The 4870 "2D Low", GPU voltage/Memory clock rate Bios Thread

[Octopuss]

Ok I just finally got myself to flash edited BIOS into my 4870 and the result is very good - GPU core temperature went down by 8°C and the general temperature in the case by 5 or so. Naturally, CPU runs a bit cooler as well.

And just for the record, I flashed 400/450MHz core/memory idle values, 1.083V.

 

[vanhoenacker]

Well, my Sapphire 4870 Toxic 1Go is now flashed : 100/200 2D and it work very fine, 30°C Idle on Gpu with VF900CU

 

[Octopuss]

I gotta try lower as well at least to see how the flickering looks like - if it will happen at all that is
How GPU-hungry is accelerated video btw? I lowered the voltage for those states by one notch, but think I can go lower without problems...

 

[Octopuss]

Well, my Sapphire 4870 Toxic 1Go is now flashed : 100/200 2D and it work very fine, 30°C Idle on Gpu with VF900CU

Oh btw how about you and flickering when switching between different modes?

 

[vanhoenacker]

perhaps it's chance but i've no flickering when the card switch between 100/200 and 3D

 

[sPurf]

Rivatuner Rocks!

I have been using ATT for a year now to underclock my card to the 2D profile 160/225 but have always been frustrated that ATT couldn't undervolt my card to custom voltages. This is where Rivatuner comes to shine. Unfortunately you can't use the GUI to change the Voltage but you can use the "Launcher" function to run Rivatuners CLI. I add under "Associated Application" the following:

C:\Program Files\RivaTuner v2.24\RivaTuner.exe

with

/wi1,70,17,33

in the command line and this drops my card to 1.0875V

I just make another profile to return to the normal voltage of 1.2625

/wi1,70,17,41

As you can see the last number determines the voltage. The other 3 values will be unique to your setup but can be determined by using the modified plugin vt1165 found at http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=217002

This plugin allows you to dynamically adjust your voltages but will also give you the values of all 4 numbers to put in the command line.

Undervolting has shaved another 5W from my 2D profile to get my system to 100W at idle.

Now this is all well and good, but you end up losing the functionallity of switching the profile on and off automatically as your game etc runs and closes as Rivatuner can only monitor the asscociated application you have put in your launcher profile which unfortunately is itself! No fear, I have come up with a script that will add the same functionality (see atached file). You will need to change the extension from .txt to .vbs and edit the values of your RivatunerLauncher profile, the Program you want to run and the executable file that it should watch for.

Enjoy!

 

[gadjo23]

Nothing has changed as far as the HD4870's flickering when changing MEM speeds. This is all dependant on ATI's usage of PowerPlay (rather than driver-based, like the HD4870X2) for setting 2D and 3D speeds with the HD4870. An all-in-one BIOS just isn't feasible at this time, unless this changes.

If you want to use differing 2D and 3D MEM speeds for power saving, heat reduction or whatever, it's highly recommended you try Ati Tray Tools or Rivatuner. Both are excellent for setting whatever GPU/MEM speeds you want, along with different fan settings, and now (Rivatuner) even voltages for reference HD4870 card users.

UPDATE: I've recently done some further BIOS testing and have found that it's possible to set 2D memory clocks to 450MHz, with no flickering problems. Although this is new to me, I'm sure others have already figured this out. So if you're looking for an all-in-one, automatic power saving BIOS it is definetly doable. For 2D you can set it to 500/450@1.083v and for 3D to 750/900@1.263v. I've tested this out and it functions very well, and the power savings and heat reduction are quite good. Obviously if you use Rivatuner or ATT you can lower the memory clocks even more for increased power savings and heat reductions. But for people who are lazy and don't want additional software, these are great BIOS settings to use.

Well i dit put my 4870 into Linux pc ,so i could not put ATT or Rivatuner in action on this one.

No glitches at all... very nice this 450/500 solution tried a lot off settings myself but obviously NOT this 450 magic setting ....(I assumed ATT for life for this card ).

 

[EastCoasthandle]

So, can someone put up a guide that others can follow when tweaking your bios. IE:
-reference
-non-reference

Thanks...if for some reason I miss that post PM me and I will put it as part of the OP.

 

[kinderlol]

Guys I have a problem!

Videocard is working, but not as expected.

I have 4870 512Mb, changed my bios to work with 160/225/1.083V for every Powerplay state (to completely remove flickering).

Everything works as expected in Windows XP.
Surprize was when I loaded my linux (this is the real reason why I started messing with videocard's bios, in linux there is no support for 4870 over/underclocking at all)

Nothing has changed in linux - videocard becomes hot and cooller spins as hell.
Then I tested same in DOS - again undercklocking is not working.
It works only in windows and only when ati video drivers loaded.

I think the reason is that Powerplay is not activated by default, and videocard loads standard settings. If it so - is it possible to force Powerplay in bios ?

 

[Zíon]

I guess to make it work under DOS and every other OS without drivers loaded, you need to change "boot" mode

 

[kinderlol]

I guess to make it work under DOS and every other OS without drivers loaded, you need to change "boot" mode

"boot" mode already 160/255. As I told - I modified all modes.

Tested using EastCoasthandle's drivers (modified boot) - same result. Works in windows, not works in dos/linux. So as I already mentioned, the reason may be in disactivated Powerplay.

I bet I am not the only one. And each of you has the same result - just wait before loading windows

I suppose that those who use "fglrs" drivers in linux (original ati's) don't see my problem because their driver activates Powerplay. But fglrx works only in older version of linux and not in modern.

 

[kinderlol]

Okay I solved my problem.

Facts:
1) bios modification does nothing without loaded drivers with Powerplay support. So Powerplay is purely driver related feature - driver reads correct numbers from bios and then sends data to videocard to activate selected modes. Videocard never do this by itself. Please edit first message in this topic and to not encourage readers about "dos" "linux" "platform independant" because its not.

2) In Linux you have only two alternatives: a) fglrx driver b) radeonhd driver 1.3+. radeonhd now can control clocks, so you do not need to modify video-bios.

 

[50eurouser]

Hello everybody I've got this one http://www.powercolor.com/eng/products_features.asp?ProductID=5172 When switching to 2d mode Voltage isn't lowering! Tried every posible voltage in RBE but it stays High all the time at 1.33 Volt (measured via multimeter). Card is non-reference pcb with 4-phase power.
By the way without pencil or other voltmods the card can go as high as ... 865 MHz! simply amazing!

 

[eidairaman1]

you shouldnt worry, only time to worry is if ur having instability.

 

[Mussels]

Hello everybody I've got this one http://www.powercolor.com/eng/products_features.asp?ProductID=5172 When switching to 2d mode Voltage isn't lowering! Tried every posible voltage in RBE but it stays High all the time at 1.33 Volt (measured via multimeter). Card is non-reference pcb with 4-phase power.
By the way without pencil or other voltmods the card can go as high as ... 865 MHz! simply amazing!

thats the cards i have. curious as to what gets found out here, as i havent flashed mine with 2D low settings yet due to flickering issues i heard of.

 

[Octopuss]

I get the damn flickering no matter what frequencies I try, it's annoying... From the default 900MHz memory frequency I tried 450, 400, 225, 250, 200, and no luck. Any ideas?

 

[Octopuss]

no tip what to do?

 

[I_shot]

guys i know the thread is old but i just wanna know that lowering the memory speed and voltage make any harm to ram chips?i ve heard that underclocking gddr5 memory causing artifacts.a friend of mine tested this method and after 10 days ram chips(qimonda ram, referance board) blown away and a useless card at the end.i was wondering if there is anyone using this method worked for years?

 

[Inioch]

guys i know the thread is old but i just wanna know that lowering the memory speed and voltage make any harm to ram chips?i ve heard that underclocking gddr5 memory causing artifacts.a friend of mine tested this method and after 10 days ram chips(qimonda ram, referance board) blown away and a useless card at the end.i was wondering if there is anyone using this method worked for years?

I've had my two cards always on 200/550 in 2D (which is most of the time) and have had no problems at all. I've had to RMA one card that had VRM go bad though.

This is the first time I hear about any issues undeclcking gddr5.

 

[VuurVOS]

guys i know the thread is old but i just wanna know that lowering the memory speed and voltage make any harm to ram chips?i ve heard that underclocking gddr5 memory causing artifacts.a friend of mine tested this method and after 10 days ram chips(qimonda ram, referance board) blown away and a useless card at the end.i was wondering if there is anyone using this method worked for years?

I think he just had bad luck with his card. Mine card is still working after almost 2 years of underclocking.

 

[specophunter]

I know this kinda off topic but can yall tell me what is the power consumption for the ati 4350?

 

[Im2bz2p345]

Hey guys,

I apologize for bumping this old topic back up, but I've come across a frustrating issue since owning my MSI Radeon 4890 1GB OC Edition. I know this topic is in relation to the 4870, but my problem might be similar.

Whenever I watch a youtube video or play a game, then exit out, returning to the desktop.. I get a slight flicker/refresh. It's like 1/2 a second long and the card seems to be readjusting itself.

Anyway, I'm wondering if this is the same issue addressed in this topic or am I way off? I've been trying to resolve this issue since owning the card (over a year now) and can't figure out how to fix it.

The problem only occurs when I overclock the video card. I've do so via enabling ATI Overdrive and clicking on "Auto-Tune." If I return the card to stock settings, the problem disappears magically.

I've come here because I hope someone that is more experienced with this card can help! If someone can post *REALLY* easy to follow instructions on how to tackle this best, that would be super helpful. I'm a complete noob to overclocking (never done it before), but would like for my graphics card to perform really well while utilizing the best power consumption.

Here is a screenshot of my current Auto-Tune OC settings:

Appreciate the help in advance,

~ Im2bz2p345

 

[Im2bz2p345]

*bump*

Any help would be SUPER appreciated guys! Do people still own the 4870/4890 cards?

~ Im2bz2p345