a reasonable fix for a 5870 that was GSD? is there another alternatives?

[Valset]

just installed a bios that the XFX tech people sent to me to address my card doing the gray screen of death. it seems to be working but I am a little put out with their solution to the issue. first it raises the default GPU clock to 900 (25mh over) but then it decreased the memory clock form the 1300 (5200) down to 1015 (4060). so I get a 22% decrease in my memory speed in exchange for the 3% gpu oc. maybe I am being petty but I paid 430 for an overclocked card, not an under clocked card. I really didn't need a new bios for this either, I had already tried under clocking the memory I just had not apparently taken it down far enough (I was thinking that a "sever" under clock as being 15%)

at any rate I am going to test this out and see what happens when I return to stock clocks. if it will not run at the advertised speed I think I should RMA it.

I really do have to give props to the XFX support guy, I had not even contacted them rather they found my post and PMed me. (I usually only contact a company as a last resort) but I am not sure that I can handle the fix here. Is there any other alternatives here? I am quite sure that I will not have an issue returning the card, I just want to make sure that I have covered all my bases

 

[siliconnerd]

If the card doesn't run the advertised clocks I would RMA it. I would test it extensively at the lower clocks first though. The GSOD seems to really be a symptom that can be created by many different problems. I was having it bad in Bad Company 2, but it seemed to work fine in other games. Cleaning drivers and reinstalling 10.4a fixed the issue for me.

 

[skindogg]

Yeah, I have the normal XFX 5870 and I gray screen a lot while starting BFBC2, but run Street Fighter 4, Just cause 2, and even that new stone giant demo fine.

I installed 10.4a hotfix drivers yesterday and my GSODs continued in BC2. However on a hunch, I changed my config to use DX9 instead of 11, and it seems to have worked at least twice.

I'm not happy about running BC2 in DX9 but it's something to consider. I'm starting to wonder if it's a certain dx11 bug causing it?

 

[Valset]

Yeah, I have the normal XFX 5870 and I gray screen a lot while starting BFBC2, but run Street Fighter 4, Just cause 2, and even that new stone giant demo fine.

I installed 10.4a hotfix drivers yesterday and my GSODs continued in BC2. However on a hunch, I changed my config to use DX9 instead of 11, and it seems to have worked at least twice.

I'm not happy about running BC2 in DX9 but it's something to consider. I'm starting to wonder if it's a certain dx11 bug causing it?

I have tried all these. and so far the "fix" does seem to work. I just have trouble with taking a 22% hit in my memory (if you don't think it matters fire up crysis at very high) and one of the games that seems to do it repeated is DMC4. that is about as stable of a game as you can get. however now that you mention it I never once saw it happen in the heaven demo.

 

[Tamlin_WSGF]

If you have the guts, you can retrieve the bios and modify the memory hit with this tool:
http://www.techpowerup.com/rbe/
combined with atiwinflash found on same site.

Do it in software first and see if the GSODS still are gone when you have clocked the memory up again.

 

[Valset]

If you have the guts, you can retrieve the bios and modify the memory hit with this tool:
http://www.techpowerup.com/rbe/
combined with atiwinflash found on same site.

Do it in software first and see if the GSODS still are gone when you have clocked the memory up again.

I am pretty sure that doing this will void the warranty, though it would be fun to play with

 

[Tamlin_WSGF]

I am pretty sure that doing this will void the warranty, though it would be fun to play with

Depends on the consumer laws. I doubt they will detect the modification if the card should fail (too costly) and you should have no moral issues returning the card on warranty if you should make such modification. Its not like you are pushing the card out of specs, but rather restoring it to specs and XFX have already approved you flashing it.

The program makes sure that the bios still is an "XFX bios" with their vendor string.

Cards should work by default anyway, so you should get an RMA if you don't want to do this and get a card which is working according to the specs you bought it with.