ATI 38xx BIOS editor (Finally!)

[maxmaz]

So the title says it all:

http://www.computerbase.de/forum/sho...d.php?t=372893
(yeah... a little german might help there)

And to download the BIOS editor (hope no issue with bandwidth):
http://www.aledander.de/vb/ati_bios_...tibiosedit.zip

Seems to take care of everything (clock/voltage/checksum).

Enjoy!

[TiTON]

Wow.. Foxconn released a bios editor several weeks ago, but only allowed control of clocks. THey said Voltage didn't work.

Can anyone confirm that the voltage change is actually functional. I just received my VR, and don't want to hard mod if the bios will add voltage..

Ton

[alexio]

I've had some good conversations with w1zzard and I think it's probably NOT possible to get more than 1.327v (or one notch higher) on the HD3870 and the same (or lower) on the HD3850. I'd like to see this theory tested in practice though, so I hope someone tests it ASAP

[lowtcell]

I posted in the other thread on this. Just a heads up, the voltage selection values in the dropdown have a comma instead of a dot, so if you try this, type the value manually, do not use dropdown selection.

[maxmaz]

Nice catch. However, I don't think it really causes much issues, as the values are not converted with dot/comma/etc. In other words, when we select, say, 0.974 (which is displayed as 0,974 as you mentioned), the program just disregard the dot/comma and convert 0974 from decimal to hex and then invert it and plug it into the bios. Having comma shouldn't make any difference, but hey, what are going to lose if you want to be extra cautious and enter it manually?

Also, as reproted by another user, this program apparantly does not support the newly released 3870X2 yet... Owners of that monster should wait for an update.

[spajdr]

yeah, that program doesnt offer more then 1.327V, even if you edit it with different and higher volts, it jump back to 1.327V.

[maxmaz]

Well, I just openned a 3850 bios, changed the vcore to 1.5v (not that I'm going to flash that though!!), saved it and the HEX value corresponding to 1.5 v (DC05) is right there in the edited bios next to clocks. So, you can enter whatever values you want and the program is going to save it into the bios. Just remember that you are not limited to the drop-down menu values and you can enter anything in the box.

Having said that, we all know that there are limits to the voltage you can set via bios. I think for HD3850, no matter what number you put there, it is not going to be more than 1.29 on the gpu and probably a similar albeit higher limit exists for HD3870 - That's why people start doing pencil mods, etc.

[Chicco85]

I only try this little thing for now:



I set the vgpu in 3D mode from 1,327 to 1,37 Volt.

I have no idea of the improvements... now i can't test.

Bye!

[chp]

...Having said that, we all know that there are limits to the voltage you can set via bios. I think for HD3850, no matter what number you put there, it is not going to be more than 1.29 on the gpu and probably a similar albeit higher limit exists for HD3870 - That's why people start doing pencil mods, etc.

1.29V I think you're wrong. I think it's much lower on HD3850: something like 1.24V (by default on 071 and up it's 1.214)

[MonsterMash]

I don't know if it works to put the vcore for 3d mode over 1.33V, but it surely can put it lower for the 2d mode. And it's very usefull for people who made the vmod!

[ATi7500]

I don't know if it works to put the vcore for 3d mode over 1.33V, but it surely can put it lower for the 2d mode. And it's very usefull for people who made the vmod!

that was EXACTLY what I was thinking about. HD 3850 has a 2D mode with a voltage of 1.014v. Why HD3870 couldn't keep this voltage aswell?

[maxmaz]

They just posted a new version (1.6) - This guy (aledander) is really into this!! Good for us all!

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=51337

http://www.aledander.de/vb/ati_bios_...tibiosedit.zip (Version 1.6)

I'm not sure of the new features yet... Too busy for now.

[guess2098]

it said it is not 38xx bios. weird

[HousERaT]

Is there anything in there to change memory voltage?

[Jeff Flowerday]

We need to ask him to add a section for adjusting the 3d power save mode.

Anyone speak german?

[eva2000]

it said it is not 38xx bios. weird

I used my stock default HIS HD3850 IceQ3 bios and edited a new bios using v1.6 of this editor, then using compare tool compared it to my stock bios and ALOT more changes occur between the 2 than just the 3-5 GPU/MEM/2D/3D voltage settings you would do for the HEX editing method! Could be all those changes making it think it isn't a valid bios for particular cards ?

didn't try flashing the bios i made with this editor though

[Sleepy Ben]

This Bios editor does work but it has a bug. I tried it with the original bios (067) from my Sapphire 3850 and changed the speeds and selected the 1.327 voltage from the drop-down box, saved and used winflash but winflash didnt recognise the file as a bios rom file. Problem was the values in drop-down boxes have a , instead of a . - so manually type in the voltages and it works just fine. No longer need to use Rivatuner!

This editor only allows tweaking of speeds and voltages *NOT* fan speed but I popped a Zalman VF900 on my card too get around that. Now I have a very quiet, very cool card with a decent overclock. I also use the "driver and CP" bundles from NGOHQ so no RAM hungry CCC or third party programs needed.

[Niccolò]

I tryed. But obviously it's not working properly. I set 1,327 and i get 1,24. So it's a 0,4 raise. I think there is no way to get the vmod done by bios, only hard mods work.

[maxmaz]

Ok, I finally got a chance to play around with this little program and get some first hand experience.

Initially I started using the v1.5 and edited my BIOS (both the card’s original 067 and the unlocked 071 versions) and flashed them without any issues. Then, I started using the newer version (1.6), and made a few more bios edits which were flashed successfully. However, I noticed some glitches when working with v1.6 (e.g. I couldn’t easily enter my values in the boxes, the values changed themselves, etc).

Now here was when things started to go wrong: I opened a bios with v1.6, made some changes, saved and flashed, but noticed that the vcore for UVD has been increased in the new bios itself. Seeing the difficulty of changing values in v1.6, I opened that file in v1.5, corrected the changes and saved it, and rebooted for a flash. Right before flashing, I noticed that the size of the new bios was different from the original one (which never happened before), but I though what the heck and went ahead with flashing, which obviously ended with a black screen. I had to recover using a PCI card.

So, for now, here are my recommendations:

- First and foremost, you should be well aware of the risks of messing around with bios. Things can (and do) go crazy, and you should be prepared for a recovery or worse. Have that PCI card handy.

- This program is by no means a professional bug-free tool, but it can be helpful if used carefully.

- Never ever save your edited bios with this program for more than once. I think that’s what went wrong in my case. Always, open a fresh file, make changes all in one session, and save it once. The bios you are opening can be already modified by some other methods (hexedit, etc), but you really shouldn’t save it more than once with this program.

- Always compare the size of the modified bios against the original one and do not use it if it's even one byte different.

- Always when you make changes and save it, open it one more time (without any further saving) to verify that all the core/mem/voltage values are what you wanted and there aren't any errors or unexpected changes.

- I don’t expect the program to make changes beyond the core/mem/voltage region inside the bios plus the message area on top for checksum correction. If it’s making changes beyond these two places, you are running the risk of messing up your bios. Forget it or have that PCI card around!

Hope it helps!

[maxmaz]

Just an update: I checked the bios that gave me black screen: It has a core frequency of 1200 and memory frequency of 1700 (that's 3400 MHz effective!!) on a vcore of 0.974!!!!

So the flash was technically successful, only the poor bastard was freezing on the spot due to high clocks and low voltage!

Take home lesson: Open up your file again before flashing and make sure everything is the way you intended it to be.

[lowtcell]

I played a little with this yesterday. I bumped the vcore from 1.214 to 1.241 on the HIS-3850 IceQ3 Turbo bios and flashed my Sapphire with it. The card is now stable @ 770/1000 on COD4 (played 3 hours). With lower Vcore it would only pull 750/1000 or it would crash driver every 20 minutes. But that's not the best part. The best part is that CCC still works for OC and with HIS bios, the fan is also auto controlled so no need for Rivatuner anymore.

[ghost101]

What would happen if you increase the voltage using pencilmods and then increase the voltage from within the BIOS. Would it simply be roughly an additive result? (Yes i know that increasing something by 10% and then that by 10% isnt actually 20%).

[guess2098]

I used my stock default HIS HD3850 IceQ3 bios and edited a new bios using v1.6 of this editor, then using compare tool compared it to my stock bios and ALOT more changes occur between the 2 than just the 3-5 GPU/MEM/2D/3D voltage settings you would do for the HEX editing method! Could be all those changes making it think it isn't a valid bios for particular cards ?

didn't try flashing the bios i made with this editor though

i have no idea why but it won't load any bios... 3850, 3870 ...

[jimmyz]

I'm not using my 3850's right now but i did open, modify and save a bios with this tool and all seemed to go properly, I will flash the bios next week when I set -up the other rig. wish tis was around a few weeks ago when my 3850's were water cooled and in my primary rig.

[ORVILLE]

There is a FAULT with the V1.6 bios editor that causes corruption if you change voltages via the drop down boxes. The problem seems to be caused by the drop down wrongly inserting a "," (comma) instead of a "." (full stop / point) between the votage values. Voltages changed this will show 1,XXXv instead of the correct 1.XXXv.

The easy way to rectify this is to type in the correct voltages manually. For example, highligt the 3D box and type 1.327 (One Point Three Two Seven). Save the bios and away you go......