So here are my first findings. I'd really appreciate some of you guys confirm them!
I have an Asus 5830 installed, equipped with a default software controllable fan (please note that there's no such thing as a reference design by ATI for the 5830, so also no reference cooler). I have the catalyst driver 10.3 installed as well as the CCC.
Good news is: Fan control using RBE still works as usual! I tried both automatic transfer function and look up table mode. First I set the
transfer function to rather drastic values, flashed and rebooted. See the settings I used here:
After reboot, just during the POST screen, I noticed the expected: Pretty loud fan noise. This high fan spin rate kept up until windows was booted (and thus, driver settings kicked in). Please note that I have overdrive disabled, don't use any profiles in the CCC and don't use any other video card software such as Afterbuner, RivaTuner or anything like that. Still, the driver seems to take over the fan controlling job.
Afterwards, I confirmed these findings using a BIOS set to use these, again drastic,
look up table values:
I found the same outcome: Loud fan during boot, fan noise cutting off as soon as windows was booted.
Conclusion: Fan control in BIOS itself still works, but settings are being overridden by driver even without any fan profile.
Do you confirm?