X1900 BIOS Editing

[Arthalen]

Bear with me, this could get ugly...

Been playing around with my X1900GT Crossfire setup, and until I get DFI's new RD600 board I'm pushing these cards for all there worth individually.

I believe, that overclocking these cards, in Crossfire mode, is impossible through conventional means as CCC does not allow the changing of voltages or fan speeds, both of which are required to be changed with the sort of clocks I'm aiming for. Also, I believe that CCC only overclocks the 'Master' card in the setup.

Hence I'm aiming to do my overclocks with some Video BIOS editing with RaBiT 2.1.

I've tested my cards max clocks to destruction, and gotten around the +10% voltage limitation with RaBiT, and I'm good to go for some mad 675/800 clocks on both the cards with the right Voltage and fan speeds. However, after test flashing one of my cards, and re-installing CCC with the ATI driver, it does not change the clocks up when going into 3D Mode.

With RaBiT, you have the choice of three profiles to alter:

Default
Overdrive 1
Overdrive 2

Looking at the original bios, the Overdrive 2 profile is the 3D profile. So I edited the Overdrive 2 profile for the clocks I want, changed the Voltage level and also set a new custom fan selection on the file.

Flashed, rebooted, tested and no joy. Hmmmm. So I also adjusted the Overdrive 1 profile. Flashed, rebooted and tested, still getting the 2D clocks.

I used Rivatuners monitoring to watch for clock changes, and it shows that it stays at the Default Profile's speeds.

Further to this, I checked out Overdrive in the CCC. It does not start correctly, failing to initialise. Checking the ACE Event log shows an exception in initialising the Overdrive framework, with an unknown value being passed to the Overdrive interface.

Now, this is what I'm led to believe - setting a Clock setting out of range of the clock profile on Overdrive will cause this fault. As I'm trying to set a memory speed of 800mhz, I think this is the one causing the issue.

I will test this out later by flashing my original BIOS back to the card and testing out overdrive again, to see if the same error occurs. Probably take a driver re-install to get my 3D clocks working again *sigh*

So, my questions to anyone with experience of X1900 BIOS flashing is:

1) Have you seen this yourselves ? Any ways around the Overdrive limits ?

2) Can anyone give me the OverDrive limits for a rev.1 X1900GT (575/600 clocks) ????

If anyone can point me at any X1900 Video Bios editing resources, I'd also be grateful.

Cheers,

Arthalen

 

[wizardmaxx]

Played around with x1900gt/xtx bios in hex. May be able to help u there. Still a noob, but can find my way around. If u can post a pic of what u want to change in mabye that will help.

 

[Arthalen]

RaBiT seems to do the work I need it to do, I don't think hand modding the BIOS code itself is going to help.

I'm willing to bet the limits here are the OverDrive limits imposed by CCC.... need someone else to test this to confirm though :/

Also, need the OverDrive limits placed on a Rev.1 X1900GT.

Be also good to hear from other people who are willing to BIOS mod there cards...

 

[Kezmo]

Think clock changing in rabit is bugged on the x1900 series. Tho u have the Best tools for clocking your card

Just change your fan speeds with rabit and up the core voltage flash the edited bios

Then use Rivatuner v2 rc 12 to set clocks (clocks shown in oc tab are 3d and it switches to these once 3d app is launched )


Great thing with riva is it's bug free and 3d auto detect works 100% , loads on start-up to sytem tray and NO bugs

 

[Arthalen]

Sounds like a plan, except one thing ... I need CCC for Crossfire support, and thus I need the 3D clock change to work properly.

So close, but no cigar, but thanks for the input

 

[Kezmo]

Ah sorry, sli
Why sli 2 x 1900gt's over getting a x1900xt ?

 

[Cyber-Mav]

i just use tray tools

 

[Arthalen]

Yes Yes, but tray tools doesn't support Crossfire....

 

[Arthalen]

Ah sorry, sli
Why sli 2 x 1900gt's over getting a x1900xt ?

a) Because 2x X1900GT > 1900XT
b) because the setup only cost the price of one card, I got the other as a favour from a friend.

Hence why I'm one of those rare few with a X1900GT Crossfire setup

 

[ViRuS2k]

Rabit is limited by CCCs overdrive

675/800 clocks i can get easy with Rabit
if you go over 800 though on the core with rabit and flash your bios when you get back into ccc it will show 3d clocks the same as 2d clocks lol

rabit works on volts aswell as fan speeds and memory as long as you dont go over 800 on the core it should work..

 

[Arthalen]

Bit of an update here.

Firstly, CCC Overdrive limits are dependant on the standard clocks of the card your using.

For example, my GT runs at 575/600 by default and CCC Overdrive only allows 650/720 max overclocks on CCC OVerdrive.

Secondly, I've managed to get volt and fan mods working with BIOS flashing,so now im into my second stage of testing with clock trials.

I'll post back more when I've cracked itall.