First post, by retro games 100
- Rank
- l33t
Introduction
I am testing an ATi based Radeon 9800 XT card manufactured by Gigabyte. It's a 256MB model. On Gigabyte's website, I found a "tuner" utility that works in Windows 98/Me! It allows you to overclock the card, and flash its BIOS. All of the relevant download links are below. I think that many (if not all) third party Radeon 9800 overclocking utilities only work in Windows XP (or greater). To do: I must get a test WinXP machine ready, so I can mess about with 3rd party Radeon 9800 utilities.
The card
1) Link to the Gigabyte driver. Filename is vga_driver_ati_radeon_agp8x_98me.exe. Source: Gigabyte's FTP server.
2) Link to the Gigabyte tuner. Filename is vga_driver_vtuner2.exe. Source: Gigabyte's FTP server.
3) Link to the 6.2 driver. Filename is 6-2_wme_dd_cp_30314.exe. Source: ATi support webpage.
4) Link to the 4.3 driver. Filename is wme-catalyst-7-991-040224m-013831c.exe. Source: FilePlanet.
5) Link to this card's BIOS file. Filename is gigaBIOS. Source: my card!
6) Link to an old generic DOS based ATi card flash ROM utility. Filename is flashrom240.zip. Source: TechPowerUp!
Notes
1) This seems to be version 4.7. It's good enough. It's faster than the last version available on ATi's website, which is 6.2
2) This has got an overclocker and a bios flash utility, and it works in Windows 98/ME.
3) This is the last Windows ME driver. It also works in Windows 98, but I found it not to be the fastest release.
4) Another old driver. It's worth a go. I used it in my testing below.
5) On the TechPowerUp! website, where there are hundreds of VGA BIOSes to download, they don't have the BIOS from this card. As can be seen from the screenshot below, they only have the 128MB version. The card I am testing is the 256MB version. If you are a member of this website, and are interested in this issue, perhaps you could upload it? Thanks a lot if possible. Please see image below.
6) This is a generic ATI flash program that works in DOS.
TechPowerUp! website shows the 128MB Gigabyte BIOS, but not the BIOS for the 256MB Gigabyte card.
Tests
I ran 3DMark 2001 s.e. in Windows Me, and also in Windows 98 SE. The machine was only a 1.4 GHz P3. I tried it in my faster Athlon based Epox 8KTA3+Pro mobo, but it would not POST. I tried different mobo BIOSes, but it still would not POST. I reckon it's an incompatibility issue, between this card and the mobo. Other Radeon 9800 cards work in the Epox mobo.
The following 3 screenshots are taken from Gigabyte utilites all running under Windows Me, and they all work under Windows 98 too.
Everest Ultimate information
Quick test
This shows that there isn't any difference between WinME and Win98, but there is a difference between the last ATi driver (6.2), and the older ones. Edit: Video mode used was 1280x1024x32.
Questions
1) Anyone know if there exists an overclocker/tweaker/flasher/general utility for any Radeon 9800s that works in Windows 98/Me? Thanks.