VOGONS


First post, by retro games 100

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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
rxt.jpg

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.
g6.jpg

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.
g1.jpg

g5.jpg

g3.jpg

Everest Ultimate information
g4.jpg

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.
table.jpg

Questions
1) Anyone know if there exists an overclocker/tweaker/flasher/general utility for any Radeon 9800s that works in Windows 98/Me? Thanks.

Last edited by retro games 100 on 2011-06-21, 13:32. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 10, by leileilol

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retro games 100 wrote:

1) Anyone know if there exists an overclocker/tweaker/flasher/general utility for any Radeon 9800s that works in Windows 98/Me? Thanks.

RivaTuner? Have to hunt down an older Win98 version though since the later ones don't work.

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 3 of 10, by sliderider

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leileilol wrote:
retro games 100 wrote:

1) Anyone know if there exists an overclocker/tweaker/flasher/general utility for any Radeon 9800s that works in Windows 98/Me? Thanks.

RivaTuner? Have to hunt down an older Win98 version though since the later ones don't work.

Will the later ones run under kernelex?

Reply 4 of 10, by Tetrium

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leileilol wrote:
retro games 100 wrote:

1) Anyone know if there exists an overclocker/tweaker/flasher/general utility for any Radeon 9800s that works in Windows 98/Me? Thanks.

RivaTuner? Have to hunt down an older Win98 version though since the later ones don't work.

I thought Rivatuner was for NV cards only and not Radeons?

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My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
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Reply 5 of 10, by leileilol

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sliderider wrote:
leileilol wrote:
retro games 100 wrote:

1) Anyone know if there exists an overclocker/tweaker/flasher/general utility for any Radeon 9800s that works in Windows 98/Me? Thanks.

RivaTuner? Have to hunt down an older Win98 version though since the later ones don't work.

Will the later ones run under kernelex?

I wouldn't risk it

Tetrium wrote:
leileilol wrote:
retro games 100 wrote:

1) Anyone know if there exists an overclocker/tweaker/flasher/general utility for any Radeon 9800s that works in Windows 98/Me? Thanks.

RivaTuner? Have to hunt down an older Win98 version though since the later ones don't work.

I thought Rivatuner was for NV cards only and not Radeons?

It covers Radeons as well.

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 6 of 10, by Tetrium

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leileilol wrote:
Tetrium wrote:
leileilol wrote:

RivaTuner? Have to hunt down an older Win98 version though since the later ones don't work.

I thought Rivatuner was for NV cards only and not Radeons?

It covers Radeons as well.

Cheers, learned a new thing today! 😁

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 7 of 10, by sliderider

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leileilol wrote:
retro games 100 wrote:

1) Anyone know if there exists an overclocker/tweaker/flasher/general utility for any Radeon 9800s that works in Windows 98/Me? Thanks.

RivaTuner? Have to hunt down an older Win98 version though since the later ones don't work.

Don't forget ATiTool

Reply 8 of 10, by retro games 100

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Thanks a lot for the advice. I tried RivaTuner, and it works great on W98 with the Radeon 9800 XT card. Also, re: "ATi Tool". The oldest version I can see here on TechPowerUp, is 0.24. I tried that on W98, but it didn't work. I think it's W-XP, and above..

RivaTuner version 2.24, running on W-98, hosted here at Guru3D.
rt.jpg

Reply 9 of 10, by sliderider

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retro games 100 wrote:
Thanks a lot for the advice. I tried RivaTuner, and it works great on W98 with the Radeon 9800 XT card. Also, re: "ATi Tool". […]
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Thanks a lot for the advice. I tried RivaTuner, and it works great on W98 with the Radeon 9800 XT card. Also, re: "ATi Tool". The oldest version I can see here on TechPowerUp, is 0.24. I tried that on W98, but it didn't work. I think it's W-XP, and above..

RivaTuner version 2.24, running on W-98, hosted here at Guru3D.
rt.jpg

I forgot about ATiTool being for NT5 kernel Windows. The good thing about it, though, is that it has a burn in test that you can run where it spins a hairy cube to make sure that the overclock is stable before you try to increase the clocks some more. The stress test is somewhat like how Furmark works but not as sophisticated as Furmark since it has to run on older GPUs.

Reply 10 of 10, by ruthan

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Great test. Could you pleas test some games? 3D Marks results could be missleading for lots of Win98 games I would like to compare it to Phil SS7 benchmarks set. Some Geforce 3/45/6 in same machine comparision would be also nice.
https://youtu.be/TIPtTM456cQ?t=178
What about games compatibility?

Im old goal oriented goatman, i care about facts and freedom, not about egos+prejudices. Hoarding=sickness. If you want respect, gain it by your behavior. I hate stupid SW limits, SW=virtual world, everything should be possible if you have enough raw HW.