HD3870 860 core fix + fan speed fix

[Burn]

Hello all , i finally found the 3870 bios i was looking for...the bios have the 860Mhz core bug fix , and the most important feature : the speed fan is fixed. The fans of both of my HIS 3870 was stuck at 28-30% at all time. Sure it's quiet but it overheat ( 80-92c ) if you overclock. Also i was sick to disable crossfire and then set manually each card at 55% with rivatuner and re-enable crossfire each time i reboot. With this BIOS the fan speed increase dynamically versus GPU temp on BOTH card while crossfire is enabled.

I have taken some note while testing the cards :

Fan duty cycle

57c and lower : 37%
58-61c : 45%
61-62c : 55%
63-64c : 59%
65c : 62%

it could be a bit noiser for some user but it still very quiet versus a 2900XT. I don't hear them at all because i own the CoolerMaster Cosmos case with acoustic foams in the sides panel....I can't tell what happen after 65c , because my card never reached a temp higher than 65c. I still have the factory coolers with Arctic silver 5 thermal paste. I think this it great for users who don't want to shell out more $$ for Duorbs or Accelero S1... if the temps won't go higher than 65 it will stay that way for me.




Have fun .. i flashed both my card and it work fine

now just some warnings :


1- UNINSTALL ANY ATI SOFTWARE BEFORE FLASHING A BIOS
2- IF YOU CAN CALL YOURSELF A NEWBIE AND NOT COMFORTABLE WITH BIOS FLASHING , SKIP IT AND DON'T DO ANYTHING !
3- IM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU DESTROY YOUR CARD , BUT YOU ARE. IT WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY.



Fixed BIOS
http://www3.sympatico.ca/ocd/bios/3870fanfix.bin


This file below is a original 3870 BIOS , quite handy to have is something go wrong
Stock HIS HD3870 bios
http://www3.sympatico.ca/ocd/bios/HIS3870.bin


This is a ISO for a boot cd containing the required files to boot and flash your cards. The fixed bios is called 3870fix.bin and a original bios 3870.bin. Once you have booted change the prompt for your optical drive and use the usual atiflash 3.49 commands to flash right away. This boot cd might not work if you have a SATA optical drive because there's no sata driver on the cd

http://rapidshare.com/files/85513179...tbios.iso.html

IM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU DESTROY YOUR CARD

[i2kdave]

Where did you find this? I'm looking for a HD3850 BIOS that fixes the fan problem.

[shtewps]

the only place this could have come from is from an expc xxx edition hd3870 as these are the only cards amd has taken the time to code a fan fix for.

[Burn]

i didn't bookmark the website sorry but ill try to find the site again...

it was some sort of forum where the users are invited to upload thier BIOS coming from 3870/3850 cards to build up a database for a program called RaBIT ( BIOS editor ) . I have multiple BIOS here .. this one was the first i tried and im happy with it. I also have the BIOS for the GECUBE OC edition with the special cooler ,the fan is supposed to work to keep the card at 70c ...

the only place this could have come from is from an expc xxx edition hd3870 as these are the only cards amd has taken the time to code a fan fix for

Im 99% sure is not from the extremePC cards ..



EDIT : i found it again have fun !!!
http://www.mvktech.net/component/opt...lectcat/cat,1/

[Spyhawk]

Ive been looking everywhere for a bios fix for the low spinning fan on my Visiontek 3870 and this here file is the best thing since sliced bread LOL.

Flashed by bios and have 25c lower temps under load since. Even upped the core/mem to 820/1201 and it still hovers around 61c under full load playing crysis with everything high and another plus is I still cant hear the fan LOL.

Thank you Burn.

[Burn]

im glad it worked for you too Spyhawk !

here is a little chart from rivatuner while doing 3 loop Crysis island benchmark all on high. Look how the fan work... top is 65c , factory cooler.

note : something i just noted .. while i set at 875/1256Mhz in the CCC overdrive tab , Rivatuner report it as 864/1251mhz ...humm

[ragewars_sc]

Can i use his bios for a Saphire or i need one from Saphire???

[Burn]

i used it on my HIS and spyhawk on his Visiontek ...

you can use it on any board as long it's a HD3870 256 Bit 512Mb GDDR4

[ragewars_sc]

So with one do you say its the best? Gecube, powercolor... ??

[becco]

burn, can you post GPU-z to check what is the BIOS vers do you currently use?
thanks

[Burn]

Originally Posted by becco

burn, can you post GPU-z to check what is the BIOS vers do you currently use?
thanks

Im at work now , so i will post a GPUZ BIOS version soon as i get home. I have found some infos about this BIOS. I was not sure yet but this BIOS is in fact from Sapphire. This is a BETA version they are using now for the Sapphire Atomic edition HD 3870 cooler ( the hd3870 Vapor Chamber technology single slot cooling solution ). quite interesting huh ?

the GPUZ screenie will tell us .. maybe Spyhawk can post it before i can...

[kaarel]

I hope this is not the Sapphire BIOS I tried a month ago. It was very good to keep temps down and for higher OC but I was unable to cope with the noise increase and rapid fluctuation (eg opened game menu and already decreased fan speed).

[Binux]

Can i use this Bios-Fan fix 4 Gecube card or its only 4 HIS

[newls1]

you can use this BIOS for ANY 3870 series card with 512mb DDR4

[Spyhawk]

Originally Posted by becco

burn, can you post GPU-z to check what is the BIOS vers do you currently use?
thanks

This is my GPU-Z results
[FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/cfddv/[/font]

[Burn]

here you go ....

[Spyhawk]

How do you post GPU-z screenies like you did Burn ?

[Spyhawk]

Well my oc of 875/1256 wasnt stable with CoD4 and Crysis. In both games, my system would freeze and need a reboot . Not sure what the cause could be. It worked well with 3dmark06. Temps never went past 65c, but system froze anyway. Maybe gpu voltage related.

Brought my settings down to 850/1256 and now system is stable under load with CoD4 and crysis, with about the same temps.

[Spyhawk]

Would be nice to find a way to easily modify gpu voltage with software or trough the bios

[Burn]

Well my oc of 875/1256 wasnt stable with CoD4 and Crysis. In both games, my system would freeze and need a reboot . Not sure what the cause could be. It worked well with 3dmark06. Temps never went past 65c, but system froze anyway. Maybe gpu voltage related.

Brought my settings down to 850/1256 and now system is stable under load with CoD4 and crysis, with about the same temps.

Not all cards are capable of high overclocking , some chip are better than others, you must find the lucky one . in my case i dont have system freeze but i start to get some VPU recover past 877....if your happy with 850 , well it still a nice bump over 777Mhz no ? .

[becco]

thanks for the shot Burn

[marscay]

cheers for this m8 - using rivatuner has been doing my nut in.

[sygnus21]

Hmmm….updated my bios to 010.071, (was 010.067). I don’t get the black screen going past 862 anymore …but any games I run with a clock speed of 820 or higher….crash. Right now I’m running at default speeds (777/1126) and everything is stable.

Also, is this is supposed to fix the fan speed? If it did…it’s the quietest fix I’ve ever heard, this card is whisper quiet, even running games maxed! I don’t even hear any changes in fan speed.

Also the GPU temperatures didn’t seem to change; still running around 73 degrees Celsius (according to the ATI overdrive panel)

What did I miss?

Visiontek 3870

[Burn]

Also, is this is supposed to fix the fan speed? If it did…it’s the quietest fix I’ve ever heard, this card is whisper quiet, even running games maxed! I don’t even hear any changes in fan speed

try to monitor the fan duty cycle during a game session with rivatuner , you will see if it change something.. like i said previously it might not work for everyone.

[TriC]

Anyone tryed this on their Diamond 3870?

[TriC]

Woot just flashed my Diamond 3870 works great.. never gets over 65c under load and overclocked and 42c idle fan at 30% geat find!!! here is a screen shot. of what im running going to go higher later this week..

like I said only 65c under load at this clock speed so I should be able to go higher and the great part is this is just with stock cooling..

[newls1]

Originally Posted by TriC

I can't seem to get ATI flash to work...
atiflash -p 0 3870fanf.bin -f
gives me error adapter not found and 0fl01
I can't seem to find my adapter I tryed 0 to 10 and each time says adapter not found.

Flash trying this:

A:\atiflash -f -p 0 whatever.xxx
for example my bios file is called 8601200.sb. When I flash i type this in EVERYTIME and it works 100% (A:\atiflash -f -p 0 8601200.sb)

(-f is force the flash) (-p is flash bios now) (0 is the 1st video card in system) (and "whatever.xxx" is the name of your bios file)


Try this and report back.

[TriC]

Originally Posted by newls1

Flash trying this:

A:\atiflash -f -p 0 whatever.xxx
for example my bios file is called 8601200.sb. When I flash i type this in EVERYTIME and it works 100% (A:\atiflash -f -p 0 8601200.sb)

(-f is force the flash) (-p is flash bios now) (0 is the 1st video card in system) (and "whatever.xxx" is the name of your bios file)


Try this and report back.

yep I got it to work turns out I had the wrong ATIflash.. lol I was using the one that I used on my x1950 so it was a little old.. I was just to lasy to fine the new version.. but now I did and it works like a charm.

[marscay]

this bios works perfect on my sapphire 3870's.

overclocked to 865/1260 both cards are ~60c under load and the noise level is very nice actually, absolutely no need for aftermarket coolers with this bios.

[Burn]

oh .. and if you folks don't like to flash your cards in DOS mode you can use ATIWinFlash v2.0.0.2 , flash your cards within windows , work with vista & XP , i tried it.

for the record i tried a new BIOS i found , it's from the Extreme PC XXX edition , it works but the fan speed is still broken. Reverted to one i posted here.