9800SE and the softmod

  • Thread starter Thread starter Larry Roberts
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Larry Roberts

Seen a 256bit 128MB 9800SE for $120.00 shipped. Read that
these can be softmodded to open the 8 pipelines on these to get
9800pro speeds. Anyone know if it works on the Powercolor card?
 
Anyone know if it works on the Powercolor card?
Click to expand...

No idea, and I think it was 9800se VIVO cards that had the best odds of
softmodding. Mine didn't, the extra pipelines were broken (bad artefacts).

IMO you can get a 9800Pro at a good price for not too much more money if
you're not fussy about brand. That's a great bang for buck if you can find
the extra cash (and of course the extra cooling for your case, and maybe a
power supply, and... isn't upgrading fun? ;-)

Andrew McP
 
Considering the price difference, and the risk that you may be getting a 9800SE that does not mod
well, I would just buy the 9800 Pro.

Theres a bit of social enginneering at work here as well....
I assume that the mnufacturors make a single part (9800 pro GPU) and use all the parts that fail
certain tests into 9800SEs. If there is more demand for the SE, they will make some of the 'test
passes' (ie GPUs that have passed enough tests to be put into 9800Pros) into SEs. The hope is that
you get a Pro GPU in a SE. As the price differential between a Pro and SE is small, Im guessing that
not many pros are being made into SEs at the moment, so the chances of a good SE part get less.

IMO, the 9800 pro is on balance the best bang for buck at the moment. You can of course, also flash
a good 9800 pro into a 9800XT but I just use powerstrip, gets my 9800pro to 430/370 stable (as in 'I
can leave it overclocked at that rate all day'), although I also use an arctic cooler to protect the
GPU (stock heatsink is useless if you want to overclock and protect the card from the extra temp).

S
 
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