4870s dropping like flies (due to user error/BIOS mods)? [Update: BIOS Fix available]

chawks2 · 06-29-08, 12:28 AM

There are rumors about several bad 4870s. Please post your experience.

vixro · 06-29-08, 12:50 AM

You expect there to be a whole thread of people ready to post bad experiences when there isn't a single thread yet?

chawks2 · 06-29-08, 01:07 AM

I may have been premature, but would like to hear just the same. We could change it to how, "AMD destroys nVidia", does have a better ring to it.

Neuromancer · 06-29-08, 01:14 AM

There are a few reports of people ocing the ram on the 4870s past 4800MHz and killing them in the process. thats all I have heard

(First I have heard of QDR btw)

flopper · 06-29-08, 01:24 AM

myth busted.

People who do xtreme things will break stuff, my sister did that the whole time, no wait that was me

keninishna · 06-29-08, 02:22 AM

A lot of people don't even have their 4870s yet wait till the end of next week if there aren't any replies then its a non issue.

David · 06-29-08, 03:01 AM

This is very premature. As has been mentioned the only real issues are people seriously thrashing the cards via overclocking which is to be expected anyway. Seriously, I don't know how some people have the cash :P.

Farinorco · 06-29-08, 05:49 AM

I've seen at XtremeSystems a lot of 4870 dead apparently for no reason at all, but it seems to be a relation with flashing the cards (all cases have happened between some hours and a few days after flashing the card bios). Maybe the software they're using to flash does something wrong, or the modified bios they're trying to flash IS wrong itself, and the result of that is a dead card.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=192759

I have not seen any other case of dead card until now, even if I have read about the VRAM thing (mainly here) I've not seen anybody that actually has killed his card in this way yet.

Kuroimaho · 06-29-08, 05:54 AM

Some people just can't wait till the proper tools are released to OC these, I would take caution especially with BIOS flashing for a while.

IWasHungry · 06-29-08, 06:17 AM

Looks like GDDR5 might be a temporary problem for atiflash and winflash.

wingless · 06-29-08, 08:56 AM

The guys over at Xtremesystems killed their cards by flashing the BIOS (heh, bad BIOS you think?) and doing other mods to them. Its also been said that the Qimonda GDDR5 is crappy. Samsung and Hynix will be shipping GDDR5 too so maybe we can wait for better memory. GDDR5 supposedly signals much differently and error corrects differently so try not to mess with it until people figure out how it behaves overclocked.

To avoid a hot mess on your hands, just don't flash the BIOS. There are some unknowns about how the GDDR5 works and it seems to be a factor.

Pntgrd · 06-29-08, 10:43 AM

I have kept up with the thread at Xtreme since I have one of these coming. If I remeber correctly, all the dead cards have been flashed except for 4 of them. That was a company that has some in their machines and they put 4 of them in Xfire (2 x 2 in 2 different machines). They died after that but the single machines are still working. As to it being the Qimonda chips, it was not the chips themselves that died in the 8800GT's. My GTS has the same chips but the power circuitry has been beefed up vs the GT, hence no problem with the GTS's. I would wait awhile before blaming the ram chips.

[edit]
BUt I do admit I may not be fast to list my GTS on the classifieds, just in case

Micmal · 06-29-08, 11:05 AM

The ironic thing is that most of the time the cards are fine, it's just that the BIOS is telling to card absurd things (to do). Like one thread on XS mentions a guy who had a good flash, the card failed the next day. He used it in slave mode (booted up under different card) then viewed GPU-Z on the card. It was clocked upwards of 20000MHZ!!! Basically, without the proper knowledge of EXACTLY what bit in the bios does/affects, things can go crazy. It is also worth noting that most failures are SOFTWARE failures, which can sometimes be recovered.

Super Nade · 06-29-08, 11:42 AM

I've changed the title to something a bit less stampede inducing.

David · 06-29-08, 11:49 AM

I've changed the thread title to fix Super Nade's crappy spelling.

jason4207 · 06-29-08, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David

I've changed the thread title to fix Super Nade's crappy spelling.

LOL!

I didn't want to say anything...

Hardin · 06-29-08, 12:32 PM

I'm hesitant to flash motherboard bioses. I don't think I'd ever flash the bios on a video card. In fact I've always been a little more hesitant to even overclock video cards after my 7900 GT died.

Shiggity · 06-29-08, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David

I've changed the thread title to fix Super Nade's crappy spelling.

lol'd

G3F0RC3<>R4D30N · 06-29-08, 01:02 PM

I am actually glad this thread was made(even if it is premature). I wanna see how they go out of the box, and not with these ppl who voltmod, water cool, then flash the bios and cross their fingers. I wanna see how these will OC for the average person who won't tear the entire card down to get an extra 2Mhz.

And, as much as I hate to say it, I think my 8800GTX is going bad. My game performance has been terrible lately, I've checked everything out, my CPU/RAM usage is good. Just my FPS is absolutely awful. I tried those damn new nVidia 175.35 drivers and I had my games crash only to say that the video driver had stopped responding, so I quickly rolled back my driver. Lifetime warranty or not, I might have the 8800GTX replaced and put it in another PC and buy myself a 4870, 9800GTX, or GTX260/280.

Brolloks · 06-29-08, 01:59 PM

The main reason for these card failures is because people flash and mod these cards without testing it properly determining it's limits, I don't think it is a RAM flaw or design issue at all. Once Rivatuner brings us an update we can test the cards the proper way before flashing the bios with OC profiles

06-29-08, 12:28 AM	Thread Starter #1
chawks2 Premium Member #1 Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: OG, CT	4870s dropping like flies (due to user error/BIOS mods)? [Update: BIOS Fix available] There are rumors about several bad 4870s. Please post your experience. __________________ "The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature...It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of 20th century science to the human intellect." -Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail "The best definition we have found for civilization is that civilized man does what is best for all, the savage does what is best for himself." -Edwin Hubble H.E.A.T MarioKart FID-0774-5798-8330
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06-29-08, 12:50 AM	#2
vixro Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Denver	You expect there to be a whole thread of people ready to post bad experiences when there isn't a single thread yet? __________________ Intel i7-2600K @ 45x100 (4.5ghz) 1.36v G.Skill Ripjaw Z 4x4GB 2134mhz @ DDR3-1068 9-11-10-27-2T - 1.65v ASRock Z68 Extreme4 1.70 Gigabyte GTX 680 2GB @ 1250mhz / 7030mhz Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 on Cardas recabled HD580 Little Dot MKIII Headphone Amplifier (Cardas mini-RCA IC) Silverstone DA750 750w PSU heatware
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06-29-08, 01:07 AM	Thread Starter #3
chawks2 Premium Member #1 Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: OG, CT	I may have been premature, but would like to hear just the same. We could change it to how, "AMD destroys nVidia", does have a better ring to it. __________________ "The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature...It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of 20th century science to the human intellect." -Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail "The best definition we have found for civilization is that civilized man does what is best for all, the savage does what is best for himself." -Edwin Hubble H.E.A.T MarioKart FID-0774-5798-8330
	QUOTE Thanks

06-29-08, 01:14 AM	#4
Neuromancer Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Tau'ri	There are a few reports of people ocing the ram on the 4870s past 4800MHz and killing them in the process. thats all I have heard (First I have heard of QDR btw) __________________ Naval training is to be a Fireman a Plumber a Cop/Soldier and a Medic. Then you learn your rate. There is no 911 in the middle of the ocean. If your boat catches fire you put it out or you die.
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06-29-08, 01:24 AM	#5
flopper Member Join Date: Mar 2004	myth busted. People who do xtreme things will break stuff, my sister did that the whole time, no wait that was me __________________ 6470K 4.8ghz 1.32vcore - ek supreme block - asus z87-a, 7970 reference 1200mhz 5040x1050 eyefunity 120hz gaming, corsair 750w, watercooling, crucial m4 128gb, sennheiser headphones hd600 with asus essence stx, win 7 64 bit Home edit, ;)
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4870s dropping like flies (due to user error/BIOS mods)? [Update: BIOS Fix available]

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06-29-08, 02:22 AM	#6
keninishna Member Join Date: Sep 2006	A lot of people don't even have their 4870s yet wait till the end of next week if there aren't any replies then its a non issue.
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06-29-08, 03:01 AM	#7
David Forums Super Moderator Overclockers.com Lead Editor Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Hiding from Americans and making pretty colours in a drybox in St Andrews	This is very premature. As has been mentioned the only real issues are people seriously thrashing the cards via overclocking which is to be expected anyway. Seriously, I don't know how some people have the cash :P. __________________ David J. Nelson MChem(Edin) PhD(Strath) AMRSC [Academia Profile] OC Forums Super Moderator // Overclockers.com Editor The Workhorse: [Lenovo W510] Intel Core i7-720QM / 8 GB DDR3 / nVidia Quadro FX880M / Crucial M4 256 GB SSD / Windows 7 The HTPC/Server: AMD Phenom X4 9650 / 6 GB DDR2 / nVidia 8300 / 5 TB of HDDs / Antec Solo II Case / Windows 7 The Gaming Rig: AMD Llano A6-3650 / 4 GB DDR3 / nVidia GTX260 / 2x 500 GB HDD in RAID0 / Antec Dark Fleet DF-85 Case / Windows 7 The Benchmarking Setup: Various LGA775 chips / Asus Rampage Formula / 2 GB OCZ 1066 MHz DDR2 / nVidia Quadro NVS 285 / 320 GB HDD / Windows 7 My research fellowship is eating all my time, so I may be slow to reply to emails and private messages.
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06-29-08, 05:49 AM	#8
Farinorco Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Spain (Getafe, Madrid)	I've seen at XtremeSystems a lot of 4870 dead apparently for no reason at all, but it seems to be a relation with flashing the cards (all cases have happened between some hours and a few days after flashing the card bios). Maybe the software they're using to flash does something wrong, or the modified bios they're trying to flash IS wrong itself, and the result of that is a dead card. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=192759 I have not seen any other case of dead card until now, even if I have read about the VRAM thing (mainly here) I've not seen anybody that actually has killed his card in this way yet.
	QUOTE Thanks

06-29-08, 05:54 AM	#9
Kuroimaho Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Japan, Tokyo, Ueno.	Some people just can't wait till the proper tools are released to OC these, I would take caution especially with BIOS flashing for a while. __________________ Zalman Zmachine GT1000 I7920 4G Apogee GTZ I7, Bloodrage, 6GB, Intel X25-V, 2X WD3000GLFS R0, Hitachi 7K3 X4 R5, 580 GTX, IIYAMA 27", Corsair HX750, Steelseries 7G, XAI, SX Zalman TNN300 Q6600 3.4G, Asus P5E-VM, 2GB, WD3000GLFS, 2x501LJ, Apple 23" Zalman TNN500 Phenom 2 550 X4 3.5G, GA-MA790FX-UD5P, TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX,Tesla C1060, WD3000GLFS 3x1TB WD, Apple 30".
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06-29-08, 06:17 AM	#10
IWasHungry Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Seattle, WA	Looks like GDDR5 might be a temporary problem for atiflash and winflash.
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06-29-08, 08:56 AM	#11
wingless Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Houston, TX	The guys over at Xtremesystems killed their cards by flashing the BIOS (heh, bad BIOS you think?) and doing other mods to them. Its also been said that the Qimonda GDDR5 is crappy. Samsung and Hynix will be shipping GDDR5 too so maybe we can wait for better memory. GDDR5 supposedly signals much differently and error corrects differently so try not to mess with it until people figure out how it behaves overclocked. To avoid a hot mess on your hands, just don't flash the BIOS. There are some unknowns about how the GDDR5 works and it seems to be a factor. __________________ Phenom II 940 @3.4/2.4Ghz\| 8GB Corsair Dominator/OCZ Reaper@800mhz \| ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe \| Coolermaster Hyper 212 \| PCP&C Silencer 750w \| Diamond HD 4870 512mb \| Fatality X-Fi \| Areca ARC-1210 + RAID0 4xOCZ Solid Series 30GB SSDs \| RAID0 2xWD 750GB Caviar Blacks \|TV Wonder HD 650 PCIe
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06-29-08, 10:43 AM	#12
Pntgrd Join Date: Nov 2001	I have kept up with the thread at Xtreme since I have one of these coming. If I remeber correctly, all the dead cards have been flashed except for 4 of them. That was a company that has some in their machines and they put 4 of them in Xfire (2 x 2 in 2 different machines). They died after that but the single machines are still working. As to it being the Qimonda chips, it was not the chips themselves that died in the 8800GT's. My GTS has the same chips but the power circuitry has been beefed up vs the GT, hence no problem with the GTS's. I would wait awhile before blaming the ram chips. [edit] BUt I do admit I may not be fast to list my GTS on the classifieds, just in case __________________ Motherboard ------- Asus Rampage Extreme CPU ---------------- QX9650 Memory -------------Crucial Ballistix Harddrives --------- 300g Velociraptor, WD6400AAKSx2 Matrix Raid, 74g Raptor, 7200.10 500g Graphics Card ----- Sapphire HD4870 CF Soundcard ----------X-Fi Platinum Case --------------- HSPC Top-Deck MM-UFO under construction PowerSupply ------- Corsair TX750 Cooling -------------Watercooled Last edited by Pntgrd; 06-29-08 at 10:46 AM. Reason: Another thought
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06-29-08, 11:05 AM	#13
Micmal Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Igloo Town, Canada	The ironic thing is that most of the time the cards are fine, it's just that the BIOS is telling to card absurd things (to do). Like one thread on XS mentions a guy who had a good flash, the card failed the next day. He used it in slave mode (booted up under different card) then viewed GPU-Z on the card. It was clocked upwards of 20000MHZ!!! Basically, without the proper knowledge of EXACTLY what bit in the bios does/affects, things can go crazy. It is also worth noting that most failures are SOFTWARE failures, which can sometimes be recovered.
	QUOTE Thanks

06-29-08, 11:42 AM	#14
Super Nade † SU(3) Moderator † Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Indianapolis	I've changed the title to something a bit less stampede inducing. __________________ Motherboard Repair Tutorial \|\| Power Supply Repair Tutorial \|\| A Closer Look at PSU Signals \|\| Understanding SMPS Technology \|\| ASUS P5K Capacitor mod \|\| Kernel Compile Guide \|\| Guide to Wiping an SSD Words of wisdom from krag: "Love & trust are 2 completely different things. Trust is earned, love on the other hand should be given without measure." My hwbot profile
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06-29-08, 11:49 AM	#15
David Forums Super Moderator Overclockers.com Lead Editor Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Hiding from Americans and making pretty colours in a drybox in St Andrews	I've changed the thread title to fix Super Nade's crappy spelling. __________________ David J. Nelson MChem(Edin) PhD(Strath) AMRSC [Academia Profile] OC Forums Super Moderator // Overclockers.com Editor The Workhorse: [Lenovo W510] Intel Core i7-720QM / 8 GB DDR3 / nVidia Quadro FX880M / Crucial M4 256 GB SSD / Windows 7 The HTPC/Server: AMD Phenom X4 9650 / 6 GB DDR2 / nVidia 8300 / 5 TB of HDDs / Antec Solo II Case / Windows 7 The Gaming Rig: AMD Llano A6-3650 / 4 GB DDR3 / nVidia GTX260 / 2x 500 GB HDD in RAID0 / Antec Dark Fleet DF-85 Case / Windows 7 The Benchmarking Setup: Various LGA775 chips / Asus Rampage Formula / 2 GB OCZ 1066 MHz DDR2 / nVidia Quadro NVS 285 / 320 GB HDD / Windows 7 My research fellowship is eating all my time, so I may be slow to reply to emails and private messages.
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06-29-08, 12:32 PM	#17
Hardin Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Sumter, South Carolina	I'm hesitant to flash motherboard bioses. I don't think I'd ever flash the bios on a video card. In fact I've always been a little more hesitant to even overclock video cards after my 7900 GT died. __________________ cpu-Intel Core i7 3770k ram-G.Skill 2x4gb DDR3-1600 gpu-Radeon HD 7870 motherboard-Asus P8Z68-V LE
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06-29-08, 01:02 PM	#19
G3F0RC3<>R4D30N Member Join Date: Mar 2008	I am actually glad this thread was made(even if it is premature). I wanna see how they go out of the box, and not with these ppl who voltmod, water cool, then flash the bios and cross their fingers. I wanna see how these will OC for the average person who won't tear the entire card down to get an extra 2Mhz. And, as much as I hate to say it, I think my 8800GTX is going bad. My game performance has been terrible lately, I've checked everything out, my CPU/RAM usage is good. Just my FPS is absolutely awful. I tried those damn new nVidia 175.35 drivers and I had my games crash only to say that the video driver had stopped responding, so I quickly rolled back my driver. Lifetime warranty or not, I might have the 8800GTX replaced and put it in another PC and buy myself a 4870, 9800GTX, or GTX260/280.
	QUOTE Thanks

06-29-08, 01:59 PM	#20
Brolloks Benching Senior on Siesta Premium Member #8 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Land of Long Horns	The main reason for these card failures is because people flash and mod these cards without testing it properly determining it's limits, I don't think it is a RAM flaw or design issue at all. Once Rivatuner brings us an update we can test the cards the proper way before flashing the bios with OC profiles __________________ Should I get a Quad- or Dual-Core? - How about joining us in the Benching Lounge for some secrets - Want to bench sub-zero...take a look. Heatware 280-0-0 HWBOT Profile
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