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

Here's the latest official (Not Beta) Vbios for Sapphire HD5970 OC. (All VBIOS on this page are Sapphire OC edition)

Please read Post #2 to help you understand the flashing process


Original vbios 735/1010mhz

IMPORTANT: Make sure you clear all Display drivers before flashing new Vbios. (I would recommend using Driver Sweeper). If you do not, then you will result in getting BSOD during windows start up!! (I know this as I found out the hard way).

Atiflash Download Latest version

http://support.sapphiretech.com/archive/attachment/3109/131_634136893713165000.zipThese are just the Original Vbios only.

To flash your card, type the following commands in pure DOS mode.

For those of you flashing a different branded card Please type this command first to tell you which GPU is master and slave by 0 and 1 (My Master GPU is 0 and my Slave GPU is 1. Some people have stated that other brands have the Master GPU as 1 and the Slave GPU as 0). atiflash -i

atiflash -p 0 C0001OCM.AC1 -f

atiflash -p 1 C0001OCS.AC1 -f

Make sure you include all spaces/dash etc.. as shown.

For those of you that are unsure how to make a DOS bootable disc, please download this linkhttp://www1.sapphiretech.com/global/lib_files/103.zip

Feel free to leave +REP for helping you guys out.

Cheers,

Simon.

Only use if you are using a waterblock with a decent size Radiator. Pre OC vbios 1000/1300 1.35v VDDC 1.25v VDDCI

I cannot guarantee that with these clock speeds that this vbios will be stable on your card, but only on the lucky few. So try at your own risk.

For those of you flashing a different branded card Please type this command first to tell you which GPU is master and slave by 0 and 1 (My Master GPU is 0 and my Slave GPU is 1. Some people have stated that other brands have the Master GPU as 1 and the Slave GPU as 0). atiflash -i

Master Vbios

atiflash -p 0 M.AC1 -f

Slave Vbios

atiflash -p 1 S.AC1 -f


For those of you using a waterblock here's a Pre OC vbios for the HD5970 Clocks 950/1200

You will need to uninstall all display drivers before flashing this OC vbios. Overwise you will get a BSOD.
I would not recommend using this vbios if you are not using a watercooling block!

Master vbios

Slave vbios

For those of you flashing a different branded card Please type this command first to tell you which GPU is master and slave by 0 and 1 (My Master GPU is 0 and my Slave GPU is 1. Some people have stated that other brands have the Master GPU as 1 and the Slave GPU as 0). atiflash -i

(m) for master (s) for slave vbios.

Put these 2 files on your dos enabled usb stick along with ati flash tool.

Now type the following commands

atiflash -p 0 950M.AC1 -f

Then after that bios has flashed type;

atiflash -p 1 950S.AC1 -f

Now reinstall CCC and check GPUZ to make sure your clocks are running at 950/1200 1.2v VDDC 1.15v VDDCI

You may get a CCC warning saying your display drivers are _______? Just click ok and have fun.

Here's another Pre OC vbios 900/1200 1.175v VDDC 1.15v VDDCI

For those of you flashing a different branded card Please type this command first to tell you which GPU is master and slave by 0 and 1 (My Master GPU is 0 and my Slave GPU is 1. Some people have stated that other brands have the Master GPU as 1 and the Slave GPU as 0). atiflash -i

Master vbios

atiflash -p 0 900M.AC1 -f

Slave vbios

atiflash -p 1 900S.AC1 -f

Here's another Pre OC vbios 800/1100 1.15v VDDC 1.15v VDDCI

For those of you flashing a different branded card Please type this command first to tell you which GPU is master and slave by 0 and 1 (My Master GPU is 0 and my Slave GPU is 1. Some people have stated that other brands have the Master GPU as 1 and the Slave GPU as 0). atiflash -i

Master vbios

atiflash -p 0 800M.AC1 -f

Slave vbios

atiflash -p 1 800S.AC1 -f

Enjoy!!

Simon.

 

To clear up some problems you guys are getting.

Before you start flashing, please insure you have completely uninstalled all display drivers, or else you will encounter problems.

I know that all vbios in post #1 work. So if you have a problem after you have done everything in Post #1 & 2, then its down to your card that needs to be RMA'd. Thank you

Heres a pic of the only files you should have on your Dos ready USB Stick. Note:- The bottom 2 files will be different depending on which Vbios you download.


Note:- You will need to rename Atiflash-3.84 to Atiflash, as it now comes with -3.84 on the end which will not allow atiflash to work in dos.





After you have the 3 files on your USB stick, you will now need to go into your Motherboard BIOS and change First Boot Priority To your USB Stick. Now Save and exit your BIOS and your PC will restart. Now your PC should load straight into PURE DOS.

Now you are in Dos, you will need to type Atiflash -i now press enter.
You will now have the information pictured below.



As you can see under 'adaptor'. 0 is Master and 1 is Slave on my card.



If your Slave is 0 and 1 is Master then you will need to change 0 to 1 in adaptor flash (Pictured above)

Note:- Only flash the Master vbios first before the Slave.

Now you should know which GPU is Master and which is Slave. You can now flash your card.

So if your Master GPU is Adaptor 0 then the command will look like this;

atiflash -p 0 C0001OCM.AC1 -f (Now press enter to start the flash)

If your Master GPU is Adaptor 1 then the command will look like this.

atiflash -p 1 C0001OCM.AC1 -f (Now press Enter to start the flash)

Now that you have flashed the Master GPU, you will now have to flash the Slave GPU.

So if your Master was Adaptor 0, your Slave will be Adaptor 1.

atiflash -p 1 C0001OCS.AC1 -f (Now press Enter to start the flash)

If your Master was Adaptor 1, then your Slave should be 0.

atiflash -p 0 C0001OCS.AC1 -f (Now press Enter to start the flash)

If you see this screen below and the New Product Name and New BIOS version is BLANK, then your flash didn't take. You may need to download the files again and start again.


Sorry again Ranger052, I had to use your pic for illustration purpose

If you feel I have left something out, then let me know.

I hope this has cleared up some issues.

Cheers,

Simon

 

Hmmm my guess would be it simply doesn't have a sensor or doesn't have a phase with that number.

That or my phase is dead too. So there you have it.

I can see you are running liquid cooling on yours too? Fan speed -- and low temps
But no overclock? I have mine on 1.15v 950mhz core and 1200mhz memory.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Yes it is watercooled. I'm using a Ek waterblock which I have to add an extra bit of thermal pad to the VDDC for one of them to make contact as my card doesn't have the 0.5 step up.


I haven't been able to overclock my card yet as I have had countless problems trying to stop the damn thing crashing in 2d mode.
I've gone thought all the fixes to solve this and in the end I had to edit the bios and set my own 2d clocks from the 157mhz core 300mhz memory to 400mhz core 1010mhz memory. and voltages from .950 to 1.0 Which has solved my 2d crashes.

Now I get a cold start problem. If my gpu temps are under 30*c my card will lock up. So Now I have to run furmark as soon as windows loads in order to increase the temps above 30*c to stop the card crashing.

What problems have you had?

Cheers,


Simon.

 

I never had problems with cold boot. So it boots into bios but freezes in windows but enough time to run futuremark? Sounds like your card freezes after drivers load since it goes into BIOS ok.

My card locks up seconds after my drivers load too but forcing my card to clock 500mhz/900mhz on idle fixes that. I didn't edit my card's BIOS to force the clocks. Rather I edited my CCC profile to default to those clocks, but a pain to have to enable the profile every time I boot.

My card's default voltage is 1.05v, at least that is what MSI afterburner recommends as default. Odd that you card sits at 0.95v maybe it needs an extra kick up to 1.05v

The card isn't friendly with 2D in games. 2D is fine as long there is 3D somewhere. The card sometimes run slow when rendering a 2D menu, and floating text only cinematics. As long there is 3D somewhere the card would work fine but once there isn't, FPS would drop down to 30 or less. This is with my idle clocks set higher too. Not a really big deal though because it doesn't happen in windows, only games and not all the time either.

As smooth as 3D enviroments go, there are some artifacts in some games. Some parts of Bad Company 2 single player produce artifacts. Bioshock 2 is full of them as well. This is definitely a crossfire related issue rather than the cards.

 

The Gpu bios has 5 different default clock speeds and voltages for high peformance and low power state.
157mhz core 300mhz memory @ .950v is the low power state.
next clock cycle is 400mhz/900mhz 1.0v
next clock cycle is 400mhz/1010mhz 1.0v
next clock cycle is 550mhz/1010mhz 1.038v
and the last one is (in my case with the sapphire oc) 735mhz/1010mhz 1.05v.

I decided to edit the bios as I too kept setting profiles and got fed up with it in the end.
So I changed the low power clocks with a bios editor from; 157mhz/300mhz .950v to 400mhz/1010mhz 1.0v
I don't get any 2d artifacts/pixelated/or vertical flicking anymore.

My only problem now is the cold starts. If my Gpu is under 30*c it will hard lock after 5mins in windows. So the only way I have over come this is to run furmark for a couple of mins to get the temps just over 30*c.

I think this is all down to dodgy drivers. I did try the new 10.5 beta drivers which worked great and showed some very good improved FPS in Crysis and BFBC2. But being a beta it does crash quite regularly. Now I'm back to using 10.3.

I've got a Amd Support account open and I'm helping them resolve this matter as its a very common problem.

I want to know why CPC in the latests mag hasn't said about any problems they have had with the card in there new rig.

 

I heard some people had luck with flashing their bios to fix the cold boot.

 

Guess what... I just did with the Asus bios in Dos... Now my card is dead. Oops

I need to get a cheap PCie graphic card now so I can flash it again with the original.
Only able to type this off my misses laptop LOL.

I can't blind flash as my motherboard is giving me 1 long/2 short beeps which indicates the graphics card is dead and will not continue through post.

 

Fixed the card now
Had to bridge pin 1 and 8 to overvolt pin 1 (to stop the flash chip reading) on both bios flash chips to force the new flash.

Flashed with Sapphires latest bios and now it seems to run ok. Drivers suck in some games tho.

I contacted AMD/ATI about the vddci phase #1 and they didn't have a clue? A? But they built the card, WTF?

I'm putting it down to the third party software not working properly

Simon.

 

Maybe you should do an RMA if the cold boot is not fixed, but that would probably take a couple weeks and it is most likely a driver problem anyway.

Calling ATI won't give you an answer to complicated problems. Their enginners built the card but the people in their call centers are only good at reciting pre-written messages for common problems.

 

**UPDATE**

I have now tried a test BIOS from Sapphire direct (Which will be official shortly.) and all my problems have now been solved 'No more cold boot problems' I can now get into windows with the GPU temps at 15*c and it doesn't crash, also this BIOS has fixed my 2d problems (Vertical flicking on the 1st and 3rd montior/Pixelation/artefacts across the 3 montiors etc)

If anyone else has these symptoms then get in contact with your graphics card manufacture and get the latest BIOS update before you RMA your card.

Simon.

 

That sounds promising. I have had a few tickets with them over the last few months that dont seem to have gone anyware sadly. Can you give me the link for the new bios. I will gove it a bash. I got the bios that was out a few days after the card was launched so hopefully this will help with the loss of display port output problem.

 

Ok here is the BIOs direct from Sapphire.


Removed as due to a newer official vbios added in post 1.

 

Cheers Simon

That is the same email I got for the first bios update but thankfully with the new bios information. I will be giving that a go and HOPEFULLY it will stop my display port monitor from loosing input!!

Cheers

John

 

I'm also using display port for 1 of my monitors and haven't had any drop out with the new BIOs.

Cheers.

P.S Let me know how you get on with it and if it fixes the problems your having. That way I can report back to the guy who's dealing with my ticket.

 

ty true gamer for the bios. i think that fixed my cold bug problem. nomore crashes. that bios and with beta 10.4 makes my games smooth

 

Np, I'm glad it has solved your problems as well

I'm also using 10.4b and like you say, its plays games smoothly now.

That BIOS is only a Beta of the official BIOS, which should be available soon. As soon as they give me the official BIOS, I will leave a link to it.(New official vbios (not beta) in post #1

Below has been fixed with the new latest official vbios in post #1

The only problem I have now come across is when you increase the clock speed from 735mhz to say 740mhz I notice at the bottom of Catalyst control centre the 2d clocks revert back to 157mhz core and 300mhz memory instead of 400mhz core 1010mhz memory. As soon as you apply the overclock of 5mhz or more the 2d clocks drop and then causes the 2d crashes(vertical flickering/artefacts and then hard lock ups). As soon as you click default and then apply, the clocks jump back upto the default 2d clock of 400mhz core 1010mhz memory.

I know AMD are working on a fix for this as this is down to CCC.

Simon.

 

Did you ever get that card overclocked yet?

 

Yes I can get it to 1000mhz core 1300mhz memory 1.21vcore 1.15v memory. But Like I stated in the last post. As soon as you apply the overclock, the 2d clocks revert back to 157mhz core 300mhz memory which causes instability. Unless you are running a 3D app. Temps don't go above 47*c. Which is great considering I have it running off the same loop as my CPU which is sitting at 4ghz.

Simon

 

I have the new bios now as well. I got the same email from sapphire as you. I never had a problem with 2d speed crashes, lines flashing anything with old bios, lucky I guess. With the last few beta drivers the 2d speeds have gone up as we know. I have afterburner doing my OC and voltage increase so that may be why I did not notice the drop back to 157/ 300. As for the problems they are still there. I get the "display port has lost output" or something like that In the middle of the screen from CC. The other thing I noticed is my DP monitor did not go to sleep last night while the other two did. It is similar to the bug that was in CC 10.1. I emailed sappire back to tell them and they thanked me for letting them know and would post any further bios updates on website! BC2 is still crashing but that is just BC2. I was hoping they had upped the memory voltage a bit but it is still at 1.10v. Another thing I noticed when the computer is booting up the DP monitor now seems to kick in a little faster. Saphire say all these problems are driver related but I am not too sure.