radeon8500/9100

[Tafka]

I don't know if anyone has seen this before but this (http://www.3dcenter.org/artikel/2003/02-11_a.php) site seems to suggest that you can flash upgrade an 8500 to a 9100 (if there is any difference between them).

I think that is what it is saying (it is in German and mine is a little rusty).

[ikir]

Interesting!

[amigamad]

I have read this on another site, it can be done to non ati made cards as well not sure it,s worth doing though.
:-D

[Elektro]

I'll prolly try this... :-o

[MayhemMaybe]

If I'm not mistaken, ATI is rebadging the 8500 as 9100 since the 9000, 9500 and 9700 came out so they are basically the same card. They also did this with the original Radeon when the 7500 and 8500 came out and it was renamed 7200. This is because the 8500 is a faster card than the 9000 which is cheaper. With a lower model number people would think it's slower and not buy it.

I think, all your doing with this flash is putting the latest BIOS on the card (not necessarily a bad thing) but I would definately recommend backing up your old BIOS before doing it and unloading the Radeon driver in Windows then reinstalling it after flashing it. As always, when flashing a graphics card, it's not a bad idea to have an old PCI card handy should something go wrong. You can then at least get a display up and reflash the Radeon.

[AdMartin]

I flashed my 8500 to 9100. Didn't make a difference performance-wise. I later flashed it back to 8500 because the 9100 BIOS was NTSC, so TV-out wasn't functioning (since I live in a PAL country). Besides, some applications that have 8500-specific functions (like comparing benchmarks in 3DMark 2001) don't work with the Radeon 9100 BIOS.

/Martin

[Tafka]

Doesn't make much difference to me as I've ordered a 9100 anyway.

:-D

[takemehomegrandma]

Could i flash upgrade my radeon 7000 to a 9700 aswell? No? Darn ... :-P

[billchase]

There is an article over at Rage3D that
compares various Radeon 8500 bios files.
Some revisions have more aggressive
memory timings, but are not appropiate
for all 8500s due to slight differences
in memory chips. I have one of the
later 8500 revisions with the smaller square
memory (forget the name) versus the regtangular
chips with the pins coming out the side. My card
will overclock to about 312/312 consistently
with stock cooling (i never run async).

http://www.rage3d.com/articles/8500bios/

billchase