I think I got hosed

L

LanPirate1

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 7, 2004
Messages
362
Just got my X800GTO2 rma'd, and I got hosed for sure. It went down hard in December, burnt one the ram chips on the gpu side, no video. RMA time. Got my # and sent it away. Two weeks later I got a package, woo hoo right?

I sent away: Sapphire X800GTO2, red pcb, 6pin power header, r480 core, the real deal

I got back: A blue Sapphire card, it had the stock X800GTO2 hsf on it, but the pcb was blue and it did not have the 6 pin aux power on it. It was totally different. the sticker on the back said: Sapphire X800GTO2, huh? This was either a joke, or the card was mislabled, and they threw the real GTO2 sink on it to boot!

I did some searching and I figure this card is either a X800GTO ultimate with my old cooler on it, or maybe its a fireblade edition with my old cooler on it. I went over my "new" blue card and the ic's and all other features match an ultimate exactly, even the silkscreened pcb part# on the top of the card, gpu side. I emailed the rma center, and this is what they had to say to me:

"We have contacted Sapphire. It is known that the board which you returned
originally is the 'earlier' version of the GTO2. The one that Sapphire
replaced to you is the most updated GTO2 version. Both are having the
same features and performance."

Ok, did I get hosed? Should I take the cooler off and inspect for the R480? The bastards did not even put any tim on the ram, I can see that. Should I be happy with my 12 pipe card, that will maybe o/c higher than the original GTO2? Or should I beat on them untill I get my original, but new, card back? The way I see it, they have mislabled the card. Or, are they in the right, as they replaced a 12pipe R4XX card with a 12pipe RXX card.
confused :(
 
On any rma card I always remove the cooler and apply AS5 on it. many times in the past i've noticed poor or little compound on the gpu from returns from rma. Check for the R480 core when you do that apply a fresh coat of AS5 and handle the memory thing too. if it's not R480 that would suck but unfortunately you didn't pay for a high end card and theoretically they are giving you what you originally paid for even though that's not why you paid for it.

Know what I mean :cool:
 
Ok, the Ram is 1.6ns. The core, however, is an R430. so what I have is a 12 pipe X800XL?
 
LanPirate1 said:
Ok, the Ram is 1.6ns. The core, however, is an R430. so what I have is a 12 pipe X800XL?
Click to expand...

MAN I would be like fuck that if I were you I would call them up and tell them "where the hell is my r480 GTO2"
 
Borgschulze said:
Good luck, but you paid for 12 Pixel Pipelines and 400/490 clocks.
Click to expand...
Damn straight. The BIOS mod isn't officially supported by Sapphire, so trying to RMA it just because it doesn't act the same way as everybody else's, but still operates within the parameters Sapphire sold it to you is not going to rub well with anyone in the RMA department.
That said, take a picture of the core for us, and we'll let you know what BIOS to try flashing it with ;)
 
Borgschulze said:
Good luck, but you paid for 12 Pixel Pipelines and 400/490 clocks.
Click to expand...

I know, I know. But listen: I had a choice of 4 X800GTO's. They were all within $10 of each other, and all in stock. I hand picked the RED GTO2 for a reason, and we all know what that was. How one of the memory chips melted, I have no idea. I unlocked the card, and was using it at stock speeds for a month before trying higher settings, and I had an ATI silencer on it from day 1. Pics to follow soon
 
You could ask them to exchange for the exact same card you sent in. You never know if you're nice they might hook you up. If not, as said above, you got what you paid for. Sux but its better than nothing at all.
 
Could I possible do anything with this core? Can it be turned into an X800XL? Sorry about the bitmap and orientation of it.
 
im shure it could be a x800pro if you clock it. the x800xl is still 16 pipe. you might get that to work but they use different memory speeds and timings.
 
Well, if you've got a spare PCI video card about, keep it handy. Flash your card with an X800XL BIOS that supports 1.6ns RAM (Gigabyte has one, i think, get it from techpowerup's BIOS collection). If the flash doesnt work, and borks your card, throw in the PCI vid card, and flash it back to the original BIOS. Simple.
 
I put the card in tonight and did some testing. I got the core up to 445 and the mem yo 560 using ati tool.
It seems to be very smooth, and the colours look much better than with the 6800GT I had been using. The mem cooler on the back of the card got very hot. Is there no temp reporting in ATI tool for R430 based cards? I cant seem to find it.

If I don't get the correct card from Sapphire, and she lives for 30 days, I'll try the flash and see. I thought only the VIVo X800's would bios unlock.
see: http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/100
 
Is it true that if I flash to unlock the xtra 4 pipes on this R430, and it does not work out, I flash back the original bios, but may not lock back up the original 4 pipes? What if one of the 4 locked pipes are bad, and I cant get these 4 locked up? Is there a 1 in 4 chance, or do I just flash and test each time? I heard there was some kind of utility to find out the original 4 locked pipes, and re-lock them in flashing back to stock. Anyone heard of this?
 
Just an update: My polite persistance with RMA has netted me a new card. I am to send back this "Frankenstein" card, and they will send me an X800GTO2 dual dvi VIVO card, with the red pcb and the 6pin header. I hear these cards are already unlocked. This is better than my original card, w00t!
 
I sent the frankenstien card back to Althon(RMA). Two weeks later, they sent me an X800GTO2 VIVO. This card has dual dvi. It was shipped bare, no vivo cable, which would be nice to have someday. I put a Zalman VF700CU and 8 ocz bga ramsinks on it. It is a true R480 core, and I did a test run at 540/590 with no artifacts in ati tool, 65C core temp loaded. I am glad I was patient and polite with rma, as I actually got an upgrade out of the whole ordeal.
One thing I'm glad about: the 6800GT I was borrowing can get the hell out of my house! I'm glad to be back from the dark side, lol.
 
LanPirate1 said:
I sent the frankenstien card back to Althon(RMA). Two weeks later, they sent me an X800GTO2 VIVO. This card has dual dvi. It was shipped bare, no vivo cable, which would be nice to have someday. I put a Zalman VF700CU and 8 ocz bga ramsinks on it. It is a true R480 core, and I did a test run at 540/590 with no artifacts in ati tool, 65C core temp loaded. I am glad I was patient and polite with rma, as I actually got an upgrade out of the whole ordeal.
One thing I'm glad about: the 6800GT I was borrowing can get the hell out of my house! I'm glad to be back from the dark side, lol.
Click to expand...



Congrats on the upgrade. I know what you mean about the 6800 gt. I got used to it and was very pleasantly surprised when I switched back to ATi.
 
rcf1987 said:
MAN I would be like fuck that if I were you I would call them up and tell them "where the hell is my r480 GTO2"
Click to expand...


Yea...thats the attitude...good advice: tell them to send the broken card back at once! :D

Anyway, looks like it worked out.

Try not to kill this one.
 
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