Powerplay slipping into 2d while gaming...

[Jeff Flowerday]

To be even safer, 820/1200 in both 2d and 3d would be nice as well.

[Daidalos]

I think i managed to find something while playing with bios editing. There seem to be 3 modes on 3870. 3d, low power 3d and 2d. The mode that kicks in in crysis and other games is actually low power 3d. So what i am trying to do is make a bios that runs at 300 core at desktop but never goes under 800 in 3d. Also UVD has seperate clocks i will make these the default 777core. As soon as i have more on this i will post my results.

[purecain]

can you change the volts being given in low power 3d to the same as normal 3d mode.... with same speed.. that would seemingly eliminate our little power play problem... congrats and looking forward to flashing new bios... respect m8...

[Daidalos]

I am trying a lets say "beta" version right now. It has stock 3d volts in loe power 3d mode but i have made the clocks 700 in that mode to see if and when it is changing modes. It seems to work. In desktop i have 300 core in games 777 core and when load falls under 30% i get 700 core. I will test some more and when ready i will give you the new bios.

[Daidalos]

OK after some testing, here is the new bios. Its based on the 0.73 sapphire bios. With this version you get 300/1125 clocks while on 2d mode. In low power 3d and 3d modes clocks are 800/1150. So when in a game clocks wont get below 800/1150 but you save some power while not gaming.
Also I lowered the 2d voltage a bit. Its now 1,21V instead of 1,25V. Still perfectly stable. Low power 3d and 3d modes voltage is set at 1,33. Finally UVD is clocked at 775/1125 with 1,3V.
As always test at your own risk and all feedback is welcome.

[purecain]

thankyou m8.. gonna try this now...
ok this is something i'm doing wrong so i'm hoping you can explain what it is... for some reason i cant get atiflash to recognise that i have the bios on my bootable flash drive... tried giving it differant names but it just doesnt work for me. atm i'm typing atiflash -f -p newbiosv1.bin and it comes back saing error (cant remember the error code) cant find bios.... press 1 to continue...

i've tried loads of differant names but still failed to get it to work... what am i doing wrong?
i'm gonna try again and then leave it...

[Daidalos]

Thats strange! Its:

atiflash -f -p 0 newbiosv1.bin

I flashed it on mine with the same bios name.

[malik22]

Hi Daidalos have you tried crysis has it fixed the problem I havent tested your bios yet cause im not sure if im gonna sell these off and get a 3870X2.

[Daidalos]

Yes crysis works fine with this bios. Clocks stay at 800/1150 at all times. That goes for all other games that had this problem to like COD 4.

[malik22]

Yes crysis works fine with this bios. Clocks stay at 800/1150 at all times. That goes for all other games that had this problem to like COD 4.

Ok thx for your hard work if I decide to keep these ill use this bios I also got an email from sapphire with a bios thats suppose too fix the powerplay issues I dont know if it has the 862 overclock bug or not here it is maybe you can open it up with your editor and see what they did.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ep4c7q

[Varsos]

@purecain
You forget the zero (0) parameter in your string

@Daidalos
i'll try the new bios now and get back for the results.

[Daidalos]

Ok thx for your hard work if I decide to keep these ill use this bios I also got an email from sapphire with a bios thats suppose too fix the powerplay issues I dont know if it has the 862 overclock bug or not here it is maybe you can open it up with your editor and see what they did.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ep4c7q

Thanks for the bios m8 i will give it a try.

EDIT: I just checked it. It seems to have 3d clocks on all modes like my first bios BUT it has 2d voltages on low power 3d mode... It also seems to be based on the 067 bios version...

[malik22]

Thanks for the bios m8 i will give it a try.

EDIT: I just checked it. It seems to have 3d clocks on all modes like my first bios BUT it has 2d voltages on low power 3d mode... It also seems to be based on the 067 bios version...

Ok thx Daidalos im not really suprised cant expect much from sapphire tech support.That newbiosv1 bios you posted is based on the one I posted in the first thread? and if I oce that bios the newbios1 to like 850 1200 will it stay at that all the time?


Regards

[purecain]

unfortunatly i only forgot to add the 0 to the string in this post... i've been adding the correct info in the bios... i'm not giving up though... gonna give it another go.. i had this problem last time i flashed but i added the bios file another time to the flash drive and the flash worked when i tried again. puzzled....
just spent 30 minutes trying again and it wont find the bios... is there another way...?

[Daidalos]

Ok thx Daidalos im not really suprised cant expect much from sapphire tech support.That newbiosv1 bios you posted is based on the one I posted in the first thread? and if I oce that bios the newbios1 to like 850 1200 will it stay at that all the time?


Regards

Its based on the 073 from my card. Its has both 862 limit fix and fan speed fix.
As for OC i am sorry to say it wont work like you say. If you oc to 850/1200 overdrive will go to low power 3d mode when load is less than 40-30%. So with this bios for example clocks on crysis will go from 850/1200 to 800/1150 and back to 850/1200 as load fluctuates. But i can make a bios for you that keeps clocks at 850/1200 at all times if those are your stable clocks.

Also I think i found how to change limits of Overdrive but i need to work on it some more. I hope to have this on my next bios.

@purecain: It is a known bug of atiflash to not find the bios. You can try a simple name like b1.bin. It has worked for me in the past.

[purecain]

ahhh thanks man... if something goes wrong i usually see it as an oppertunity to learn, thanks for the info m8... i'll try again now....

damn!!! wont work... i've spent over 4 hours changing the name so i can forget atiflash...
didnt wizard make a new tool for flashing this card?????
tried winflash but i get the subsystems id mismatch error... there doesnt seem to be a way to force the flash with this app.... guttered...
any ideas anyone....

[Daidalos]

Now that is really weird. Heres a re-up just in case.

Also try the latest atiflash, here:

http://www.mvktech.net/component/opt...rent,category/

[purecain]

i get subsystems id mismatch with that one aswell....
trying with atiflash...
bios flashed... brilliant m8....

[Daidalos]

Glad it worked. Tell me if it works ok for you.

[purecain]

works great man.. could do with having ccc work... but aside from that its the the best bios i've used yet....

[Daidalos]

Overdrive works but you have to reinstall the drivers. At least that was the solution for me.

[Varsos]

Excellent work man. Everything works great.Now i'm waiting for your 850/1200 version.

Keep up the good work

[purecain]

i still cant get ccc to work but the slowdowns in crysis are completely gone.... could you make one with higher clocks... that would be perfect...

[Daidalos]

Would 850/1200 be ok?

[Jeff Flowerday]

I just installed your last bios newbiosv1.bin and fans aren't working. My tempatures at about 70 at idle. Are you sure about the fan control?