9500 - 9800 softmod results

[Thomas @ Kustom]

WE CAN'T GARAUNTEE THAT THE CURRENT BATCH OF THESE WILL WORK WITH THIS MOD.

Hey guys, just been mucking about with the now famous W1zzard patch, and thought I'd let you lot see some figures and results.

The system:
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
XP2600(333FSB)
2x 256 3200 OCZ
Connect 3D 9500 non-pro(available on the site http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.php?view=5335 )
80GB WD 8mb special edition.

The first test was done with what I termed the first stable drivers, they are the ones I use in my own machine as well.

Catalyst 3.0 - v6.14.01.6255:
wxp-w2k-radeon-7-81-021218a-007192c-efg.exe 5.63 MB

The unmodified drivers

3DMark2001SE(patched to work with DX9) =11302
3DMark2003 =2857

When patched to 9700 modified drivers

3DMark2001SE(patched to work with DX9) =13747
3DMark2003 =4158

Next up I skipped to the Cat 3.2 drivers, as I had found the 3.1's to be unstable previously, plus the new patch in the 3.2's allows you to go to 9800 level 8)

Catalyst 3.2 - v.6.14.01.6307:
wxp-w2k-radeon-7-84-030228a1-008040c-efg.exe 5.87 MB

The unmodified drivers

3DMark2001SE(patched to work with DX9) =11132
3DMark2003 =2857

When patched to 9800 modified drivers

3DMark2001SE(patched to work with DX9) =14080
3DMark2003 =4296

As you can see there isn't a lot of improvement in numbers with the 9800 patch compaired with the original cat 3 results, but it does show a marginal improvement(and of course it costs nothing!) and in my opinion 3dmark and other 3d apps look better and smoother with the 9800 patch, worth doing!

Make no mistake, this does NOT overclock your card, it simply opens up some pipelines that are closed by the factory, and does not invalidate any warranty, as no physical modification is needed.

The W1zzard patch is avaiable here, http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/ along with FAQ's and guides on how to use the patch.

Have fun!

[Forthy]

It's a fantastic patch and no mistake, added 98 points to my 3Dmark 2003 (from the 9700 patch) :D

Weird thing is though, it knocked 200 points off my 3Dmark2001SE :confused: ...........but still got a higher score than you'd expect with a standard 9500np :D

[Thomas @ Kustom]

quite a few ppl reporting that forthy, just seems to be part and parcel, i think he said the new 3.3's will probably give better results.

[Jah]

Yeah,

I saw a couple of threads about this mod a month or so ago, and thought to myself "hell with it" and went ahead and bought a Connect3d 9500 np from Kustom PC's

My system spec is as follows:-
Xp2600 191 x 12
A7N8X dlx
OCZ 3500 el 2 x 256
Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 9 60Gb

well I never took my stock benchmarks, but i assume they were similar to Thomas's being as the system specs are so similar.

I did do a little more tweaking though ;) I added some Ram Heatsinks, stuck them on with Arctic Alumina Epoxy stuff. The heatsinks do get hot to the touch so that would indicate they are indeed doing their job.

Anyways to cut a long story short I was able to bump up the clock speeds on the card to the same frequencies as the 9700 pro. (325/310) There are zero artifacts or checkerboarding effects that others have encountered. While this has probably voided my warranty its also given me a significant boost in speed :)

The results were pretty damn pleasing, with a new 3dmark2k3 score of :- 4998 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=468315) and a 3dmark2001 score of 16404 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6027336)

I have no problem in recommending this mod to anyone who has a Connect 3d 9500 np, and anyone who is looking for a Graphics Card in the £130-£150 range, then you can do no better than this!!![

[Kynoch]

Thomas, are the 9500s you have in stock atm still on the 9700 revision boards or are they now on the specially designed boards?

[Thomas @ Kustom]

hey Kynoch,
the ones we have in stock atm are the 9700 pcb ones, i've added a text to the product link which will be removed if we ever get any that aren't compatible.

and Jah, nice work there, it has to be said that I've done something similar to you once, I got one of the zalman zm 80hp heat pipe card coolers, stuck that on, and got about 16500 marks with the 9500! so good on you! The zm is absolutly brilliant if you put a fan over it, i know this seems to be defeating the point of it being passive, but you're talking a lot of surface area, they work brilliant!

[conan]

Thomas, does this card require the additional power input? Also, does it have a DVI out as well as the VGA?

[Thomas @ Kustom]

Hi Conan,

Yeah it needs a floppy style power connector, I should put it in the description as well, it's got dvi and tv out, I use the tvout at home, it's really good.

I should add it comes with a power splitter to give you a new floppy connector

[conan]

Thanks Thomas, can you tell me the location of the power connector when the card is fitted? Is it next to the mobo or farther out?

[Kynoch]

Connector is positioned away from the mobo.

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/images/gfx/9500b.jpg

[conan]

Oh well, more wires to try and hide:(

[AlastairM]

bought one of these yesterday...

unpatched with cat 3.2

3dmark2001: 9523
3dmark2003: 2735


cat 3.2 patched to a 9700

3dmark2001: 10762
3dMark2003: 3898

machine spec as per my sig.

cheers

alastair

[Herminator]

Nice to see you guys catching on :D

If you just got your card don't be affraid to overclock it, had mine at some nice and high speeds, the core clocked a lot better than the ram for me, I may try some ram heatsinks though, need to get my pc working a bit more reliably first though, been neglecting it and it has IDE issues :(

Not even tried the 9800 softmod yet, still using cat 3.0 and the 9700 softmod. I can still manage 5250 points in 3d mark 2k3 though :D

[Thomas @ Kustom]

Looking at the counter on the w1zzard page, I remember first going to it when it had barely reached 1000 :D I'm still using the 9700 mod in my home computer, havent bothered with the 9800 yet either.

I found that the core overclocked better than the memory too, a word to the wise, we tried to over clock a hercules, would barely go up a few mhz before becoming unstable...

[Vini]

Hiya, first post ;]

can i just clarify your still selling these cards on the 9700 pcb, or if they can still be clocked up to 97/9800 speeds.

let me know.

Vini

[Forthy]

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.php?view=5335

As it says in the product description, the cards they have atm are the correct ones. If that changes the site will be updated.

[DropkickLlama]

Hello, I have a few questions about the 9500np. (Just researching with a view to purchase)

1) I know there is no W1zzard patch for Windows ME, so I'm thinking of going the RivaTuner route. Does this work with the Connect3D 9500np?

2) Will softmodding my card increase the level of heat output? Will I need additional cooling or ramsinks?


3)Can anyone point me in the direction of a few guides on the softmodding procedure using RivaTuner, Ive been looking for ages, Jeeves sucks!!

Hey I would upgrade to XP but that means handing over more money to Mr. Gates :mad: (not Gareth!!);)

Cheers

[Thomas @ Kustom]

EDIT

The current batch is having trouble

[conan]

Thomas, will the 9500Pro flash through OK?

[Forthy]

Not the easiest patch to implement I found, but I got there in the end :D

4462 3dMark03 - (that's not in benchmark conditions though, so it might go a tiny bit higher)

[Thomas @ Kustom]

not bad forthy, conan, sorry for the late reply mate, didn't get ntification someone had replied. The mod is for non-pro only, there is something about being able to flash pro bios' to 9700 bios in some cases?

[conan]

OK Thomas, cheers for that. Should have bought one while the going was good huh:(

[Forthy]

Cat 3.4 and new patch (http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/) anyone?

bumped 60 points to my 3Dmark03(even with no 9800 optimizations), and still not an artifact in sight :D

Can't wait for the 9800 optimized patch :D

Compare away (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=773830)

[iggy]

have to say i havent yet tried the kosher 3.4's, but i AM using omega's 3.4 driver, which has the softmod built in, and so far they seem far better drivers than stock

get them here (http://www.omegacorner.com/)

[Forthy]

http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/

The w1zzard softmod page has moved to the above address.

[Thomas @ Kustom]

cheers forthy, I hadn't realised.

[PJ Matthews]

I use the Omega drivers myself on my 9500 to ---> faster than your mum during the sales.

Tis lots of fun.