Help overclocking reference 7970

[flopper]

Something strange that I've noticed since trying to flash back with Matt's bios is that my idle clocks are now lower than what they were before. My clocks now idle at 300/150 whereas before I'm sure they were 500 and something.

Or maybe a driver update changed that, because I have updated drivers a few times over the past week.

I can't figure it out. Af first I thought that maybe when I tried to flash my GHz bios back to the original bios that for some reason it flashed to the wrong position on my card, but that wouldn't explain why the GHz bios will no longer boot.

This is very strange. Kind of wish I never bothered with flashing in the first place. I'm also noticing the occasional flicker on the desktop too, which is annoying

flicker likely ram speed change.
yes new drivers changed zero core value to work properly.

 

[LtMatt]

Type atiflash -i before flashing to make sure you flash the right bios to the right adapter number (typically 0 if the gpu is in the first slot)

 

[kissenger]

So the new drivers account for the reduced clocks? Well that explains that. Regarding the flicker I'm gonna test out that theory about the vram speed change by keeping GPU-z open and the next time I get a flicker I'll check the max vram speed to see if there's been a jump.

Regarding the atiflash -i thing, what does that do exactly? I'm still none the wiser as to why my attempt to flash back to the original bios didn't work.

 

[tommybhoy]

Regarding the atiflash -i thing, what does that do exactly?

The switch commands are in here:

Spoiler

-i [NUM]Display information of ATI adapters in the system

-ai [NUM]Display advanced information of ATI adapters [NUM] if specified

-p <NUM> <FILE> Write BIOS to image <FILE> to all approriate adapters

-s <NUM> <FILE> [SIZE] Save BIOS image from adapter <NUM> to file <FILE>
First [SIZE] kbytes (except for Theater in bytes) of ROM

-cf <FILE> [SIZE] [SUM] calculate 16-bit checksum for file <FILE>
Checksum for the first [SIZE] kbytes of the file is calculated if [SIZE] is specified

-cb <NUM> [SIZE] [SUM] Calculate 16-bit BIOS image checksum for adapter <NUM>
Checksum for the first [SIZE] kbytes of the ROM content is calculated if [SIZE] is specified.

-t <NUM> Test ROM access of adapter <NUM>

-v <NUM> <FILE> Compare ROM content of adapter <NUM> to <FILE>

-f Force flashing regardless of security checking BIOS file info check OR boot-up card

-fa Force flashing bypassing already-programmed check

-fm Forec flashing bypassing BIOS memory config check

-fs Force flashing bypassing BIOS SSID check

-fp Force flashing bypassing BIOS P/N check

-pcionly Enumerate only PCI adapters

-agp Enumerate only AGP adapters

-pcie Enumerate only PCIE adapter

-reboot Forec a reboot of the system after successfully completing the specified operation

I'm still none the wiser as to why my attempt to flash back to the original bios didn't work.

Have you tried flashing the GHz bios back in?

 

[kissenger]

Have you tried flashing the GHz bios back in?

I haven't tried that yet because I don't want to risk borking my card. I'm not 100% sure that when I tried to flash position 1 back to the original bios I wasn't actually flashing position 2 (i.e. due to the fact that the system didn't register me flicking the switch back to position 1 when in DOS).

That's why I was asking why my idle clock speeds had changed (I thought that maybe the bios Matt gave me was different to the one shipping with the latest batch of these MSI OC's, and that I had flashed over the bios in position 2 (my one remaining original bios) with the one Matt gave me).

I think what I need is to check with someone else who bought one of these cards just recently and see what bios version they are using. If it doesn't match mine, then I must have flashed Matt's bios over my back-up bios. Is there anyone who bought one of these recently who can check?

Edit: also the fact that I'm getting occasional screen flickering on my desktop make me think I screwed something up.

 

[kissenger]

Also just to confirm: the flicker is not a result of vram switching, as GPU-z doesn't show any spike after the flickers.

 

[weehamish]

This is why you dont mess around with the BIOS!

I hope you can fix it because that is a waste of money since warranty void now?

 

[kissenger]

This is why you dont mess around with the BIOS!

I hope you can fix it because that is a waste of money since warranty void now?

I don't think the warranty's void because, as far as I can tell, I didn't actually flash the 'main' bios. But either way, yeah, I'd like to sort out these issues.

 

[tommybhoy]

@weehamish,

kissengers went wrong somewhere along the line and borked one of his bios, but he still has a working gpu-that's the whole point of having a dual bios, to enable flashing of the bios safely.

He can(and should just walk away now imho) and he will have a perfectly fine gpu with 'just' the one bios left without further having to lift a finger.

His warranty is still valid as the dual bios switch is an enabled feature(in the event of RMA, I very much doubt a tech would even flick the switch anyway tbh).

If you were not meant to flash the bios then it wouldn't be a feature-ie the 7950 DD, XFX don't want you to flash the bios(they don't want you to do anything with it really) so they removed the switch.




@kissenger,

You can leave it alone(that's what I would do for minimum self grief) and you will still have a working gpu, that's still under warranty.

Or you can try and fix the borked bios:

Iirc, you have onboard gpu, if not, forget about trying this:

Leave the side panel off and boot into windows with the working bios.

Visually take note of the number of the bios that's working and write it down on a piece of paper, then double check to make sure.

Power off.

Flick the switch into the 'borked' bios position.

Unplug your monitor cable from your 7970 and plug it into your onboard gpu(should work, but you may have to go into the bios and switch to onboard gpu) and boot into dos.

Attempt a bios flash and cross your fingers.


The flicker is a known memory bug, iirc.

 

[chipachap]

You're hardly trying to flash the 1st position BIOS are you? That's the one that's locked and you shouldn't be able to change/flash it.

 

[LtMatt]

I thought it was the second bios which is locked chip? Anyway i can flash bios to either on mine so long as i force flash it and do it in dos with atiflash.

 

[kissenger]

Yeah I read it was the second bios too. Either way it doesn't matter much because the GHz flash was successful and I still have one original bios. I think the next thing for me to try though is the solution Tommy posted.

 

[kissenger]

Power off.

Flick the switch into the 'borked' bios position.

Unplug your monitor cable from your 7970 and plug it into your onboard gpu(should work, but you may have to go into the bios and switch to onboard gpu) and boot into dos.

Attempt a bios flash and cross your fingers.


The flicker is a known memory bug, iirc.

I'm gonna try this when I get home tonight, just because I'd like the card to be in factory reset condition. Call it OCD or whatever

But just want to check, if I'm booting into DOS using the onboard GPU would I not just be flashing the onboard GPU? I'm assuming that's not possible, but I'm a noob so I don't know for sure

 

[kissenger]

I'm about to try this flash. This is exactly what I'm gonna do so I'd appreciate it if someone could comfirm that I'm not making any mistakes.

Step 1. Power off. Flick switch to bad bios. Boot into DOS using igpu and bootable floppy with the bios I saved when I did the original flash on it.

Step 2. in DOS, type 'atiflash -f -p 0 oldbios.bin'.

Step 3. Reboot.