Weird Stability with 4870

E

earnolmartin

Gawd
Joined
Feb 14, 2009
Messages
526
Just bought a 4870 from overclock's for sale forums, and I believe it's defective. CCC reports the card running at a core clock of 200MHz, which is wrong. In game, it does seem to go back up to 750MHz. Is there something wrong here? Also, when I start playing a game with either DirectX 9 or 10 on Vista SP1, I get some artifacting issues and speckles. Catalyst 9.2 usually crashes only a few minutes into the game, and the VPU "recovers" itself.

This is running on a fresh install of Vista SP1 Ultimate, and this is my new Core i7 rig.

Let me know, maybe it's not the card?
 
I'd bet your BIOS is set incorrectly. This is a common problem with recent HD4870's.

1. Download and run Gpu-Z. It's a single file, no installation needed.
2. Next to the BIOS Version string there is a little icon with a green arrow, click on it, and select "Save to file...". It should ask to save a file, click OK. On your desktop should be a file called RV770.bin.
3. Download and run Radeon Bios Editor. It's also a single file, no installation needed.
4. At the bottom left click on the Load BIOS icon. Select the RV770.bin file. At the top click on the Clock Settings button.
5. Take a screenshot of what is shown and make it available here. Below is an example of the window you should see (the numbers won't be the same)...

Rbe.png
 
Looks like your bios was modified for lower clocks and voltages in 2d mode to reduce heat/noise.

Your 3d issues might be related as well, what is the fan doing while you're gaming?

I would flash a stock bios onto the card and then see if you're still having the 3d artifacting.
 
To the OP: Just as I figured, your current BIOS is incorrectly set. Clock info #03 is conflicting with what is set in Clock info #09. They should be the same, and set to 750/900@1.263v. Also, your UVD settings (Clock info #'s 04-06) are set incorrectly (underclocked/volted). If you do any hardware accelerated decoding, they should be set at 750/900@1.263v.

In all actuality, you can and should set your Clock info #s to exactly what is set in my picture. This is guaranteed to solve most (if not all) of your problems. Once you do so, you'll need to save the BIOS and reflash it to your HD4870, using Atiflash or Atiwinflash...
 
What brand is that card?
First one I've seen with such... aggressive 2D settings.
 
Anyone? I don't really want to edit these settings myself. I'd rather get the default bios from someone....
 
Just noticed that RBE states "YOU HAVE NOT CONNECTED ONE OF YOUR VIDEO CARD POWER CONNECTORS TO THE POWER SUPPLY. PLEASE REFER TO THE 'GETTING STARTED GUIDE' FOR PROPER HARDWARE INSTALLATION."

I checked my PSU connections, and they're both plugged in. I have a 800W power supply. I even unplugged them and plugged them back in. Same error. Is it the card or PSU?
 
So, I decided to test out another 4870 video card that I have in my possession. Looks like RBE Bios Program also says "YOU HAVE NOT CONNECTED ONE OF YOUR VIDEO CARD POWER CONNECTORS TO THE POWER SUPPLY. PLEASE REFER TO THE 'GETTING STARTED GUIDE' FOR PROPER HARDWARE INSTALLATION."

However, I think this message is false, as look at this card's clock settings:

4870_2.png


I also verified that my power supply is fine....
 
Just so you know, when I load a bios into RBE, I see the same error message, and my card and PSU are fine.
So just ignore it.

That error message is just showing you what that error WOULD look like if you had it.
I'm guessing the bios stores the text for the error message.
 
I'd just flash it back to the stock bios, and use updated drivers and see what happens.
 
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