ATI Powerplay bug with 9.3 on 4870 X2. AMD what is your problem?

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Technikal

Gawd
Joined
Feb 22, 2009
Messages
590
Installed 9.3 into XP 32 and first thing I check was my temps and at idle the card is running at 80-82 degrees again. Run Firmark or a other 3D app or a game even for a few seconds and return to desktop temps return to 67-70 degrees again. The bug was mostly fixed with 9.12-9.2 in Win XP.

With Vista 64 the bug was sort of fixed with 9.12 and then returned with 9.2. I have not checked it out yet with 9.3 but I'll bet it's still bugged.
 
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It's a non-issue really, you can fix the problem yourself in a matter of minutes, and give yourself better PowerPlay settings than ATI would ever provide.
If you're smart enough (or care enough) to be concerned about 80C idle temps, then you're smart enough (or care enough) to fix your card's bios.
 
UtopiA said:
It's a non-issue really, you can fix the problem yourself in a matter of minutes, and give yourself better PowerPlay settings than ATI would ever provide.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know and I have been. But why the hell should I? It seems that the right thing to do is for AMD to finally just fix the problem?

After what 8-9 months or so this bug is still present even after being sorta of fixed a few times lol.
 
UtopiA said:
It's a non-issue really, you can fix the problem yourself in a matter of minutes, and give yourself better PowerPlay settings than ATI would ever provide.
If you're smart enough (or care enough) to be concerned about 80C idle temps, then you're smart enough (or care enough) to fix your card's bios.
Click to expand...

How to do it in Vista?
 
Actually, I thought this was a serious topic, but after reading this line:
Do you like that your cards are overpriced $600 power sucking space heaters that sound like an annoying jet engine during gaming and still can't keep up with Nvidia?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what to think of it.
Let me guess, you actually own a GTX 260/280 and decided to slide on into the ATI forums and stir up some trouble?

After what 8-9 months or so this bug is still present.
Click to expand...
8 or 9 months?
My "bug" was present for about three and a half minutes before I flashed my bios. Problem solved, and I'd wager I'm consuming less power than the comparable Nvidia cards. And don't even get me started on noise, my GTX 280 sounds like a leaf blower.
 
soulesschild said:
Someone remind me what the powerplay bug was again...
Click to expand...


after bootup, the card will run at full 3d Speed (750mhz) instead of the default 2d speed (500mhz). Boot a 3d game and exit and the 2d profile will run correctly.
 
alg7_munif said:
How to do it in Vista?
Click to expand...

Go to C:\Users\*NAME*\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\profile.xml

then scroll down to:
<Feature name="CoreClockTarget_0">
<Property name="Want_0" value="27500" />------------What I set for 2ndary GPU
<Property name="Want_1" value="75000" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_0">
<Property name="Want_0" value="30000" />------------What I set for 2ndary VRAM
<Property name="Want_1" value="90000" />

AND:
<Feature name="CoreClockTarget_1">
<Property name="Want_0" value="27500" />------------What I set for primary GPU
<Property name="Want_1" value="75000" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_1">
<Property name="Want_0" value="30000" />------------What I set for primary VRAM
<Property name="Want_1" value="90000" />

and then restart CCC runtime, some ppl report they need reboot.

And then you can search for the rivatuner voltage tuning guides and set the idle voltages to 0.9/0.85, You can do even lower if you don't use DXVA as UVD is more picky about undervolting/clocking than the shaders.

Final outcome is at least 20W off the default idle power and up to 20C lower temps. And that's compared to properly working powerplay! Instead of 12.5A idle current draw it should now read 1.35A, and that's not lower only because you have reached the sensors minimal measurable levels. The next number down is 0.75A and I have managed to reach 0A for 2nd GPU with aggressive settings before.
 
figgie said:
after bootup, the card will run at full 3d Speed (750mhz) instead of the default 2d speed (500mhz). Boot a 3d game and exit and the 2d profile will run correctly.
Click to expand...

Ohhhh...so this is the PowerPlay bug. It felt more like an issue in the card BIOS.

Facts:
PowerPlay setting is configured in the card BIOS, not driver.
The setting you saw on CCC is meant to override PowerPlay.

Try update the latest BIOS from your card's manufacturer. There isn't a standard setting across all vendor BIOS, each vendor may put different powerplay settings in the BIOS, even the same vendor puts different powerplay settings in each bios revisions.

Radeon BIOS editor is the best tool to check out how your powerplay is configured.
 
Actually it is driver, the BIOS simply has a list of recommended setttings that the driver chose from.
 
Bakku said:
Actually the driver profile overrides settings in BIOS.
Click to expand...

Yes, it can when you set overdrive, but by default it simply chooses settings from the clock tables. The powerplay bug is the driver choosing the 3D value in the clock table (when no custom values are set) when it should have used the 2D one. As far as I can tell upon start up the driver compares the values between driver-default/BIOS/profile and are used in the order of profile>BIOS(when it doesn't match ones in driver default, hence why bios mod works)>driver(picking from bios table) when they don't match.
 
Bug was present for me as well, using x64 Vista. I had to edit my profile xml. Running 300/300 now @ ~50C idle.
 
Well, core 1 stays at 750mhz at desktop but core2 steps down to 550mhz in Vista 64... grr

I will have to mess with the custom settings and see if that works for me.
 
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