XFX 5870-XXX owners...newer BIOS

[LoneWolf15]

Hi guys, new to the TPU forums, but not to PC's...

Some of us were on Overclock.net have been having some issues with gray vertical bars in games after 30-60 minutes with our XFX 5870-XXX edition cards; I have heard the same issues from others --more on that to follow.

One of the other forum members RMA-ed one of his cards, and when he received it back, he found it had a new BIOS. It dropped the memory clocks from 1300MHz to 1250MHz, but raised the core clock from 875MHz to 900MHz. It appears this BIOS may solve some of the gray-bar issues, what with the memory clock being slightly slower.

Since this is the primary site for good VGA BIOS downloads, I created an account here, and have validated with GPU-Z. Hopefully that has extracted the BIOS info (I didn't see confirmation) but I figured I'd post a link here too, I'm sure it will get noticed (and if necessary, uploaded by a mod).

http://www.mediafire.com/?202onundwnf

I accept no responsibility for b0rked cards, but I did flash this BIOS to mine, and it is working. The 5870-XXX is a reference-design card with higher clocks. For those XFX-5870 reference owners with standard clocks, there may be a BIOS update out there if you contact XFX with the same version. I searched for the BIOS version on Google (VER012.019.000.006.036339), and found it also appears to be used on some Sapphire cards, but did not see it posted here for XFX.

For those of you with the 5870-XXX edition, I hope you find this useful.

[cadaveca]

I've been waiting for a new bios for some time now...any info on CCC max?

[Kreij]

Welcome to TPU, LoneWolf, and thanks for the info.

[LoneWolf15]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

I've been waiting for a new bios for some time now...any info on CCC max?

No change.

I have tested this BIOS for the past 90 minutes using Fallout 3 and Oblivion, 1920 x 1200, set to pretty high settings, and while I have gotten vertical lines in the past, it appears the slight memory down-clock is the fix. It usually only took 30-45 minutes for me to get stability issues.

While it's a benchmark and not a game, I can also say that my 3DMark Vantage score has gone up from around 15,800 to around 16,600, which indicates to me that the additional 25MHz core clock effects performance a lot more than the 50MHz drop in memory clock; it doesn't appear that the 5870 is lacking for bandwidth.

I know that a very minor change has been made to GPU voltage (note: top screenshots are the earlier BIOS, bottom ones are later, courtesy of one of the Overclock.net mods), I'd guess to ensure stability at the 900MHz core.

I'm happy my card appears to be completely stable now, and just wanted to share the joy.

[cadaveca]

My card already has that higher-than-release-cards voltage, and I see that the fan profile is differnt than mine as well.

I'll try it out when I get some time...I have many issues between the two cards, each gives different problems.

I'm ready to face more problems....getting close to RMA time for me.

[eidairaman1]

If your so damned worried about CCC, grab Rivatuner or ATI Tray Tools. CCC is for the Squimish at heart, just like Nvidias Control Panel.

[cadaveca]

Uh, what are you on about?

[LoneWolf15]

Originally Posted by eidairaman1

If your so damned worried about CCC, grab Rivatuner or ATI Tray Tools. CCC is for the Squimish at heart, just like Nvidias Control Panel.

Is there really a reason to act this way?

I meant for this thread to be helpful, not insulting. Comments like these aren't needed.

[Kreij]

Keep it civil people and don't get obnoxious.
This is a good thread, let's keep it that way.

[E.M.R]

wow thanks LoneWolf is about time that XFX got an Updated Bios! Works great on my xfx 5870 xxx edition tri-fire! the date on this new updated bios is 2/23/10. Compare to my old bios which is 11/26/09. i checked this by using RBE. now the default is 900/1250 not bad not bad at all! thanks again.

[eidairaman1]

CCC has limited overclocking and should realize that AMD wont push it further than that, if you really want to push something you gotta modify it.

[E.M.R]

Originally Posted by eidairaman1

CCC has limited overclocking and should realize that AMD wont push it further than that, if you really want to push something you gotta modify it.

modifying it is easy as pie just use rbe and modify it to 1000 limit on Core clock or more and u can alway change ur gpu voltage and ram voltage on rbe. so u dont have to use msi after burner or ati's own overdrive and of course flash ur modded bios by using atiflash on dos.

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by eidairaman1

CCC has limited overclocking and should realize that AMD wont push it further than that, if you really want to push something you gotta modify it.

That doesn't have anything to do with this though...other than that limit is set in bios, and hence my question. ASUS cards have 1200/1500 max, so this bios could have been anywhere from the stock 900/1300, to there. Doesn't mean I'm going to use it...just curious as to what other changes this bios may hold.

Heck, I don't even overclock my cards 24/7...just for benches...if I need more 3D power, I'll do it right, and just buy another card, rather than chance that overclocking might be enough.

You don't even need CCC to enable Crossfire any more. Most would tell ya I need it for that, even.

[LagunaX]

3DMARK06 - rig in my sig.
Sapphire 5870 flashed to XFX XXX 875/1300 bios.

Second screen MSI Afterburner to 900/1250 - same rig.

Seems original is better in 3DMARK06 but you say newer is better in VANTAGE.
I'll try UNIGINE DX11 Heaven 2.0 when I get some spare time

[LagunaX]

900/1250 Mo' Betta!

[REVHEAD]

Well thanks for this bios, I dont want to mess around OCing everytime I install a driver and allso dont want to mess around with bios editing, I had the sapphire bios version installed previously so this oced bios is the icing on the cake, it is very much appreciated.

[Zubasa]

The reason that downclocking the memory fixes performance issues is that the memory on 5870 is rated for 1250Mhz.
The original 1300Mhz memory clock for the XXX was simply unstable on many cards.

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Interesting how close the memory is to max oc at default speeds on a lot of these 5xxx series cards. I supposed since the increase in clock rate is 4x ati felt they could cut things a little close with the binning.

[HunterZ]

Thanks LoneWolf, seems to allow my XFX 5870 XXX card to run fine now without locking up. I had been using MSI Afterburner to run the fan more aggressively and reduce the memory clock speed, but now that's no longer necessary.

It's obvious that XFX was pushing the XXX cards at 1300MHz out the door as fast as they could without testing them first because mine would lock up in seconds at the default 875/1300 timings. I had contacted them a couple months back but they just gave me the runaround, so I had to explore to find my own solution. I don't think I'm going to go out of my way to buy XFX next time since they seem to be reluctant to push BIOS updates

[alexsubri]

Can I flash this bios on my xfx xxx 5850?

[cadaveca]

This bios is working really good for me.

Alex, I've seen a couple of people report they flashed 5870 bios on 5850 with success, but I don't really recommend doing so.

[Sasqui]

Saw this thread and it perked my interest, but I haven't had any issues with mine @1300.

1000/1300 is even better!

[alexsubri]

Originally Posted by Sasqui

Saw this thread and it perked my interest, but I haven't had any issues with mine @1300.

1000/1300 is even better!

Had my 5850 @ 1000/1300 before

[diancecht]

will this bios update work on my XFX 5870 XT edition?

I tried the 11/09 XFX bios update for my card which raised the core clock from 865 to 875 and lowered the memory clock from 1300mz to 1250mz but i still et grey screens in 3d apps.
I'm about to RMA the card but only as a last resort because the place i bought it from as really bad after sales customer service.

[exodusprime1337]

the xxx edition bios will work on any xfx reference 5870. i for one ditched the whole xfx bios thing a while ago and flashed with an asus. The only issue i had then was screen tearing with a second monitor while overclocking because of powerplay which was quickly remedied by flashing away the clocks that made powerplay work... now my 5870 has 2 settings it's got 1000/1300 @ 1.325v with agressive fan timing, and 400/800 for 2d clocks.. never worked better.

on the other hand i'm quite the nub when it comes to bios's.. are things like timings and the like contained within the bios.. is it possible that this bios may actually work better for my xfx 5870s than the reference asus bios?