How to recover ATI Radeon HD 4870 from bad BIOS flash

jmke · 10th July 2008, 15:35

In the past all (consumer) graphics card BIOSes were smaller than 64 KBytes. With the introduction of GDDR5 additional space was required for the memory training code. Since ATI could not fit that piece of code into the 64 KB available, they increased the BIOS size to 128 KB (1 MBit).

For an unknown reason ATI's flashing software Winflash/Atiflash does not correctly detect those extra 64 KB and forgets to save them when you dump your BIOS to a file. The same happens to GPU-Z (fixed in 0.2.5 and newer). So everybody who extracted their HD 4870 BIOS ended up with no GDDR5 microcode.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/...ng/vidcard/152

10th July 2008, 15:43

Very important info here! Thank you.

jmke · 10th July 2008, 15:46

I know this will in handy for those looking to change the fan speed profile, you can change it to run faster at lower GPU temps, thereby keeping the card cooler and more OC friendly with stock cooling.

Also this will be useful for Blind once he gets his hands on HD4870

10th July 2008, 17:57

I've been considering getting one myself... if I do, then BIOS flashing will be the next thing I do to it after slapping a waterblock on it!

If Diamond can get these things to 900Mhz+, then I bet I could get close with H20 cooling.

10th July 2008, 15:35	#1
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,019	How to recover ATI Radeon HD 4870 from bad BIOS flash In the past all (consumer) graphics card BIOSes were smaller than 64 KBytes. With the introduction of GDDR5 additional space was required for the memory training code. Since ATI could not fit that piece of code into the 64 KB available, they increased the BIOS size to 128 KB (1 MBit). For an unknown reason ATI's flashing software Winflash/Atiflash does not correctly detect those extra 64 KB and forgets to save them when you dump your BIOS to a file. The same happens to GPU-Z (fixed in 0.2.5 and newer). So everybody who extracted their HD 4870 BIOS ended up with no GDDR5 microcode. http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/...ng/vidcard/152 __________________

10th July 2008, 15:46	#3
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,019	I know this will in handy for those looking to change the fan speed profile, you can change it to run faster at lower GPU temps, thereby keeping the card cooler and more OC friendly with stock cooling. Also this will be useful for Blind once he gets his hands on HD4870 __________________

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10th July 2008, 15:43	#2
Kougar Posts: n/a	Very important info here! Thank you.

10th July 2008, 17:57	#4
Kougar Posts: n/a	I've been considering getting one myself... if I do, then BIOS flashing will be the next thing I do to it after slapping a waterblock on it! If Diamond can get these things to 900Mhz+, then I bet I could get close with H20 cooling.