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What does Jack do when bored? |
BackSlash Marshal Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003 Posts: 11183 From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2006-03-02 00:12  
Jack does this...
He gets an old X1800XT PE review edition he has. He dumps the bios to hard drive, and modifies it. He unlocks all the clock barriers, and multipliers. He then boots into DOS, and writes the bios to the card. He then reboots...
He then mods the 594 mhz core speed to 5000.
For anyone who's interested, it lasted less than 5 seconds. The fan actually stopped because the plastic had melted around the motor, and the back of the card was actually GLOWING.
Woops?
[ This Message was edited by: BackSlash *Jack* on 2006-03-02 00:13 ]
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lightning[Voyager][ A ] Cadet
Joined: August 04, 2004 Posts: 419 From: CANADA. QUEBEC
| Posted: 2006-03-02 00:33  
Well that was quik...
Jack, just like that, are you rich.... It seems you dont mind melting stuff that are out of my budget.
[ This Message was edited by: lightning[Voyager][ A ] on 2006-03-02 00:39 ]
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BackSlash Marshal Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003 Posts: 11183 From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2006-03-02 00:42  
Review edition = Free from ATI.
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Borgie Chief Marshal Pitch Black
Joined: August 15, 2005 Posts: 2256 From: close by
| Posted: 2006-03-02 00:48  
must be nice
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Sixkiller Marshal Courageous Elite Commandos
Joined: May 11, 2005 Posts: 1786 From: Netherlands
| Posted: 2006-03-02 00:57  
you could have sended it to me:P
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YIIMM Grand Admiral
Joined: June 16, 2005 Posts: 851 From: Barcino, Hispania Tarraconensis
| Posted: 2006-03-02 01:00  
That's put me off the idea of overclocking, then.
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lightning[Voyager][ A ] Cadet
Joined: August 04, 2004 Posts: 419 From: CANADA. QUEBEC
| Posted: 2006-03-02 01:02  
Quote:
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On 2006-03-02 00:42, BackSlash *Jack* wrote:
Review edition = Free from ATI.
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oh... feeewww, i tauth you bouth it , then melt it...
[ This Message was edited by: lightning[Voyager][ A ] on 2006-03-02 01:07 ]
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BackSlash Marshal Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003 Posts: 11183 From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2006-03-02 01:03  
Quote:
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On 2006-03-02 00:57, Sixkiller *S2* wrote:
you could have sended it to me:P
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Review hardware is like a prototype, I can't really give it to anyone. I can destroy it, burn it, snap it in half. But I CANNOT give it to anyone else, and I must give my feedback on the card. Since the X1800XT PE is obslolete, I can do with it as I please. So I chose to give it a death of epic proportions.
I think 600 > 5000 mhz is 'epic' enough.
Oh, YIIMM, bear in mind any new generation ATI card won't allow you to overclock past safe settings unless you force the bios (which I did).
- Jack
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lightning[Voyager][ A ] Cadet
Joined: August 04, 2004 Posts: 419 From: CANADA. QUEBEC
| Posted: 2006-03-02 01:08  
Do you work for ATi as reviewer? or close to this...?
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BackSlash Marshal Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003 Posts: 11183 From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2006-03-02 01:40  
My friend works for a hardware company, and so reviews hardware for the website reviews, his work also goes into the magazine. Every 3 months, a list gets passed around, asking those reviewers to add people to the list. More people there are to review, the faster word gets around. And in all honesty, it cost about $30-40 to mass produce each card, so they only lose a little bit, and all the publicity is done for them (nice little marketing ploy isn't it?).
Also, you may like to know that each line of cards, is actually the same.
X1300Pro
X1300Xt
X1600Pro
X1600Xt
X1800XL
X1800XT
There's two cards of each type there. Yet, those two cards are IDENTICLE. What they do, is they produce the higher models, and give them cheaper heatsinks and underclock them, so they get two cards, for one design. A lot of people mod their cards with bios' that can be downloaded online to unlock the extra clock speed and/or pixel pipelines. Sometimes this requires a new heatsink though. It's perfectly legal, downside is, that there is a chance you can ruin the card.
Anyway. My friend put me on the list, and now ATi treat me as a reviewer. I give them feedback on the card, note any problems I had, power consumption, noise levels, etc.
I do have to sign an NDA for each card, untill a signed date, and then I have to wait a day. If a new NDA does not apear, I am free to talk about it, and unless there's a SERIOUS problem wit hthe card, I get to keep it. But much of the time, the review editions are NOT OF RETAIL STANDARDS. For instance, the copper surface is NOT polished on review editions, meaning they're a good 3-6 degree's hotter. Also, they PCB and heatsink/fan combo are all black. No paint or anything.
The pay off of all of this is that I get new hardware everytime it gets released, but in all fairness, the retails are better.
- Jack
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Light-of-Aurora Grand Admiral
Joined: December 01, 2003 Posts: 602 From: NJ, USA
| Posted: 2006-03-02 05:34  
Should have done that as your 'review'
TO: CONSUMER FEEDBACK
The product was unable to survive a slight overclocking 'procedure'
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-RevenG-
Raven Warriors
Joined: March 03, 2004 Posts: 2673
| Posted: 2006-03-02 13:08  
Poor poor X1800.
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Bobamelius Grand Admiral Galactic Navy
Joined: October 08, 2002 Posts: 2074 From: Ohio
| Posted: 2006-03-02 20:46  
I wish you'd have taken a video of that...
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BackSlash Marshal Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003 Posts: 11183 From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2006-03-02 20:51  
I was going too, but I couldn't find my digi cam, still can't find it actually (£500 birthday present gone missing, eek!). Was very interesting to watch anywho!
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Light-of-Aurora Grand Admiral
Joined: December 01, 2003 Posts: 602 From: NJ, USA
| Posted: 2006-03-02 21:00  
Would the effects be more.. 'dramatic' with higher end cards? My theory is that you get considerably more 'bang for your buck.'
If you're ever ... 'happy' enough to do that, don't forget the camera! Do it again lol!
>:]
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