Clock/Voltage question about health of HD5870m

Hey guys, just had a quick question. I wanted to know which would degrade the health of the gpu faster, running the card at lower clock speeds but higher voltage (250/400 @1.15) or higher clock speeds and lower voltage (400/1000 @.9)

Im thinking lower voltage would be better for the gpu but considering those higher clock speeds generate more heat I wasnt sure. Thanks

 

Wow there's a tough one. Please read the folloing as pure speculation from my part; I would say that a higher clock speed an lower voltage is better for the card, since it wouldnt preform that good since the voltage is actually the ''power''behind your card. Since the card is the same, and you lower your voltage, its normal that you lower the quality, thus lower the actual clock speeds, so im not sure if its possible for just let us say run 800 x 1200 clock peeds with a .90 volts... I think it would just stop working since it doenst get enough power.... however these are just my thoughts, and since im not that sober at the time, would someone with the knowledge of this matter post his remarks? thx

 

Hmmm... that's a good question. Since you're getting heat from the resistance either way (More power going through no matter what you do!) I'm not sure that it makes a huge difference - they're both increasing the electrical load (and heat generated), and as far as I can figure, they'll degrade at the same rate.

Think of electricity as a water line - more voltage is higher pump pressure, higher clock is higher pressure in the pipes. Either way, extra strain on the system.

 

If I understand you correctly, that was along my train of thought lol thanks for your input

I initially came to the same conclusion, but with the lower clocks and higher voltage setting, I run 6C cooler and get an hour extra of battery life. Wouldnt logic dictate that as the better option then? Instead of higher clocks and lower voltage?

I dont have a modded vbios to enable OD, so as far as I know, I cant change the voltage. Whenever I use the AMD gpu clock tool to underclock the card and increase batterylife, I noticed it also increases my gpus voltage to the stock 700/1000 voltage of 1.15 regardless of whatever I actually set the clocks to. Is there any way for me to change the voltage without flashing another vbios outside of the stock (gsod free) one?

 

okay...well can anyone just tell me of a tool that I can use (if possible) to change the voltage of the GPU while on the updated vbios from Gary? Because the AMD GPU clock tool doesnt seem to want to. Or do I have to reflash a modded vbios?

 

me wonder as well

 

Would not recommend to play with voltage on hd5870m there is no program that actualy can read voltage regulators on 5870m not to speak about modifiyng same. If you are still persistent then RBE is windows progra, to try out. Only tool that would maybe actualy work is atomdis.

 

Only way I know of is to modify the vBIOS with RBE and flash it.

 

Its not working.

 

So theres no way for me to lower both my clocks to 250/400 and voltage to .95? It seems I dont win either way if I choose 400/1000 @ .95, or 250/400 @ 1.15 lol

 

After my research voltage controls on mobility 5870 are hardware locked. Voltage controlers cant be soft modified anyhow. Only way is via hard mod.
All this previous vbios undervolting are non functional...

 

I wonder if the voltage is locked in the vBIOS.

 

If it is then its just to find register and change value but its not that simple. I had to install linux on my 5 years old laptop to get atomdis tool and investigate vbios of our G73 and could not find voltage register values. Which lead me to believe that they are stored in hardware and and only way to modify them is via hardware mod.

 

Thanks for looking into it jmhdj, I guess ill just stick with 250/400 @ 1.15 until I or someone else figures something out.

 

So you're saying that GPU voltage can't be changed via vbios and all the mods that people were using were just wrong?! What about when poeple reported increased battery life as a result? was that just a placebo effect?!

 

Yes and probably yes.

 

Can you back up your claims with some proof please?

 

I believe this confirms it is hardware locked.

 

I believe Gary is even trustier then me ...

 

Weird, I have the GPU observer gadget set to read clocks and voltage and when I changed my voltage from 1.15 to 1.0 it did indeed show it was at 1.0 after the reflash, but that could just be GPU observer not reading the voltage correctly.

 

It just read vbios voltage register but that dont mean that hardware actually doing same

 

Well that does make sense to me since I don't notice any temp drop from the voltage change.

 

Ok I tried something, I lowered the voltage from 1.15 to 0.80 and locked up constantly on bootup so maybe the voltage does change afterall.

 

This doesn't make much sense since all other HD5870M other than Asus' runs at 1.05v for 3D and .90v for 2D. So this confirmation from AMD doesn't make much sense, if any at all.
- Unless AMD is saying they shipped different chips to Asus than everyone else. The crappy ones that need way more voltage than everyone else? If that is the case, that blows.

Under the same battery testing the JW gets another hour of battery life vs the JH model. And considering everything is the same except the GPU, that tells you Asus could do a lot more with the HD5870M. Read on MSI forum they are getting close to 3 hour battery with their HD5870M. And then in comparison, the GX660 is able to beat the cooling of the G73 with a single fan that has to cool both CPU and GPU. My guess the voltage settings has something to do with this also.

 

Yep: http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/524841-undervolting-hd5870m-battery.html

Looks like Asus screwed G73jh owners with HD5870M that have crappy voltage settings and broken PowerPlay. The MSI owners from both GX660 and GX740 are saying they notice temp differences with undervolting. 38C @ .70v

How did you fix it if it locks up at boot up? Or were you able to get into Safe Mode or did you have a backup bios ready for DOS Bootup?

 

To be honest guys, I just want to be able to lower my clocks without the voltage increasing lol but ya, being able to undervolt would be awesome.

@Khaldum, what did you use to undervolt?

 

I have a flash drive ready to go if anything happens to the vbios and I have praticed the blind flash if need be. Also it locked up during windows boot up not Bios bootup.

I edited the voltage in the vbios using RBE (Radeon Bios Editor)

 

Can you try to do .85v or not?

Thanks for the info.

 

I believe AW m17x r2 with i7 and 2 5870m GPUs on 9 cell battery gets about the same battery life as G73jh.
Does the second voltage of 0.95 ever actually kick-in?

 

After doing some tests on battery using the GPU observer gadget it seems the G73 does use the .95v settings when it is on battery when I reboot.
However if I use AMD GPU clock to set clock it automatically resets voltage to 1.15 regardless of the clock setting and cannot be changed back to.95

 

Exactly my problem.

Is there an updated version of the clock tool that would let us change the voltage?

 

Here is the settings of my card:



Overclocking the GPU to 800Mhz meant the voltage had to be at 1.10 but at that point there is no sense in not just keeping the stock voltage.

My clocks are done with vbios mods, no OC tools.

Using any kind of tool to OC will raise the voltage to 1.15v automatically.

 

As Khaldrum said, you gotta do it with vBios editing.

 

The thing is that yes you can change the voltage, but only in the vBIOS via RBE.
But for 3D clock keep 1.15v !

I made some tests: I put at 1.00v and overclock to GPU 780, mem 1050 and This setting is rock stable. The only problem is that as the voltage is to low, my score in 3Dmark06 with this overclock is lower than stock 700/1000 with 1.15v

And with overvolt 1.20v AMD GPU clock tool dont work anymore!

 

The voltage at 1.00v on 3D was really only meant for stock clocks, I was looking for lower heat at stock clocks.

 

Yes that's what I understood.
I just wanted to point out that even with overclock at 1.00v you have less perf than stock. So you have to manage voltage and perf. Maybe you can keep the perf at something like 1.08v at 700/1000 ? (in my tests 1.05 is also too weak)

 

Ok, well I have a couple of questions for you guys real quick. If I use RBE, how do I go about enabling overdrive, and having it so on battery power in battery saver mode my clocks are 200/300 @.9, then when im plugged in, in any mode other then high performance 250/[email protected], and leave everything else the same? also, does it flash it from within windows? or does it create a file for me to flash in dos? vbios flashing im new to, especially using any tools to mod one, thanks in advance

 

Bump. Anyone? Ruckus...Khaldum? Id like to try this, if my questions could just be answered, at least for the most part =X

 

I really don't want to type all that is takes to mod a vBios. It's pretty self explanatory and there are a lot of guides on NBR in general and specific to G73 vBios.

I uploaded one I am using. OverDrive fixes the memory clock so won't change. Trick is to create two profiles for your PowerPlay and can set hotkeys. This way you can switch between battery and performance mode within .5 second.

This vBios has your OverDrive unlocked. 3D voltage 1.15, normal 2D is at .95 and Battery is.85. For whatever reason on my G73 I can't use OverDrive if the voltage is lower than .95 for 2D mode, which is why I have 3 voltages. Doesn't matter since I use hotkey to go into battery mode 100/150 @ .85 for idle anyways.

Zippyshare.com - v93mod.7z
MD5: 7ACC588A40DC3973A9FAF935DE197AD1

 

Ok, well im just not certain my gpu can handle such low clocks...I know using the amd gpu clock tool it cant, but thats because its also forcing the voltage so high. Is there anyway I can test yours without going through one, possibly two risky vbios flashes?

And what are the clocks for 2d .95 mode?

 

Are you saying you want the Overdrive clocks enabled in battery mode?

 

No, just when plugged in, sorry for not making that clear

 

You could try to modify the clocks and voltage of Chasity's vBios since it has overdrive enabled already.

 

Ok, but whats the safest way to flash these things? I feel I got lucky flashing it once already

 

My card can only handle 200/400 @ 1.15 when using amd gpu tool. Do you guys think that using powerplay to go down to 100/150 @ .85 would make a difference or if my card could handle it

Thanks

 

Probably, but I wouldnt start so low at first, try 200/300 and go from there