# Fixed my 5850 Dual Monitor Flicker Issue



## travanx (Mar 11, 2010)

I posted this on a couple boards that I am on, but had to thank everyone related to RBE for writing this software.  My new sapphire 5850 is now running dual monitors without that weird flicker issue.  This is using the modded asus bios that is recommended to use.  I am tempted to try modifying the stock sapphire bios and see what happens, but the computer is running so smoothly right now.  I also don't run profiles in CCC or Afterburner or anything like that.  And powerplay still works.

Basically in 2d mode 400/1200 at 1.0875 volts and in 3D it’s set at 850/1200 at 1.0875 volts. I think the key to the flicker is the voltage in the x18 register in the GPU voltage editor.


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## BAGZZlash (Mar 11, 2010)

Cool. We need people like you trying things out and posting their results! Kudos!


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## travanx (Mar 11, 2010)

I also made a slightly different version using a newer 1/20/10 dated sapphire bios that I found in another thread.  I figure using a newer bios makes more sense and lowering the voltage in 2d seems like a better idea.  Once again I think the voltage at .95 and the GPU Core clock being stock at 157MHz is causing the weird flicker issues.

This one clocks the voltage in 2d at 1.0 volts at 400/1200 and in 3d at 1.1 volts at 825/1200.  The max core is set at 1200 and the max Memory is at 1400.

I played Bad Company 2 basically at full everything in 1920x1080 with this bios and no crashes or anything.


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## travanx (Apr 2, 2010)

Any feedback from anyone who ended up using this?


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## REBDK (Apr 8, 2010)

Registered to say thanks! Works fine!


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## joshd (Apr 9, 2010)

I fixed this as follows:

Edit bios in RBE, set ALL mem clocks to 900. (Might be able to get away with 800, will fiddle later?) Flash. Then in afterburner, make a 2d and 3d profile, with 2d at your new "stock" clocks with low mem speed, and 3d with actual "stock", so 765/1125 or whatever OC settings you want. Then when in windows, the memory is ALWAYS fairly slow (so no flickering when the mem freq changes), consumes less power, and then when you launch a 3d app, it jumps to higher speeds.


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## travanx (Apr 9, 2010)

Why in the world would you run afterburner when this can be done completely inside the bios?  I know what you are saying, but I don't want to run extra software when I don't have to.


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## joshd (Apr 9, 2010)

travanx said:


> Why in the world would you run afterburner when this can be done completely inside the bios?  I know what you are saying, but I don't want to run extra software when I don't have to.



Because if you do it only in the bios, the memory needs to be at whatever speed you want to game at, to stop monitor flickering. This way, it doesn't have to be running at full speed 24/7, reducing temperatures and power draw.


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## travanx (Apr 9, 2010)

From the RBE editing stuff that I read they all recommend keeping the mem clock the same speeds when reclocking the bios.  Has someone verified running the mem at a slower speed causes less power draw?

You are making me curious on how low I can edit the 2D portion of the bios and keep it stable.


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## joshd (Apr 9, 2010)

travanx said:


> From the RBE editing stuff that I read they all recommend keeping the mem clock the same speeds when reclocking the bios.  Has someone verified running the mem at a slower speed causes less power draw?
> 
> You are making me curious on how low I can edit the 2D portion of the bios and keep it stable.



Well a single monitor at stock clocks is 300mhz mem. I imagine you could keep dropping the mem clocks untill it is unstable, when you could just plug in one screen to raise the freq again if you can no longer run it with duals.

Where have you read that you leave the mem freqs alone? I can't see lowering them will harm the card in any way?

EDIT: I had flickering issues with the card at STOCK clocks, every now and then it would jump to high power 3d and back, if I scrolled a pdf, etc etc, and then it would flicker once for each change. Not as bad as the flickering when you start to OC and it drops the card to low power 2d clocks, but still annoying. This way, the memory is ALWAYS at 900 or whatever you set it at, even when the card jumps to high power 3d clocks, untill you run a game. Afterburner then "overclocks" it to 1125mhz mem.


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## digibucc (Apr 9, 2010)

i just set 2d/3d clocks in afterburner. 585:845 / 833:1180 respectively, as well as disabled ULPS in registry.  does this effectively accomplish the same thing, but without third party software? or is it for a totally different problem.


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## joshd (Apr 9, 2010)

digibucc said:


> i just set 2d/3d clocks in afterburner. 585:845 / 833:1180 respectively, as well as disabled ULPS in registry.  does this effectively accomplish the same thing, but without third party software? or is it for a totally different problem.



I have no idea how to set 2d clocks in afterburner. How have you done this?


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## Kreij (Apr 9, 2010)

Welcome to TPU Joshd 
IF you get a moment, put your system specs in using the UserCP so we can all laugh or turn green with envy


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## digibucc (Apr 9, 2010)

joshd said:


> I have no idea how to set 2d clocks in afterburner. How have you done this?



in settings under the profiles tab.  at the bottom "automatic profiles management"

you make one profile for 2d , and one for 3d and save them (as 1 and 2 or whatever) and then just choose them for 2d/3d from the dropdowns on the above mentioned settings tab.

note when running XFired, that your second card will go into powersave in 2d (157/300) unless you have a monitor using it.  that shouldn't cause a problem for anyone and as long as you set a 3d profile - it switches out automatically when you start a game.


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## travanx (Apr 9, 2010)

If you installed your stock card and one of your monitors flickered, the bios I posted fixed the issues.  I posted the 2nd bios as that was the newest reference bios I could find, and figured that may be better to edit with.

What the Bios does is it clocks in 2D mode 1volt at 400/1200 and 3d mode 1.1v 825/1200.  It felt like 400 and 1volt was the sweet spot for the flicker issue.  I will play around with the memory setting in 2d mode to see how that turns out.

I can't remember where I read about the mem clocks should be the same through all modes.  I will search for the threads I saw this on.

The nice part about this bios is that you don't have to use afterburner and don't have to mess around with ATI profiles. It just works.


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## joshd (Apr 9, 2010)

Yeah, I've done more or less the same thing as you, only set a low mem speed throughout. (900)

Then afterburner just OCs the card for games. Admittedly then afterburner does have to be running, but it minimises to tray and starts on startup, so it's not that annoying.

EDIT: Thanks Kreij, and done.

EDIT EDIT: Not really related, but I've not really tried OCing my 5850 at all yet. Furmark/Kombustor takes it to 87C core and 110C VDDC at stock clocks, which seems a bit high? This is on the default fan profile, which I've heard is not particularly aggressive?


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## Poisonsnak (Apr 11, 2010)

travanx said:


> From the RBE editing stuff that I read they all recommend keeping the mem clock the same speeds when reclocking the bios.



I think this is just to reduce monitor flicker - the 4000 series did it on both monitors - every time the memory clock changes the screen flickers.  On the 5000 series it's just on the 2nd monitor it seems.



travanx said:


> Has someone verified running the mem at a slower speed causes less power draw?



I have one of those kill-a-watt meters plugged into my PSU.  These are the readings I got:

core/memower
157/300:96W
380/525:108W
760/525:112W
380/1050:123W
760/1050:127W
840/1150:131W

With the exception of the top one (this is the low power state my card goes into when overdrive is enabled in CCC) the clocks were all set with rivatuner.  It seems like memclock has a much bigger effect on power than core clock - from 380/525 doubling your core clock costs 4W but doubling the memory clock costs 15W.


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## travanx (Apr 12, 2010)

Very very nice, I will reedit this Bios this week and post it up.  I still wonder what the sweet spot is for the memory.


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## jaredpace (Apr 12, 2010)

travanx said:


> From the RBE editing stuff that I read they all recommend keeping the mem clock the same speeds when reclocking the bios.  Has someone verified running the mem at a slower speed causes less power draw?
> 
> You are making me curious on how low I can edit the 2D portion of the bios and keep it stable.



Well ati would like 157/300 core/mem to be stable, but sometimes it isn't.  The op is saying 400/1200 fixed his multi display flicker.  I'd say anywhere from 400 to 600 core and 600 - 1000 memory should be fine (if you have problems in the first place & need to change).  Some people think core voltage is too low, others think GDDR5 clock switching is to blame, and just want to keep memory & mvddc constant thru all clock modes.


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## travanx (Apr 12, 2010)

I am the OP.  BTW now I see where I read keeping the mem clocks the same across the overclock.  It's in the RBE Tutorial!  http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/154/5

"Please note that the RAM clocks should be the same for all clock infos as on the one hand, decreasing this doesn't save a lot of power and on the other hand, switching the mode (and switching the RAM clocks if they aren't all the same) will cause an annoying flickering of the screen. You understand now that ATI themselves programmed the RAM clocks to all the same values for a reason.
However, at least the GDDR5 RAM the 4870 and some future cards use is reported to consume more power, though. So it's up to you: Save power and lower the clocks or leave the clocks at high rates, waste some power but be free of any flickering on frequency switching."


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## joshd (Apr 12, 2010)

travanx said:


> "Please note that the RAM clocks should be the same for all clock infos as on the one hand, decreasing this doesn't save a lot of power and on the other hand, switching the mode (and switching the RAM clocks if they aren't all the same) will cause an annoying flickering of the screen. You understand now that ATI themselves programmed the RAM clocks to all the same values for a reason.
> However, at least the GDDR5 RAM the 4870 and some future cards use is reported to consume more power, though. So it's up to you: Save power and lower the clocks or leave the clocks at high rates, waste some power but be free of any flickering on frequency switching."



But on the 58xx cards, ati DON'T set them all the same, hence the flickering problem when the card changes mode. Fiddling with afterburner, it seems that you can run the mem as low as 675mhz with no issues, but I can't set it any lower as it won't let me. I can't get the "enableunofficialoverclocking" thing to actually work so I can set higher or lower clocks.

EDIT: setting 450mhz mem in CCC works fine as well. No flickering etc. It's a shame ati managed to set the 2d powerplay clocks only slightly too low. 

EDIT EDIT: dropping mem from 900MHz to 450MHz took 7c off my core temperature, too.


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## travanx (Apr 12, 2010)

I couldn't get Windows to boot when editing the Bios to 400 mem.  So I think I will start over from the stock newest Saphire Bios and see where that leads me.  I like the idea of less temp as well.  Just know I was looking for a complete fix without messing around with software fixes.  I have my engineering company trying to run as efficient as possible, so that might explain why I want the easiest no extras kind of fix for this issue.


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## joshd (Apr 12, 2010)

So I tried flashing to run 500MHz mem all the time, and 300/400/550 core for 2d/low 3d/high 3d, and it works in windows fine.

However, this changes the freq range I can set in afterburner, I have enableunofficaloverclocking enabled, so now the highest I can set the memory is 650MHz, so I can't make the "high performance" profile for 3d clocks.

Any idea how I can change the selectable clock range for afterburner?

EDIT: with these settings I have problems when the card goes into UVD mode. The PC freezes for a while then comes back, and MPCHC crashes. I'm going to go back to the 900mhz mem for all modes I think, with the OC profile in afterburner.


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## MadDias (Apr 22, 2010)

i´m owner of a 5970 for two days now.
and the first thing i was confronted with, was the flickering when opening windows or scrolling on webpages.
i downloaded the latest 10.4preview catalyst and the flickering was gone, even at 157/300.
but it comes back everytime the clocks change from 2d to 3d.
i then have to reboot, or disable overdrive to get the card running at 400/1000, which consumes about 15w more than the lowest powerstate.
i really think it´s a driver issue which could be fixed by telling the card when to switch clocks and it what manner. that can´t be that hard, cause one time it´s working at 157/300 without flickering and the other time it´s not.
most annoying thing is, that i have the flickering in loading screens of vantage and in the menu and loading screens of bfbc2.


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## joshd (Apr 22, 2010)

MadDias said:


> i´m owner of a 5970 for two days now.
> and the first thing i was confronted with, was the flickering when opening windows or scrolling on webpages.
> i downloaded the latest 10.4preview catalyst and the flickering was gone, even at 157/300.
> but it comes back everytime the clocks change from 2d to 3d.
> ...



The flickering occurs when the memory clocks change. The best way to fix this is to set the memory clocks to be running at the same frequency all the time, by editing the vga bios.


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## MadDias (Apr 22, 2010)

joshd said:


> The flickering occurs when the memory clocks change. The best way to fix this is to set the memory clocks to be running at the same frequency all the time, by editing the vga bios.



that´s something i don´t wanna do. i want to run the lowest p-state to safe energy.
there must be a way to get this working without having to up the mem clocks when the card is idle.


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## joshd (Apr 22, 2010)

MadDias said:


> that´s something i don´t wanna do. i want to run the lowest p-state to safe energy.
> there must be a way to get this working without having to up the mem clocks when the card is idle.



Nope


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## rpsgc (Apr 22, 2010)

travanx said:


> Basically in 2d mode 400/1200 at 1.0875 volts and in 3D it’s set at 850/1200 at 1.0875 volts.



My Sapphire 5850 has *always* worked this way, out of the box.


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## N14h (Jun 27, 2010)

*DUAL screen flicker problem 5970..Please help new to editing video card settings,, *

okay so i ordered a brand new sapphire 5970 card a week ago and just got it yesterday, however when i loaded the 10.6 catalyst drivers and tried to play a game while having anything application related i.e. ccc Asus temp monitor anything really :*(,,,,, on my non primary monitor aka 2nd monitor  it causes the game on the primary monitor to constantly flicker and then crash.. i have read on many forums to change the clock speeds on the graphics card but to be honest i have no idea how to even start to do that.. fyi i have a i7 920 DO stepping CPU@4.0Ghz dominator DDR3 corsair memory at 1600 8-8-8-20 lat in 1n mode on a Asus P6X58D Premium Motherboard..  Please if someone wouldnt mind explaining to me step by step on my mother board how to do this it be nice i really dont want to have to rma this card after just getting it..


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