New Bios released for Sapphire 4870.

[FMT]

Ive been having some probs with my Sapphire 4870. Found they released a new bios for it only 2 days ago. So ive flashed my card and gonna now test it out.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/at/support/drivers.php

Hopefully it will fix some of the probs with the games im having.

Few things ive noticed is it doesnt sound like a jet engine anymore on startup, and i havent had to use the ccc fan fix yet. Looking good so far.

[Mojoe]

I am running the bios now and it works great, before i flashed my card it would hardlock in CS as there was a bug with the old bios and powerplay.

[goofer]

Somebody has some advice on how to flash the new bios from Vista64? As far as I know, the Vista does no longer support a read DOS envirorment. I do not feel like finding out in practice and make my card useless.

[Mojoe]

Take a look at det link under, you will find out how to do it there.

http://forums.amd.com/game/messagevi...VIEWTMP=Linear

[BeardedClem]

I actually used this guy's link to an all-in-one package to update the bios within windows rather than go to the trouble of making a boot floppy/usb stick and doing it in DOS mode

See Failnub's post second from top:
http://forums.amd.com/game/messagevi...VIEWTMP=Linear

It took all of 10 seconds to flash and although I need to test it more, I already see an improvement. Before the flash, the Timeshift demo as well as Google earth(!) would crash with a checkerboard pattern and then my monitors would flicker different colors and then lose signal completely requiring a hard reset.

It is only for Sapphire HD4870 512MB GDDR5 with bios dated July 24,2008 though.

Good luck. I'll report back if it seems to be a permanent fix.

[FMT]

Just a heads up from my OP, but this seems to have fixed all the problems I have had with the card.

This was a fix that was badly needed.

[ashp]

Hmm, can I use this?

It says for only bios's from July, but mine is even older than that!

BIOS Version 011.003.000.001
BIOS Part Number 113-B50701-100
BIOS Date 2008/06/09

Is there another tool or way I should be checking if I can flash and use this bios?

[Dwarden]

if you not sure just write request ton Sapphire support and describe all problems You have ...
in most cases they will offer You BIOS to resolve them

[MeesterBungle]

i flashed this BIOS on my two Sapphire 4870's with a different part number and so far i think i really like it. they must have worked some magic with PowerPlay because my cards are very mellow at idle (22% fan speed and 68°C on the GPU - load temps only go up by a few degrees without the fans making much noise at all.)

if anyone is wondering, here is the info for my cards:

part number: 102-B50701-10-AT
SKU: 21133-00-20R

it's only been a day, but so far everything is great. i think this is the BIOS i've been waiting for.

it caused problems for me. made the HDR get all screwy in Portal and HL2 Episodes, which makes zero sense to me. went back to the original BIOS that came with my card.

[Hockster]

Originally Posted by MeesterBungle

i flashed this BIOS on my two Sapphire 4870's with a different part number and so far i think i really like it. they must have worked some magic with PowerPlay because my cards are very mellow at idle (22% fan speed and 68°C on the GPU - load temps only go up by a few degrees without the fans making much noise at all.)

if anyone is wondering, here is the info for my cards:

part number: 102-B50701-10-AT
SKU: 21133-00-20R

it's only been a day, but so far everything is great. i think this is the BIOS i've been waiting for.

I've got the same part numbered cards. Hopefully I get the same results as you did.

[goofer]

Originally Posted by BeardedClem

I actually used this guy's link to an all-in-one package to update the bios within windows rather than go to the trouble of making a boot floppy/usb stick and doing it in DOS mode

See Failnub's post second from top:
http://forums.amd.com/game/messagevi...VIEWTMP=Linear

It took all of 10 seconds to flash and although I need to test it more, I already see an improvement. Before the flash, the Timeshift demo as well as Google earth(!) would crash with a checkerboard pattern and then my monitors would flicker different colors and then lose signal completely requiring a hard reset.

It is only for Sapphire HD4870 512MB GDDR5 with bios dated July 24,2008 though.

Good luck. I'll report back if it seems to be a permanent fix.

Possibly a stupid question: I try to flash from vista64 Service pack 1). Vista does not allow the tool to work, because you have to run as admin. So I run the flash.bat as administrator which does not work either.

Does anyone know a way how to run the flash tool itself as administrator, while maintaining the parameters that the batch file 'flash.bat') adds to the flash tool?

[SeRRasalmus]

i been using it for a week or so and its seems to be working good for me.....

[MeesterBungle]

Originally Posted by MeesterBungle

i flashed this BIOS on my two Sapphire 4870's with a different part number and so far i think i really like it. they must have worked some magic with PowerPlay because my cards are very mellow at idle (22% fan speed and 68°C on the GPU - load temps only go up by a few degrees without the fans making much noise at all.)

if anyone is wondering, here is the info for my cards:

part number: 102-B50701-10-AT
SKU: 21133-00-20R

it's only been a day, but so far everything is great. i think this is the BIOS i've been waiting for.

it caused problems for me. made the HDR get all screwy in Portal and HL2 Episodes, which makes zero sense to me. went back to the original BIOS that came with my card.

i just figured out this BIOS is the reason Portal and the HL2 episodes were acting all messed up for me (in Vista only, as if that makes sense - they worked fine in XP). for some reason, i couldn't turn HDR on in any of the games and the colors in Portal were all washed out. flashing back to my stock BIOS solved the problem.

both my video cards are from the very first batch, as i bought them both on release day. i hope this post can be helpful for others - it took me a while to figure this out.

[Shloppy]

Can some fellow Sapphire HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 owners with latest BIOS applied and still using the reference cooler, tell me what their GPU idle temperature is?

I am idleing at 68C with fan on auto, 24-26%.

Cheers

[MeesterBungle]

Originally Posted by Shloppy

Can some fellow Sapphire HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 owners with latest BIOS applied and still using the reference cooler, tell me what their GPU idle temperature is?

I am idleing at 68C with fan on auto, 24-26%.

Cheers

i had that BIOS for a couple days and my temps were the same. the fan would go as low as 22% when my ambient was cool. they would idle between 65-70°, depending on the temperature in my house. that BIOS obviously has great PowerPlay. i'm back on my stock BIOS now and the cards are sucking serious juice at idle. i need to request a new BIOS for my model from Sapphire.

[Mojoe]

Originally Posted by Shloppy

Can some fellow Sapphire HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 owners with latest BIOS applied and still using the reference cooler, tell me what their GPU idle temperature is?

I am idleing at 68C with fan on auto, 24-26%.

Cheers

Mine is 68-69c Idle and 76 load.

[Sobek]

Just out of curiosity, is there any benefit to upgrading the BIOS on a card with a newer stock BIOS? So no clock changes or anything... Do companies tend to include fixes and such in newer BIOS versions?

Just wish companies like Sapphire and such would list what the difference is between BIOS versions