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Eyefinity users with screen flicker....

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19 Aug 2009
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429
After a month of emails via support tickets to AMD, they have finally told me that there is a BIOS issue with all 5*** series cards.

If you are unlucky like me with an ASUS 5*** series they dont plan on releasing a new bios to stop the screen flicker issue!!!

Sapphire have, so dont know why ASUS wont! and to be honest AMD are not much help either!

Anyone else with an ASUS 5 series using eyefinity have the same screen flicker issue as me, any known fixes out there?

BTW they have confirmed its the BIOS and nothing else.

Jay
 
To be honest no i havnt, was witing for an answer from AMD, it only really flickers in desk top mode so that may be someting to work on. Any links or settings to what people have tried?
Thanks

Jay
 
Generally for most people any new driver set for 4-5 months will set the correct multiscreen clocks until you overclock AT ALL, usually after hitting the unlock in the CCC. The latest set on a fresh install of windows 7(ssd died, for a second time ) set the 400/900 clocks normally, as soon as I tried overclocking no matter how many restarts after overclocking it always defaults back to the uber low clocks which is a shame, but completely unavoidable on this generation from either company.

Theres several options, go into CCC, top right drop down menu, go to profiles, click overdrive each screen set a name and save a new profile, go to the profile) app data>local>ati>ace>profiles, and change the lowest core clock to 400 and change all the memory settings to 1000(or higher for 3d if you want).

That should for the majority of situations force higher 2d idling clock speeds, there is NO way around this, and its not worth blaming ATi like a bunch of Nvidia guy shave for 6 months, Fermi has the problem and has it worse as they seem to be running full 3d speeds and voltage at idle with more than one screen attached.

Its a timing issue, likely, because both companies have it, caused by some fundamental incompatibility with dropping gddr5 clock speeds and Microsoft power schemes. It would also appear the grey screen of death issue came up after MS made an update to the way it changes power settings.


You other options are, using MSI afterburner to set a 2d/3d speed for you, this will probably allow you to overclock past default clock limits while maintaining "powerplay" at a high enough speed to prevent problems.

You can also use gpu clock tool to set your default 3d speed, using gpu clock tool to overclock, to ANY speed, stops powerplay working at all, not sure why, but it will fix the flickering, again if you clock high enough.

On first release the profiles weren't forcibly setting the higher 2d speeds you can set so I used gpu clock tool for the first month or two, then MSI afterburner could overclock/volt any 5850/5870 so I started using that.

Right now, to get the lowest stable voltage/idle speeds I use the CCC profile to set 400/1000 0.95v for idle, with the highest CCC clocks which you can also put in the profile, as the 3d speed(so what is it 775/1000mhz and leave the 3d voltage as it is).

I think use MSI afterburner to use higher than CCC allowed overclocking/voltage when I want a bit more power and speed. Save your highest overclocks as one profile and I keep a "default clock speeds" profile to enable after gaming, which allows the CCC to take over idle clock speeds.

Odd but after you go outside the CCC default clocks with any 3rd party overclocking tool, powerplay and 2d speeds stop, but resetting the clock speeds below the limits will re-enable powerplay for idle.

You can have MSI afterburner control 2d clocks for you, but I find that less effective, less stable and you can't go as low on voltage for idle.

Keep in mind that my experience across 2900xt, 8800gtx, 8800gt, 9800gt, 3870x2, 4870x2, 4890 and a 5850 all suggests that MOST in game crashing and instability comes from having your card constantly switch between 2d/3d clock speeds IN A GAME. Because they'll switch during some cutscenes, some menu's, some when they detect a pitiful load.

The method I highlighted, use CCC to set higher idle speeds, and MSI to flick between a SINGLE overclocked speed that won't change to any lower speeds under any circumstances, and a default speed profile that will re-engage powerplay gives you the best stability, overclocking stability, game stability and idle power usage.


EDIT:- I know its a pain that AMD don't list fixes on their website, and I complain that few if any companies just give you a dedicated pages of the latest fixes and idea's, Intel, AMD, AMD(but specifically ATi) Nvidia, no one, mobo makers don't list a common set of updates/fixes/workarounds either.

But you won't get a bios update from AMD, unless its a completely flawed product that doesn't work the risk of loads of people flashing bios's will result in people who don't need the fix thinking their card will be better, and a lot of them will smeg it up.

Sapphire probably don't officially maintain the warranty if you flash the bios, though most people wouldn't have trouble after a successful flash if the card died of something else. But the main thing is, theres just no need, it can all be fixed in software for 99.9% of people with ease. But yeah, AMD should say this somewhere really obviously on their website, as should everyone else with their own little fixes for their own products.
 
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hmm interesting mine stays at 400 in desktop if im running 2 or 3 screens and only goes lower if i use one screen.

I take it thats what is meant to happen ?
 
hmm interesting mine stays at 400 in desktop if im running 2 or 3 screens and only goes lower if i use one screen.

I take it thats what is meant to happen ?

I'm not quite sure what makes it not happen that way, I haven't really paid attention to which drivers do what since i got the 5850 at launch. I was disabling powerplay with gpu clock tool 30 mins after I got it to fix the flickering so pretty much just did that as standard.

I did notice on the latest drivers on fresh win 7 install that I didn't have flickering and I checked default speeds and it was 400mhz rather than 137Mhz, then I tried overclocking and I never got 400Mhz idle back without creating my own profile and telling it to do so.

It isn't great that AMD don't teach everyone what their drivers can do, which in the case of profiles has given me control of overclocks, some voltage control, and 2d/3d speeds for a heck of a long time now, several years, so I'm used to it.

For instance a 4870x2 rarely cranks up to full 3d speed in windowed games and as I played Lotro windowed(as I do most MMO's) that was a pain, so save a new profile, set all the 2d/3d speeds to the same overclocked speeds and I could force full performance by right clicking on the ATI logo in the system tray. Could do the same thing with another profile to make both cores set proper Idle speeds as many many drivers last year wouldn't slow down the 2nd core and its a pretty hot running card with loudish fan for it not to be clocking down.

Generally most issues with both companies can be fixed within drivers without needing to wait for a new driver set. The problem really is AMD don't really tell anyone they can, which is rather daft considering the vast numbers of problems.
 
Tried altering the clocks but still the monitor attached to the display port adapter flickers now and again.

What settings do you use drunkenmaster? any help would be great,

Thanks

Jay :)
 
Any help on this would be great as i have had no help from the technical area of the forum. Thanks

What exactly is your position?

What driver version are you running? Is it overclocked?
Have you tried a different output socket (we've had people with bad display port adapters post, with nothing to do with the card etc)?
 
10.7 My gpu is at stock, this is what i have

Set up -

i7 920 do @ 3.8
Gigabyte GA X58 UD3R
Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 12800C9 (1600MHz)
powercooler 5870 eyefinity
Saphire active display port
3 x benq g2420HDBL
700w powercooler silent pro


Have tried other sockets/cables but only tried the one active display port , the sapphire one from ocuk. tried monitors diff ways around still no joy.
 
I also have had flickering on my Powercolor 5870 Eyefinity card. I have RMA'd it with oc for a refund as I am within my 30 days, still awaiting the result.
 
Theres several options, go into CCC, top right drop down menu, go to profiles, click overdrive each screen set a name and save a new profile, go to the profile) app data>local>ati>ace>profiles, and change the lowest core clock to 400 and change all the memory settings to 1000(or higher for 3d if you want).

hmm, im trying to do this in reverse to get my 137/300 idle back but it doesnt seem to work :/ do you change both the coreclock_0 and coreclock_1 along with memoryclock_0 and _1 ?

EDit: sorted, just turned overdrive off :p i run my 5870's at stock anyway so its np :)
 
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