Sapphire Radeon X800 Pro flash

mikiotty · Mar 4, 2015

Hello Everyone!
Some time ago I got an old PC, and to my shock, in the AGP slot was a Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB version. I immediately thought I could flash it and use in a Mac, so I tried putting it in my QuickSilver and connecting via VNC to it, but the Mac won't even see it in the System Profiler (AGP slot is indicated as empty. It should at least show some PCI identifier, vendor ID etc)
So I tried it in my old dead G5 and it was recognized, but I could never flash it. I also tried in the PC but the flash seems to be ineffective.
Did you have any experience with this model of card? I'd like to put it in my MDD as it generates less heat than the 9800 Pro and it's generally a better card.
Thank you!

MatthewLTL · Mar 4, 2015

mikiotty said:
Hello Everyone!
Some time ago I got an old PC, and to my shock, in the AGP slot was a Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB version. I immediately thought I could flash it and use in a Mac, so I tried putting it in my QuickSilver and connecting via VNC to it, but the Mac won't even see it in the System Profiler (AGP slot is indicated as empty. It should at least show some PCI identifier, vendor ID etc)
So I tried it in my old dead G5 and it was recognized, but I could never flash it. I also tried in the PC but the flash seems to be ineffective.
Did you have any experience with this model of card? I'd like to put it in my MDD as it generates less heat than the 9800 Pro and it's generally a better card.
Thank you!

The Mac Elite have 3 X800XT ROMs you can try

mikiotty · Mar 4, 2015

MatthewLTL said:
The Mac Elite have 3 X800XT ROMs you can try

I can't remember exactly, but I think I already tried all 3 of them. The problem appears to be something in the "Sapphire" version of this card that blocks the ROM from being overwritten. Correct me if I'm wrong.

MatthewLTL · Mar 4, 2015

mikiotty said:
I can't remember exactly, but I think I already tried all 3 of them. The problem appears to be something in the "Sapphire" version of this card that blocks the ROM from being overwritten. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I actually have no clue, I was just suggesting it I have never had any luck in flashing ANYTHING. Trying to flash a 9550 to a 9600 bricked it, Flashing a Sil3512 SATA card was not successful. I am in the process of trying to flash a PCI GeForce FX5500 but have not attempted to do so yet.

If you have a PCI mac GPU u can put that inside the MDD tape pins 3 and 11 on the bac of the X800 (or use a sharpee) than you can use the mac ATI flasher. Again I am only offering suggestions as I have never had luck flashing ANYTHING.

mikiotty · Mar 4, 2015

MatthewLTL said:
I actually have no clue, I was just suggesting it I have never had any luck in flashing ANYTHING. Trying to flash a 9550 to a 9600 bricked it, Flashing a Sil3512 SATA card was not successful. I am in the process of trying to flash a PCI GeForce FX5500 but have not attempted to do so yet.

If you have a PCI mac GPU u can put that inside the MDD tape pins 3 and 11 on the bac of the X800 (or use a sharpee) than you can use the mac ATI flasher. Again I am only offering suggestions as I have never had luck flashing ANYTHING.

My only failed flash is this one. 9800 Pro, FX5500, Sil3112, all successful.
BTW, this is what happens with the card in my QuickSilver. Gonna try the MDD now.

mikiotty · Mar 4, 2015

OH. MY. GOD.
It worked! ATI Multi Flasher in my MDD... I can't believe it! YEAH!!!
But holy cow, it runs hot!! WAY hotter than in my PC.
Have to sort out Leopard now

MatthewLTL · Mar 4, 2015

mikiotty said:
OH. MY. GOD.
It worked! ATI Multi Flasher in my MDD... I can't believe it! YEAH!!!
But holy cow, it runs hot!! WAY hotter than in my PC.
Have to sort out Leopard now

Something i have never done physically (but did once in software) try to get the fan on it faster you should be able to run the fan on 5V in the MDD there is a fan connector right in front of the CPU the Positive is the pin closest to the CPU it puts out around 4.7V running the GPU fan off that should help the heat.

mikiotty · Mar 4, 2015

MatthewLTL said:
Something i have never done physically (but did once in software) try to get the fan on it faster you should be able to run the fan on 5V in the MDD there is a fan connector right in front of the CPU the Positive is the pin closest to the CPU it puts out around 4.7V running the GPU fan off that should help the heat.

Something I may consider is adding a 40 or 50mm fan inside the PSU, above the power plug. My PSU runs hot due to the fact that it has all the wires from the main board blocking part of the fans, and the air doesn't pass over the PSU.

BTW, I'm actually the happiest man on the world today. I'm so glad I got this X800 working in my MDD. Performance is just INSANE. I'll be doing an OpenGL benchmark and Halo Time Demo soon.
Thank you!

MatthewLTL · Mar 4, 2015

mikiotty said:
Something I may consider is adding a 40 or 50mm fan inside the PSU, above the power plug. My PSU runs hot due to the fact that it has all the wires from the main board blocking part of the fans, and the air doesn't pass over the PSU.

BTW, I'm actually the happiest man on the world today. I'm so glad I got this X800 working in my MDD. Performance is just INSANE. I'll be doing an OpenGL benchmark and Halo Time Demo soon.
Thank you!

based upon doing it myself AND having fans of various sizes, i can tell you this:

Behind the CPU heatsink the MAX size of fans you can use are 70mm (you CAN use a 80mm but it's only possible to use one and a 60mm (like i am doing). in the FRONT of the computer you can put in a MAX of 2 60mm fans that are 10mm thick (50mm is a much more confortable fit) on the back of the computer (Behind the rear HDD Cage) you could fit a max of 4 50mm fans (i verified the size using 50mm fans but NEVER put fans in this location) so by the power plug you should beable to fit 1 or 2 50mm fans. if you feel like it you can even make the PSU fans run full bore or have the main 120mm fan run at 7V it's a bit loud but it moves a TON of air at 7V

mikiotty · May 16, 2015

Sorry to revive this post...
Due to the heat generated by the video card, I reflashed it lowering the clock speeds to 380MHz for the core and 400MHz for the memory, hoping to cool it down a bit. It's much slower, but it seemed cooler. I also thought that the variable fan speed didn't work (slows down after OS load but never ramps up).

Today I was playing Halo and I heard the fan starting to ramp up, so now I know it works. I'd like to reflash the card to its stock speeds now, but I don't know what they are (it's an X800 PRO, not XT). Does anyone know? And if I put it to XT speeds (stored in the MacElite's ROMs) will it damage?

Thank you!

MagicBoy · May 16, 2015

Wikipedia has it as Core 475MHz, Memory 450MHz. Link

The XT had a different core config. It's the modern trick of disabling a bad shader unit and selling it as lower end card to keep yields up.

mikiotty · May 16, 2015

MagicBoy said:
Wikipedia has it as Core 475MHz, Memory 450MHz. Link

The XT had a different core config. It's the modern trick of disabling a bad shader unit and selling it as lower end card to keep yields up.

Yeah I knew about that trick... it should be the same used in dual-quad core i5 and i7 processors.

Thank you for the link. I don't know if Sapphire made some changes on the card...

eyoungren · May 16, 2015

Hmmwon't ATIAccelerator work with the card without flashing?

It lets you adjust clock speed and ram on the fly.

Secondly, as I wasn't following this post earlier I noticed that when you did get the flash to work it was in an MDD and not a Quicksilver.

Now that it's flashed, does the card work in the QS?

I'm curious because I have tried three flashed cards in my QS and none of them have worked. Oh, one was flashed a long time ago but not by me and the other two may be flashed, but they just don't work in my QS.

MagicBoy · May 16, 2015

Sapphire cards of that period are usually reference designs. I can't be of much more help than that, unfortunately.

mikiotty · May 16, 2015

eyoungren said:
Hmmwon't ATIAccelerator work with the card without flashing?

Yes, it does. But sometimes it "forgets" to set the clock speeds at login, and I'd prefer to reflash it to stock speeds

eyoungren said:
Secondly, as I wasn't following this post earlier I noticed that when you did get the flash to work it was in an MDD and not a Quicksilver.

Now that it's flashed, does the card work in the QS?

I'm curious because I have tried three flashed cards in my QS and none of them have worked. Oh, one was flashed a long time ago but not by me and the other two may be flashed, but they just don't work in my QS.

Actually, I didn't try. Next time I open my MDD I'll try it and let you know!

----------

MagicBoy said:
Sapphire cards of that period are usually reference designs. I can't be of much more help than that, unfortunately.

You helped a lot, thank you!

mikiotty · May 30, 2015

eyoungren said:
Now that it's flashed, does the card work in the QS?

No, it doesn't.

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