XFX 5850 CrossFirex Overclocking

you dont need to flash the bios. just make sure you run regedit, find all the 'enableulps' strings and set their values to 0.

then just run msi afterburner and overclock. note, if there are bios restrictions on the OC, you may need to edit msiafterburner.cfg and set enableunofficialoverclocking = 1 and unlock voltage control = 1 before you can OC.

@Revollucion - are you still using xfx bios? any chance i could get you to run the heaven benchmark 2.0 with tessellation set to normal (or anything really) with no OC and see if it runs for you? a fair few people on these forums (me included) seem to have issues where heaven 2.0 and any other dx11 game will crash when we enable tessellation over crossfire.

ive contacted xfx and they wont acknowledge it because its still an isolated issue, but if we get enough people contacting them about it, maybe they'll do something about it.

 

@Sever - I too experience the problem with heaven 2.0 with tesselation crashing. I think you've posted in the thread I created - I think theres more than one issue regarding this, some users are able to up their voltage then re run heaven 2.0 and it works with tesselation. However this hasn't fixed the issue for me.

DX11 with tesselation does work on my system (dirt2,heaven 1.0, metro2033 etc) but it is only Heaven 2.0 with this issue. So I think thatss a seperate issue too.

Some users experience all dx10/11 games simply not working - I did have this problem once before and I reinstalled all of my C++ drivers which fixed this issue.

I think this heaven problem is down to our specific cards bios....and/or the ati drivers. I've been in touch with the catalyst team, apparently they are aware of this problem and are in the process of sorting out a fix - this is a standard reply that anyone would get though...so who knows.

I've never flashed my cards bios and some users are reporting this is fixing their issue but to me, i feel I shouldn't have to do something like that, the original bios should do everything it is advertised to do. I guess I just don't fully trust/feel comfortable flashing my bios on my cards.

I can live with the fact it's not playing the bench correctly, its only a small issue but it is annoying and I like getting little bitchy problems sorted just because im somewhat of a perfectionist haha.

At least every game I throw at these cards get raped in every way shape and form end of rant.

Sorry OP.

 

well if it was just heaven 2.0 for me, it would be fine.

but metro2033, dirt2, both crash on me when i enable tessellation. ive tried upping the voltage all the way to 1.3V, still doesnt help.

however, heaven 1.0 had no issues whatsoever, so im still not sure whats causing it.

all of them had no issues with single fire, so im sure its related to crossfire.

i dont really want to flash the bios on my cards, not so much because it would void the warranty (my warranty's already void since i fitted zalman vf2000 gpu coolers), but mainly because i dont want to brick a card.

hopefully its something as simple as a driver fix.

 

Well. I tried in that way before. Put 950/1200 and 1.200V. After launching Kombustor i got my pc freeze + monitor became green *_*, thought its the end xD Rebooted in safe mode and clean AB, and all good huh... So OC failed sigh

 

it froze because 1.2V is most likely not enough voltage for 950 core. try 1.25 and you should have a more stable overclock. the trick here is to use much more voltage to start with...like for example when i overclock for max clocks i set the voltage to max first, then go for say 1000 core, then see if thats stable, if not, lower clocks to 990-980-970 etc.

Of course this is all dependant on ambient temps and airflow within your case and i strongly recommend creating a custom fan profile in AB to keep temps in check.

For me personally, i need around 1.25V for 950/1200 - try that, thensee if you're happy with temps etc - then slowly bump volts down until you find the least amount of voltage needed to keep stable

 

Thanks, will try it out

 

Jeez everytime i raise voltage, and launch some 3d test pc freeze. And helps only reboot. ULPS disabled. Tried crossfire and single Tried 870/1200 1.149V, pc freeze. Tried 950/120 1.200, pc freeze. For now working 850/1000 on def. voltage. Maybe i need go 950/1000 1.200V?

 

have you double check whether all 'enableulps' entries in registry was set to 0? both of your cards are reference or non reference one?

 

I put 0 in all 4 EnableUlps fields. So yes i'm sure. Both reference

 

if your cards freeze with 950/1200 then 950/1000 will too. the voltage only affects the core clock not the memory.

So lets clear this up, you've been to regedit and changed ALL enableulps keys to 0, you've rebooted...installed msi afterburner, gone into program files/msi afterburner and edited afterburner.cfg and enabled both "enableunofficialoverclocking" and "enablevoltagecontrol"

then when you go into msi afterburner is it crashing when you set the voltage? or is it when you set the clocks?.. 1.2V should be enough for 950 core, however not every card is the same, maybe one card can handle it and the other can't? Have you made a custom fan profile for your cards to keep temps down?...Try it if you haven't already.


Are there any other programs you're using that may be conflicting with AB?
like everest,rivatuna,amdgpuclocktool?...also, disable overdrive in CCC coz that may be conflicting too.

 

I don't use other soft. Even reinstall catalyst to lock overdrive. I did all good in AB, saved OC, but when i test for example in kombustor or furmark, pc get freeze.

 

ok simply put, your overclock is not stable. you need to either lower your core clock, or up the voltage. if 1.2V isn't stable, try 1.25V but watch temps.

 

Can i try go with 850/1000 and 1.25V to test if thats not voltage fault?

 

yeah man thats fine, 1.25V for 850Mhz is a little overkill but that would eliminate it being a voltage problem. As long as you dont run into issues for having too much volts.

But that's fine, give it a whirl bro 850/1000 at 1.25V "should" work. '


Another thing i just thought of is in afterburner click on options and check the box which says "link with similar device" to make sure these changes are applying to both cards, not just one.

 

Yes, i did it long time.. Also tried without cross

 

You can try this. Increase the voltage to 1.2V first, then increase the core to 850MHz while just leave the memory at default.... Then u can test with furmark/combustor but as advised by Enmity, watch your temps closely. If your system crash when running kombustor after a while, try upping the voltage to 1.225 with lower 825MHz clock this time...Of course you can try to increase the voltage only, but to make it quick.

If your system is crash immediately while starting kombustor...there might be stability issue with your system setup i guess. Have you tried Vantage while overclocking?

Or you can also try to OC the GPU one by one. There's a lot of methods to do this...just try it and watch the temps.

 

^^ this man speaks the truth