BIOS modding for GPU OC fun and profit!!

My CPU is fine (PHEW! If that got any hotter...!) only my GPU is affected but 81C isnt so bad is it? did not apply new paste or remove vent filter yet. btw that is the clear film over the intake right?

 

81C is a bit warm, but nothing dangerous. If it is only 2C above your old max, then it's a normal increase. If you start exceeding 84C, then it might start throttling, but you won't damage anything until you're 100C or higher.

If I were you, I'd try removing the vent dust filter (yes, it's the black plastic mesh film over the intake), and see if that drops you back below 80C, which is should.

 

Oh my freaking god, seeker!!!! after 2 hours hours of L4D2, it hit 86 on my CPU and 85 on the GPU! So bad! I was thinking there was damage until you said it can go up to 100C. It knows when is too much right? I dont want my computer to die
Im scared to remove my dust filter. my house is always dusty and i dont want my computer to explode.

 

The dust filter doesn't do much of anything anyway, except clog up with dust and restrict airflow. You should really clean out the heatsink/fan with compressed air at least once a month, whether you have the filter attached or not. I'd remove your bottom cover, clean the dust filter, spray out the heatsink, and try again. Then re-check temps, they might improve just on the cleaning.

Yeah, overheating isn't as big of a deal on laptops as most people think. The BIOS will shut your computer down before it allows any damage to occur. A lot of people coming from the desktop world don't understand that while 60C is alot on a desktop part, it's quite cool on a notebook, which has to deal with much weaker cooling solutions. Nearly all mobile chips (CPU or GPU) can handle 100-110C temps before damage sets in, though the Dell will start to throttle at around 84-ish, and will likely shut you down in the mid-90s.

 

seeker! can you make a modded bios set for clocks 800/1050 for the 5730 A12? Thanks!

 

I think that is what Seeker is using right now according to his sig. 750/1000 is already hot enough imo.
would 700/1000 be a lot more cooler? thats the 5870's speed!
I just looked at my vent and its dusty. I just cleaned it with compressed air too! I hate it when my computer enters the 70sC(but acceptable) and i REALLY hate it when it gets to 80C

Aw man the temps are ridiculous! Id like to try a 700/1000 5730 if you have that made already

 

Yeah, but the 5870 has twice the shaders and pipelines as the 5730 does (800/32 vs 400/16), so even if the clocks are the same the performance isn't even close. At 835/1100 I benchmark around the same as a stock 5830, but even that's far behind the *70.

How much did your temps drop when you dusted it out? You should be fine. If you want to keep your temps in the mid-70s, even under heavy stress test loads, you're going to be better off removing the dust filter and changing the thermal paste, than lowering clocks. Doing the filter/paste will drop your load temps by at least 5C, and as you said, your temps only increased by 2C with the OC.

If you really want to drop your OC clocks, instead of changing to a arbitrary new number, try testing out different clock settings with GPU-Z, then letting me know what works. That'll be a lot easier than constantly re-flashing your BIOS.

 

1645_A12_800_1050.zip

Here you go.

 

I understand that it will never perform as good because of the pipelines. I just thought I could base my speeds off that. i will stay on ur speed, but i really need to clean it. i have not cleaned it yet because i ran out of compressed air

 

If your heatsink/fan is dust clogged, then cleaning it out will help your temps significantly. Clean it out, test new clocks, and let me know.

Here's something a little lower if you think you really need it 1645_A12_715_940.zip

 

Thanks for all the great work seeker!

 

Nice! I will clean it out tomorrow when i get the spray. How were those temperatures on ur computer compared to the 750/1000? Why did you choose those? just curious they look random lol

 

The temperatures didn't change at all going from 750/1000 to 800/1050 hovering at 46 deg idle, while 3dmark increased from 8500 to 8900, overall great job by seeker with all the help in tweaking!

 

It's stock + 10% for clocks and stock + 17% for mem. It was more or less random. Because you didn't report any testing, there's no way to tell if it's the GPU or mem clocks causing you to heat up so much (though it's more likely to be the GPU), still I thought it'd be pointless to drop one but no the other.

As far as temps go, for me I can hardly notice a difference overclocked or not. The difference between my stock temps and 830/1100 temps are only like 2C. (though I have a clean heatsink/fan, upgraded thermal paste, and removed dust filter).

 

No problem. Your idle temps shouldn't change, because I didn't change the idle clocks, just the 3d load clocks. When idle or only browsing the net your clocks should be at 100/150, then they'll spool up to 800/1050 only when running games. It's your load temps that matter, but they shouldn't exceed 84C, even after an hour of running Furmark.

 

cleaning my vent did nothing i really need to do that paste thing. i want to keep this OC speed though

 

hey seeker awesome work man.
can u just make a12 mod of the stock 775/1000 ? as i dont need to downgrade to a08 and again upgrade to a12 as i m already on a12...
thanks in advance

 

you should probably mention what gpu you have

 

oops my bad.. its a mobility 5730

 

also please note if you are already on a12 you will need to "downgrade" to a previous version (i.e. a08) to be able to apply the modified a12 OC bios.

 

Here you go. Though like fakename said, you'll still have to downgrade first if you're already A12.

1645_A12_775_1000.zip

 

Hello Seeker Moc
Although I don't own a dell I do own a 4670 Would you be able to mod a 4670 bios for me. I run 775mhz on core and 985.5mhz on mem during games using rivatuner. The core can reach higher speeds stably but I see no reason to push it futher currently. The ram isn't stable higher in ati tool.

Would you be able to mod a bios to run 775/1000 for me? Perhaps 1000 will be stable via bios OC. Temps not an issue I load at less than 55C at these clocks after playing crysis for hours at 1680x1050 reso with everything set to very high except shaders which are only on high.

 

Is the C90 a MXM, or just a regular GPU? I can try, but the tool I use only works for certain BIOSes, and I don't think that ASUS is one of them. I'll take a look and see if I can find a tool that works. Also, C90P or C90S??

 

hey seeker_moc i just flashed with ur 800/1050 mod bios and played 1hr COD-MW2 and the temps went upto 79C. Do you think it is fine bcause the earlier 775/1000 were around 77C(But i get a 4FPS increase using 800 over the 775!!).

 

It is a Asus C90P. Uses any unlocked mxm 2.1 II card as does the C90S. The vbios is on the card itself. I have looked at flashing it myself with RBE but there are so many different tables I wouldn't know which ones to change. For example there are clock info's 00-15. Tables 00,03,11 and 12 are 675/800 at 1.2V while the others are a range of lower clock speeds that I assume are the idling/throttling clocks? I think 00 is boot up clocks but as for the other three I don't know.

Are your dell cards vbios part of the system bios? If so then it is probably easier for me to flash mine as it is separate (even though I currently have no idea how properly). I have flashing my system bios though several times so I am not totally new to it.

Btw superkid I think you will find your 4fps increase is down to the fact your memory was increased my 50mhz rather than your core by 25mhz. OCing memory on 128bit cards exponentially increases performance as it allows the choked GPU to process that much more data.

 

Oh..! thanks for the info king... So do you think it is fine to run the core and memory at 800/1050 in the long run?? or should i revert back??

 

79C is fine. Mobile parts are made to run up to at least 100C. As long as you're not constantly over 80C, or peak over 90C (which you shouldn't as it will throttle first), you should be fine. However, you could always go back to the lower clocks if it makes you more comfortable.

An easy way to reduce temps is ensure that your heatsink / fan assembly is clean, and removing the dust filter under the fan intake. The dust filter restricts airflow more than dust, and you should clean your fan out with compressed air on a monthly basis anyway, so removing it isn't a big deal. If you want to go even lower, try upgrading the thermal paste to AS5 or something similar.

 

Yeah, the Dell has it on the system BIOS, so you first have to unpack the BIOS into its individual modules, then edit the vBIOS, then re-pack it.

For you, since you already know how to use RBE, it should be real easy. It lists 16 different values because those are all the possibilities for the card to choose from, depending on load, temperature, and whether you're on battery or wall power.

What you should do is OC 00, 03, 11, and 12, like you guessed, and leave everything else alone.

Also, you're right, up to a point OCing the vRAM does more for speed than OCing the CPU clock does. Though the vRAM starts to artifact very soon after exceeding 1100MHz (for me at least).

 

You are lucky to get it that high! 1000mhz for me artifacts like crazy (software OC) anyways. Perhaps though a bios OC then software OC on top will be more stable...

I also have ATIwinflash. Do you recommend me to use that or to do it the hard way at startup?

 

thanks for the info seeker, i think i'll stay with the present 800/1050 clocks and one more thing that bothers me is the idle temp. Its always above 52C. So cleaning the dust filter could fix it?? and btw my 3dmark 06 went up to 8996!!

 

Yeah, even with the OC, I idle around 48C +/- 1 GPU. Cleaning out the fan and/or removing the filter should drop your temps by a few degrees.

 

If winflash works, then go with that. The DOS flash programs are slightly safer and work with more cards, but winflash works just fine for most people.

 

Lol I just tried to flash 750/950 and lets just say it was an absolute failure. After restarting the screen wouldn't boot into windows although the computer did the screen remained stuck at the windows picture displayed during boot. I thought perhaps a fresh install of windows with a fresh driver install would remedy this rather than flashing back with atiflash and hey no luck. Now flashed it back and am back into a freshly installed windows so now I have to re-install everything...

Honestly I wander why I love to mess about when it wastes so much of my time..! The lesson learned is never touch your boot up clocks methinks as it messes things up royally.

 

i tried with gpu clock tool and i found it stable with 850/1100 also!! and the temps were just above 80...!!!

 

Hey Seeker,
Could you create the following?

1645 A12 with A09 vBIOS for 4670

with 800 GPU and 1000 Memory (I tried the A12 800/900 for 4670 you created and it worked great, thanks)

And is this permanent (ie, if I upgrade my BIOS, the OC will remain) unless I use another modified BIOS? I have a 90W adapter and Dell is sending me a 130W. One call and done (on Saturday and it will be here on Monday). The tech wanted to discuss the situation and I told her the system is throttling so please set up the exchange and then we could discuss further and that worked. Thanks again!!!!

 

what program do you use to overclock? I want to try before I flash the next OC since its an A12 and i want to avoid downgrading.
EDIT: Nevermind found it

 

Dell sucks. Waited around all day for the package and received another 90W and in fact, the tech says the other tech requested a 90W instead of the 130W even though her notes said I was requesting 130W and the 130W adapter was approved by the supervisor. Talking to Dell tech right now and he says they will send a 130W. Hopefully. What a joke.

 

Here you go. (link expired)

If you flash a new stock BIOS, it will erase your OC. I would have to mod the new version for you.

 

No problem, thanks a ton.

 

hey seeker the oc is sucking the juice out of my battery.. can u make a mod which maintains the battery clock at default where as the ac power clocks to 800(or 825 was also stable to me and just 1C more)/1050(1100 also very stable for my rig using amd clock tool).
regards.

 

I didn't change the battery clocks. When you're on battery, could you run GPU-Z 'sensors' tab, to see what clocks you're running at? Also, what are your powerplay settings? Go into the CCC, and then into power play, it should be the last menu. Make sure you turn the 'battery' setting to power saving.

 

my bad... in power play max performance was selected instead of maximum battery!! so the clocks were 800/1050 on battery!!

 

double post..!

 

Tried it out and it worked perfect except for the throttling and hopefully, I will have the right power supply adapter here soon and it will take care of that. Thanks again.

 

Seeker,
Just got the 130W power adapter and my CPU throttling has ceased but I am getting the same cap on the GPU as I was getting with the 90W adapter and the 800/900 BIOS and that is at 450 on the GPU and 598.5 on the Memory. I didn't bring it up before because I thought it was the power adapter but it appears to be something else. It looks like the 800/1000 (and 800/900) works just fine the first time or two playing a game, running the Windows Experience assesment, etc. but then caps at 450/598.5 thereafter, at least, according to GPU-Z. It is not a temperature issue either the most the temperature goes up to is the mid-70s. Thanks.

EDIT: It might be GPU-Z actually because I did another Windows Experience assessment and the GPU-Z GPU and Mem numbers were frozen until I clicked on it (GPU-Z) and it started updating again so I am not certain.

 

Set GP-Z to continuously refresh in the background, and to create a log. Play a game for a while, then check the log. The clocks should be 800/1000 the entire time the game is running, and it should drop down as soon as the game is over.

Or, run Furmark. It displays the clocks and temp in real time as it stresses the GPU. Run it for 30 min or so, if the clocks stay at 800/1000 the whole time then it's working fine. If the clocks do drop, look at the temp graph and see what the max temp was before the clocks dropped.

 

Thanks, I just ran Furmark and it was fine in terms of GPU and Memory at 800/1000 but it ran up to 95C within 5 minutes or so and so I stopped it. It seemed to artifact a lot, too. The 800/900 was at 84 or 85C at the most ever and I ran that for like a half an hour. I know Furmark pushes the system harder than normal games but I am thinking that I may have been too greedy and should drop back down to 800/900. The A12 800/900 for 4670 is with vBIOS A09, correct? Thanks again.

EDIT: I downgraded to 800/900 and the Furmark stability test dropped 2 fps from an average of 8 to 6 fps but the temperature never went over 85C and the GPU stayed at 800 and the RAM at 900.

 

Give 810/960 a go, that's what I use when I play few games. It's stable with Furmark and peaks at 85, so games can handle it much easier (at least the ones I play). I do have AS5 which I've redone for Summer and NC2000 cooler though. I find that's about a 25% improvement in benchmarks.

 

1000 was probably too much for your vram. You can either stay with 800/900, or do some testing to determine what your actual max clocks are, and I'll make you a new BIOS.

 

Thanks, guys. Alright, I did some testing on my system using Rivatuner and AMD GPU Clock Tool and found that not even 800/900 works with those apps even though the 800/900 modded BIOS works perfectly on my system. The Furmark (and I have all options selected-Xtreme Burning Mode, Displacement Mapping, and Post FX) performance is much higher at 800/900 using Rivatuner and the AMD tool (8fps vs 4-5fps average) but the temperature quickly (and steadily) rises above 90C. The modded BIOS rises quickly to 85C but will quickly fall to 80C and below so it is an up and down temperature graph while with the OC apps temperatures just steadily rise. Does the BIOS temperature throttle and that is overridden by the apps or am I missing something in the OC app settings? Not sure how to proceed. Thanks again.