ATI Bios Flash

[Enola]

Hey guys, I'm not very bizy atm so I decided to make a small guide on how to flash a ATI bios, my main focus here isn't to overclock or push more performance, although its also included and the process is the same, its also not directed neither at complete new users or very pro ones, but at a average crowd with some notions and some will to improve.
So objectives are decrease power consumption while idle at the same time decreasing temperature and noise from fans, making a overall more pleasant experience specially while not playing games.
Taking my 4870 has example, ATI in simple terms use two speeds one for load and one for idle, 750mhz on gpu and 900mhz on memory while loaded and 500mhz gpu, 900mhz memory while in idle, at a minimum of 50% fan speed, my problem here is even at minimum the small fans at 50% are still a bit noisy, too much imo.
Making one thing clear a good idle temperature is 40ºC, but the gpu could be at 0ºC and the fan would still be at the same noisy 50%, so what I/we will do its to allow the fan to go to much lower values even stop if possible, reducing the noise a lot.
First step is to get the tools/programs we will need, those are:
ATI WinFlash http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads..._2.0.1.11.html
Radeon Bios Editor http://www.techpowerup.com/rbe/

Process:

Open WinFlash


Press the "Save" button to make a copy of your current bios and save it in a *.rom format.
(Not sure if in English its "save" anyway there are 3 buttons its the one at the right.)

Now you have a copy of your bios that you can work with.

Open Radeon Bios Editor


Load the bios you have saved with WinFlash



Now lets start with the tuning, be aware that this is just changing the bios you have saved, so there are no direct changes to you graphics card behaviour by this alone.
I will go with the simplest form of tuning this, so it is easily accessible for basically anyone.
So first go to "Clock Settings", here press the Clock Tuning Wizard button


First you have the overclock option


Im leaving it has default in this guide, has its not the point I want to make, although if you would want to overclock by bios it would be here.

Next we have the underclock option, this referring to the idle stage of the video card.


I have changed the GPU clock from 500mhz to 300mhz, the memory from 900mhz to 600mhz, voltage to 1.083v, you can go more(less) but im trying to make this guide from a safe, easy point of view.
Values changed press next, finish in the next screen and done.


Last step lets go to the Fan settings.
Here I gone make it even easyer by just selecting the "Use transfer function" and press "Set all fan settings to recommended values"


You can change the settings to your needs, I find the recommended values very decent, much better then the stock ones, allowing for basically silent operation when it is possible and spinning the fan up nicely when needed.

Ok now without going in further details/complications its done, save the moded bios.
Go back to WinFlash, load the moded bios, by pressing the "load" button


Now and for final step press the middle button, to actually flash the bios with the moded version.
Follow the steps and restart when asked.
Presto its done.

Summary, by doing this we have reduced power consumption of the graphics card while not in load very significantly, this for me its the vast majority of the time I spent in front of my pc, by doing this we also reduced the heat load, effectively prolonging the life of your video card, and in consequence of less heat and with the better fan settings, we get a more silent system, and remember the heat generated from the graphics card doesn't only influence the graphics card itself but the whole system, so overall its a win win situation.
You can control the fan very efficiently with software like ATI tray tools, but its never has clean, and to be honest this is simpler and more efficient.



This is a stress test with a slight overclock to 800mhz, but what I wont you to notice is the lower temps, below 40ºC and with the fan almost stopped, before this change would average at well above 40ºC with the fan constantly at a noisy 50%.
So for me this change is a big plus, hope it may help you, good luck.

[pansertjald]

super nice guide you have done there Enola. its should come in handy for many users of the forum

i would just like to add, that if people like to overclock there ati card, i would recomend MSi Afterburner. it can unlock almost all of the ati cards on the market, where as techpowerup has been knownen to have some problems with some ati 5xxx series card

but 5/5 for the guide

[Enola]

Thank you, was bored at home lol being sick sucks.
I avoided talking about overclock here to minimize the risk of problems, messing with some of the more advanced settings can create some problems if you dont know well what you are doing, by going trough with safe values and recomended auto settings, should be near foolproof.
And I just love the underclock thing, personaly i turn my pc on once per day, a big amount of time I wont be even on the pc, most of the time im not playing, for web, some videos etc, there's no need for high performance, so why keep the pc hot noisy while at it?
The best way to get reed of heat its to not create it in the first place. I know some ppl that in a 4870 changed to 100-200, i havent tryed it so low yet, but will eventualy.
And then the dam stepping on the stock fan control, its just craptastic when in relation to noise, the dam sound from these small fans for me its extremely anoying, doing this I can basicaly get rid of it at cost 0, so .
I dont use afterburner, simply because i have no need for it, first my specific board dont acept voltage adjustments, automaticaly im limited to what i can do, then while I could keep the gpu at lets say 85ºC stress test load, the memories and power control unit, would be burning, most ppl check the gpu temperature only, mistake, personaly the only program i know that gives me the values from memories diode is everest, when i started looking at those, i started thinking twice, I have a asus 4870dk, meaning this particular cooler is complete crap on the memories, they get realy toasty easy.
So basicaly I have no need for afterburner, because by the thermal and voltage limits, I cant do nothing with it that i cant with the standard ccc.