700mhz wall on HD4850 is smashed.

[perkam]

How many people on average hitting 750+ and is the vmod hard?

Perkam

[jason4207]

working bios-template for the cat 8.8.

important: no voltages in the last field. otherwise it will black-screen during bootup.

voltage regulation works this way, as well as bios-controlled powerplay...

this is with light pencil, so 3d-clocks will have to be adjusted to your highest achievable clocks...

I'm still getting black screens. I'm going to try a few more things, but do you have any advice?

[Slovnaft]

lower the clock or hard mod for more volts
it's not stable

[Oese]

@ perkam: 750+ is easy with a voltmod and decent cooling. But a good air or water cooler is a must.. pencilmod is as easy or difficult as with 3870..

@ jason: black screens are gone here since i figured out leaving the last voltage setting blank (it will get that voltage from the other fields...) but it throws those stripey gray screens and sometimes freezes.. strange.. hope for rbe new version

[jason4207]

lower the clock or hard mod for more volts
it's not stable

Ummm...I am hard-modded. See sig. I don't see why CAT 8.8 would require more volts to be stable at the same speed as opposed to CAT 8.7. It seems more like a powerplay issue. I can get to Windows, but if I try to open GPU-Z for instance I get either a black screen, no monitor input, a blue screen (not BSOD), a blue screen w/ vertical stripes, or a white screen...strange. I also noticed 1 red light come on on the 4850 after it blanked out.

I've been testing CAT8.8 on XP-32, but I run a dual-boot, and can still get into VISTA-64 w/ CAT8.7 w/o any issues. Also, restoring XP-32 back to CAT8.7 works fine as well. 8.8 works fine in XP w/ stock BIOS.

@ perkam: 750+ is easy with a voltmod and decent cooling. But a good air or water cooler is a must.. pencilmod is as easy or difficult as with 3870..

@ jason: black screens are gone here since i figured out leaving the last voltage setting blank (it will get that voltage from the other fields...) but it throws those stripey gray screens and sometimes freezes.. strange.. hope for rbe new version

I used your template. Only thing I changed was the max clocks. I'm running 820/1200 w/ 1.35v/2.10v. So, I guess I'll have to stick w/ CAT8.7 until someone figures this out. Lowering my clocks is not an effective solution unless 8.8 can give some serious clock-for-clock improvements.

Did you change any other settings in RBE? What settings are you using on the 'Additional Features' tab? I also tried to change the 'One-click update' and the 'Also decreases voltage' checkbox, but that didn't do anything for stability.

And does anyone know if the 'Also decreases voltage' checkbox will allow us to set the 2D voltage lower than before? Since my hard-mod increases all voltages I'd like to set 2D even lower, so idle temps/power consumption can be as low as possible when running 250/500 or 500/750.

[Oese]

i got problems with my template too. tried again today morning.. it works basically, but i also get those stripey screens now and then, lock-ups and the red led lighting on the card. i found that v gpu reads 0 if the screen goes black, and below 800mV if those stripey screens occur.

I as well think that its some interference with driver-side powerplay profiles that get mixed up.. for me, i would only need lower voltages in bios and the opportunity to overclock via ccc. then i'll apply pencil and lower voltages in bios and overclock with ccc. until thats possible, i'll go with amd gpu tool i think.. or, lowered voltages in bios + pencil and ATT, with which i can possibly then use higher voltage and higher clocks.. will try that out..

the decrease voltages is meant for 4870 i think as 1.201v is actually more then 4850 stock vgpu.. that led to blackscreens here as well..

[BAGZZlash]

RBE v1.14 is available now!

Here are the new things:

v1.14
- Fixed bug with method one overdrive hack not working. Should run fine now.
- Added fan control for 4870 X2. Completely new controller chip, was a big pain in the ass to code... :-/
- Made spin up fix, powerplay functionality and voltage decrease in the one-click update for 4xx0 cards seperately selectable.
- Fixed WinFlash check sum correction bug.
- Added and fixed a lot of small things. Too many and too minor to mention all... :-)

Please tell me your opinion about everything!

[jason4207]

RBE v1.14 is available now!

Here are the new things:

v1.14
- Fixed bug with method one overdrive hack not working. Should run fine now.
- Added fan control for 4870 X2. Completely new controller chip, was a big pain in the ass to code... :-/
- Made spin up fix, powerplay functionality and voltage decrease in the one-click update for 4xx0 cards seperately selectable.
- Fixed WinFlash check sum correction bug.
- Added and fixed a lot of small things. Too many and too minor to mention all... :-)

Please tell me your opinion about everything!

I appreciate all your hard work man!

I haven't tried 1.14 yet as I'm at work. Can you comment on the proper way to set up the clocks/volts? Have a look at Oese's template above, and let me know if that's the correct format. Mine looks just like that except I have 820/1200 set as max clocks. It works fine in CAT8.7 on both XP-32 & Vista-64.

However, CAT8.8 seems to hate my BIOS modifications in both XP-32 and Vista-64. I keep getting blank screens. The stock BIOS works fine in 8.8.

Also, Windows DreamScene causes my clocks to constantly shift from low to med clocks (in CAT8.7). I've got it turned off for now.

Oh, and what does the 'voltage decrease' do? Can I select a lower voltage like 0.8v w/ that?

Thanks!

Jason

[Oese]

@ BAGZZlash: wow just in time! Very nice!!! Will report back!!

[drizzt5]

How many people on average hitting 750+ and is the vmod hard?

Perkam

This was my first pencil mod ever, and if you do the easier of the 2 pencil mods you can hit 750+ EASILY.

It was pretty easy, I just had to shade A LOT for the first one.

[Oese]

yihaa hash method works for my card with 8.8.. only a lil more mhz would be nice

[Barr3l Rid3r]

yihaa hash method works for my card with 8.8.. only a lil more mhz would be nice

Soo unlocking overdrive still not working?

[Oese]

it is working but only 720mhz..

but perhaps i'll try 4870 hash

mmh i found something that works for me..

[jason4207]

it is working but only 720mhz..

but perhaps i'll try 4870 hash

mmh i found something that works for me..

So you had to give up your 250/500 clocks?

And it looks like you didn't set your 3D voltage so it's defaulting to 1.15v instead of 1.2v? Or does some other BIOS edit fix that?

[Barr3l Rid3r]

are u using Catalyst 8.8 + Vista64?

[jason4207]

are u using Catalyst 8.8 + Vista64?

No, but I had the same problem w/ 8.8-Beta on Vista-64.

What does your template look like?

[Oese]

So you had to give up your 250/500 clocks?

And it looks like you didn't set your 3D voltage so it's defaulting to 1.15v instead of 1.2v? Or does some other BIOS edit fix that?

no, now i'm on 250/500 with 0.85v set in the bios, with pencil this works out as 1v.

but you just have to set clocks 01 and 02 the same (250/500) and voltage to whatever you need. That seems to work really. But i can't set 3d voltages then it will blank out. all the other fields can be left untouched this way..

really really complicated to test all these things dont know if voltage change simply isn't possible above 1,158v or if you have to type a certain number.. just dont know..

@ barrel: yepp, cat 8.8 and vista 64bit..

[jason4207]

no, now i'm on 250/500 with 0.85v set in the bios, with pencil this works out as 1v.

but you just have to set clocks 01 and 02 the same (250/500) and voltage to whatever you need. That seems to work really. But i can't set 3d voltages then it will blank out. all the other fields can be left untouched this way..

really really complicated to test all these things

@ barrel: yepp, cat 8.8 and vista 64bit..

Can you post your latest template please?

Does 0.84v set in BIOS give you an actual voltage that is less than setting 0.94v in BIOS?

[Oese]

i'm running at the bios settings posted above now, tested a few games and benchies and no problems.. 0.84v gives 1v because of the pencil, 0.94v gives something slightly above 1.1v.. so that works..

don't need to change 3d to a higher value if you can use just more pencil and lower it in 2d... same outcome..

[Barr3l Rid3r]

i'm running at the bios settings posted above now, tested a few games and benchies and no problems.. 0.84v gives 1v because of the pencil, 0.94v gives something slightly above 1.1v.. so that works..

don't need to change 3d to a higher value if you can use just more pencil and lower it in 2d... same outcome..

what about 1.20v? it should increase another 0.1v (worked previously here) but it might show missing adapter message.

[Oese]

could give it a try.. did you try it with cat 8.8?

btw, awesome card. just figured out how to play twoworlds with HDR+AA, Drakensang as well.. using bioshock.exe its no problem..

and there the card has its real muscles: HDR, 8xAA, AAA, 16xAF working really really fast... awesome. With the 3870 i had to forget about AA/AF, not to mention AAA. with the 4850, AAA costs virtually nothing, so does AA and AF.. most of the time i run cpu limited

[3oh6]

http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/4083/tune2vi1.jpg

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/341/vantageslc1.jpg

what voltage are you running for those clocks...very nice BTW

How many people on average hitting 750+ and is the vmod hard?

Perkam

yeah, 750+ is pretty easy with a volt mod since these cards i have aren't that great and at 1.30v they do this no problem...

3DMark // AM3...OC Report
Intel X48 & 2x ATI HD4850 512MB DDR3 // CrossFire Cat 8.7 // Stock Cooler fan @ 100%:

Click score for full size screenshot...
01 = 93028 | CPU @ 593*8 4748MHz | GPU @ 785MHz / 1075MHz | ORB Link 3DMark 01 = 93028
03 = 83566 | CPU @ 593*8 4748MHz | GPU @ 785MHz / 1075MHz | ORB Link 3DMark 03 = 83566
05 = 32141 | CPU @ 593*8 4748MHz | GPU @ 775MHz / 1075MHz | ORB Link 3DMark 05 = 32141
06 = 22523 | CPU @ 589*8 4712MHz | GPU @ 760MHz / 1075MHz | ORB Link 3DMark 06 = 22523
AM3 = 294913 | CPU @ 600*8 4800MHz | GPU @ 800MHz / 1075MHz

as for whether the mod is hard, it isn't too bad as there is an alternate solder point sort of away from everything that anyone should be able to do. i did mine right in the mix but was a bit sloppy. i also had to use two 50K ohm VRs as i had no 100K on hand. makes for a really fine control though which isn't a bad thing, just a little messy looking.





i would personally go with the alternate spot as it should be much easier with nothing around it

[Oese]

its almost like these cards are build to be volt-modded *g

@ barrel: no luck, black screen with cat 8.8. perhaps one must do all voltage entries from 01 to 06 manually if using anything above stock via bios? i'll try later.

perhaps this will become my first hardmod some day as i really like this card and pencil is a mess. until now i only used pencilmod and bios as this is easily removable but has its disadvantages as well.. also i need a better solding station, my solder iron is thick like a thumb, nicely appropriate to unsolder all components of the whole vgpu area at once *g

[jason4207]

i'm running at the bios settings posted above now, tested a few games and benchies and no problems.. 0.84v gives 1v because of the pencil, 0.94v gives something slightly above 1.1v.. so that works..

don't need to change 3d to a higher value if you can use just more pencil and lower it in 2d... same outcome..

So, it looks like you gave up the 'medium' clocks now. I could care less about them anyway, but I'm curious.

Do you think 8.8 has any advantages over 8.7? I'm doing a lot of work trying to get 8.8 to work w/ the BIOS mod...is it worth it? I'm guessing that all new CAT releases may have this problem, so I'm willing to put in the effort to keep my OC w/ future drivers that may help performance.

I also have this small quirk where in GRID on the 24hr races I always see my fps drop from a constant ~60 to a constant ~24 when 9:30 is left on the clock. I usually just finish the race, and then restart the game to fix it. I'm wondering if anyone else has seen this problem, and I was hoping 8.8 or these new BIOS settings would fix it.

I have VR's installed, so it should be easy to re-adjust my voltage. Can we go below 0.84v?

[jason4207]

its almost like these cards are build to be volt-modded *g

@ barrel: no luck, black screen with cat 8.8. perhaps one must do all voltage entries from 01 to 06 manually if using anything above stock via bios?

So, even your above template doesn't work w/ Cat 8.8?

Has ATI figured out a way to force us to get 4870 if we want to use updated drivers?

Please update if you figure out how to get 8.8 to work w/ BIOS mod. I'll stick w/ 8.7 until this mess gets sorted out.