Gigabyte 7950 WF3 Bios - What did yours come with?

[Loxa]

Not 100% but a quick google search for unknown spi bios flash suggest ati winflash might need to be reinstalled. Also try re-downloading the bios.

Did you put the "-f" instruction in as the bios has to be "forced" on - if you try to use the gigabyte @bios tool it won't let you do it either.

Failing that I am not sure. I luckily didn't have any issues, so I have not trawled google and read up on it all if you run into problems.

Phew at least its goodish news, Re-installed? It never asked me to install it (i might be having a brain fart moment here). SO im ment to run the ATIWinflash application in the folder after i've extracted it

 

[Mario]

seems my gpu z even cant show me VRM's..or im doing something wrong ???
also noticed some strange thing - after i got my card i tested it in Heaven,it got soemthing 800+ on stock,yesterday i tested it lil bit oc'ed and got 680+,just can find explanation to this
tried many bios'es - no luck of unlocking voltage in AB..

 

[Deleted member 135847]

Phew at least its goodish news, Re-installed? It never asked me to install it (i might be having a brain fart moment here). SO im ment to run the ATIWinflash application in the folder after i've extracted it

Sorry my bad,

you do not need to install ATIWinFlash.

Once you have downloaded ATIWinFlash (I cannot recall if it is a zip/exe file that needs extracting - if it is, then unzip it) find your f43 bios file (you will need to run the exe file from gigabyte site) and place the bios file in the ATIWinFlash folder along with all the other ATIWinFlash files.

My f43 bios is named R7950W3GD.F43, not ******.rom as the guide says. I didn't change the file name so where the guide said to write *****.rom I wrote R7950W3GD.F43 in the cmd prompt.

Follow the guide to the letter. Don't assume you know how to do certain steps.Once I had opened cmd.exe (run as admin) I "cd" to the ATIWinFlash folder then the final command line I wrote was;

"atiwinflash -f -p 0 R795W3GD.F43"

(note the "0" is missing from 7950 in the bios name)

The "-f" instruction tells it to ignore the mismatch and flash anyway f=force. (technically the F43 bios is not a supported upgrade from FZ1).
The "-p 0" instruction tells it to flash the card in location 0 (if crossfire you then have to run with -p 1, -p 2 etc.. depending on how many cards you have)

Just make sure you are not switching back and forth between the 2 bios settings on your card. Work out which bios you want to try and flash and which one you want to keep as a fail safe. I flashed bios 1 and kept bios 2 intact. There is some suggestion bios 2 is write protected anyway.

Are you trying to flash bios 1?

If bios 1 is dead switch to your failsafe - bios 2. Once in Windows the bios has done it's bit and you can switch over to bios 1 whilst everything is on (obviously be careful what you are touching!) and flash bios 1. Just don't mess up both bios settings or it gets a lot more complicated.

 

[Deleted member 135847]

seems my gpu z even cant show me VRM's..or im doing something wrong ???
also noticed some strange thing - after i got my card i tested it in Heaven,it got soemthing 800+ on stock,yesterday i tested it lil bit oc'ed and got 680+,just can find explanation to this
tried many bios'es - no luck of unlocking voltage in AB..

I found my Heaven score went down to 680 after messing around with overclock settings for a while. I am not trying to spurt out basics, but I rebooted and everything was fine after. No idea what caused it....

This is why sometimes if it ain't broke......

I have seen others that have no VRM monitoring in GPU-Z ... I have no idea what causes this, not sure if it something you have to unlock or change a setting to? I might have the right settings from previous programs/drivers....?

Edit
seems on google you need CHL8228 (chil controller) on your card. Some kind of digital phase controller. No idea how you find out what it is or where, or why some cards have it and others do not.

 

[Loxa]

Sorry my bad,

you do not need to install ATIWinFlash.

Once you have downloaded ATIWinFlash (I cannot recall if it is a zip/exe file that needs extracting - if it is, then unzip it) find your f43 bios file (you will need to run the exe file from gigabyte site) and place the bios file in the ATIWinFlash folder along with all the other ATIWinFlash files.

My f43 bios is named R7950W3GD.F43, not ******.rom as the guide says. I didn't change the file name so where the guide said to write *****.rom I wrote R7950W3GD.F43 in the cmd prompt.

Follow the guide to the letter. Don't assume you know how to do certain steps.Once I had opened cmd.exe (run as admin) I "cd" to the ATIWinFlash folder then the final command line I wrote was;

"atiwinflash -f -p 0 R795W3GD.F43"

(note the "0" is missing from 7950 in the bios name)

The "-f" instruction tells it to ignore the mismatch and flash anyway f=force. (technically the F43 bios is not a supported upgrade from FZ1).
The "-p 0" instruction tells it to flash the card in location 0 (if crossfire you then have to run with -p 1, -p 2 etc.. depending on how many cards you have)

Just make sure you are not switching back and forth between the 2 bios settings on your card. Work out which bios you want to try and flash and which one you want to keep as a fail safe. I flashed bios 1 and kept bios 2 intact. There is some suggestion bios 2 is write protected anyway.

Are you trying to flash bios 1?

If bios 1 is dead switch to your failsafe - bios 2. Once in Windows the bios has done it's bit and you can switch over to bios 1 whilst everything is on (obviously be careful what you are touching!) and flash bios 1. Just don't mess up both bios settings or it gets a lot more complicated.

Yes i was trying bios 1, i did everything you wrote in your post last night so i'm not sure what went wrong. After it failed i shutdown and switched back to bios 2 (just to be safe)

 

[Mario]

I found my Heaven score went down to 680 after messing around with overclock settings for a while. I am not trying to spurt out basics, but I rebooted and everything was fine after. No idea what caused it....

This is why sometimes if it ain't broke......

I have seen others that have no VRM monitoring in GPU-Z ... I have no idea what causes this, not sure if it something you have to unlock or change a setting to? I might have the right settings from previous programs/drivers....?

Edit
seems on google you need CHL8228 (chil controller) on your card. Some kind of digital phase controller. No idea how you find out what it is or where, or why some cards have it and others do not.

thanks,will try after reboot what score is..
getting more and more unhappier with this card tho...even VRM temps cant see

 

[Loxa]

thanks,will try after reboot what score is..
getting more and more unhappier with this card tho...even VRM temps cant see

Same mate, Voltage locked/Runs hot/Rattling sound. Already RMA'ed one of these because it came second hand..

 

[Deleted member 135847]

Have you tried HWiNFO64 for VRMs?

Once I load up the sensors I get three sections for my 7950. They all start GPU [#0]: ATO/AMD Radeon HD 7950 (TAHITI PRO):
One ends in "ATI internal" and shows clock speeds, memory speeds, fan speeds, core/mem voltage etc.
Then I get two other sections which end in "CHiL CHL8228" at the end which then list all the VRM information.

 

[Mario]

Have you tried HWiNFO64 for VRMs?

Once I load up the sensors I get three sections for my 7950. They all start GPU [#0]: ATO/AMD Radeon HD 7950 (TAHITI PRO):
One ends in "ATI internal" and shows clock speeds, memory speeds, fan speeds, core/mem voltage etc.
Then I get two other sections which end in "CHiL CHL8228" at the end which then list all the VRM information.

all i see is:

 

[Deleted member 135847]

Have you guys got overdrive enable in CCC?

 

[Mario]

Have you guys got overdrive enable in CCC?

i disabled it
right - just tested all with stock,even fan on stock in Heaven (tested 3 times) all results were 840,temps never go above 55C on auto
not sure i want to to do anything else as it seems ok
will try some OC tomorrow,but i know that i wont get much,never won silicon lotery lol
shame that GB locked those new 7950...

 

[Deleted member 135847]

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=374287

Bit of a read. There is some suggestion towards the end that the cards with FX0 bios are hardware voltage locked. The FZ1 cards were only voltage locked in the bios, therefore flashing to f43 unlocked them.

Looks at some stage Gigabyte have started to hardware voltage lock their cards, so if you manage to get f43 flashed you will not get voltage control. This hardware locking also seems to remove VRM monitoring.

What revision is printed on your PCBs? If you check your s/n with gigabyte support when did your warranty start (will give clue to manufacture date and different revision) mine started nov/dec 2012 (off top of my head).

 

[Mario]

no need to check,as now i see where problem is
mine come with FX0,so its not only hardware voltage locked,but also have no VRM monitoring,which is sad...
im quite happy with performance tho,just not sure what to do with it,as i still have untill monday to decide if i want to keep it..

 

[kronos13]

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=374287

Bit of a read. There is some suggestion towards the end that the cards with FX0 bios are hardware voltage locked. The FZ1 cards were only voltage locked in the bios, therefore flashing to f43 unlocked them.

Looks at some stage Gigabyte have started to hardware voltage lock their cards, so if you manage to get f43 flashed you will not get voltage control. This hardware locking also seems to remove VRM monitoring.

What revision is printed on your PCBs? If you check your s/n with gigabyte support when did your warranty start (will give clue to manufacture date and different revision) mine started nov/dec 2012 (off top of my head).

Hello Guys,
Ok, so I tried everything and it does look like the FX0 cards do not allow voltage unlock as James934 stated. What I then found is with the F43 Bios my HDMI port on the card was disabled and only my DVI port would work. F43 was running on Bios 1. I then tried to flash Bios 1 back to the original FX0 Bios using atiwinflash but it refuses to do so without error. It just keeps on failing and saying "ROM not erased". I now cannot flash Bios 1 with either the FX0 or F43 as it keeps giving this error and BIOS 1 is corrupt.

Anyone had issues like this before?

 

[theoneofgod]

Hello Guys,
Ok, so I tried everything and it does look like the FX0 cards do not allow voltage unlock as James934 stated. What I then found is with the F43 Bios my HDMI port on the card was disabled and only my DVI port would work. F43 was running on Bios 1. I then tried to flash Bios 1 back to the original FX0 Bios using atiwinflash but it refuses to do so without error. It just keeps on failing and saying "ROM not erased". I now cannot flash Bios 1 with either the FX0 or F43 as it keeps giving this error and BIOS 1 is corrupt.

Anyone had issues like this before?

use this command.

atiflash -f -p 0 rom

 

[kronos13]

Hello Guys,
Ok, so I tried everything and it does look like the FX0 cards do not allow voltage unlock as James934 stated. What I then found is with the F43 Bios my HDMI port on the card was disabled and only my DVI port would work. F43 was running on Bios 1. I then tried to flash Bios 1 back to the original FX0 Bios using atiwinflash but it refuses to do so without error. It just keeps on failing and saying "ROM not erased". I now cannot flash Bios 1 with either the FX0 or F43 as it keeps giving this error and BIOS 1 is corrupt.

Anyone had issues like this before?

FYI, got this sorted, had to use atiflash.exe and run it through dos to correct the Bios 1. Set it back to FX0 now and both HDMI and DVI is running again.

 

[kronos13]

use this command.

Cheers bud, yeah I found that, made a Dos usb boot disk and ran that and it worked. Thanks for the help.

 

[theoneofgod]

No problem. I have the fx0 card too running f43, i can manage 1100/1550 at 1.090 but if it breaks hdmi I think I'll be sending it back, AGAIN.

 

[kronos13]

No problem. I have the fx0 card too running f43, i can manage 1100/1550 at 1.090 but if it breaks hdmi I think I'll be sending it back, AGAIN.

Hi,
Do you get control on your Core voltage on F43 or is that just the standard voltage it runs at? In MSI afterburner I cannot control the core voltage in any program. Also, if you send it back what are you looking to replace it with? I'm in little in two minds here, don't really want an brand other than the Gigabyte.

 

[Tazzfalcon]

I've just ordered one of these to replace my MSI Twin Frozer 7950 which has a common fault (see thread on this forum related to fan speed).

Now I read this and see these WF 3X's have a common 'issue', if not outright fault.

Not my week for picking graphics cards.

Fingers crossed I get a good one on Monday though!