7990 Custom Bios - Remove Throttling

LtMatt · 30 Nov 2013 at 21:29

Footyslayer said:
Sorry for the delay, was putting the Christmas decorations up, hope this is correct. Had to rename each BIOS as MALTA1 and MALTA2 as they both wanted to save as MALTA.rom

http://www.sendspace.com/file/hxughm

I'm hoping it's just me doing something stupid along the way.

You've sent me my bios. Did you flash my bios to slot one or slot two on your card? Flashing to slot two could cause problems as its supposed to be write protected and the backup bios.

LtMatt · 30 Nov 2013 at 21:45

Footyslayer said:
Flashed to slot 1, my apologies I thought you wanted your BIOS from my install on slot 1 to see if it was corrupt or something.

Here is the BIOS from slot 2

http://www.sendspace.com/file/5kh2x6

Ok Your bios looks the same as mine. Did you uninstall drivers and overclocking apps + settings before flashing?

Anyway i have two new bios to try. If it doesn't work after this, you;ll just have to use the stock bios. However i can't see a reason why a bios would cause this. Looks like faulty card/software/driver issue to me.

The first bios (FootyslayerBiosFactory) has increased TDP up to 250W at stock. http://www.sendspace.com/file/mfrf86

The second bios (FootyslayerBiosFactory ALT) has increased TDP up to 250W + I have remove the BOOST function of the card. This will stop the card clocking down to a lower state as the lower state is the same as the maximum state. 3D clocks are unaffected. However on some cards (mine included) but not all this might remove working voltage control. Suck it and see. http://www.sendspace.com/file/aekzht

LtMatt · 30 Nov 2013 at 21:55

Footyslayer said:
Thanks Matt for all your effort on this.

I did remove all drivers and I only use MSI afterburner and did remove that and the settings too.

Would you recommend me trying the first or second for my first attempt?

Try the first bios with just the 250W TDP limit.

LtMatt · 30 Nov 2013 at 21:57

Footyslayer said:
OK, this will be tomorrow now as it is getting late.

I'll reply then, thanks once again!

The suspense is killing me!

LtMatt · 30 Nov 2013 at 22:02

Footyslayer said:
Might have a look in an hour then, The walking dead awaits for now!

I'm saving that till the seasons over then we'll blitz it in one night or two.

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 08:29

Avalon said:
OK double checked i've flashed to bank 1, removed AB and CCC/driver and flashed the higher TDP bios over to bank 1, re-installed drivers then disabled ULPS with AB (after re-installing it). Same issue as before, GPU 2 hits 99%, GPU 1 hits 99% then after a few seconds does the high/low switching to 64% with or without the power limit slider being at 50%. I've tried whacking the fans to 100% but the only thing that seems to reduce the switching is upping the voltage to 1225. After a few minutes of mining that results in a black screen.

I'll have a go with the second bios later but I'm not holding out much hope as it does the same thing on stock bios/clocks/voltage when bank 2 is booted so I suspect I'm just unlucky and got the card that can't hit stock clocks at stock volts with full load.

OT but Walking Dead has been very, very average this year, the behind the scenes changes have taken a toll on screen.

What clocks are you running? Try running stock and lowering voltage as much as possible. Clearly minings puts the gpu under immense load. 1.225v is overkill for stock. 1000/1500 should be manageable on 1.100v-1.175v depending on how good the cores are. I can try making you a special voltage with super high TDP if you want.

Footyslayer said:
Riiigghhhhttttt...

Matt, I have flashed using the 1st BIOS you sorted for me. It works! the GPU's usage are staying within 1% of each other an their temps are staying within 4C.

The only negative I see is that on MSI afterburner I cannot set the power limit % above 20. The 50% option seems to have gone.

Great news. Well as i upped the stock power limit by 50W 50% should not be needed any more. Let me know how you get on. I may have to update the OP with this bios tbh. It should remove the need for everyone to use 50% power tune then.

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 08:37

Ok guys ive added a new version of the bios to the OP. This one has a higher stock TDP limit, now 250W at 0%. I've changed power tune back to 20% now as it works at the same previous level as it did at 50% because of the increased standard TDP. This should work out better in the long run. I recommend everyone update to this bios. I've updated the OP.

Bios Download
http://www.sendspace.com/file/n287zr

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 10:10

Avalon said:
Totally stock clocks, I'm about to try the latest bios just incase. Stock voltage on my card is apparently 1.2, I've not tried dropping it as I assumed it was right but I'll give it a go and see if it helps.

*edit* lowering voltage helps short term... As soon as core 1 hits 75c it begins to throttle, I'm down to 1.05 now and it's holding full load!

*edit2* the second I submitted that edit it throttled

Try this bios, further increased TDP.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/b56hvj

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 10:55

Phunky said:
I can't seem to reduce voltage in ab? Am I missing something simple? Card seems to have flashed fine

Have you checked gpu-z to see if the voltage is changing?

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 10:58

Phunky said:
The voltage control isn't even enabled for me in AB

You need to enable it in settings...

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 12:04

Phunky said:
Latest beta works... my bad

You'll be the death of me Phunky.

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 13:02

H@mmer said:
Flashed your latest BIOS this morning Matt.

Voltage on 1.110 played over an hour of BF4 ok (1920x1080 Ultra 4xMSAA Vsync off 120hz). Stock clocks on the card. Max Temp 64c Max fan 73%.

Had a directx crash last night on BF4 but had voltage on 1.100. So sticking at 1.110.

Cheers for the updates and advice for us 7990 owners Matt.

Good stuff. :cool:

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 13:09

I've solved the coil whine on my card, its almost inaudible. The solution? Rather that using one pci-e plug from my psu i spread the load over two. Now the card really is silent. Very happy with this discovery. I recommend others try it if your card has noticeable coil whine like mine did.

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 13:16

Gregster said:
So which is it?

That would only work if you was using different rails apparently, as it is off the same feed most of the times, so swapping leads makes no odds.

Well if i stick my head in the case i can hear it but its virtually silent. I can still hear a very faint buzz, but its unnoticeable unless my ear is against the side of the case. Its a big improvement from before.

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 13:24

Gregster said:
Yer, it is probably bedding in. Did you try some hard benching? That worked for me after putting my Lightnings under water. That capacitor whine was horrendous but some serious benching worked.

No it still does it when i use one pci-e. Using two cures it for whatever reason.

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 18:31

Yawbster said:
Will these custom bios generate more heat? I have a old antec 300 case. It's not very good, not much room.

Had to cut HD casing out just to fit the card. I've found out that sleeping dogs on maximum settings still has the usage at 99% - 95% on both GPUS in some areas on the map, so i sat around and watched temps for about 10 minutes. Good performance, just the Temperatures i've seen climb to 84c, fanspeed 88%, it might climb even higher.

I have power limit at 20%, voltage at 1175.

I'm not used to these sort of temps. I had to slot the card on the bottom pci due to space problems. Maybe i should return this card for something smaller and not as hot?

64bit Win 7

CPU: i5 2500k overclocked 4.6ghz
GPU: gtx 570 twin frozr III
MotherBoard: Z68A-GD65 MS-7681
Ram: 8gb
PSU: OCZ ZS Series 750W Power Supply
Case: Antec Nine Hundred

If you're running at stock you might be able to lower voltage more. Try 1.150mv. You could try removing the side of your case if you're unable to set up any sort of side exhaust fan. The problem is the 7990 dumps a lot of heat in the case so unless you get it out of there it will heat up over time. It sounds like your airflow is poor.

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 18:34

Yawbster said:
Will these custom bios generate more heat? I have a old antec 300 case. It's not very good, not much room.

Had to cut HD casing out just to fit the card. I've found out that sleeping dogs on maximum settings still has the usage at 99% - 95% on both GPUS in some areas on the map, so i sat around and watched temps for about 10 minutes. Good performance, just the Temperatures i've seen climb to 84c, fanspeed 88%, it might climb even higher.

I have power limit at 20%, voltage at 1175.

I'm not used to these sort of temps. I had to slot the card on the bottom pci due to space problems. Maybe i should return this card for something smaller and not as hot?

64bit Win 7

CPU: i5 2500k overclocked 4.6ghz
GPU: gtx 570 twin frozr III
MotherBoard: Z68A-GD65 MS-7681
Ram: 8gb
PSU: OCZ ZS Series 750W Power Supply
Case: Antec Nine Hundred

LtMatt said:
If you're running at stock you might be able to lower voltage more. Try 1.150mv. You could try removing the side of your case if you're unable to set up any sort of side exhaust fan. The problem is the 7990 dumps a lot of heat in the case so unless you get it out of there it will heat up over time. It sounds like your airflow is poor.

Check my post here. If you have a good airflow and case cooling setup you can keep the 7990 cool (75-85c depending on the game, vsync off etc) and silent by running auto fan. At these temps auto fan is working at 40-50% ish and is silent.

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 19:20

Look at Guru3D trying to figure out why their overclocked 7990 does not show any improvement in FPS over stock.

#AskLT #throttle

Guru3D said:
Now we have ran into issue overclocking wise with our particular sample, we applied the following:

Power Target 120%
GPU clock 1100 MHz
Memory clock 1575 (x4) MHz
Fan control RPM default
This resulted in the very same numbers at reference clocks. We need to investigate further to see what's going on.

Source
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_hd_7990_review,28.html

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 19:25

Mike306 said:
Shouldn't your new sig be in red colour text.

Good shout that rofls. :cool:

LtMatt · 1 Dec 2013 at 19:29

In my opinion you should either remove the side of the case or stick a side 120mm exhaust fan on there.