Guide to flash 9800m GS to GTS

Exostenza's guide to Flashing the 9800m GS to GTS and whole bunch of tips, tricks, suggestions and programs for your over clocking desires!

Whats going on here:

There has been a lengthy discussion on over clocking the 9800m GS card to the same speed as the 9800m GTS and I decided to compile some information for you guys so you don't have to go through 25+ pages of discussion. The 9800m GS is actually the old 9800m GTS as nVidia changed the schematics of the GTS to a 55nm process with 1GB of RAM and started to sell the old 65nm GTS with 512mb of RAM as the 9800m GS and because of this they were able to let the cards that would have normally not passed the GTS standard test go into laptops with a lower voltage and clock speeds. This means that for some of us the flash will work flawlessly as the card were manufactured to handle it and it will not work for some as they have not had to pass the same standards as they would have it it was going to be a GTS card. With that said the flash has done WONDERS for me and flashing my card has given me about 10-15 percent better frame rates in the games I play and I play a lot of games. With that said here is what I can tell you:

OLD AND NEW BIOS FOR THE 9800m GS TO 9800m GTS FLASH FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS IT: *I lost my USB drive with the BIOS files and Filefront deleted them; I hope I can find the stick soon.

Please remember if you think you are not capable of getting your bios and modding it on your own you probably shouldn't be downloading this and attempting a flash. I am providing this for archive purposes if anyone loses or corrupts a bios and needs it fresh. I retrieved this BIOS from my card and edited myself so it is 100 percent tested and working on my laptop.

http://files.filefront.com/13383060

I am providing an OVERVIEW of what I did - for the DEFINITIVE guide on how to flash your nVida bios which goes into MUCH greater detail on the subject of flashing the bios go here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=160237

Here is what I did and a few tips for the G50Vt-A1 Laptop and it worked for me, please read the above guide to thoroughly know how to flash your bios:

-make a bootable USB key (there are a bunch of programs to do this with I used one from HP) and put nvflash and both rom files on the root folder of the USB key
-you can retrieve your original bios from your card with nvflash and edit it with nibitor if you want or use the ones I provided
-make sure you have a stable release of nVidia forceware as you do not want crashing due to the driver and not your overclock while you are testing it
-to clean install a driver you uninstall the driver, reboot in safe mode and use driver sweeper, reboot again install the driver then reboot again
-boot up from the USB key and flash the new bios onto your 9800m gs
-run 3dmark maxed out a couple times through to test stability
-my card gets to 94C on maxed out 3dmark05 and 91C maxed out on 3dmark06, but I usually don't exceed 88C in a game; before the flashed I got the SAME temps so nothing to worry about (you can monitor your temps with GPUZ)
-if everything runs smoothly with no artifacts / crashing you are fine and happy gaming, if not reboot and flash the old bios rom back onto your card
-you CANNOT test this OC with software programs as the VOLTAGE is changed on the card to support the over clock
-remember this VOIDS your warranty if you cannot get the old bios back on before you send your laptop in for repairs in case anything goes wrong
-this flash has worked flawlessly for some of us and has not worked for others, but no one has killed their computer doing it so it should be a relatively safe processes
-from what I have read people with the G50Vt-A1/2 laptops have had better results than with the other model numbers as I think the quality of the parts are not as good in the G50Vt-X series

Programs to use:

Latest Forceware: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/
Driver Sweeper: http://phyxion.net/Driver-Sweeper/View-category
GPUZ: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1333/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.3.2.html
Hardware monitor: http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php
3Dmark programs: www.futuremark.com
HP Boot Utility: http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197
NiBiToR: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/NVIDIA-BIOS-Editor.shtml
nvflash: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/nVFlash.shtml

If this helps you please give me some rep!

Updates

Testing your over clock and/or new driver set performance:

Very important to note if you are benchmarking with the 3dmark programs if you gain or lose a few points from driver to driver it has no actual bearing on your real game performance. I have had drivers where I lose over 200 points in 3dmark06 and see more stable average frame rates in the actual games I play. If you want to see what an over clock and/or a set of drivers actually does for you run in game benchmarks or do a controlled walk through where the same thing happens every time you play it in a game you play a lot. That will show you your actual performance gains and losses the 3dmark programs are made so you are able to reliably base your computer against another computer and has taken over to show specific gains or losses in gpu performance from over clocks and driver sets when it really should not be used.

Unreal Tournament 3, Company of Heroes, Half life 2, F.E.A.R. and Crysis have in game benchmarks as I am sure many other games do I just don't know about them. Also remember to turn off v-sync in the game when you benchmark or you will be capped at a certain frame rate which not help you see your performance gains/losses accurately.

Important note about benchmarking with 3DMark06:

Many people have laptops with screens that have a max resolution 1366*768 and think they are getting better 3Dmark06 scores than other people with similar setups, but the reality is that the default resolution is set to 1280*1024 so many people are not capable of running the program on its default setting on their laptop so please be aware if your max resolution on your laptop is 1366*768 you aren't actually getting better scores than everyone else with better resolution. Although since you are forced to run your games in a lower resolution you do see a performance increase over people playing with higher resolutions; although you will experience decreased visual quality because of it.

Monitoring Temperatures:

I have added Hardware Monitor to the list of programs as not only does it monitor the temp of your GPU, but it monitors everything else in your laptop if you are interested in your overall temperatures and it has a nice little feature where it shows you your max temps for everything so after coming out of a stress test it is really quick and simple to see what your max temps are. Although this is very convenient I still like to use GPUZ and have it create a text file of its information so I can see not only my max temps, but how long it took to get there and how long it stayed there for as usually the temperature will peak and then come down a bit and level off.

My temperatures:

Just an update on what I have found with my temperatures; in RTS games I usually don't even hit the 80s, in Source engine games I usually don't go above 88C. I have hit around 94C in Left 4 Dead for a bit of my gaming session, but it levelled off after about 10 or 15 minutes to around 88C. High 80s is what my card stays around in modern games with the graphics turned up, but I would like to note it is not uncommon to hit up to 94C for periods of very GPU intensive scenes. So far I have not had a crash, hiccup or artifact when I have stayed at the GTS speeds however when I try to push any bit of my card any higher I get problems. Some people may be worried about these temperatures, but I read that 110C is the thermal throttle temperature for this card which means that it will start to back down the card when it hits 110C. Therefor because of this information I know that not even 110C will harm the card so I am fine with my card being at 94C at times. I think the card will start to bubble and destroy itself somewhere around 120C. If the card was hitting 94C every time I play games and staying there I would reconsider this over clock, but because it rarely goes over 88C and in most cases with the games I play its much lower than that. Now one thing to remember is that no matter what the hotter something runs the shorter its lifespan is going to be, but this does not necessarily mean that these temps are going to kill the card any time soon. I have never had a computer part die on me if it was working well in the first place and I have over clocked everything I have gotten my hands on. For me the lifespan of this equipment if it is manufactured well should be over 20 years and if these temperatures shave off 5 years of that what do I care? Really though the choice is yours to do with your hardware what you think is ok and don't make the decision based on the fact that I said I am ok with these temperatures. I realize this part is a little scattered, but I hope it helps you guys figure out whats best for you and if your temperatures are alright.

About Over Clocking the GPU RAM

RAM on the GPU is always the first and mostly the only thing to go when over clocking a GPU as it usually has no temperature sensors (9800m GS doesn't) and its the shoddiest quality part as it doesn't need to be manufactured with such strict methods as the rest do to come out working properly. Due to this I highly suggest leaving the RAM on the 9800m GS where it stands as the GS and the GTS have the same RAM speeds. If you want to take it up do so knowing that I recommend against it! Especially considering most, if not all of us, are doing this in a smaller gaming laptop and are already making things very hot as it is.

HEAT UPDATE:

So I was playing L4D and I have never gotten over 93C on my card before on any of my games and for some reason it got over 100C and crashed my comp. I don't have a laptop cooler and it just went from relatively nice weather to ridiculously hot here so I am guessing if its going to be a hot summer you'll need a laptop cooler for this flash. As for now I flashed back to GS speeds because I don't have the time or the want to deal with it, but if I get enough time to sort it out I'll update this here. I did however have this flash running stable for a few months with no issues so if your ambient temperatures are decent or you have a laptop cooler it should be fine.

 

rly great job

should get sticky

just one more question:
do u always have to boot up with the usb stick or only once when i flash it?

thanks

 

You need the USB bootable key to boot into DOS and flash your bios. Once the bios has been replaced there is no need to boot up into DOS again unless you need to flash the old bios back on. Please read the flashing guide I linked in the OP to be 100 percent sure on what you are doing before you attempt anything.

 

That's wicked! Nice post I am stuck with my G50V and even more jealous of you Vt owners now

 

btw what kind of driver is that? On the nvidia page i cannot find it.. so a chenglog/feature lsit would be nice :>

also google didn´t tell me anything except some japanese sites oO

thanks

 

DOX is known for his ability to mod desktop drivers for optimal performance and stability on laptops. He has been modding them for some time now and since I purchased my laptop I have used his drivers. He is a moderator on laptopvideo2go and seriously knowns what he is doing. The drivers are meant to improve stability and performance on mobile gpus using the desktop drivers as they are newer and therefore have more bug fixes and optimizations. Compared to stock drivers I am able to play some game such as Fallout 3 on all high settings smoothly where before they would be a little choppy in some places. For me it hasn't really raised my highest framerate, but has pulled up my minimum giving me a much more constant, smooth game play which is what we are all looking for. Also his newest release do wonders for over clocking and have made my laptop incredibly stable in games.

 

okay thanks .. will dl everything now , install the driver and read the tut.. need to wait some hours until someone brings me a usb stick D

@edit: u used the beta drivesweeper?

 

When installing DOX driver over normal ones I used driver sweeper as that is a must, but when updating from DOX to a new DOX the normal uninstall, reboot install is ok. I got that information from the man himself. So the first time I got DOX on my laptop yes I used driver sweeper, but I dont think beta 2 was out. You should always use the latest version of sweeper though as it cleans better and better!

Ok I edited the OP so it bring you to the forum post of his drivers so you can check it out, thanks.

 

seems like a great driver

i uninstalled via programs and features the nvidia driver (not physx).
Then i reboot and it automatically installed some display driver.. uninstalled that one again and instantly ran save mode when rebooting. There i ran drivesweeper and uninstalled nvidia display drivers. After reboot to normal windows it already had again a nvidia driver @programs and features. So i thnik it installs some standart driver. I installed the dox driver with performance option now and rebooted. GFX-Properities tell me i use the 185.20 dox performance driver.. so i think everything is fine.

So people dont wonder when u always have a nvidia driver @programs and features even if you uninstalled it.. it installs automatically. hope this is correct and also should be like this

Will wait for a usb stick now

Thanks :>

@edit:
Propably some alternate links to watch the cpu temp:
Hardware monitor got a rly nice overview
and Everest ultimate is nice too. but i havent found a option to see the max temp.

 

3dMark06 ERROR

kay after flashing i ran 3dmark.. loadign times got ign slow and i alredy thought "?"..

during the test with this water-monster i got this error:
IDirect3DDevice9 resent failed: Device_Lost(D3DERR_DEVICELOST)

gpu-z shoes me that i overclocked it.. so what now?

it looks like its clocked too high but i got the same gfx as u guys.. g50vt-a1

@edit: run the test again.. the loading speed is now faster.. and i got more fps.. but still getting the error after 30 secs

 

You said you have 185.20 on, use the DOX 182.05 as they are newer. Doesn't matter if you have the same card as we do they all over clock differently according to the quality of the materials used at the time. Thats why some batches perform better than others. If your card can't hack it then there is not much you can do about it.

From the flash guide I linked in OP:

"I seem to be having an issue...when i to try to test with 3dmarks05 after the driver level overclock,i get the error : "IDireect3DDevice9: resent failed: Device lost (D3DER_DEVICELOST)

Those kind of error shown if card is overclock too much.Lower your clock speeds and try again"

 

sry i mneant 182.05 .. got that driver

and ye its overclocked.. but why? it works for you? so it should work for me too? And which clocks should i put down? All ? And voltage on 1.11 ?

Thanks

 

9800M GS cards are cards that didn't quite make the cut as GTS cards. That can mean that the card handles the GTS speeds, but runs slightly hotter than the manufacturer was comfortable with, but it could also mean that the card was generating errors at GTS speeds. I'd reflash the card and drop the core clock by 15MHz or so and see if that helps. If not, you might have to go back to stock voltage.

 

didnt work.. i dont get it.. i have the same gfx card.. and even the A1 model which should run it better than the X models..

maybei need to put voltage higher? I think i read that somewhere.. and some ppl run it with 1.15

 

A1 has nothing to do with it, it's all about how the individual card came out of the manufacturing process. I'd be careful about turning up the voltage, that's an easy way to accidentally fry your card.

 

somethign is rly wrong here..

some minutes ago i had to reboot 3 times while everything lagged and took years to turn off the pc.. got a gpu-z erro when starting (couldnt run drivers: couldnt find file specified path) .. and now again it i run 3dmark06 the loading time of the gfx tests is loke 700years..

also my kaspersky asks me afetr reboot everytime about smth with rundll32.exe and the geforce dox driver.. omg

set it to 580-1500-800 still doesnt work.. i can go further with the test than with 590... which went better than 600
but still it doesnt work. Also i get such strange flickering at the test.. i somehow think its the drivers fault.. does any of u guys also use this DOX driver ?

 

I'm using it, works pretty good for me. It may have installed badly for you, though, if Kaspersky is giving you grief about it. I'd try completely uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling. Feel free to try a different driver, maybe the official 179.48 ones, but the DOX drivers are working fine for a lot of people.

 

well i think the problem i had is that windows automatically installes some standart driver.. i will explain you very detailed what i did:

1) programs & featuers -> uninstall nvidia driver (display not hd sound and physx)
2) reboot
3) it installed instantly again some nvidia display driver (new device found, driver for that device installed, device can be used blabla) and also was in programs & featuers as nvidia driver
4) uninstalled that one again
5) reboot into safe mode
6) drive sweeper -> delete nvidiy display driver
7) reboot into normal vista
8) installed again this standart driver
9) i uninstalled it without reboot and installed the DOX driver
10) reboot

Thats what i did and i guess that okay?
I will try to go with the core clock lower.. the lower i go, the longer the 3dmark test works. So propably i go to 550-1500-800.. or even 500-1500-800.. all the time with 1.11V.. or should i also lower the 1500 ?

Thanks

 

overclocked it now to:
570-1500-800-1.11V
max temp: 78C

Runs the whole 3dmark06 test.. but i get alot of flickering (some strange pop ups for soem milliseconds and stuff.. so it doesnt rly run that smooth as before)

Score: 8920
before: 8400

The temps are rly low.. i will try the original bios again .. run the test.. and if it flickers again rly strange i will try the some other nvidia driver..
propably someone could tell me if everything went right with my driver installation (read post above)

thanks

 

sry for double posting again.. just want to tell you my experience step by step:
also found an error with the sound when playing games.. it sounds like smth is real damaged..

so i flashed with the original bios..
everything normal again.. some fps less.. 3dmark not that good anymore.. but everything runs normally.. no sound problem @cs 1.6 , no flickering @3dmark test.. but no overclocking

So is there anything i can do? I guess its not the driver as everythign runs normal again after useing the orig. bios.

I rly dont get what is wrong here.. thanks guys

 

1. the standard driver is just so it knows what gpu you have and to use its basic hardware so dont think you have to uninstall anything when it does that as it happens for everyone just ignore it and go about everything as usual

2. Some people get cards that cannot handle the clocks, try getting rivatuner or nvidia system tools and see how far you can take it on the normal voltages. Just because we have the same video card doesn't mean they will over clock the same.

 

that sucks

so i can´t higher my voltage?
how exactly do i check that with rivatuner? never used/did that before

thanks

 

Raising voltage can harm your GPU and if it cant handle the bios i provided i would not recommend trying to up the voltage even more

About Rivatuner the official forums are hosted on the guru3d forums:

http://forums.guru3d.com/

 

Just something I figured I would share for those of you who dont know.

IF using any other speeds other than STOCK or GTS speeds the speeds you select are not going to be what it "actually" runs.

What I mean for example if you pick 565 for the core, it will run 567... if you pick 570 it will run 571.

Regardless of what GPU-Z or ATI tools say your card does NOT run exactly what you put unless you pick the right number.

I learned this a while back on desktop overclocking.

The only program thus far I have found that tells you the actual speed its running is EVGA Precision.

All the overclocking features of it are useless but it tells you the actual speeds on the left side...

Anyway, wanted to share that. You will have to do some more research if you want to understand why as I don’t want to make a book here but just an FYI. So those trying to do minor bumps or drops to they may actually be more than minor…

 

hmm there isn´t any tutorial how to test out the max voltages for your card.. but i will search the forum
thx

and about the voltage:
some ppl run it with 1.15 and i can´t even run it with 1.11 ? or maybe the voltage was too low for that speed and i also need 1.15?.. its rly strange

@edit: lol dont get rivatuner.. i can´t even get the clocks to the standart values.. i found a guide that u may have to change the max values but i guess thats not safe and i have no clue how to test out how far you can go

 

No guide to find max voltage as odds are if you find your max voltage you just fried your card. aha

Anyway i would say if you cant run GTS speed stable at 1.11v than you are screwed like me.

Best I am up to is 567 1400 799 @ 1.05v... Anymore voltage or higher on anything and i get issues....

Try those settings, at least you may get a little improvement.

Those are exact actual numbers the card will run as 800MHz on the RAM is not a valid number and 570 on the core is not a valid number... It will take them but it does not really run at those...

 

can you oc with 179.48?

 

thanks bryanu will try it out later.. need some sleep first

i rly wonder what the this is.. i mean.. some guys here run at 1.15volt with 700+-1600-800 .. and some others cant even run low OC

@edit: i think Exostenza meant that we could somehow find out what our gfx card can handle with rivatuner.. and flash it to that.. so thats what i meant with finding out max settings.. but dunnow how

 

I don't know if this was asked earlier but is the flashing of bios possible on the G71-Q1 since it runs the same 9800 GS 512?

Thanks.

 

I'm sorry I haven't read the whole post, but can someone tell me whether this flash does:

1) Unlock the extra shaders that may work to boost performance

or

2) Overclock (& overvolt?) the GS to make it perform like a GTS

???

Thanks

 

demonmarcus: as long as you have a 9800m GS it is the same card as we have so the flash process is the same, just make sure your cooling can handle it as I don't know anything about that laptop and remember that not all cards make the cut so it might not work.

zakazak: if you are getting errors with the 182.05 DOX drivers with the bios I rovided I suggest you do not raise the voltage s it is just going to damage your card and you might brea ksomethign and then you would be really screwed. Try flashing on the old bios so you are at stock voltages and try small increases in OC with a software program to see what you can run with stock voltages. It seems like you got a card that cannot handle the high clocks and voltage I think you are just going to have to accept that.

Hahutzy: The 9800m GS has only has 64 shaders on it so there is nothing to unlock. The new bios I provided raises the voltage ad the clocks to what the GTS is at default. It usually helps to read the first post before you go asking questions that are already answered. I made this post so people wouldn't have to ask questions like this anymore. I don't mean to be rude its just annoying that I took the time to make this guide and you come in and ask without reading.

 

I don't get why anyone would even download someone else's vbios file and then flash it for their graphics card. Thats a big risk to take considering you can just download nibitor and edit your own vbios file.

 

Thanks for the answer. That's what I thought but wanted to be sure.

 

my bios and his bios are the same.. it doesnt matter if i take his bios which has already higher voltage + clocks or if i take mine and increase clocks + voltage to the same amount.

What happens if i have high clocks but normal voltage? And how can i find out which clocks i can run with rivatuner?

thanks

@edit: i still dont get it why my gfx card cant handle it .. it should be the same as everyone else.. i rly think the gfx can handle it.. just smth is wrong.. i mean overclocked i have 3C more than normal.. thats nothing.. i run it at 78C and others got up to 90C
as i dont have experience with this stuff i can just guess and think that the voltage/clock parameters dont fit.. i coul imagine that higher clocks need more voltage.. and that 1.11V is not enough as other ppl run it with 1.15.. but somehow i also dont want to risk & test it .. maybe someone knows if that could be the problem or if that doesnt effect anything

 

It's not a perfect manufacturing process, some chips come out more capable than others. Same for processors, RAM, and almost any component.

 

that rly sucks.. well .. then it would be nice to get some tut how to find out the max clocks/voltages my card can handle without haveing any risks

 

Every card will have diffrent max.

Every cards max will be diffrent for each part to, voltage, memory, sharder and core.

Its not really going to be any risk so long as you dont try to go over 1.11v... 1.15 may be safe but thats about when the risk will start.

So play around with other speeds and see what you can do.

Its going to be a trial and error thing... Thats how ALL overclocking works for ANYTHING...

 

okay so i will try different clocks at different voltages
thx

 

zakazak seriously be careful since you are new to this you might break something. You need to know what you are doing if you want to play around with voltages on your own.

 

It is very inderesting to see the GS perform at GTS speeds. I personally use it at 580/1450/800 and so far so good. I never flashed or anything though, I don't see why heh, as I can overclock with the nvidia performance tools (ntune I think its called).

I wonder if I should try the GTS speeds... Maybe another time

 

The reason for flashing the card is to raise the voltage so your card can handle the GTS speeds. If you want to take it that high flashing is a must. Also once you have found a safe stable OC why have software control it when you can build that OC into the hardware... its one less thing to worry about.

 

What Exostenza said... i could only raise my GS to 580ish core in software before it would start to show artifacts. Flashing the bios which included a 1.11v and GTS speeds, the card has run perfectly. No software, no OC'ing, no dramas.

on my first boot up i had the Temp monitor software running straight away and one by one ran some 3d progs. furmark can show you pretty quickly if things are getting too hot or not working properly.

 

look my benchmark

 

Nice stuff here, I never did manage to get my G50V-A1 overclocked even after hacking away with the bios.

 

Ahh rly bad that i cannot overclock mine too.. well i propably could do it a bit but i dont know how to test everything out as it is a bit to risky for me

hmm somehow most ppl which canot overclock are the ones with the A1 ?

 

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!!!

That's some massive scores for the M GS!!!!

I'm thinking of trying the VGA Bios Flash thing too!

 

G50 model does not matter. All G50vt have the SAME model video card, the X5 or A1 or A2 does not have a better or worse card.

All the cards come from the same bin...

I have an A2 and cant OC past 567Mhz.

 

bryanu how did u find out how much you can overclock? and how u found out the voltage? and is it risky? i mean i know that at the gts speed it already wont work so ofc i wouldn´t go higher..

 

I found my limit playing games and running stress tests.

Anymore voltage or higher on clocks and i would get errors or crashes.

Your voltage will be the default 1.05 unless you flashed with someones GTS bios mod.

Otherwise you can change it yourself, but the jump goes 1.05, 1.11 or 1.15...

I could prob get more shaders on 1.11 but not going to up voltage just to change one clock and it wont even change that much, so I will keep stock voltage which makes less heat and saves more power and just OC as far as I could... Either way better off than stock settings so I cant be mad I guess.

 

so u just put higher clocks and play.. and if everything is fine you put it higher.. and when its too high u put it back to the last safe value and its done?

well i also thought about to test it with voltage but i dont know how risky that is to play with 1.05 - 1.09 voltages..