The 4800 series Driver, OCing, Cooling and Tweaking Thread

[BoOsTed SS]

Extremely ulikely that youll brick it. A bad flash can always be undone. If you have a motherboard with 2 pci-express slots itll be easy with another card. Otherwise you'll have to do a blind flash.

To give you an idea of how often bad flases occur, its never happened to me. Ive done about 30 or so flashes on my previous HD3850 and about half a dozen on my current HD4850.

Make sure you close catalyst control center, any 3d intensive software, and simply use ati winflash.

OK. Well I wouldn't mind flashing mine with the Asus BIOS but ati winflash wont open on mine because i am using vista 64-bit.

 

[dark2099]

It is generally safest to do BIOS flashes through DOS, there is a good guide on here explaining how to.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=11

 

[GoldenTiger]

EDIT: Deleted.

 

[BoOsTed SS]

Any fan speed control updates?

 

[BoOsTed SS]

The Asus bios did not work on mine to get smartdoctor working. I ended up making my own bios and flashed it. I changed my idle speed to 40% and have it ramp up to 100% at 60°. Everything works fine except one thing, my 2d clocks are now 500/975 instead of the standard 500/750.

Anyone know why this would change? I did not touch the clock speeds at all.

 

[BoOsTed SS]

Idle temp - 45°
Load temp - 55°

God I love 55nm...

 

[oli_ramsay]

Idle temp - 45°
Load temp - 55°

God I love 55nm...

Is that the 4850 with stock cooler?

 

[BoOsTed SS]

Is that the 4850 with stock cooler?

Yeppers.

40% fan speed idle (cant hear it at all) from 0-45° then ramps up to 100% by 65°

2D clocks - 400/500

3D clocks -

675/1060

 

[GoldenTiger]

I flashed mine around with some overclocks with RBE 1.11 used to edit with, but it was running hot even with high fan speed at my last setting... flashed it back lower/stock, then it hardlocked in windows shortly after boot and now won't boot (3 lights instead of 4, fan spins up then back to normal, looking toward rear IO plate: X - X X for lights, X lights up, then goes blank). I used a second video card so I could flash to my original BIOS with atiflash in DOS, and it accepted the flash but still won't boot. Any idea what I can do to get this puppy going again ?

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Changing the fan speed

If you wan to change the fan speed of your 4850/4870, etc then you could do the following.
-Start up Cat
-review all you settings to make sure thats how you want to save them
-click on the profile tab and select Profile Manager
-select the items you want to include in your profile (3D is a must)
or
-choose "This profile includes: all cat control settings"
-Give your profile a name and save it
-open up explorer and go to: C:\Documents and Settings\your name\Local Settings\Application Data\ATI\ACE
-you should find the profile you saved
-open it up with notepad, once you do you should find the following:

<Feature name="FanSpeedProtocol_0">
<Property name="FanSpeedProtocolProperty" value="Percent" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_0">
<Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="0" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="25" />

-change <Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" />
............to
............<Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Manual" />
Note: You can leave it on automatic. FanSpeedPercentTarget from 25 to 55 should still work. However, this will not fully help idle temps

-change <Property name="Want" value="25" />
............to
............<Property name="Want" value="55" /> (or any other numerical value)

-save and exit the xml file
-go back to Profiles Manager screen, select your profile and select the activate and close
button
-close Catalyst Control Center
-play a game and see if the fan revs up.

 

[BoOsTed SS]

That or you can change the setting to manual and set it to whatever you want.

60% is a little loud but it idles at 43° right now. I have my bios flashed to idle at 40 and ramp up to 100% by 65° and it never breaks 60°.

 

[NinkobEi]

hey East, thanks for the help w/ fan. Only problem is I cant find any of the items you've listed in my profile.xml file. Does something else have to be enabled before I can see that? or can I just add those lines in?

edit: tried adding them in but it doesnt seem to have done anything. I'll post my xml I guess. had to convert it to a .doc

 

[EastCoasthandle]

hey East, thanks for the help w/ fan. Only problem is I cant find any of the items you've listed in my profile.xml file. Does something else have to be enabled before I can see that? or can I just add those lines in?

edit: tried adding them in but it doesnt seem to have done anything. I'll post my xml I guess. had to convert it to a .doc

What options did you check when you saved your profile?

I had all my check. I am not sure if that really makes a difference or not.

 

[BoOsTed SS]

When you save your profile just make sure you check "save all settings". I'm assuming if you check each box it is the same thing as checking to save all settings.

When you edit it it should be near the top.

I have my bios modded but i dont want to have to keep flashing it to get what speeds I like. This is much easier for the time being.

 

[NinkobEi]

ah yes, that works. had to click "save all settings" - awesome drop in temperatures..I'm impressed. over 30 degrees at 50% fan speed

 

[erocker]

New GPU-Z support!

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Hmm, is it common to only see a 1C different when playing games (Grid in particular)?



Correction:
Looks like my temps are now 73C at idle. I though they were 80C idle. I guess I should have waited a few minutes to let MX2 set. Therefore, so far the temp difference is 7C between idle and load.

 

[BoOsTed SS]

Hmm, is it common to only see a 1C different when playing games (Grid in particular)?

When I play GRID my temps usually climb about 10° C. Are you sure it is stepping up to the 3d clocks? It should be. I have mine clocked at 400/500 idle and 675/1060 for 3D. This is with the fan set at 60-65%.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Wow, going from a 2900 to 4870 is showing a pretty big improvement in GRID. The most graphically demanding track that I've found so far is San Francisco championship track. I found that the 2900 XT would average 35-41 FPS (it fluctuated a lot) with Adaptive AA (this game needs AAA) set to the 3rd notch using multisampling. Dips were as low as 28 FPS at times. It didn't happen offend and if it did it was very brief at 858/900.

With the 4870 at stock I am seeing around 65 FPS with dips around 60 FPS so far on that track. Only when watching the multi angle replay do I see frame rates around 50 FPS. With the 2900 replays on that track were seeing frame rates around high 20s to low 30s.

All settings were max using 1920x1080

When I play GRID my temps usually climb about 10° C. Are you sure it is stepping up to the 3d clocks? It should be. I have mine clocked at 400/500 idle and 675/1060 for 3D. This is with the fan set at 60-65%.

Yeah I made a mistake (post corrected). Looks like MX2 cure time reduced idle temps from 80C to 73C. Photo shows 79C in OP.




OP updated

 

[erocker]

DNA 8.6 drivers out now for Vista 32/64bit. They are based off of the 8.6 hotfix drivers for the 48xx series. They can be had here:http://downloads.guru3d.com/DNA-ATi-8.6-Vista-download-1979.html

 

[wiak]

wohooo i got 4870

 

[EastCoasthandle]

wohooo i got 4870

Good to know. Is everything all setup yet?

 

[BoOsTed SS]

DNA 8.6 drivers out now for Vista 32/64bit. They are based off of the 8.6 hotfix drivers for the 48xx series. They can be had here:http://downloads.guru3d.com/DNA-ATi-8.6-Vista-download-1979.html

These better than the hotfix drivers? I am running a 4850, you think I should install these for the time being?

 

[erocker]

Don't know, they are new as of today! I'm not having any problems or performance issues, so mabye I'll try them later on this week when there is some feedback.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

ok I just tested the Cat 8.6 hotfix. Grid's San Francisco track now peeks around 75 FPS. Using Cat 8.6 alone I was only seeing mid 60s. Unfortunately I don't have the 8.6 pics.



HD 2900XT 858/900


4870 750/1800




HD 2900XT 858/900



4870 750/1800