M15x + ATI 5870 (MOD)

yeah looking good now. those temps are excellent.

 

I can't get the drivers to install... I've tried a couple from the Dell site, they all encounter a problem while installing. A little help?

 

just get it from ati site. download it then extract it.
then find the config folder. open it and find the install manager CFG file.
open the file with notepad and edit the last row.
"Workaroundinstall=false" change it to
WorkaroundInstall=true
save it, then run the install exe. and hopefully everything should work.

 

thank you! I never knew about that work around, everythings going great, haven't tried gaming yet. What are dangerous temps while gaming? Do Clevo cards have throttling built into the bios?

Are there any advantages to flashing the MSI vbios onto this card?

 

Your card shouldn't pass 90*C when gaming... i had mine OC'd to 850/1100 at one point ..and after two hours of BFBC2, highest temp it reached was 78*C... avrging around 70-74. But they can take temps up to like 120*C if i'm not mistaken...but you wouldn't wana be able to fry an egg on your M15x now would you? lol

But now i re-flashed my vbios back to stock....and it only reaches a max of 74 while playign BFBC2...and avrges around 65-70

MSI bios will give you overdrive to work with CCC, but is more unstable.

 

I was benchmarking Final Fantasy 14 just to see how it stresses the card @ 700/1000 and it was easily pushing 80c.

In AMD clocks the first temp sensor is always much lower than the rest, sometimes 10-12C lower, and the second and third will sometimes be hitting 65-66c idling out. Is there any recommendations as what I can do to lower those temps?

Jstarnino, I used your guide to flash the card, thanks for the guide but it didn't work for me, I set the clocks to 200/300 at boot but whenever I'd OC to the stock 700/1000 @ 1.1/1.15v it would go black and a "Display driver amdkmdap stopped responding and has successfully recovered." Even when games were loading up. I loaded up Alien Swarm from Valve which isn't really demanding and it would crap out before the game would even load to the main menu, black screens, grey screens, blue screens it was all random. I flashed back to the Stock vbios and it's workng but temps are high. Any recommendations? I'm not going to do any OC'ing the card is plent fast as it is.

 

Have you tried re-applying the thermal paste? and make sure the thermal pads on all of the mem. chips on the card are making contact with the heatsink. If done correctly it should drastically lower temps. My idle temps are 42-44*C with 23-24*C ambient.

Also, about flashing, what you wrote was a little confusing. What do you mean 200/300 at boot? for the 2d clocks in the wizard? I'd put 300/400 as those are known as being stable, not sure about 200/300.

Also what do you mean "OC'ing to the stock 700/1000 @ 1.1/1.15v"

Those are stock clocks, how are you oc'ing to those clocks? DO you have a 5870m or a 5850m? I'm a little confused.

 

Look like the RAM temps are high. Probably need some new thermal pads. Your core temps looks ok. Like j said your post is a little confusing. I am using 200/250 and all is fine, I can do pretty much anything except gaming at those clocks. I have no crashing, and it is stable.

 

wow sorry, I just reread what I typed before, doesn't help when I get home late from drinking

I set the 2d clocks to 200/300 which I tested and were stable, within the clock tuning wizard in the Overclocking section I set it to 200/300 and changed the voltage to 0.9v and in the Underclocking section I set it to 200/300 0.9v as well, I don't want the card to go to higher clocks unless I allow it. I finished using the wizard and I can see the clocks changed in Clock Info 00/01. Did I do something wrong? When I used AMD clock tool to put the clocks back to 700/1000 for gaming it would just crap out, the drivers would constantly crash and recover.

 

when you raise the clocks back up, are you also raising the voltage back up?

 

How do you get this low temps?

I hade 90-91°C after 1-2 hour of BFBC2 with the following clocks 800/1100.

 

Yes I am, set it to 1.1v.

I tried re-applying paste and maybe adding a an extra .5mm layer of thermal pads to the ram, it's actually much much hotter than before @ 700/1000 idling it's 75C compared to 62C without the extra layer. I wanted to try to remove the pads completely, would that be safe? With the clocks @ 200/300 it's at 59C which seems hot to me considering theres nothing blocking the vent and I'm using a 9cell battery on a desk. The GPU core is idling at 47C which I know is great.

just removed the pads and put AS5 instead of MX-3, temps are now idling @ 46C 200/300

GPU-Z shows
52C
46.5C
51C
52C
in order of temps showing up

in AMD Clock Tool:
47C
52C
53C

 

when you added the extra .5mm layer, you probably did more harm by raising it higher and not allowing the other ram chips to make proper contact with the heatsink. Changign brands of Thermal paste won't cause that much of a diffrence, as both mx-3 and AS5 are top contenders (mx-3 a little better axctually)

I'm pretty sure it comes down to what pads you're using on what chips, and if they're making contact.

 

The AS5 hasn't cured yet but it's already showing better results than the MX3.

Jstarnino do you have a Clevo card? Have you tried the MSI bios yourself? I'm not going to be doing much overclocking if any, I just want to have lowest possible heat coming out the system when not gaming and then if needed tune it up to stock clocks for standard gaming performance.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong when editing the bios?

 

bring down the voltage. 1.05v should be good. clevo stock is 1.15v

 

I have a Dell 5870m, with powermizer which downclocks on its own (which is awesome) So that helps the idle temps ALOT.

On the Desktop its either 100/150 or 300/400 depending what i'm doing.
When i launch a video on Youtube or a movie on my HDD, it goes to 500/1000
And in games it goes to 700/1000.

SO when its idling at 100/150 @ 0.9v, you can understand why it stays so cool. also its 700/1000 clocks are set at 1.05v.

Unfortunately the clevo's don't have the luxury of Powermizer so i would suggest first, do what Inap said, and flash the gpu to 1.05v for the 3d clocks. (there's a guide in my sig)

Then, i'd downclock the gpu using AMD GPU Clock Tool to 100/150 when you're not gaming.

Doing all of those things should lower your Temps considerably.

Also the Clevo bios is known to run hotter. The msi is said to run cooler, but its extremely unstable when OC'ing.

So if you don't OC, i'd give the MSI vbios a try.

 

I just tried to flash with the MSI bios, it told me that there was an SSID? mismatch number so I didn't continue with the flashing.

As for following your guide, I followed it, I set the clocks to 200/250 @ 0.90v any lower on the clocks and it artifacts. So now the system boots up at 200/250 which is great, but when I go to overclock to 700/1000 @ 1.05v using AMD Clock tool the 1.05v voltage option doesn't show up in the drop down menu only the 0.90v

 

You would have to force a flash with a different VBIOS

 

amd clock tools doesn't up the voltage at all you will have to flash it to get that voltage. i think sticking at 1.05 is the best.

 

What Scook9 and Inap said.

Anytime you're going to flash a vbios onto your gpu other than the one it was shipped with ( In your case Flash an MSI bios onto your Clevo card), You have to force flash it. The command for forceflashing is a little diffrent.

instead of the command "atiflash -p 0 5870m.rom" lets say, you have to type "atiflash -p -f 0 5870m.rom" instead, where -f is for "force"

***CAUTION THOUGH. In some cases if you flash an vbios thats not compatible with your card, it'll brick it. Luckily for u flashing a clevo with the msi bios was tested, and is safe.

Also, like Inap said, voltages can only be changed by editing the vbios in RBE and setting the volatge for 3dclocks to 1.05v. It cannot be done in AMD GPU Clock Tool.

 

Thanks for the info. i tried the MSI bios released on 07/02/2010 2d clocks are 100/150 which is nice and low, problem is it causes the very top edge of the screen to flicker when doing anything. I tried to up the clocks via AMD tool and RBE to 200/300 just to see if it was stable and infact it caused more harm than good. Everything starts to artifact, sometimes a blank screen with lines start appearing, reflashing to another VBIOS fixes it. Guess I'll be staying with the Clevo bios.

 

200/300 isn't stable if im not mistaken. try 300/400 for improved performance on the desktop.

 

200/300 is stable i'm using it. even 200/250 is good.

 

Yeah i personally use 200/250.

My lowest temps right now with those clocks are 45/47/45 but it averages around 46/48/46

 

I personally use 250/300,, temps avg @ 47

Hey Jstar.. ur using dell 5870m.. where did u get ur hands on that card... think only mandrake and u have the Aw card...

Was thinking to benchmark again with my 5870m... but too many bricked 5870's in the hood... can't risk it... uve got a great score... was thinkin of raisin the voltage to 1.2 for the benchmarks..

 

On the Clevo Bios, whatever clocks I set work fine for 2d desktop use, 100/150 200/250 200/300 etc. When I flash the MSI bios the very top of the screen starts flickering no matter what I set the clocks to, even @ 700/1000 it'll flicker, it's odd.

 

Someone should put together a table of all physical card, vbios, stable 2d and 3d clocks and voltages for each combinations for reference. That would make this all much simpler lol

It is getting hard to follow

 

Hehe, yea. Well I just did a bunch of testing, MSI VBIOS BR35757.023 is extremely unstable on my Clevo card. It supports Overdrive + Powerplay, but changing the clocks in AMD Clock tool will cause it to artifact and crash the laptop instantly, does not matter if it's a 10mhz increase or 100mhz. Altering Bios values within RBE will also cause the same artifact crash on windows boot.

Not touching the clocks at all, it's VERY cool, 46C but there's a flickering at the top of the screen when doing anything that's related to video it's nothing serious, or at least it doesn't seem to be but it get VERY annoyiny. It seems to only happen at low 2d clocks since it doesn't happen when gaming, but again changing the clocks = crash.

Is there another MSI Bios?

 

Msi bios doesn't work well with amd clock tools. Uninstall the amd and use overdrive to oc.

 

I would just copy the clocks of the AW 5870. Runs stable and should cause less heat issues.

 

but on what card with what vbios at what voltage? lol

there are many variables here (and this is not for me but rather all the M15x owners)

 

Default vbios for that particular card set at the voltage and clocks of the AW 5870 or 5850. Either would be fine. Better?

 

those vbios only works for white M15x's. lolz

 

"Mandrake Edition"

 

Could someone link me to the MSI Bios that people tested?

 

I hope that your avatar is really your name plate lol

 

Try here: RapidShare: 1-CLICK Web hosting - Easy Filehosting

So far as I know, the MSI vbios was tested only on Clevo 5870's and requires forcing the flash through a mismatched SSID warning using "atiflash -p -fs 0 hd5870.rom". Using it to flash a Dell or other 5870 could be unpredictable or even dangerous to the health of your card.

 

Thanks for the link, this one is definitely different than the one I've been testing. This one has no screen flicking.

Does this one auto downclock the GPU if not in use?

 

Yes, PowerPlay works with that vbios, but I can't remember what the downclock settings were. And it depends upon the computer. IIRC, it worked with the M15x's, but not with the Sager 8760's, et al.

 

It is!!

 

Thanks to you, inap, Mandrake for all the help. I just got it running PERFECTLY. idling @ 46c with some IC Diamond paste, everything is idling below 50C's and powerplay is working perfect

 

Wonderful. What clocks and voltages are you using?

 

idle clock 100/150 0.9v
general usage 200/300 0.90
when watching an HD video it jumped to 400/800 0.95
3D 700/100 1.05

at least that's what I programmed into the bios.

 

Hi im newbie here
Inap, how did you fix your 'black screen' problem?
I have same problem after flash dell vbios...

sorry for my bad english

 

you need to provide more details, flashed the dell vbios into what kind of card? a clevo card 5870? MSI 5870? Dell 5850?

 

Oh sorry. Mine is clevo 5870 card.
I flashed Dell 5850 vbios.
and then, I rebooted... no screen, no boot.. I can't see anything

 

I'm pretty sure you can't flash Dell vbios onto Clevo cards, you have bricked your card.

 

you mean this can't be fixed?
blind flash or bake card...etc

 

You can try blind flashing if you can tell the system is POST'ing. If not then there's no point. Try hooking up an external monitor.

 

Thank you for help. I'm trying with an external monitor.
USB is lighting but no signal Num/Caps lock ... and still black screen.
I'll keep trying..