Graphics cards based on ATI RADEON 9700 Pro are equipped only with 128MB of graphics memory, follow the ATI reference design for RADEON 9700 Pro and feature 256bit memory bus. There are 8 pipelines working in this chip, which frequency equals 325MHz. The graphics memory works are 620MHz. There is nothing to redesign here, since it is the most advanced version :) Graphics solutions like that are not locked against overclocking, that is why all you can and should do is overclock it to the utmost. The average overclocked frequencies judging from our experience can reach 350-390MHz for the chip and 700-750MHz for the memory.

These graphics cards are also made only with 128MB graphics memory onboard. The design is slightly different from RADEON 9700 Pro reference. The solutions based on ATI RADEON 9700 are equipped with 256bit memory bus, feature 8 working pipelines. Therefore, there isn’t anything to be modified here as well. However, the cards based on RADEON 9700 work at lower nominal frequencies: 275MHz for the chip and 540MHz for the memory. The cards are locked against overclocking, but this can be safely eliminated by reflashing a hacked BIOS version. The overclocked solution will work at a little bit lower frequencies than the overclocked RADEON 9700 Pro.

These graphics cards have their own design and feature 128bit memory bus. So far, they produce only 128MB versions. The memory used on these graphics cards is a dual-bank one, like by NVIDIA GeForce Ti4600 and there is no way to turn the 128bit memory bus of RADEON 9500 Pro into a 256bit one. The chip features 8 working pipelines so there is nothing to modify. The RADEON 9500 Pro chip supports 275MHz, and the memory – 540MHz nominal frequencies. The cards are locked against overclocking, but this can be safely eliminated by reflashing a hacked BIOS version.

All graphics cards based on RADEON 9500, which we have seen, follow the RADEON 9700 design. 128MB versions of RADEON 9500 based solutions feature 256bit memory bus, since they have all 8 memory chips installed just the same way as by RADEON 9700. However, the RADEON 9500 chip is cut down, as it has only 4 pipelines working. Our modifications allow enabling all 8 pipelines, which makes the chip a fully-fledged RADEON 9700. The modification doesn’t touch the memory bus, as it is a 256bit one anyway. However, just resoldering a few things is not enough to make your RADEON 9500 a fully-functional RADEON 9700, since the BIOS of your card is set to work with only 4 pipelines, and even if all 8 pipelines are physically enabled, it doesn’t involve all of them. But the RADEON 9700 BIOS does use them all to the full extent, if you reflash it into the modified graphics card. And if you want your modified card to overclock as well, you’d better reflash the hacked BIOS from warp11. The modified RADEON N9500 128MB allow very good chip overclocking: up to 350-390MHz. The memory used on these cards is a bit cheaper, so it overclocks not very impressively: up to 560-600MHz.

These graphics cards are also manufactured following RADEON 9700 design, though they are equipped only with a half of all memory chips. Therefore, 64MB RADEON 9500 based graphics cards feature 128bit memory bus, which cannot be turned into a 256bit one. These cards are equipped with RADEON 9500 chips with 4 pipelines working. Enabling all 8 pipelines physically by resoldering the resistor (read this news story for details) is no problem at all, however, you will have to make the BIOS recognize all 8 pipelines. Now we are working on that and if we succeed 9which is very probable :) , then these cards will turn into something like RADEON 9500 Pro: 8 pixel pipelines and 128bit memory bus. However, unlike the regular RADEON 9500 Pro, these cards will have no dual-bank memory architecture and will go only with 64MB of graphics memory onboard.