9800m GS flashing to GTS

I've done a bit of reading on this flashing business. I hear you can both undervolt and change models (GS, GTS) by flashing. Here are the guides I was reading but I have a few questions...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=357807
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=160237
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=393228&page=2

1. He says the temps don't change by flashing to the gts bios, how is this possible? Isn't the reason why it wasn't a gts to begin with was because of the nm? When he does post his temps they are very high either way..I usually game at 83 maxing at 86, and this playing dragon age. we both have g50vt's. he might be overclocking though so idk.

2. does it run a risk? can i brick my video card or leave my computer damaged? can i flash back to to the gs if it doesn't work out or i need to send it in for repairs?

I'm hesitant about flashing to the gts. I'd just to clear up those things before I go any further.

About undervolting the gpu...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=412244

1. Again, does it run any risk? bricking or warranty voiding in particular. does it shave a good 2-3c or results may vary? (unlike cpu under clocking which seems to always work =p)

2. unlike cpu undervolting, does it come with any problems or performance decreases?

Like anyone, I like to achieve max performance and lowest temps, but I prefer coolness and stability over performance, so if flashing to the gts is detrimental to any of those than it's out of the question =p

thank you!

 

After doing more reading I'm pretty sure I've found the answers to a few of my questions, but am still confused about his temps.

"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)"

and then

Testing your over clock and/or new driver set performance:
(so it is an overclock? not just a bios change that uses the card more efficiently or whatnot, but a bios change that automatically pushes the card harder and overclocks, or unlocks it)

and

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."

Hitting 94c on a 9800gs seems high, I wouldn't be happy with those temps. But again, he said it got that hot before the flash. I've maxed at 86c but usually play at 82/3c and get 86c max in furmark. So from what I gather the flash doesn't normally increase the temps of your card...but it can (proof being his L4D incident)

 

Do you really want to flash your vBIOS? Isn't the only difference between the 9800M GS and 9800M GTS the clock speed (530/1325/800 vs 600/1500/800)?

If so, just change the clock speeds in NVIDIA Control Panel and when you close it, select the option for loading these settings when Windows starts.

Even if you really really want to flash later, the new speeds will give you an idea of how hot the GPU runs at GTS speeds.

And overclocking (from GS to GTS clocks) inevitably increases temperatures; you never get more performance for free. Unless of course you undervolt.

 

Thank you for your help, I was actually just thinking the same thing =p

"If the gtx bios just upclocks the gpu, why not simply use a program to do it"

people still do it for some reason though, i thought it changed more than just clock speeds but i guess not. I'll just test it out using riviatuner or ntools and go from there.

Undervolting REQUIRES a flash though, correct?

 

OK I went to flash and everything was going smoothly buy when I press "y" to start nvflash my computer beeps and gives me an error...

"EEProm erase failed"

"Software write protection enabled, disable software write protection"

anyone know whats up with that? Is it bad, is my chip unflashable or something?

I found this...don't know if its safe to disable though, maybe its stopping me for a reason..

-- Primary Commands --
Update firmware: nvflash [options]
Save firmware to file: nvflash [options] --save
Compare adapter firmware: nvflash [options] --compare
Update TV data: nvflash [options] --tv
Display version: nvflash [options] --version []
Display firmware bytes: nvflash [options] --display [bytes]
Check for supported EEPROM: nvflash [options] --check
Write protect EEPROM: nvflash [options] --protecton
Remove write protect: nvflash [options] --protectoff
Change soft straps: nvflash [options] --straps=
Set IEEE 1394 GUID: nvflash [options] --guid=
Set IEEE 1394 GUID source: nvflash [options] --guidsource=
List adapters: nvflash [options] --list

 

I know we tried this with my 8800m GTS tried to flash it to an 8800m GTX, but Gateway's crazy limited Phoenix BIOS wouldnt let us do it, and to be honest I believe that the shader processors were laser cut, so basically it would just be an overclocked 9800m GS, in your case.

I dont think Nvidia made the same mistake, as in leaving shader processors or pipelines open like with the 6800 series, so the only thing being accomplished here would be raising clock speeds.

 

hmm thats fine i can OC thru ntune. I really want to downclock but im running into these eeprom flashing errors. couldnt find anything on google.

I need to know if this is a common error and theres a quick fix, or if somethings not right and i should leave it alone before i brick my card.

it looks like i can disable write protection and then flash it, im just afraid write protection is protecting my card from a bad flash, is that possible? is it safe to disable it?

 

Yeah they found the flaw with the 6200 and the 6600LE, the later edition of those were laser cut. Imagine, a GF 6200 overclocked to a 6600. Something to dream of in the time.

 

Well I disabled write protection and it worked flawlessly. Most stressful 30 seconds of my life though =p