Doubt about XFX5770 bios

[samt1687]

Well... Im one of many users that is having issues with his GPU. My pc randomly crashes while playing games... specially when I do this: 2D mode - 3D mode - 2D mode -3D crash. Anyway... I read around that some people could fix their problem updating the gpu bios, so I started looking after a bios update for my GPU. I found this bios http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/6...24.091207.html for my XFX HD-577A-ZNDC but I noticed that that bios and mine have some differences like voltages or memory speed in one case. Also my bios has an additional "Clock info"... I don't know why, but it looks like this:

My bios: http://img840.imageshack.us/i/minelk.jpg/
Bios published: http://img820.imageshack.us/i/published.jpg/

Could this be a cause of crashes? :S

[HXL492]

i heard that windows 7 are causing a lot of problems for 5770 users

[trickson]

I haven't had any problems at all with my XFX 5770's . I run win 7 64 bit . as for flashing bios's on the cards your best bet is to as XFX on there site to see if there is any real help they can give you . do you have the latest drivers ? I am on the 10.11 drivers and WOW they are smokin fast now ! best mid range card out there and crossfire is really kick ass ! Just go to XFX home pagehttp://xfxforce.com/en-us/home.aspx?lang=en-us and see what they say good luck .

[mkchiu]

Originally Posted by samt1687

Could this be a cause of crashes? :S

Yes. Both for voltage stability and BIOS improvements.



There are only two significant differences in the clocks steps. The new boot voltage is 1.2V instead of 1.125V and clock 2 has an odd RAM frequency.

A stock 5770 is 850MHz/1200Mhz/1.125V. Since that XFX 5770 appears to overclock to 875MHz/1300MHz then a higher boot voltage of 1.200V can help with possible corruption during initial boot and during gaming. Or it could be set to 850/1200/1.125 and overclocked (in software like MSI Afterburner) to 875/1300/1.200.

It would be bad for the RAM to switch from 1300 to 1200 to 1300, but since state 1 is likely 1-3-2, that's probably not a valid sequence.



Also, hopefully the RAM is actually stable at 1300MHz since RAM voltage is not usually software/BIOS-firmware configurable.

Originally Posted by HXL492

i heard that windows 7 are causing a lot of problems for 5770 users

Such as? I didn't see any relevant problems when googling, and have had little problems with a tuned MSI Hawk 5770 on Win7 64 bit.

[samt1687]

Well... I have tried to put 875/1300/1.200 but voltage doesnt change. I can put voltage lower than 1.125, but over that, despite I put 1.200, voltage remains 1.125

[samt1687]

Why cant I increase voltage over that? :S

Originally Posted by mkchiu

It would be bad for the RAM to switch from 1300 to 1200 to 1300, but since state 1 is likely 1-3-2, that's probably not a valid sequence.

State 1 in my bios is 1-2-0

[overclocking101]

i wouldnt download and flash a bios your unsure of. personally I would simply edit your bios. the main problem with the 5770's (mine at least) is the uber low 2d clocks, switching from 850/1200 down to 157/300 is a huge step and causes fuck up when switching back and fourth to often. I would take the 157/300 clocks and make them higher like your standard 2d clocks like 400/800 etc etc

[samt1687]

Should I just increase the clocks? keep intact the voltage?
And... increasing your 2d clocks fixed your problem?

[mkchiu]

Originally Posted by overclocking101

i wouldnt download and flash a bios your unsure of. personally I would simply edit your bios. the main problem with the 5770's (mine at least) is the uber low 2d clocks, switching from 850/1200 down to 157/300 is a huge step and causes fuck up when switching back and fourth to often. I would take the 157/300 clocks and make them higher like your standard 2d clocks like 400/800 etc etc

Agreed, especially if an IGP or PCI video card is unavailable. The 2D clocks aren't low. AMD-driver clock-transitions are poor.

I personally went from 157/300/0.95 -> 600/1200/1 -> 875/1200/1.2 to 157/300/0.95 -> 600/600/0.95 -> 714/1200/1.2. The staged 300 -> 600 -> 1200 greatly minimizes flicker and distortions once the GDDR5 has warmed up.

Originally Posted by samt1687

Well... I have tried to put 875/1300/1.200 but voltage doesnt change. I can put voltage lower than 1.125, but over that, despite I put 1.200, voltage remains 1.125

Originally Posted by samt1687

Why cant I increase voltage over that? :S

State 1 in my bios is 1-2-0

Originally Posted by samt1687

Should I just increase the clocks? keep intact the voltage?
And... increasing your 2d clocks fixed your problem?

It could be either the original BIOS does not interpret inputs larger than 1.125V, does not output values larger than 1.125V, or the power circuitry does not support 1.2V. You might want to verify the actual voltages if you're handy with a multimeter and have a steady hand.

Also, your voltages could be insufficient during any of the transition clocks. Likewise, checking stability at the various voltages you run would isolate the clock transitions as a problem.

157/300 -> 600/1200 -> 875/1300 is not a good sequence for GDDR5. 300-> 1200 -> 1300 is not balanced.

If you don't want to do much work, then set all clocks to 850/1200/1.125V. The card seems to support 1.125V, and stock 5770 frequencies (850/1200 @ 1.125V) should be stable unless the AIB manufacturer made mistakes.