The 4800 series Driver, OCing, Cooling and Tweaking Thread

[Inioch]

Now I'm officially embarrassed

Thanks EastCoast for having the patience to deal with someone who thinks he knows what he is talking about, while doesn't.

So, my problem was the oc's. After returning cpu and mem to stock settings, everything worked like a charm.

In my defence, I would like t o say that my oc's passed my orthos, prime and memtest stresstests with ease.
So I really thought they were stable.

I will have to investigate further, but my suspicions lie with the memory.
They ran just fine at specified 4-4-4-12 timings with 2.0v.
They were supposed to run like that with 1.9-2.1v.

Next on the try list are:

Stock cpu/mem, oc gpu, if that works then,
oc cpu&gpu stock mem, if works,
oc everything

Thanks again to everyone who helped me!

[LoWRiDeR82]

Glad you fixed it dude!And Eastcoast is THE man
Anyone tried the new 8.8 drivers with the 4850??how are they?

[EastCoasthandle]

Originally Posted by Inioch

Now I'm officially embarrassed

Thanks EastCoast for having the patience to deal with someone who thinks he knows what he is talking about, while doesn't.

So, my problem was the oc's. After returning cpu and mem to stock settings, everything worked like a charm.

In my defence, I would like t o say that my oc's passed my orthos, prime and memtest stresstests with ease.
So I really thought they were stable.

I will have to investigate further, but my suspicions lie with the memory.
They ran just fine at specified 4-4-4-12 timings with 2.0v.
They were supposed to run like that with 1.9-2.1v.

Next on the try list are:

Stock cpu/mem, oc gpu, if that works then,
oc cpu&gpu stock mem, if works,
oc everything

Thanks again to everyone who helped me!

No problem...Orthos, Prime and Memtest aren't really worth using in situations like yours. It's better to just play your games to see how things work out. In any case, I'm glad things worked out for you, enjoy!


Side note:
Delete, read a few posts that caused problems when installing official drivers after using this.

[LuxZg]

Info for everyone!

LINK TO THE POST with some new BIOS from ATi, with some interesting stuff in it. I'm at work so can't test it, but read the post text and it will sound interesting. Specialy if this is really from ATI and not from Diamond (guy did say ATI explicitly, so should be official).

It has unlocked CCC overdrive, and seems they did something to voltages as well. You'll get exe file that auto-flashes the card, but you can extract it (I've done it with PowerArchiver, but probably WinRAR will work too), and you'll get the files. "4870-128Kb512MBOC795-1100MHz.sb" can be opened in RBE no problem and shows this:
BIOS DATE: 08/13/08 13:01
VERSION: 113-BA0701-100
ATOMBIOS VERSION: ATOMBIOSBK-ATI VER011.003.000.001.029254
500/1100/1,276V 2D
795/1100/1,276V 3D

Note - higher voltage! As soon as I get home I'll flash it, try it, and see if it really ups the volts, and if you can use lower volts as well.

Also, 990/1250 is upper OC limit in CCC.

This should be official ATI driver for boards based on reference design, so start flashing ppl!

Btw, I have posted or will be posting this in other threads too, as it is VERY interesting info, and I guess as many people know about it and test it - the better

Cya all!

edit: this is for 4870 cards, just for the record

[H82LUZ73]

Originally Posted by LuxZg

Info for everyone!

LINK TO THE POST with some new BIOS from ATi, with some interesting stuff in it. I'm at work so can't test it, but read the post text and it will sound interesting. Specialy if this is really from ATI and not from Diamond (guy did say ATI explicitly, so should be official).

It has unlocked CCC overdrive, and seems they did something to voltages as well. You'll get exe file that auto-flashes the card, but you can extract it (I've done it with PowerArchiver, but probably WinRAR will work too), and you'll get the files. "4870-128Kb512MBOC795-1100MHz.sb" can be opened in RBE no problem and shows this:
BIOS DATE: 08/13/08 13:01
VERSION: 113-BA0701-100
ATOMBIOS VERSION: ATOMBIOSBK-ATI VER011.003.000.001.029254
500/1100/1,276V 2D
795/1100/1,276V 3D

Note - higher voltage! As soon as I get home I'll flash it, try it, and see if it really ups the volts, and if you can use lower volts as well.

Also, 990/1250 is upper OC limit in CCC.

This should be official ATI driver for boards based on reference design, so start flashing ppl!

Btw, I have posted or will be posting this in other threads too, as it is VERY interesting info, and I guess as many people know about it and test it - the better

Cya all!

edit: this is for 4870 cards, just for the record

Thanks Lugz,But be warned if you have winflash installed the BAT file in the zip will auto run and flash your card.But no problem just right click it edit and put your info for your card mine was these (i have crossfire setup)

Palit cards only (copy paste to notepad click save as ,save as paltitstock.bat)You may change the palit.BIN to what you like,say 1083.bin....

@echo Please wait while I'm trying to flash your Video Card...Thanks!

atiwinflash -f -p 0 Palit.BIN

Sapphire cards only (this is set for crossfire ,just change the 1 to 0 for 1 cards)

@echo Please wait while I'm trying to flash your Video Card...Thanks!

atiwinflash -f -p 1 RV770.BIN

Again same as the palit but name it sapstock.bat and change the bin file.


Now for the new bios it ran great on my cards,Just the amps go up at idle to 28.7 for each card and make sure you have fans set in CCC ,they ran with 45% fans and at idle were 50 to 52 c ,Sorry never checked the temps under load....

[LuxZg]

Well, more amps means there has to be more voltage too

As for automatic flash if you run that exe or bat file - I know that. That's why I've said EXTRACT the file Bat can't run on itself, so if noone clicks it all is fine. Or just delete it

Once you have that .sb file, you can open it in RBE, mod if you wish (like fan profiles) and save and flash as usual.

[nafets]

Did a quick run-through with this BIOS. Voltage range listed in ATI OverDrive is 1.237v - 1.276v (1.237v, 1.250v, 1.263v, 1.276v). Since the BIOS is a modified -100 version, it's locked in at 1.276v, and any other voltage setting is nonresponsive (see below). Odd that they (ATI/Diamond) didn't use a -105 variant.

Power consumption and Amps in Gpu-Z @ 500/1100 with ATI/Diamond -100 BIOS

ATT  set VOLTAGE  |  Power Consumption  |  Gpu-Z VDDC Current
1.237 (-0.039v)       145W                  31.2A
1.250 (-0.026v)       145W                  31.2A
1.263 (-0.013v)       145W                  31.2A
1.276 (Default)       145W                  31.2A

Power consumption and Amps in Gpu-Z @ 500/1100 with Stock -105 BIOS

ATT  set VOLTAGE  |  Power Consumption  |  Gpu-Z VDDC Current
1.263 (Default)       142W                  29.1A

So the new ATI/Diamond -100 BIOS does increase the maximum voltage allowable for the HD4870. This most likely leads to increased stability when running GPU/MEM speeds higher than defaults, which is great for overclockers.

The choice of using a -100 BIOS means that it will always run at 1.276v, with no undervolting, rendering the voltage range useless. But most overclockers won't care about this.

There's also the increased ATI CCC overclock limit, which LuxZg mentioned, but I didn't test this nor does it apply to me specifically, as I don't use CCC. But for others that do and are overclocking, it's also a great improvement.

Good stuff...

[wolf]

what are the max safe load temps on these babies?




i just watercooled my 4870's but im not sure if the voltage regulators are getting enough cooling. i put a heat sink on everything the stock cooler touched.

preliminary tests (as i did the water cooling job today) show these chips running between 90 and 100 degrees at full load, with a few dips over 100 from time to time.

safe or unsafe?

-wolf

[nafets]

If they go over 126C, the card will shut down.

So you can consider that the maximum safe temperature.

You really don't have to worry about the VRM temps, as the card will let you know when they get too hot.

Is it wise to have the card's VRMs running at near 126C all the time? Obviously not. But with the VRMs properly heatsinked and actively cooled, getting the temps as low as possible is preferred, and will only help to increase stability.

[EastCoasthandle]

Lets try to keep all bios information in 1 thread please. We have the bulk of information here but segmenting newer information in this thread.

[LuxZg]

Like nafets already tested..
By flashing this bios you really do get more juice, even if by a small ammount. Earlier under load I've measured 1,307-1,312 V
(overclocked to 790/1100) and now I get 1,331-1,334 V on 795/1100.. so this is 0,02V more. And no it's not cos of additional 5 MHz, since even 50MHz hardly pushed it for 0,002V

Other than this, I've tried if this BIOS allows lowering voltages, but as much as I've tested - nothing happens. I've tried by new Ati tray tools, by RBE low voltage tweak, by entering values manualy in bios - nothing helped.

I did NOT try rising voltage in BIOS, but with ATT it apparently doesn't move. I believe this BIOS has same voltage-changing limitations that the reference one had, only now it's fixed to 1,276V instead of earlier 1,263V. You can try it yourselves, and good luck

I'll keep playing with the low-volt BIOS cos I'm mostly limited by the CPU anyway...

What we can expect now, is that someone will compare original BIOS and this one, and maybe will figure out WHICH bits exactly change voltages either to higher or lower values.. I hope RBE will be able to do it in a release or two

I'll post relevant infos back in low 2D thread as well, this was just for those that are interested mostly in overclocking..

[Fastmix]

From what I understand Ati partners have a bios modding utility that let's them change values like voltage, now if we could do that in Rbe..one could use the 105 bios to set a low 2d and an overclocked/overvolted 3d then use Att to switch states..basically what we are doing now but with higher clocks.
With this bios I am confident something good will come out of it and the good thing is no need for hardware voltage mod that I don't like doing anyway.

[EastCoasthandle]

Originally Posted by Fastmix

From what I understand Ati partners have a bios modding utility that let's them change values like voltage, now if we could do that in Rbe..one could use the 105 bios to set a low 2d and an overclocked/overvolted 3d then use Att to switch states..basically what we are doing now but with higher clocks.
With this bios I am confident something good will come out of it and the good thing is no need for hardware voltage mod that I don't like doing anyway.

This discussion can be continued here

[EastCoasthandle]

interesting you tube video
watch here

[LuxZg]

Originally Posted by EastCoasthandle

interesting you tube video
watch here

LOL! Nice find I like oh-so-much Though numbers do seem a bit inflated, at least for 4850 vs 9800..

[EastCoasthandle]

Snippets from the article.

R3D: That's an elegant way of saying that you won't support CUDA, in spite of nVidia's claims that you could/should/must.

Eric: Irrespective of what nVidia says, the truth is that CUDA is their proprietary solution, which means that if we were to use it we'd be stuck being second place and following their lead; that's not really a position we want to be in. Another characteristic of CUDA is that it's very G80 centric, so first we'd have to build a G80 in order to have a reason to use CUDA. So, no, we're not going to support/use CUDA in any foreseeable future.
...

R3D: On the topic of tessellation, when are we going to see the tessellation SDK and/or documents detailing how to leverage the tessellator? Those are pretty much non-existent in public form as far as I know.

Eric: Hmm, that's an interesting question. The tessellation SDK is not yet done, and there's no firm date for its release at this point in time. We're working with interested developers directly. Driver support is also not yet completely finalized, we plan to introduce it in the November 8.11 Catalysts. So you'll have to wait just a little bit more before you can start playing with it.

...

R3D: How is the Edge-Detection part done for Edge-Detect AA? Is it purely analytical, e.g. based on applying a Sobel/Canny-Deriche filter, or using differential edge detection, or do you rely on Z-compares/checking whether a tile is fully compressed or not?

Eric: We don't want to reveal too much about our algorithm, it's a secret sauce of sorts. But in a nutshell, it's a mixture of hardware and software, and it uses a technique to do coarse edge location and isolate the regions of the screen that contain edges, and then applies a filter on these areas to do fine location of the edges. Then an adaptive kernel filter is applied for the resolve that is location and edge aware.
...

R3D: Further elaborating on this topic, where does the difference between the 4870 and the 4870X2 stem from? The X2 downclocks to 507/500 at idle, whilst the 4870 does not downclock the memory at all ... since they're both GDDR5 parts, it can't be GDDR5 related, can it?

Eric: Lower speed GDDR5 modules are in the works, so it's not an inherent GDDR5 limitation. Having said that, the trouble with GDDR5 at clocks below the 500MHz mark is that you have to shift the operating mode towards a more GDDR4-like one. This requires some software work to be done. With the 4870 we didn't do it since other things took precedence, and because we were already getting good thermal and power characteristics. The 4870's power draw is in line with what you'd expect from a performance part. On the other hand, for the 4870X2 we had to deal with having what is practically 2 4870s on the same PCB, with an extra 1GB of RAM, so we implemented a more aggressive downclocking. With that in mind, we are looking at changing the way the 4870 behaves and having a similar clocking strategy for it, but that requires implementing certain changes in the software stack, and it's not the primary priority currently, since the card has characteristics that are within the envelope that is specific to the segment it targets.
...

R3D: Now that we've started touching sensitive topics, can we find out what's up with the interconnect? Why is it disabled? Are naysayers correct in stating that it's up to the AIB whether or not the traces for it get built into the PCB, and that it's likely to not be enabled?

Eric: The sideport interconnect is fully functional in the reference design. Though we've found that with the current AFR mode of multi-GPU support, the additional bandwidth brought by the interconnect does not translate to a significant improvement in performance. However, we are continuously working on optimizing how our ATI CrossFireX (tm) technology scales and trying different methods, and could decide to enable the sideport if a method is found which gives better results and benefits from it.
...

R3D: Now that we've started touching sensitive topics, can we find out what's up with the interconnect? Why is it disabled? Are naysayers correct in stating that it's up to the AIB whether or not the traces for it get built into the PCB, and that it's likely to not be enabled?

Eric: The sideport interconnect is fully functional in the reference design. Though we've found that with the current AFR mode of multi-GPU support, the additional bandwidth brought by the interconnect does not translate to a significant improvement in performance. However, we are continuously working on optimizing how our ATI CrossFireX (tm) technology scales and trying different methods, and could decide to enable the sideport if a method is found which gives better results and benefits from it.
...

Read more here

[binormalkilla]

Well I've finally determined my max 24/7 stable OC.....stable in ATI Tool, Crysis, Clear Sky, etc. It's 735/1100 with 1.158V VGPU. I can bench 750/1150 and play Valve games, COD4, and other less demanding games, but I get driver resets in more demanding games.
I'm going to try testing higher memory OCs as well.

[LoWRiDeR82]

Yo dudes,I just installed the Arctic cooling accelero twin turbo on my 4850 and I have 2 questions

1) must i cool those 4 chips that are next to the 8 tiny voltage regulators as well,or not necessary?

2) I connected the fans with the 12v connector directly on the gpu,and when i set the fan speed at 100% through ati tray tools,max speed indicated by rivatuner and att is 1480rpm...isn't it supposed to spin at 2000rpm?

[EastCoasthandle]

I think we are going to need a pic to make sure we understand what you are talking about. Unless someone else out there knows for sure.

[LoWRiDeR82]

Hmmm has anyone got a pic of a naked 4850??there are the 8 tiny voltage regulators,and next to them there are 4 square chips.What about the fan speed that isn't going at 2000rpm??doesn't the card give 12volts?

[LoWRiDeR82]

nobodyyy??

[Inioch]

I assume you have the reference model and not some custom pcb?

Do you mean these four:



At least they dont say anything about them at Arctic coolings website:

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.p...6&data=7&disc=

So I suppose not, but how would i know, I have a 4870

Does the stock cooler have something on them?

[LoWRiDeR82]

thanks dude!yeah the stock cooler did touch on them

[Inioch]

Once again it's a case of "it can't hurt". So if you can fit some kind of heatsinks there, then good.
But if not, then I wouldnt be too concerned.
One would hope that the guys at Arctic cooling know their stuff.

Have you fitted the cooler already?
Can you post some pics?
Is there still a problem with the heatpipe touching one of the sinks, like they say on their website?
Or is it fixed in newer builds?

Sorry for the ton of questions, I'have my own interests in the cooler.
I'm still considering between the twin turbo and the Thermalright T-Rad2 for my 4870,
so any temps, clocks and tips you can give are much appriciated.
The cores are the same, even if they have different memory.

[King Wookie]

I'm also eyeing the T-rad2 for my 4850, and 2 reviews I read had it outperforming pretty much any other aircooled option with 2 92mm fans on board.

Just wish I could find those reviews.