Pro just to attain the Radeon 9800 Pro clock speeds? Couldn't they simply manually overclock their video adapter using Rage3D Tweak? The answer is both yes and no. Some video adapters have no problem reaching the Radeon 9800 Pro default clock speeds (380 Core / 340 DDR Memory) from the Radeon 9800 Non-Pro speeds (325 Core / 290 DDR Memory), in which case go right ahead and manually overclock your adapter. On the other hand, there are some adapters that benefit from the Radeon 9800 Pro BIOS being flashed onto them, as many video adapter enthusiasts believe that the Radeon 9800 Pro BIOS increases the voltage passed to the onboard memory chips slightly to help in attaining a higher memory overclock.


Hardware Required:

-> "Built By ATI" or OEM Radeon 9800 Non-Pro with Samsung 3.3, 3.0 or 2.8ns memory chips (NO INFINEON CHIPS)
-> PCI-based video adapter (for emergency BIOS restoration purposes only)
more info : http://www.short-media.com/forum/sho...&threadid=3327
Comment from Unregistered @ 2003/10/11
ok, thank you guys. I'll take a look at the PCB inscriptions and try that...
Comment from SpoBo @ 2003/10/12
I sure hope it'll be possible to flash your hercules 9800 pro to the XT
ontopic
Quote:
Is it the same as a simple O/C ?
Euh no it isn't it activates the 4 missing pipelines in your 3D card. And alters the cores a bit I guess.
Comment from Unregistered @ 2003/10/21
actually all it 'supposedly' does is increase the voltage supplied to the ram/gpu enabling higher overclocks.
though what i want to know is if anyone has managed to get an overclock simmilar to that possible with a good 9800 pro...
then this will own for the serious OC'ers out there (me included).

oh and dont worry about the temps if you get the hercules 9800np becasue the cooling is exactly the same.
Comment from Unregistered @ 2003/10/21
obviously the ram clocks would end up being slightly slower but im sure if youre lucky you could hit 460-470 mhz core as long as you were determined and knew what you were doing.

it it failed in my case i would stick my zalmazma-80hp heatpipe on there.
Comment from vorton @ 2003/10/23
I got my Hercules 9800NP today and I flashed it after running some benchmarks.
Flash is succesful, but now I can't set the refreshrate any higher than 75hz. Not even on 640x480.

With my old card (9500PRO) I did 1280x1024@85 hz.
Now it's 75hz and it gives me a headache...

Is there anything I can do about it?
Comment from vorton @ 2003/10/23
Quote:
Originally posted by vorton
I got my Hercules 9800NP today and I flashed it after running some benchmarks.
Flash is succesful, but now I can't set the refreshrate any higher than 75hz. Not even on 640x480.

With my old card (9500PRO) I did 1280x1024@85 hz.
Now it's 75hz and it gives me a headache...

Is there anything I can do about it?
I even tried to flash my card to normal state, and still 75hz max.
Then I dl-ed hercules 3.7 catalyst drivers in stead of omega 3.8 and now it's fixed!
Comment from jmke @ 2003/10/23
would fine it strange for the refresh rate to change of the chip, since those specs are baked into the vidcard

glad to see you were able to solve it & thanks for sharing the solution with us, appreciate it!
Comment from Da_BoKa @ 2003/10/23
my shaphire 9800np has infineon chips

but it gets recognized as an 9800pro

greetz
Comment from easypanic @ 2003/11/02
and going even a little further:

9800 flashed @ 9800 PRO is flashed to 9800 XT
Comment from jmke @ 2003/11/03
some people @ XtremeSystems had negative experiences when flashing their 9800 to an XT
Comment from easypanic @ 2003/11/03
everything good here

just had to set "agp aperture size" in BIOS to 256
Comment from jmke @ 2003/11/03
Comment from Unregistered @ 2003/11/17
all the troubles for a little gain in output

get a life if 9600 was modded to 9800 than that

would be real news
Comment from jmke @ 2003/11/17
all that trouble

to type

3 lines, and still

not add any valuable info.
Comment from calantak @ 2003/11/17
Comment from easypanic @ 2003/11/19
little update:

I flashed it again with a new bios, from a Hercules card, which can be found over here


This solves the problem that I had little artifacts on my icons in windows, dunno how that came.
Comment from Unregistered @ 2004/01/19
little question...
is any of these cards still available? if so, where? (I prefer a belgian/dutch/german shop )
Comment from piotke @ 2004/01/20
Quote:
Originally posted by Unregistered
little question...
is any of these cards still available? if so, where? (I prefer a belgian/dutch/german shop )
http://prijswatch.be/prod.php?pg=toon&pid=5162
Comment from Unregistered @ 2004/01/20
thx
Comment from Gamer @ 2004/01/20
If I was you, I would buy a R9800Pro for € 299.
check Funcomputer.de or K&M elektronic for details.
Comment from Unregistered @ 2004/01/24
how come its so cheap?
did the 9800 (non pro) got more expensive... or did the pro got cheaper?
Comment from piotke @ 2004/01/24
pro got cheaper, & no price change for the non pro
Comment from Unregistered @ 2004/01/24
then I'll buy a pro

question: I also need a gpu for another pc, price around €200. What do you adivce?
Comment from piotke @ 2004/01/24
FX5900 XT, i'm selling mine btw

brand new, 3 weeks used
Comment from Unregistered @ 2004/01/24
I'm kind of confused by those new nvidea names... could you plz explain me their new perofrmance rating thing.. like: FX5600 < FX5700 < fx5900 (but then with the new brand names...)
Comment from piotke @ 2004/01/24
FX5600 /ultra/xt has a very poor performance
FX 5700 the same

they are slower or match the ti4200

then you've got the FX5700 Ultra, decent, but for the same price you've got the fx5900 XT. FX5900 XT performs a lot better.

and finally you've got the better models: FX5900 / ultra end the FX5950.

The FX5900XT is basicly an FX5900 /ultra, only a little lower clocked. Meaning same features, ...
Comment from Unregistered @ 2004/01/24
why are you selling yours??

thx for the help
Comment from piotke @ 2004/01/24
I was in a gaming mood, that lasted 2 weeks
Just played NFSU, and that's it

So keeping a very decent VGA card and not gaming is stupid
Comment from Unregistered @ 2004/01/24
send me a mail when you'r selling it...
Comment from Vorda @ 2004/01/24
of, forgot to log in
oops
Comment from piotke @ 2004/01/24
hmm, to what adress huh ?

mail me: piotke@madshrimps.be

I currently have a bid of 170 € on a dtuch forum (games.telenet)
Comment from opie @ 2005/09/19
Can I use this flash on my ATI Radeon 9800 non-pro (w/ Infineon 3.0 memory)?

Also, I understand that the flash may be better than just overclocking without it because of increased voltage, but can't you also tweak AGP voltage in the motherboard bios? Isn't that the same thing?
Comment from jmke @ 2005/09/19
AGP voltage and increase in GPU core voltage is indeed NOT the same thing

if you want to know if your card is flash-able I advice you to take great care in taking a proper backup of your original .rom and also have a PCI vidcard ready in case the flash does not work, so you can still boot the system and restore the original one.

you might want to surf around a bit more on google and other forums asking if anybody with R9800 with infineon memory has succesfully flashed their card and what bios they used for that

since these guys host almost all vidcard bios's known to man, their forums might prove interesting: http://www.mvktech.net/component/opt...ard/Itemid,34/

 

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