How to softmod your 9700 to 9800

shuki · Mar 14, 2003, 02:22 PM

winXP and win2k only

Just noticed there are lots of threads with a bunch of jarbled info so thought I'd try and type up this guide to make it as simple as possible for all of my DH buds

Not sure if this works with 9700np or 9500 cards but it does for sure work on 9700 pro cards!

1. Install cat 3.2 drivers and control panel as normal
2. Download this file to your desktop
3. Go to C:\ATI\support\wxp-w2k-radeon-7-84-030228a1-008040c-efg\2KXP_INF\Bxxxxx folder and delete the ati2mtag file
4. Double click that ati2mtag file you downloaded to desktop in step 2 and click the button in the lower right corner. You should now have an unzipped ati2mtag file on your desktop. Move this unzipped ati2mtag file to the folder in step 3 where you deleted the orginal ati2mtag from
5. Go to Device Mgr->display adapter->9700 pro and double click
6. update driver
7. Install from a list...
8. Don't search. I will choose the driver...
9. Click "Have Disk" and navigate to the "2KXP_INF" driver directory... click OK
10. Now highlight the 9700 in the list (I have 4 there and it doesn't matter which you choose. I always choose the top one)
11. Should take off installing. You will know you've got it right if it gives you message about unapproved drivers do you want to continue? say yes. If you don't get this message, go back and repeat steps 3-11.
12. Reboot and you're good to go smoothvision 2.1 and all

edit - this little mod gave a nice performance boost! went from 14,924 stock cat 3.2's up to 15,299 on 3dmark2k1 (+375 gain) and from 4733 up to 4888 on 3dmark3k3 (+155 point gain).

digitalwanderer · Mar 14, 2003, 02:26 PM

What kind of radeon?

shuki · Mar 14, 2003, 02:33 PM

oops sorry.. r9700 pro and its good for win2k/winXP only at this time. With Cat 3.1 on I clocked my card up to 330/330 and got 15,382. Iclocked back down to retail 325/310 speeds and installed stock 3.2's and got a 14,924 and 14,942 respectively. I then did this mtag swap and reinstalled and am now sitting at 15,299 at stock clock speeds

AFAIK, it adds a taste of the cat 3.3's to this current driver set (3.2)... Also upgrades smoothvision to 2.1 in the CP. Nice screenies can be seen in the link above.

edit - I believe this is designed to bring the 9700 up a bit closer to 9800 performance....

toddsmack2k · Mar 14, 2003, 02:53 PM

Man that is a sweet improvement shuki. i am going to give this a shot

shuki · Mar 14, 2003, 03:53 PM

smoothvision 2.0 vs. smoothvision 2.1 from a thread over at rage

Quote:

Originally posted by GenTarkin
Technically I do not know EXACTLY the difference...

But I do know...
the 2.1 is optimized in performance for the R350 in the area of AA and Anisotropy...among some other thingz...

But also, by forcing 2.1 onto the current R300 chips, they see a nice boost in performance too =)

shuki · Mar 14, 2003, 04:41 PM

I'm really pleased here! And Todd, I hope this works even half as well for you

3dmark2k3:
Cat 3.1 - 4711
Cat 3.2 - 4733
Cat 3.2 modded - 4888

now to be fair and honest, on first 2 tests I just slid sliders to far left performance. On last test I went on down manually and slid all sliders to far left too. From performance to high performance I believe. Either way... woot!

dipstick · Mar 14, 2003, 05:24 PM

In those instructions it looks like you don't even need Rivatuner, is this true?

rainmx · Mar 14, 2003, 05:54 PM

Nice got a 1000 boost in 3dmark3001 and about 600 in 3dmark2003

kbleft · Mar 14, 2003, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shuki
oops sorry.. r9700 pro and its good for win2k/winXP only at this time. With Cat 3.1 on I clocked my card up to 330/330 and got 15,382. Iclocked back down to retail 325/310 speeds and installed stock 3.2's and got a 14,924 and 14,942 respectively. I then did this mtag swap and reinstalled and am now sitting at 15,299 at stock clock speeds AFAIK, it adds a taste of the cat 3.3's to this current driver set (3.2)... Also upgrades smoothvision to 2.1 in the CP. Nice screenies can be seen in the link above.

edit - I believe this is designed to bring the 9700 up a bit closer to 9800 performance....

I couldn't find the screenshots at the link above. Could someone direct me where to look?

dipstick · Mar 14, 2003, 10:30 PM

Under 14.03.2003 click on the word 'our'

Also did anyone lose the smartgart panel by doing this?

kbleft · Mar 14, 2003, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kakarot
Under 14.03.2003 click on the word 'our'

There are no screenshots showing image quality in the article. Just install directions.

shuki · Mar 15, 2003, 01:58 AM

kakarot - yep, smartgart is gone here too but so what rotfl I'm sure not missing it! And no, no rivatuner needed! I just replaced that mtag file in my ATI path where it said (backing up the original of course) and then went to device mgr to do a manual driver update. got to the have disk screen and highlighted r9700 in that box and hit next and saw windows definitely reinstall. Reboot and defrag and then nice performance increase

kbleft - the pics in that article are not IQ screenshots I was referring to the CP now showing "smoothvision 2.1" vs. simply "smoothvision"

I also tried out that other mtag file that is linked to from the front page (wizzards) and while the pixel shader test was much higher, my overall score and performance stayed the exact same as the original mtag file. Tommti's for me at the moment

Dragon3bmr · Mar 15, 2003, 10:50 AM

Does anyone know if this will work for a 9500 Pro?

***Zardon*** · Mar 15, 2003, 10:57 AM

threads merged at shukis request for ease of posting.

shuki · Mar 15, 2003, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dragon3bmr
Does anyone know if this will work for a 9500 Pro?

is that considered an r300? if so, I would say at the very least give it a go!! just watch for any artifacting... since its a soft mod, you can always go back

***Zardon*** · Mar 15, 2003, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dragon3bmr
Does anyone know if this will work for a 9500 Pro?

thats a good question, but as the 9500 pro can run the 9800 monkey demo and they come from the same stable, its worth a shot, as shuki says you can always revert. will be interesting to find out.

Dragon3bmr · Mar 15, 2003, 11:35 AM

I'm going to give it a try and I'll have an answer this afternoon.

HarleyRider · Mar 15, 2003, 01:13 PM

I don't think it's really worth it IMO. The increase in the 3D Mark speed wasn't that much and I wonder what it will do for us who race NR2003. Help it or hurt it? It may help people with smaller systems but if you have a powerful system I just don't see the logic.

Cheers!!!

shuki · Mar 15, 2003, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by HarleyRider
I don't think it's really worth it IMO. The increase in the 3D Mark speed wasn't that much and I wonder what it will do for us who race NR2003. Help it or hurt it? It may help people with smaller systems but if you have a powerful system I just don't see the logic.

Cheers!!!

my small system:
xp2100 @ 2280Mhz (175x13)
r9700 pro
2x256 kingston hyperX

Gained 300 points in 3dmark2k1 and 150 in 3dmark2k3. Logical enough for me

HarleyRider · Mar 15, 2003, 02:10 PM

I did try it on my system and I just didn't see any major gain.

WindowsXP Home Edition;
Pentium 4, 2.8 gig;
Asus P4PE 533 FSB MoBo;
1 gig of PC2700 333 DDR ram;
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro;
430 watt Antec Power Supply;
SB Audigy Gamer;
Panasonic 21" Monitor;
TSW2 modified controller system;
Mountaintop Inc. NASCAR Cockpit.

Cheers!!!

mtype · Mar 15, 2003, 02:16 PM

tried it but i get the bit where it says its not sighned and it dont install! coz a ms fucking driver signing!

Dmac43 · Mar 15, 2003, 02:26 PM

Harley, I can say that my 2k2 FPS have jumped up about 10 FPS, and are more stabile than they were before...I haven't had time to try them on 2k3, but 2k3 was much more stable to begin with so I'd guess the jump would be similar....
running 1600 x 1200 with all the bells and whistles on and maxed... no steering wheel or pit crew....drawing at 45 % 20 cars in front 12 cars behind...getting 65-70 fps at darlington racing online with 16 other racers, 80-85 fps at Darlington in test mode...

I also jumped up about 90 marks on the 3dmark2k3 test

Surgical · Mar 15, 2003, 02:26 PM

Sorry for my English it is not my first language.

As explained before Radeon9500Pro and NonPro ie. simply 9500 are(were) different cards...Difference between them is not in R300 GPU but in...PCB!!!

Radeon9500Pro has all 8 pipelines opened but only 128bit memory bus Radeon9500 with the same bus has opened only 4 pipelines in its specification.

But there were samples in stock named Radeon9500 builded on the same PCB as...Radeon9700 ie. principially HW bus in its PCB is 256bit, while Radeon9500Pro had always PCB with 128bit in it. There is possibility for these 9500 NonPro cards to open both full 256bit memory bus and 8 pipelines but for 128MB memory cards only, if there is only 64MB of RAM it can be modded only to 9500Pro.

First it was made by HW modding ie. with soldering rezistors on GPU to other positions and with flashing BIOSes from 9700 cards...

But then appeared Softmods able to do it without any soldering flashing and so on and they are...succesfull.

I am owner of such 9500 NonPro 128MB Radeon btw. not Sapphire manufacter but Connect3D and with Softmod and new Cat. 3.2 it flawlessly works as 9700Pro (after o/c) or even 9800Pro (but without proper cooling I have no fierce to o/c it to 375 or even 400MHz that were annonced for 9800 cards.

I am lucky here in Europe is Radeon9500 128MB shipped for 1/3 price of branded 9700Pro....

I am lucky too because my card occurs no errors in visible picture at all not all cards 9500 after modding are flawless...

My 3DMark2001SE score went from 9980 for 9500 without modding and o/c to 15455 after simple applying of Softmod and gentle o/c to 325/310MHz core/memory and 3DMark2003 from 2980 to 5325 respectively.....

Conclusions: Only 9500 NonPro cards with 128MB RAM and with "old" PCB could be succesfully modded to full 9700Pro or even 9800
9500 with 64MB of RAM could be modded to 9500Pro not higher by any way.
9500Pro could not be modded to nothing better at all even if there is 128MB of RAM they use other PCB with 128bit bus
only.
Some people after modding could have artifacts, distortions or even crashes....

That's all

Necrosis · Mar 15, 2003, 02:29 PM

Does this mod have any benefits for gaming besides benchmarking?

Dmac43 · Mar 15, 2003, 02:29 PM

mtype, you just need to tell it to install the driver...

Surgical · Mar 15, 2003, 02:33 PM

Be sure it has a lot of benefits

))))

shuki · Mar 15, 2003, 03:02 PM

harley, maybe it didn't take...? did you get to the part about not being MS signed drivers do you want to continue anyway? and does it now say smoothvisin 2.1 in your CP with no smartgart tab?