I'll be watching XLR8 Your Mac to see if they can re-enable all of the pipelines.
(The 9800 has 8 pipelines. Not all of them work in every core, so some partially working 9800 cores have half of their pipelines disabled in software and become 4 pipelined 9800SEs, making a new product out of what would otherwise be reject parts. On x86/Windows, with custom drivers that enable the otherwise disabled pipelines and a good 9800SE you can get 9800 (or even 9800 Pro) performance on the cheap).
With the X800s around the corner I'm surprised you sprung for a 9800... And on that note, are Graphic cards really that much more expensive on the Mac? - I can get the same card for the PC for $389... Canadian!
Sorry to crush your hopes, but there was an article on this. The 9800 SEs are not hackable to open those extra pipelines. ATi learned to prevent this as the Radeon 9500 was basically a crippled 9700 or 9800 which was hackable to make it a 9700/9800 card. Not achievable with the 9800 SEs I'm afraid.
mattyj's comment applies to cards that have been recently manufactured. However for PC users there WAS a work around.
I just sold a home built PC that had a 9800 SE that was software hacked to near-PRO specs. I can't swear to all 8 pipelines being used. We used Futuremark as a reference. I don't recall were on the net I aquired the software hack. I Googled and it turned up on page 5 or 6! It was a Taiwanese hardware review site as I recall.
This was the informal "testing" procedure used:
1- Installed AGPTEK 9800 SE (8X AGP) and updated to latest drivers. Ran Futuremark. Unfortunately, all the data was left on said PC so my comments are anecdotal.
2- Removed AGPTEK card and installed genuine 8-pipeline ATI Pro 9800 card. Ran Futuremark.
3- Removed ATI and re-installed AGPTEK card. Ran the software hack. Wowsers! Very close specs to the ATI model.
Couple of things to note. AGPTEK card was one of the first SE's manufactured. It had the RED motherboard. The green mobo cards can NOT be software hacked to my limited knowledge.
Sorry to crush your hopes, but there was an article on this. The 9800 SEs are not hackable to open those extra pipelines. ATi learned to prevent this as the Radeon 9500 was basically a crippled 9700 or 9800 which was hackable to make it a 9700/9800 card. Not achievable with the 9800 SEs I'm afraid.
This isn't the same crap that the PC side got (the 9800 Special Edition). There is no correlation between this card and the PC card.
Placebo correct me if I'm wrong but Aplacebo sorry to say I was commenting on the PC version of the card that goes by the same name only, sorry I didn't state this.
No the Mac 9800 Pro SE is completely different, it isn't a crippled 9800 like the 9800 SE, just a 256MB version of the standard 9800 (128MB) pro card, isn't that right?
ATi's naming scheme is confusing. Typically, SE versions are budget options, crippled in some way compared to regular or Pro verisons of the card. (Even if the Mac version is a 9800 Pro or even the slightly faster XT, $350+ is a little steep...).
The defects don't necessarily mean that the card crashes, they may just suffer from reduced visual quality (occassionally dropped texels, snow, etc). Often this will be noticed by the automated bin testing process, but not to end users or can be fixed by slightly downclocking the card (but with twice as many pipelines, you can afford a few MHz). Now that the x800 is available, the prices on 9800/9800 Pro cards has dropped, so the gamble isn't really worth it anymore.
IIRC, the criterion for attempting the 9800SE -> 9800 softmod is that it has a 256bit memory interface, (usually!) indicated by memory organised in a "L" shape.
Marc UK: because not all of them are faulty cards in this respect, some are actually full 9800 pros, except the pipelines have been shut off. As even though they're mainly faulty due to low yields, they still cost as much as the regular 9800s to produce, as they were intended to be. I think.
Comments
(The 9800 has 8 pipelines. Not all of them work in every core, so some partially working 9800 cores have half of their pipelines disabled in software and become 4 pipelined 9800SEs, making a new product out of what would otherwise be reject parts. On x86/Windows, with custom drivers that enable the otherwise disabled pipelines and a good 9800SE you can get 9800 (or even 9800 Pro) performance on the cheap).
I can't find it on Macmall or Provantage.
The only place I can find it mentioned is on ATI's site, and it's not very informative.
EDIT: Never mind. It's just that ATI's site is a wee bit less intuitive than Nvidia's.
Choose A from the Brand Name Index, then ATI
Scroll Down until you see ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Mac (yes it's wrong)
Click it and you'll see it's the ATI 9800 Pro Mac SE with 256MB for $362.95 and now they got 38 in stock.
Before they only had a few.
C.
I just sold a home built PC that had a 9800 SE that was software hacked to near-PRO specs. I can't swear to all 8 pipelines being used. We used Futuremark as a reference. I don't recall were on the net I aquired the software hack. I Googled and it turned up on page 5 or 6! It was a Taiwanese hardware review site as I recall.
This was the informal "testing" procedure used:
1- Installed AGPTEK 9800 SE (8X AGP) and updated to latest drivers. Ran Futuremark. Unfortunately, all the data was left on said PC so my comments are anecdotal.
2- Removed AGPTEK card and installed genuine 8-pipeline ATI Pro 9800 card. Ran Futuremark.
3- Removed ATI and re-installed AGPTEK card. Ran the software hack. Wowsers! Very close specs to the ATI model.
Couple of things to note. AGPTEK card was one of the first SE's manufactured. It had the RED motherboard. The green mobo cards can NOT be software hacked to my limited knowledge.
None of this helps Mac users...
Originally posted by mattyj
Sorry to crush your hopes, but there was an article on this. The 9800 SEs are not hackable to open those extra pipelines. ATi learned to prevent this as the Radeon 9500 was basically a crippled 9700 or 9800 which was hackable to make it a 9700/9800 card. Not achievable with the 9800 SEs I'm afraid.
This isn't the same crap that the PC side got (the 9800 Special Edition). There is no correlation between this card and the PC card.
No the Mac 9800 Pro SE is completely different, it isn't a crippled 9800 like the 9800 SE, just a 256MB version of the standard 9800 (128MB) pro card, isn't that right?
I think there's also a small architectural difference, let me check...
The defects don't necessarily mean that the card crashes, they may just suffer from reduced visual quality (occassionally dropped texels, snow, etc). Often this will be noticed by the automated bin testing process, but not to end users or can be fixed by slightly downclocking the card (but with twice as many pipelines, you can afford a few MHz). Now that the x800 is available, the prices on 9800/9800 Pro cards has dropped, so the gamble isn't really worth it anymore.
IIRC, the criterion for attempting the 9800SE -> 9800 softmod is that it has a 256bit memory interface, (usually!) indicated by memory organised in a "L" shape.