HD4850 with 128K BIOS?

rake · Jul 20, 2009

I recently bought two HIS HD4850's (H485QS1GP) with the hopes of running them in CrossFireX mode.

Well, so far I've had very little success: I can pair the cards up and install Catalyst 9.6 without too much fuss, but as soon as you put any load on the GPU's my system crashes.

I poked around with GPU-Z and RBE and found that one card has a 64K BIOS and the other 128K, which rather surprised me as I was under the impression that all 4850's had a 64K and that 4870's had the 128K. The BIOS dates differ by about 3 months and the ATOMBIOSBK used to flash them is also not the same.

So I'm wondering if this particular card was actually a 4870 that's been flashed into thinking it's a 4850 (although it's running GDDR3). It also has a 3000RPM fan where the other card is only 1500RPM.

Has anyone else ever come across a 128K BIOS on a 4850?

Are these discrepancies between the two cards I mentioned the cause for my CrossFire woes? or could it be my 600W PSU or perhaps Windows 7 x64?

Deleted member 24505 · Jul 20, 2009

Can you upload the 128k bios please,i fancy a look at it in rbe.

Mussels · Jul 20, 2009

fill out your system specs in the user CP.

Its like going to a doctor - giving your own prognosis may lead us down the wrong path. I'm thinking PSU.

rake · Jul 20, 2009

Sure thing tigger... only obvious difference here are the PowerPlay settings/voltages.

I've filled in my system details in the CP.

Mussels · Jul 20, 2009

please provide a link to that ultra PSUs specs.

rake · Jul 20, 2009

http://www.ultraproducts.com/product_details.php?cPath=97&pPath=632&productID=637

I checked ATI/AMD's certified products page, and there are CrossFireX certified ULTRA 600W PSU's, although those seem to be the ones with dual 12v rails (XFINITY). Mine does not have dual rails afaik.

edit: One more thing that may or may not be pertinent... AC current over here is 240V, which means lower input amps. I'm wondering is this has an effect on the output amps as well.

Deleted member 24505 · Jul 20, 2009

It looks just like a normal 4850 bios,but its 128k,it does'nt make sense.Is it a referance design card?

rake · Jul 20, 2009

Beats me, tigger. The bizarre thing is this is exactly the same product code as the card with the 64K BIOS.

http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-30.shtml

Mussels · Jul 20, 2009

after hunting around, this PDF gives details of his PSU.

http://www.ultraproducts.com/PDFs/spec_sheets/ULT40073/ULT40073_1.pdf

36A on a single 12V rail should be sufficient for what he's doing.

rake · Jul 20, 2009

According to eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Pro v2.5:

Total system should draw around 28A at stock voltages (factoring in two overclocked 4850's). Add another 6A for CPU overclocking, leaving me with 2A spare on the 12v rail. Naturally I've set CPU voltages and clock speed back to default values for the time being, but it didn't make a difference.

Mussels · Jul 20, 2009

having 2A spare doesnt mean its all roses, cheap/generic PSU's like the ultras tend to rate their peak, not their sustained. that means when all 38A is used, its guaranteed to not blow up - for at least one second.

That said, running at stock CPU with stock video cards, you should be well within its limits.

7 x64 has no crossfire issues for me, so it would either be the BIOS or the PSU. Now we just need to find a way to test, and narrow it down - you got another PSU you could use?

rake · Jul 20, 2009

You were right, it was a PSU issue, though not quite what we suspected... ahem.

I decided to try switching the cards around (I know, clutching at straws) and having done so and powered on the system, I was greeted by some very large red letters telling me I had not connected the power cable. WTF? I did a quick double check and all seemed good... then I noticed that the connector 'housing' for want of a better term, on the PSU end had pulled slightly out of the chassis, thus preventing the PCIE lead from seating properly.

Of course it's purely by chance that the dodgy connection was affecting the secondary card so I never saw the warning until swapping the cards around. Aargh!! I had literally spend all fecking weekend messing around with VBIOS tweaks to try and even out the differences in clock speeds and voltages which I thought were the problem -all in vain!

Anyways, thanks for the advice fellas... time to tidy up this rig, load some drivers and run some benchmarks :roll:

(I'll let you know how my 'cheap PSU' is getting on later

)

Mussels · Jul 20, 2009

rake said:
(I'll let you know how my 'cheap PSU' is getting on later )

Lol to the power connector. I knew i should have said "is it plugged in?" as my first question.

Your 600W ultra has 36A. my 750W corsair has 60A. 25% more wattage, for 60% more 12V amperage... it just makes your PSU seem like its over-stating its wattage.

Anyway, glad you solved the problem. I should go post a link to this in a thread where people are saying modular PSU's are awesome, and never give problems...

Flyordie · Jul 20, 2009

Mussels said:
Lol to the power connector. I knew i should have said "is it plugged in?" as my first question.

Your 600W ultra has 36A. my 750W corsair has 60A. 25% more wattage, for 60% more 12V amperage... it just makes your PSU seem like its over-stating its wattage.

Anyway, glad you solved the problem. I should go post a link to this in a thread where people are saying modular PSU's are awesome, and never give problems...

lol, yeah even my 550W'r is giving me 42A on my 12V Rails, my EA380 gives me 28A on the 12V rail... Kinda awkward that a 128kb BIOS was thrown on... unless they ran out of 64kb chips or somethin.. lol.

rake · Jul 20, 2009

heh, you can badmouth my PSU all you like because right now I'm feeling nearly twice as 'furry' as before (almost doubled my FurMark score). I still like modular power supplies; having a clump of superfluous wires and connectors gathering dust and impeding airflow in my case really gets my goat, but I suppose I can look at a different brand if and when this one blows up. Hopefully that won't be for a while still, because next on my shopping list is some SSD's.

Mussels · Jul 20, 2009

oh its not badmouthing, its just pointing out that its on the lower end of the scale. If a problem were to occur, its where we'd be looking - others are merely agreeing with what i said (and giving you advice for the next PSU you purchase)

LifeFlayer · Jul 21, 2009

The 4850 I have also dumps to a 128kb bios with gpu-z... I wonder if that's the cause of my problem also. I'll upload my bios tomorrow as well to compare to the OP's. I have a Powercolor HD4850 using a none reference cooling solution. Hopefully this can be of some help.

Edit: uploaded the vanilla bios..

rake · Jul 21, 2009

My issue was power related in the end, although I did end up tweaking both cards. What exactly are you battling with?

rake · Jul 21, 2009

Excuse the double post.

I had a look at that bios and it is undervolting the UVD PowerPlay state (state 2) and still expecting it to run at 625/993. I don't necessarily know that that would cause a problem, but it looks suspicious.

Also... that has to be the ugliest fan duty slope I've ever seen

LifeFlayer · Jul 21, 2009

rake said:
Excuse the double post.

I had a look at that bios and it is undervolting the UVD PowerPlay state (state 2) and still expecting it to run at 625/993. I don't necessarily know that that would cause a problem, but it looks suspicious.

Also... that has to be the ugliest fan duty slope I've ever seen

Yeah haha, that fan slope was really disgusting. I am still trying to tweak the fan thing with the table as the recommended option doesn't seem to work. Now the fan spins at 15% while below 40c and around 65% when the temp gets high. Some of the later fan states never really get triggered... Not too sure what may be the cause... lol. I've actually set state 2 to run at 1.15v instead as I've also found that weird. It did remain at 1.05v at the start of power state 2 by default and only increased if the load was really high. I guess the voltage is set to auto if it is "---"...

rake · Jul 21, 2009

LifeFlayer said:
I guess the voltage is set to auto if it is "---"...

Yes. On my chip it equates to 1.120v after Catalyst has it's way with it.

rake · Jul 22, 2009

LifeFlayer said:
Yeah haha, that fan slope was really disgusting. I am still trying to tweak the fan thing with the table as the recommended option doesn't seem to work. Now the fan spins at 15% while below 40c and around 65% when the temp gets high. Some of the later fan states never really get triggered... Not too sure what may be the cause... lol.

Be sure to re-install Catalyst cleanly after a vBIOS flash else you may get readouts in CCC and even GPU-Z that don't seem consistent with the duty slope you've 'programmed'. This seems particularly true for CrossFireX setups.

I usually uninstall, boot to DOS, flash vBios, boot up Windows then re-install drivers. Oh and if further adjustments are needed, I prefer to start with a fresh copy of the original vBIOS each time.

LifeFlayer · Jul 22, 2009

rake said:
Be sure to re-install Catalyst cleanly after a vBIOS flash else you may get readouts in CCC and even GPU-Z that don't seem consistent with the duty slope you've 'programmed'. This seems particularly true for CrossFireX setups.

I usually uninstall, boot to DOS, flash vBios, boot up Windows then re-install drivers. Oh and if further adjustments are needed, I prefer to start with a fresh copy of the original vBIOS each time.

I've been extremely sloppy in that regard. I just flashed it with Winflash while CCC is still installed and then simply rebooted the machine afterward. Maybe I should give it another try and see if it'll work. There are so many simple things I would have overlooked without the help of this forums and its members. Thanks guys for helping me to enjoy my 4850 to its full potential.

ComfyNumb · Jul 22, 2009

Need to know what motherboard you have!!! I had a early am2+ that didnt support the higher watt phenoms.. Purchased a 9600 not knowing this... The strain put on the board from the extra power requirments the 9600 needed caused problems with my vid card.. Poor perf.. wouldnt overclock.. crashes. Built a different system and the video card overclocks like a champ and is a beast at fps!! So just let me know your mobo.. and your cpu!! Lets see if they fall in spec.........

ComfyNumb · Jul 22, 2009

My bad, new to this forum.. Just noticed the system spec thing on the side..... I guess thats not your problem... A different mobo made my 4850 a brand new card!! Believe it or not. The board i had that was giving me a problem was a MSI to though, which is a little wierd. 790fx Platinum...

Processor	Intel Core i5 3570K
Motherboard	MSI Intel Z77A-GD55
Cooling	Corsair H75 Hydro Series
Memory	8GB Patriot Viper Xtreme DDR3 1866MHz
Video Card(s)	2 Sapphire HD7950 Vapor-X 1000MHz @1.025v
Storage	2 60GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD (RAID 0)
Display(s)	Samsung T220 1680x1050
Case	CoolerMaster HAF XB
Audio Device(s)	Onboard HD audio
Power Supply	Seasonic 860 Platinum
Software	Windows 7 / xubuntu 13.04

System Name	Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor	Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard	Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling	Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory	2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage	2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s)	Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) \| Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) \| Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case	Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G560 \| Corsair Void pro RGB \|Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply	Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse	Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard	Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD	Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software	Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores	Nyooom.

Processor	Intel Core i5 3570K
Motherboard	MSI Intel Z77A-GD55
Cooling	Corsair H75 Hydro Series
Memory	8GB Patriot Viper Xtreme DDR3 1866MHz
Video Card(s)	2 Sapphire HD7950 Vapor-X 1000MHz @1.025v
Storage	2 60GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD (RAID 0)
Display(s)	Samsung T220 1680x1050
Case	CoolerMaster HAF XB
Audio Device(s)	Onboard HD audio
Power Supply	Seasonic 860 Platinum
Software	Windows 7 / xubuntu 13.04

System Name	Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor	Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard	Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling	Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory	2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage	2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s)	Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) \| Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) \| Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case	Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G560 \| Corsair Void pro RGB \|Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply	Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse	Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard	Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD	Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software	Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores	Nyooom.

Processor	Intel Core i5 3570K
Motherboard	MSI Intel Z77A-GD55
Cooling	Corsair H75 Hydro Series
Memory	8GB Patriot Viper Xtreme DDR3 1866MHz
Video Card(s)	2 Sapphire HD7950 Vapor-X 1000MHz @1.025v
Storage	2 60GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD (RAID 0)
Display(s)	Samsung T220 1680x1050
Case	CoolerMaster HAF XB
Audio Device(s)	Onboard HD audio
Power Supply	Seasonic 860 Platinum
Software	Windows 7 / xubuntu 13.04

System Name	Budget AMD System
Processor	Threadripper 1900X @ 4.1Ghz (100x41 @ 1.3250V)
Motherboard	Gigabyte X399 Aorus Gaming 7
Cooling	EKWB X399 Monoblock
Memory	4x8GB GSkill TridentZ RGB 14-14-14-32 CR1 @ 3266
Video Card(s)	XFX Radeon RX Vega₆⁴ Liquid @ 1,800Mhz Core, 1025Mhz HBM2
Storage	1x ADATA SX8200 NVMe, 1x Segate 2.5" FireCuda 2TB SATA, 1x 500GB HGST SATA
Display(s)	Vizio 22" 1080p 60hz TV (Samsung Panel)
Case	Corsair 570X
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Seasonic X Series 850W KM3
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

System Name	Aluminus
Processor	Q6600 @ 2.4ghz, 1.15v
Motherboard	Gigabyte 965p ds3 rev3.3
Cooling	Coolermaster Geminii
Memory	Patriot PC6400 2x2GB 5-5-5-12
Video Card(s)	Powercolor HD4850 512MB
Storage	WD Caviar Black 1TB, 2x Caviar Blue 320gb
Display(s)	Dell 2405fpw
Case	Ultra Aluminus
Audio Device(s)	Zero DAC
Power Supply	OCZ 700w modxstream

Processor	Core2 7400 @ 3.9GHZ
Motherboard	Foxconn Black Ops
Memory	2GB - Crucial Ballistics DDr3 2000
Video Card(s)	XFX hd4850
Storage	Samsung 1tb
Case	Coolmaster

HD4850 with 128K BIOS?

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