[aerobahn]

I tested some these bios for you guys to see if they work or not.

Just flashing the bios does not damage your card. Overclocking it will. Some people will not be able to reach pro speeds, most will, and some will go way higher! you will be safe if you over clock by 5"s go up 5mhz on the coreclock each time, *then go up by 5's on the memory. Try a bench mark like 3dmark 2003 then if you don't see any artifacts go up 5 more. If you do see artifacts go down till you do not see any more and just leave it at that. Thats your limit. Here are two places for bios for the 9700 and the 9500.
Warps11 bios credit goes to wireless ninja for...
ATI new bios

After you have them simple follow the guide i made for the .9800np here . Use everything there except the 9800bios. Use the 9700,9500 ones you found here. Good luck


for testing i was not interested in stabliity just how high they can go. Sability is dependent on your card and your powersupply.

I used a Connect3D Radeon 9700np (BBA, 942 PCB v3.0). Using the ATiFlash utility, I flashed and tested 6 of Warp11 modified BIOS's, as well as the original BIOS that came with my card. A maximum core/memory overclock was established using the first 3DMark2001SE benchmark (doesn't matter how well it shows up artifacts because we're interested in *relative* clock limits only) and I also ran the benchmark in its entirety just out of curiosity. Clean install/clean boot, Athlon 2200+, 512MB RAM, DX9, Cat 3.1's, default driver settings.

[BIOS name] - [default core/mem] - [3DMarks@275/275MHz] - [Max stable core/mem O/C]
[BIOS info]

97nptx.bin - 270.0/263.3MHz - 11923 - 351.0/303.8MHz
R300 Infineon DDR BIOS P/N 113-94216-102 - 2002/09/23 15:04 (NTSC)

97npHerc.bin - 276.8/270MHz - 11887 - 351.0/303.8MHz
R300 Hynix 9700 BIOS - P/N 113-94223-101 - 2002/10/24 15:01 (NTSC)

97npWarp.bin - 276.8/270MHz - 11935 - 351.0/303.8MHz
R300 Hynix 9700 BIOS - P/N 113-94223-101 - 2002/10/24 15:01 (PAL)

95np128.bin - 276.8/270MHz - 10198 - 351.0/310.5MHz
R300 4P Hynix Memory BIOS - P/N 113-94228-100 - 2002/10/28 16:24 (NTSC)

97npClub.bin - 276.8/270MHz - 11858 - 351.0/324.0MHz
Radeon9700 Infineon DDR BIOS B8480.002 - 2002/12/16 21:39 (PAL)

97npSap.bin - 276.8/270MHz - 11914 - 351.0/324.0MHz
R300 DDR 275/270 PAL BIOS P/N 133-PC0000-13 - 002/10/31 15:30 (NTSC)

My original BIOS - 324.0/310.5MHz - 11895 - 351.0/351.0MHz
R300 Samsung DDR BIOS P/N 113-94206-102 - 2002/10/17 13:33 (PAL)

All checked and double checked. As you can see, with the exception of the Hierarchial-Z disabled/4-pipe 9500NP config, all the cards produce scores +/-100 of each other. The big difference is in the memory clockspeed limits, with the 9700 Pro BIOS enabling the card to go far beyond the others.

In the past there have been examples of BIOS's that have limited memory overclocking by altering timing/latency settings (e.g. some 8500LE BIOS's). Setting these more aggressively will only have a negligible effect on performance (due to the nature of framebuffer reads/writes) yet produce errors at a lower clockspeed. That's probably what is happening here. ATi knew that the 9700NP's would have no problem reaching Pro speeds from an analog point of view, so there was some kind of marketing call that dictated they be "retarded" through BIOS settings.

I suggest people with 9700NP's flash their cards with the Pro BIOS and see if it allows them to overclock their memory further. 3.6ns memory should really be able to reach at least 325MHz with no problems. There have been reports of 9500NPs with 2.86ns memory that haven't been able to break the 300MHz memory mark - surely that's a clear example of the BIOS holding things back.

[ZeroRadius]

Sorry for deleting the posts, but I felt this was a good tutorial for someone looking to turn a 9700np into a pro, and unlock a 9500.