While high-end graphics cards provide performance that is nearly enough for all the games, users who acquire mainstream products always try to find ways to improve their speed so that to have higher speed or quality in 3D games. There are several ways to increase the speed of graphics cards: update drivers, overclock or turn on certain ?hidden?potential, e.g., pixel pipelines. For years enthusiasts managed to turn the RADEON 9500 into the RADEON 9700, then RADEON X800 PRO into more powerful RADEON X800 XT and now there seems to be a way to turn the RADEON X800 GTO and the GTO2 models into far more powerful X850 XT model.

techPowerUp! has found a way to unlock a quad of pixel pipelines on RADEON X800 GTO and GTO2 graphics cards made by Sapphire and Connect 3D. The small guide written by the web-site contains explanation on how to flash graphics card BIOS and links to the required tools and tweaked BIOS versions that turn on 4 pixel pipes, which means that end-users get 16 functional pixel processors, which radically rises performance in 3D games.

?Download the modified Flashrom. You MUST use the modded Flashrom, other flashing utilities will not change your pipeline configuration. Next you will need an unlocked Bios file (only the number of active pipelines has been changed, clock speeds remain the same),?warns techPowerUp!.

While the mode is somehow simple, apart from some specifics, the result of the actions is more than rewarding.

?The performance increase from stock to modded and overclocked is about 30% in all benchmarks. Final performance is the same as a regular X850 XT PE. Quite impressive for a $220 video card and a 100% mod success rate,?concludes the author.

• techPowerUp!: X800 GTO and GTO?to X850 XT Mod.