Graphics HD5970 'Fixed all problems with latest official BIOS' (Added latest vBIOS in post #1)

That will be normal after 15mins of continuous use of furmark. VDDC will throttle down at 120c or 125c. But I would not recommend running at those temps for long if at all, unless you want to kill your card. (Furmark is a big GPU killer!!)
You should not get VDDC above 75c whilst gaming for a couple of hours. If you do, then either your waterblock is not fitted properly/your loop is small (RAD size and pump speed) or your card can't take the overclock.

Cheers,

Simon.

 

Now I flash vbios and it worked as it should, but the computer still hangs. What should I do?

/Robin

 

Check your waterblock is fitted properly. You may have something short circuiting on your gfx card.

 

Hi Simon I have been following your posts in this thread and I think you are the right guy to ask these questions. Is it ok to have red led always lit on my 5970? My vga has been having this ever since I had this small water leak on my EK block but my video card seems to be working fine.

btw I can only achieve a stable overclock at 930 MHz at 1.25 volts, do you think it would be better for me to flash my bios? None of my vddc temps get higher than 75 even when playing crysis at full spec but above 930, say at 950 or at 970 I always get system crashes after having played the game for 30mins or more.

I have spent so much money for my rig as prices especially the 5970 don't go any cheaper in my country (Philippines). Hope you will be able to help me get the most out of this videocard. Many thanks and more power.

Luis

 

Hi Luis,

Your red led should only light up if you haven't connected a power cable properly to your GFX card.
Either that or you may have short circuit something on your card when you had a water leak.

You can try the new vbios on post #1 or I have a pre-overclocked vbios on page #4/post #80. All thou the OC vbios is 100% stable on my card, it might not be on yours.

If you find you are still having problems, I would flash the card back to the original and get a RMA.

Cheers,

Simon.

 

Hi,

Just a quick one, Before making any changes, is it normal for GPU-Z to report the 2nd 5970 core to constantly revert back to the max clocks when in desktop doing nothing?
Cheers.

 

Yes it should fluctuate which it is doing on your first GPUZ window. BTW GPUZ is a third party app and is not 100% accurate.

 

Thanks a lot for posting this.

 

Hi True_Gamer,

Have read many of your threads with great interest to solve my Sapphire 2GB HD5970 (non-OC) issue - basically 2D fine, any 3D screen blank and hung with hard reboot required - and this thread appears that it may have the answer with the BIOS update. Think this is the only option left as I already have a RMAd replacement card and no change. Sapphire are due to send me a BIOS update as a last chance fix - I am not hopeful. Your thoughts?

Machine details: Asus 6PT SE, i7 960, 12GB Corsair XMS3 11600, Thermaltake Toughpower XT 875W etc...

Thanks

Snox

 

I would say its worth a try. Its all down to what version vbios is on your card. If its v1.20 then an updated vbios should solve your problems. If not then it maybe your card that is the fault.

Cheers,

Simon.

 

Hi Simon,

I just used the sapphire bios and my cold bug issues are gone! Previously I had vbios 1.20 by XFX (XFX5970BE) that seemed to be causing all these issues with the cold bug.

Still if you don't mind, I would like to have your opinion regarding the reason of why some cards need to use the new bios to solve the cold bug issue, while other cards work perfect even with vbios 1.20.

For example, regarding your card... you believe that your card is even slightly mis-manufactured, so only with the new bios you can override the issues your card had before the update? Or is it something else?

Your post, together with the "slight" push of a friend, who persuaded me to go through the flashing process of my card , really helped me to get rid-off that cold bug issue!

Thanks A LOT.

 

Hi,

I'm glad the vbios update solved your problems.

I didn't have any problems when I had the stock cooler installed. I only started getting problems when I added a waterblock and my temps where below 30c.
I do believe ATI rushed these cards out without fully testing. So maybe it was a mis-manufacture of the vbios...who knows.

At least now they have solved the problems and hopefully they will fully test the new HD6000 series when they come out.

Simon.

 

You mean mismanufacture of the vbios (software) or the GPU (Hardware)?

Again... Thanks a lot!

 

I was given this link to your thread on another forum, and registered to ask for help, if possible.

I downloaded the atiflash program from first post, but it says it's not for my windows, its for 32 bit, while my Windows 7 is 64 bits.

The reason I want to flash it is because I get wrong 2D clocks even with 1 monitor >.< I was wondering of you could help me out, never flashed a card and I am very scared.

 

Yes the firmware, not hardware.

 

This is because you are trying to flash the GFX card in windows. (PURE DOS ONLY!). You need to read through post #1 carefully.
First; create a DOS bootable USB stick.
Second; add the files to the USB stick.
Third; flash the card in DOS.

Cheers,

Simon.

 

Damn it sounds pretty hard :/

I have a Pen Drive I could use but I d on't even know how to make it a DOS bootable stick, neither ho to flash it :/ Im lost and scared

 

Hi kcuestag,

I was a "little" worried before I flashed my card on how to do it, so I researched it a little bit.

A few extra things I followed during the flashing procedure (except those mentioned in simon's guide):

1. I used the latest atiflash found here

Please note that you use the atiflash utility in DOS environment that you will create using a bootable usb stick (check page 1 of this forum) so, this has nothing to do with windows at all!

2.Before flashing to the new vbios, I simply backed-up my old vbios using these commands:
ATIflash -s 0 oldm.bin (to backup the master bios)
ATIflash -s 1 olds.bin (to backup the slave bios)

3.After flashing the new vbios (master and slave) I did NOT restart the PC (as atiflash recommeds), but SHUT IT DOWN completely. The new bios is not completely read until you shutdown and THEN restart your PC.

And of course, as mentioned in page1, DO NOT forget to remove any GPU related driver before proceeding with any vbios update for your graphics card!

These few items were not my ideas of course but belong to a friend of mine who works with ATI.

By the way,... Kcuestag, I read your excellent thread here and have already ordered my accelero xtreme!

Thanks!

 

Hehe, thank you for the explanation.

However, I still don't get how to make my pen drive a bootable DOS stick, I am very stupid at this :/

Do you have any msn we can talk with?

About the Accelero Xtreme, it's a great choice.

Rigth now in summer with 30ºC room temp (Yeah, no A/C sadly) temps went up a bit almost to 60ºC on load, but still great temps for summer

PS: If you could help me around on msn, would rly appreciate it.

 

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