Overclocking Crossfire 5870's help please

I also posted this question over in TechInferno:

So Im ready to OC the GPU's! So far I have had some success with throttlestop, my present settings are TDP/TDC 90/75 with a 26 multiplier, no BIOS OC, default voltage. I want to flash my cards with a value that wont compete with the CPU for juice as I believe some high values will do this.

Is 800/1100 a good value? What about voltage?

I assume the instructions in the following links which were originally for 4870 cards are applicable to the 5870's? Are these the best, recent instructions to use?

Alienware M17x w/ATi 4870 info thread!



Thanks in advance.

 

Those instructions are the best way to flash. Everything is the same, and 800/1100 should be fine.

 

Im actually having some difficulty with atiflash, Ive downloaded the latest version- 3.85, and after making my thumbdrive "bootable" per the instructions Ive placed the program on the thumbdrive but when I try to enter the stick and copy the BIOS from command prompt the following command: "atiflash-i" only yields a bunch of instructions, it doesnt display the information of the cards, and further the command "atiflashi-s 0 bios0.rom" is reported as being an invalid command.

What am I doing wrong?

I have atiflash.exe on the "bootstick" and Im stuck here.

I also cannot figure out how to change the boot order in the boot menu.....

 

Disregard, Im getting it going, I had to reformat the thumbdrive and ensure that the 3 files that were originally hidden from the "bootme" data are visible.

 

Great Success! I had great success with a 800/1100 OC flash.

Monitoring in Furmark the temps were 77 and 83 after 10 minutes. I am concerned as to why there is such a big temperature difference. Is this typical?

I tried an 825/1200 flash but had the AMD drivers fail in a stability run in Furmark.

What voltage should I be running at 825/1200?

 

There is no need to be concerned at all. These are my temps while gaming dirt 2 for about 5-10 mins (everything is stock, no oc at all. The computer is on a sf-19 cooler on maximum speed)



As you can see, I have the same temperature gap between the main/slave card.

 

You can always try out Sapphire TriXX for software overclocking (Safer imo)

There was a post Here where a rather bright individual created a recovery disk that enables you to auto-flash your cards to 800/1100 and also has a 'blind flash' feature to return your cards to stock settings. Just burn the iso file and boot from cd.

 

Flashing the cards @800/1000 while in windows (no gaming) the cards will clock down? Since i'm using rivatuner to clock them and my only complaint about it is that they wont clock down (they remain full speed/no load, with higher idle temps)

 

Yes, Flashing the cards will still allow them to downclock when not in use, but you just replace the active state stock values with the OC value you want.

I have mine at 825/1200 1.1V and they downclock to 100/150 .9V when I am not gaming or doing anything GPU intensive.

Flashing is not dangerous, if you follow directions and do not try to jump the gun on the clock settings I.e going from 700/1000 to 925/1200 or something. Flashing is the better way to OC ATI cards because you can achieve higher clocks and can be more stable. Now, I do flash my cards once with a higher voltage then see what I can achieve using software, then flash a setting that I think is best for performance/heat. Also, when I use trixx my system locks up, and I have to do a hardreset.

 

Thanks Mkelliny +rep

I did the flash following the procedure above linked. Worked a perfectly. Set them 800/1000. I'll let the memory as they are. I get the most from GPU overclock in game. Finally i don't need to use rivatuner anymore and the cards when not in use clocks down nicely.