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First and foremost, I nor PimpRig take any responsibility for any damage caused to hardware by following the instructions described hereafter. I did not write this article, I am merely posting it here from another source. I do not take any credit for the discovery of this mod.

The following are instructions that can turn an X-800 Pro VIVO (it must be a VIVO model) to an X-800 XT PE.

Due to the nature of this mod in that it physically changes your graphics card will void your warranty!

Original Article

This article has been provided by Kye Jin Young. Thank you so much. (The Korean version of original source can be found at http://www.titiworld.com/Blueremy/x800.htm )


Since their advent, ATIÂ’s graphic cards have always commanded a lot of attention from the public. The new x800pro is no exception to this rule. While x800 Pro is now out at the market, many people are now considering the possibility that it can be transformed into the superior x800XT. After all, the underlying structures of the x800pro and the XT are quite similar. I am quite positive that the mod can be done, because I have succeeded, myself, in making the x800Pro into the x800XT PE.
Allow us to show you how to do it yourself.





Undoubtedly, the preeminent graphic card is the 9800SE, hard modded into a 9800XT. We will use this card to benchmark with the x800Pro. And the card at the lowest level of the screen is the x800Pro from Sapphire.


I have used a couple x800Pro cards previously, and the card above was actually my first x800Pro. I was fortunately able to turn all of them into XTs. IÂ’ll use this card as an example in order to explain how to alter a simple x800Pro into a full-fledged XT.


This card is also from Sapphire and it was the second x800Pro card that I used for the test. If you compare it with the card above, you will notice that they both have a different serial number.




This is the GPU core of the x800Pro. There is a secret pertaining to this device, but I will go into detail about that later.


This is the 2ns GDDR3 from Samsung


As I mentioned at the beginning, this was the 9800SE from Xpert Vision. In most situations, its core is R350. However, if you are lucky, you might get a R360 core like me which will enable you to turn it into a 9800XT.







The devices displayed in this picture are the ones that I used for modding the x800Pro into an x800XT. The items are as follows: a conductive pen, a toothpick, acetone, and manicure.
If you are serious about hard modding the x800Pro, use this guide for doing so. It is very reliable and you can be sure your chances of success are high if you follow our instructions closely. You could use a needle or a pin instead of a toothpick, but I would recommend the toothpick because a needle or pin could possibly damage the core.

Before you proceed with the mod, carefully inspect the picture shown below.

This is a picture of x800XT PEÂ’s core. I have indicated the important section of it with the red box. As you might have already known, the x800Pro has an AA mark, while the x800XT has an AD mark. See for yourself by inspecting the picture below.


This is a picture of my x800ProÂ’s core. ItÂ’s clearly marked with AA on the GPU.
But notice the next number in the image below. We will explain how to determine which core can be turned into an XT, and which cannot be transformed.


This is another x800ProÂ’s core, but it is an engineering sample. This card has also been turned into an XT, and itÂ’s pretty much the same as my GPU.


Now letÂ’s take a look at this x800ProÂ’s core. At first glance it looks pretty similar to the others, but this one failed to turn into an x800XT. (I want to thank Sung Jin for providing this picture.)

If you have followed the article closely so far, you might get the idea of what IÂ’m trying to say. The serial marking for x800XT PE was GA9000.1, which ends with 1. My GPU had 1 as its last digit as well. I have tested several x800Pro cards and done some research on the various forums. In the process, I have noticed that the cards which were able to turn into x800XTs all had a serial code of GAXXXX.1. I have successfully hard modded three x800Pros that had this serial code on their GPU.
I also tested a couple of x800Pro that didnÂ’t end with GAXXXX.1. As we predicted, they all failed to become the x800XT. Now I can reasonably assume which ones can be modded, and which ones cannot. This assumption is based on several x800Pro that I have personally tested. However, if you have a different core and you nevertheless manage to successfully mod your card into an XT, please inform us.

Now I will demonstrate how I modded my PRO.
Note that by modding, you are essentially voiding the productÂ’s warranty. Any damage that could be caused by following this article is not our responsibility.


The picture above is the core of a x800XT PE. The rectangular box I marked red is where the bridges are located. I have compared many Pro cards and XT cards, and I have to conclude that this is the only real difference between the two cards.



This is one of my x800pro GPUs. Notice that there is a cut in the bridge located on the left side.


I have connected the bridge and used the manicure to stabilize it. If you only use a conductive pen, it can sometimes lose its adhesive hold over time. Using a manicure will hold the bridge in place more securely.


Now I used the flashrom to flash the bios. As you can see from the picture above, I have flashed the x800Pro to an x800XT, using its bios. Everything looked great except for the ASIC code. I suspect ATI might have locked the card in someway.
However, if you require the bios and the flashing program click “HERE”.

Now letÂ’s go over the testing process itself.


This is the original card information you will see from the x800Pro card.


This is the picture I took after I modded the card, having used the 4.5 beta Catalyst driver. It clearly displays 16 pipelines on the ATI tool program. The bios also changed some other configurations of the card so that it now resembles the XT information.


The hardware detected two new devices that needed to be installed, but you can ignore this. x800Pro doesnÂ’t come with the ATI Rage Theater chip, so you will not be able to install that particular drive. If you have the XT bios which doesnÂ’t add the ATI Rage theater chip, please send it to us, and we will update the bios here after we have seen verification.




TEST System Spec
CPU Intel Pentium4 3.0C @ 3.8G (253 x 15, 1.625V)
Cooler Thermalright SP-94 + Delta EHE 92mm 38T (3000RPM)
Board Abit IC7-MAX3 Bios 1.6
VGA 9800SE @ XT (412/365, 461/380) , x800Pro & x800Pro @ XT (412/365, 475/450)
RAM Corsair XMS 3500 C2 2-2-2-5 1:1 253Mhz 3.2V
Case Amaquest 6300B
PSU PC Power & Cooling 510ATX PFC Deluxe
Lan Intel CSA intergrated
FDD SEC 1.44
HDD Segate 7200.7 80G x 3
Driver Catalyst 4.5 Beta
OS Windows XP Pro SP1

The test was performed in three different environments. We wanted to test if, by opening the pipeline, we could possibly improve the speed of the card. So I decided to test the card at 9800XT, and original x800PRO's speed. The first test was done with the speed set at 412/365. The second test was done while I clocked the modded XT at 475/450, which is the x800proÂ’s default clock.


While running the 3dmark03 test on x800pro, I received 8845.


These were the results, after I had successfully modded the x800Pro into XT, and had manually underclocked to 9800XTÂ’s clock, which is normally set at 412/365. However, I have received 9786, which is 1000 point increase in score from what you would get with the normal x800Pro.

Now lets try the test on x800pro on its original clock spped which is 475/450.



Here it has been set exactly to the level of the x800Pro, and I have achieved a benchmark of 10208. Now letÂ’s see how the modded x800Pro will perform at the original ProÂ’s clock speed.



As you can see from the score above, the mod was most successful indeed! The modded x800pro@XT clearly shows it has higher frame rate than before. These screenshots were taken so that you may be reassured that this isnÂ’t a fraud. The following charts make it easy for you to compare the results of our test.

End of Original article

I hope that this article will help those of you that have a card that is able to be modded. I, unfortunately, am not one of the lucky ones that opted for the VIVO model of the X-800 Pro.

Good luck and happy modding!

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4rm4g3dd0n

great article. good find, wish i had one to mod lol

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thewizard-oz

The picture above is the core of a x800XT PE. The rectangular box I marked red is where the bridges are located. I have compared many Pro cards and XT cards, and I have to conclude that this is the only real difference between the two cards.


I have connected the bridge and used the manicure to stabilize it. If you only use a conductive pen, it can sometimes lose its adhesive hold over time. Using a manicure will hold the bridge in place more securely.
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great post!! can you just clarify/confirm that all you did on the hardfware was short the 2 contacts on the left but not the 2 contacts on the right (in your red square)?

thanx.