GV-R587UD-1GD BIOS editing

[PeterV]

Hi. I saved the BIOS from my Gigabyte 5870 (GV-R587UD-1GD) and loaded it into RBE and it only has two clock speed entries.
Can this be right?
What is the best way to set this up for some mild overclock, plus new fan mapping? (Fan mapping I seem to understand, but the overclock and knowing what field for what is vague).

Thanks.

 

[PeterV]

Oh.. I also tried to use the Gigabyte 5870 BIOS listed in the BIOS section here (950MHz 3D clock), but Winflash says the device ID is wrong. Can that (or another) BIOS, that is already nicely set up, be used to change/flash my card with?

 

[BAGZZlash]

Strange, but still possible. Could you post your BIOS?

 

[PeterV]

This is the file saved from in GPU-z
I also grabbed it via another program (Forget, but maybe Winflash), which saved a .rom file, but it loaded the exact same stuff into RBE, so it seems it is the true BIOS content.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/hjn1zoyg4tw/Gigabyte5870 - Original.bin

 

[BAGZZlash]

Wow, I've never seen such a thing before. It seems odd but this BIOS indeed holds two clockinfo modes only.
Well, at least it makes overclocking real easy...

 

[PeterV]

Maybe it was GigaBytes way to fix the powerplay clocking change problems. LOL

This BIOS investigation all started after my 'working perfectly for months' 5870's began crashing the PC when YouTube videos were played. Seemed to be the Powerplay versus flash (UVD?) issue encountered by many. And I could not really tie it in to the Flash Player 10.1 update 100% for sure as far as the date of the update. But I thought it was that.

The other last thing I changed before was trying out Cat 10.6 (when it came out) after having used 10.4a Preview ever since those came out. The 10.4a seemed to be totally fine in every way (for me), but the 10.6 caused other crashes (grey screen, bluescreen reboots). But a total driver clean out and going back to 10.4a did not change it back to all working fine like before!
Uninstalling Flash totally, and reinstalling the latest version didn't help either.
Turning off Flash HW Accel did stop it occuring though.

I have just tried Musho's Bios edit and that does not help either - but when I edited that to have a constant 1200MHz memory clock, it did fix that Powerplay/Flash (UVD?) issue. And now I can use HW Accel fine with Flash.
It seems, from forums I checked, that the real issue with Flash is ATI's fault (Powerplay) but Adobe help it work better by altering the ATI clocks themselves when Flash is used.

So it does seem to me that it IS all ATI's fault, with Powerplay... and now mine is all working fine - so far....

Now I want to have a new fan profile - which I did also change in my BIOS edit, but it is not used. It still seems to run at the same default temp/speed sequence. I set the Min to be 40% but it runs at 21%. Mine is set to hit 100% by 70degC, but it actually isn't even over 30% by 70degC. So the BIOS edit is not being used.

 

[PeterV]

The fan setting, using the Transfer Function section, seems to only act on the 3rd waypoint - the one at 100% in this case below.
As the GPU temp rises, the fan starts from 21% no matter what temp level you set the Tmin line at, then ramps upwards very slowly to about 26% before the GPU hits the 52deg trigger point which jumps it immediately to 100% fan.

So waypoint 1 & 2 do not appear to work. eg I have tried that Tmin line at 30%, 40% and it alwasy acts the same as being at 21% anyway.
But the resulting fan pattern is fine for me.
You won't get 52deg unless using a fair amount of power for 3D stuff, so jumping to 100% is fine then. It acts more or less like a 2D/3D switch.

And here is the edited Musho.rom file
HD5870. 900/1220 3D clocks. All speeds running with 1220Mem clocks - to prevent Powerplay created issues. Fan set to ramp up from 21% and then jump to 100% at 52degC (or higher).
http://www.mediafire.com/file/mkuhygdrmmm/Musho.rom

 

[PeterV]

Well, the Moshu BIOS did not quite work 100% as it turns out.
It seems totally fine in every way, except for some sort of video initialising problem when the PC comes out of Sleep mode. The monitors go to active (eg green light), but there is no video! Just black....

So next (now) I am trying out the Gigabyte OC card versions BIOS, which does have 7 clock settings (not just 2 like in the non OC versions BIOS), and hopefully that will all run 100% properly.

The video initialising problem could be some glitch in the driver, and not the BIOS at all really. But I did remove all the ATI stuff, and then ran Driver Cleaner and Driver Sweeper in Safe Mode, so I can only assume that cleans everything out 100%. But maybe it doesn't.

 

[PeterV]

50 BIOS flashes later......

I have finally pin-pointed that whenever I change the fan mapping, the graphics cards will act a bit strange at startup. Basically they overheat.

I have tried a number of BIOS files, some which don't work usefully at all for various reasons (eg ASUS unlocked BIOS won't utilise the DP output on the Gigabyte card), but any that do work will get this overheating issue if the fan mapping is changed.
And all will work 'fine' if you leave the fan mapping alone.

Test process:
Boot and stop at the POST/BIOS screen, just to pass time. Wait.. wait... soon enough (minutes) monitor signals will be lost, and the computer is locked - you can't do memorised key strokes to trigger a reboot (eg exit BIOS), and using Reset will restart the PC but there will still be no video. You must turn it off to clear it.
If you do not let it cool long enough then it will happen again sooner.
If you try to get into Windows, and it overheats before getting to the video drivers stage, then it will lose video again.
If it makes it into Windows (rare to last that long) then it seems the video driver does something that gets it all back under control. eg fan speed increased?

I want to remap the fan because pretty well every BIOS runs the fan at 23% (nice), but all the way until the card is quite hot (under load). eg fan speed rises pathetically as the card moves quite fast towards 80deg. Needing 80deg (some even higher) before 100% fans are triggered. So I generally move the high end limit down, to 55deg area as I am happy to have 100% fan by 60deg anyway. Doing this gives the nice low 25% or so at the desktop, but a brisk move to 100% for loaded use.

There aren't really many fan settings to alter in the BIOS, so I don't see what part of it is actually messing things up. Also impossible to know exactly what is happening, but I am 99% sure it is overheating. Because the card gets overly hot, and also needs time to cool or it will happen again even sooner next time. This suggests that remapping the fan is somehow stuffing up the card in its 'base level just booted up and running just off the BIOS' level (pre driver).

IF it makes it into Windows then it will run ongoing totally fine!
But if it was quite warm/hot when you leave Windows for a restart/reboot then you can rely on it locking up seeing the total time needed to reboot is too long and it overheats very soon then.

Any ideas on values that might be a problem in the BIOS editing? Not much in the fan section is even changed for this anyway. Very weird.

 

[BAGZZlash]

Very strange situation. Unfortunately I can't offer you a solution by now...

 

[PeterV]

I have done bits of trying various things, now and then over the last weeks.
I have the original Gigabyte BIOS, the SuperOverclock version also (quite different BIOS values to mine), and an ASUS one, and an MSI one.
The two GB ones, and the MSI one, work fine (it seems) if I just flash them as they are. The ASUS has some problems which make it no good to use.

So I have three to work with. I will have to go over all the tests again and document them properly so that maybe some useful facts, or info, can be used to work out what is going on.

 

[PhatFreD]

I am having the exact same problem with the card overheating. I have flashed the card to F8 BIOS which removed the screen tearing problem when playing videos. However, the overheating shutdown problem is really annoying when trying to make changes to motherboard BIOS.

Did you ever work out a solution PeterV?

 

[PeterV]

I will find the last BIOS I used and post a link for it.
I think it was MSI based and either the way they start the card up, or the 'right' combination of modes and clocks so that the booting period doesn't heat up too much, meant it all would run fine then.

I sold one card and the other is in a spare PC here, so I will either grab an image from it or otherwise from my folder of "100 BIOS edits", LOL. The clocks (GPU/Mem) I optimised for those cards, but they are not big overclocks. (Now using a BIOS edited 5970 in my main PC).

Clocks are 875/1225 and the fan is just a two point 'curve', but it 'runs up' the curve to hit 100% by the time it is 64degC or so. Thus desktop use is low and quiet.
You should be able to edit the clocks to suit how far your card can go - just do the '875' and '1225' ones, keeping the modes that are the same - like the ones you will see in there now.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/d252c55vizh2kpa/MSI5870oH 875-1225 base fan higher.rom

Hopefully it works fine right away for you!