Unlocked Nvidia-Dell Video BIOS! Overclock your 17inch notebook Videocards! - Page 33

ok, thanks. Guess im waiting to flash a little more.

The only games i had on the 8600 with 128MB radeon was CS and unreal.

CS seems fast now at high res. and grapics.

Ill maybe get 1 hour of gameplay after work, before the "other" one complains.

So bricking the new notebook doesnt tempt me

So... what's the better? GTX Bios or GS Bios unlocked?!?

Hey Guys,

I have been searching through this thread trying to determine if I should attempt to flash my 7900GTX to improve the performance.

I have a couple of questions:

1) Is it possible to flash my 7900GTX to a 7950GTX? If so please point me in the right direction

2) Since I have a 3 year warranty should I even mess with it?

3) Is the performance boost in real world gaming worth the trouble?

Thanks

How about an unlocked BIOS for the 3500M?

1) Flashing your 7900GTX to a 7950GTX would give you a black screen. Besides, there would be no advantage to doing this anyway. 2) Most likely dell will not be able to tell if you have overclocked your card. But technically, overclocking voids the warranty on the video card. It's up to you weather you want to take the risk or not . 3) The performance difference is noticeable if you overclock enough. (example: stock 7900GTX+T7200= ~8300-8800 3dmark05. overclocked to 600/800=~9500) (put simply, 5-10% increase in framerates depending on how high you go)

I have read or skimmed every page in this thread, but I am left a little confused as to how to proceed. There are so many opinions and partial tips (and often times conflicting information) that it is hard to know where to start.

Could someone please flex your brain muscles and post a quick guide for how to proceed? Your help would be much appreciated!

0. Situations you should avoid / when NOT to proceed with this bios flash.
1. How to tell what revision 7900GS you have
2. How to burn a bootable disk (though this is probably the easiest of all the questions)
3. how to decide which bios to use from Juan's site (optimized or not, 1V or 1.24V; does this depend on how many heat pipes you have? does someone else have different versions that may work better or differently?)
4. How to decide whether you need to use NiBiTor to modify the bios you pick from step 3 (and if so, how to modify it and to what end)
5. whether or not running on battery power will step down performance of the 3D card (and if not, can you change this behavior with NiBiTor?)
6. What command line flags for the actual flash command you need (if any)
7. Which supporting software to use for things like determining your optimal overclock (using ATI tool, if I understand correctly), fan speed and temps (i9fangui?), etc
8. How to recover from a blank screen (I read something about a blind re-flashing tool for blank-screen-boot recovery)
9. What video card driver to use
10. what is a generally good and safe clock/memory speed combo to use that will improve over stock performance but not push the envelope into risky territory


A general guide would be great, but fwiw, I have a E1705 purchased in November 2006, with a 7900GS, 1 heat pipe, 8.4.6.9 driver from (gasp!) 5/1/2006, XP Pro.

Thanks!!!! Looking forward to some HOTT geek brain flexing!

0:Try to avoid flashing the bios on battery power. Also don't even try it if you don't know what card revision you have.

1:if you have bios version 5.71.22.16.13 then its a rev0, if it's something else then you have a rev1. (You can find this on advanced tab in display properties. If you are using the new control panel don't open it, just click on the "Geforce go 7900GS" menu tab on the left.)

2:Use disk burning software (such as nero) and it should be something like "Burn image to disk" or "burn iso to disk"

3:Ok this one is harder but the following should help:
If you just want your card to be the same as stock except with unlocked clocks, use the unlocked, not memory optimized, 1v bios. (clocks ~470/600 at best)
The memory optimized bios loosens the memory timings on the video card so you can clock the memory higher. (clocks ~470-850 at best)
NOTE: The voltage (1v or 1.24v) has no effect on memory clocks.
With the increased voltage but no memory optimizations the core can now be clocked much higher, but your temps could go above 90 with higher clocks. (clocks ~620/600 at best)
The best possible performance is with the memory optimized 1.24v bios. This can cause high temps, but could result in 10k+ 3dmark05 if you have a good card.
NOTE: The 7900GS rev1 bios does not have memory optimized variants.

4: The only reason you would need to edit the bios in nibitor would be if you wanted to mess with the delta offset but that's a more advanced tweak.

5:The card will clock down on battery as long as you leave the nvidia display driver service running. (The stock bios will clock down even if the service isn't running.) You can change the behavior of the card on battery in the nvidia control panel. (powermizer)

6: for a normal flash you just need: nvflash XXXXXXX.rom
If you want to flash the 7900GTX bios for some reason (works the same as the 1.24v memory optimized 7900GS bios) then you would need: nvflash -4 -5 -6 XXXXXXXX.rom (note: the 7900GS rev1 won't work with the 7900GTX bios)

7:Useful tools:ATItool, (overclocking/stress testing) I8kfangui (temps/fan control. note: remember to set a +8 temp offset for the GPU) optional: Rivatuner (GPU realtime clock monitor/driver tweaks/overclocking)

8:You would need to make a blind flash disk. There is a great guide here: http://www.notebookforums.com/thread181387.html

9:I personally use the XG mobileforce 92.91G2 driver. It works great and I have had no problems with it. This seams to be consistent with most users.
Download link:
http://www.tweaksrus.com/index.php?o...d=770&Itemid=1

10: With non optimized memory 600 is about the limit of good stability for most people. With the memory optimized bios the good stability/heat limit is 800.
With 1v you don't have to worry about heat very much so you can go as high as possible without artifacts safely. (usually ~460) With 1.24v 600 is usually the limit for heat/stability. 600/800 seams to be the sweet spot for the 7900GS.

WOW that took awhile lol.

hi guys, just got a replacement 9400 with a 7900gs rev 1. I tried the 791GSUNV.ROM but i could only hit 520/580 before getting artifacts in 3dmark05.. i got a 8300ish score, but i've seen people going in the upper 9500ish.. from rivatuner, i noticed the VID stayed at 7 (which i assume from the bios it's 1.24v). Why can't i get higher frequencies without artefacting badly? why isn't there a rev 1. memory optimized bios version? I heard of an FF mod to the bios, what's that?

Thanks so much for your thorough response, Justageek95!

I have revision 0.

A few follow-up questions:

I may try to try go for something approaching 600/800. This would take a 1.24V optimized flash, then? (where you need the extra voltage to approach 600MHz core and you need the optimized memory to approach 800Mhz memory?).

I would use this file, correct? 790GSUOV.ROM

Is one heat-pipe enough for this? if not, what if I go for a more conservative OC like 550/750?

I haven't flashed my 7900GS at all yet, btw.

For question 6, what did you mean by a normal flash? Does this mean using a 7900GS modded bios for a 7900GS, instead of a 7900GTX bios?

It looks like the 7900GTX bios is the same as the 7900GS 1.24V optimized bios? Might as well just go for the 7900GS 1.24V optimized bios?





Thanks again!

ok, got the info on the FF mod for the perf tables and tried that, still i can't get past 500/580 without artifacts... somebody told me to flash with the gtx bios.. can you guys confirm that to get to 800ish ram i need to flash my rev 1 7900gs with the gtx bios?

yep i flashed to the gtx and it would hit 600/800 but before i did that i couldnt.

On the Revision 1? I don't think that is possible. He asked about the Revision 1.

You are correct you would need the 1.24v optimized bios to get 600/800 Yes, 790GSUOV.ROM is the right bios for 1.24v/mem optimized. By a normal flash I meant flashing a 7900GS with another 7900GS bios. With the GTX bios you will need the -4 -5 -6. Yes, 7900GS 1.24v memory optimized bios=7900GTX bios (well except for the card id) 1 heatpipe should be enough for 600/800 but make sure you check your temps under full load just in case. Also flashing a 7900GS rev1 with the 7900GTX bios will give you a blank screen.

yep, i'm talking about a rev 1 7900.. doughy, I think you have a rev. 0.. Anyone else got anything above 580 on the mem with a rev 1 board?

I’m having an odd problem with my 9300/7800GTX. I took Juan’s unlocked BIOS and used NiBiTor to change the clocks for each of the three level to those I’ve been using for the last year. The reflash went fine and all the clocks are correct. However, I cannot select maximum performance on battery (the option is not there) and I cannot change the 3D clocks in AtiTool. I can, however, change the 2D clocks with AtiTool, which seems really strange to me. The only unusual thing I did was that I flashed the 7800GTX BIOS while on battery (which I know is really not wise).

In the overclocking tab of the NVidia driver, I have selected “No Overclocking”. I cannot imagine that this would could this result, though, because I can in fact change the 2D clocks (both GPU and MEM), which I have never been able to do before.

Any thoughts?

It might be possible to flash a 7950GTX bios on the rev1 card. The 7900GTX/7900GS rev0 can't use the 7950GTX bios. (or they get a black screen, just like what would happen if you flash a 7900GS rev1 with the 7900GTX bios.) Nobody has tried this yet so before you flash it I recommend you make a blind flash disc, just in case. If it works it would most likely allow you to hit 1600Mhz memory. Worst case scenario you could get a black screen (easy to fix if you have a blind flash disk, see this thread for directions: http://www.notebookforums.com/thread181387.html)

Using the 791GSUNN.rom I have come up with a little comparison based on the Single Pipe 7900GS in my i9400.

Stock Clock using 97.46 XTreme Drivers @ 375/507

Ambient temps of the GPU stayed at around 35-40C and under full load stayed at around 58C when running 3dmark05 at standard settings the score was 6400's consitently.

After Bios Update.

Ambient temps was around 40C and Full Load was at 60C, still clocked at 375/507

3dmark05 scored 5864, this was a large drop considering just changing the BIOs. this kinda suprised me.

After Bios Clocked @ 450/610

This is max for my single pipe 7900GS it starts artifacting above that. This is a Rev1 card, and i've noticed that the Rev0 cards tend to clock better than the newer ones.

I expirenced in 3dmark05 an average of a 10FPS increase as well as the same 60C full load temps as before.

During the test ATItool was still running artifact test and 3dmark05 scored a 6884.

Not too impresive seeing as though stock i scored 6400's time and time again with no overclocking.

So i restarted the computer completely made sure clock speeds were still the same, killed ALL processes i didnt need, and ran 3dmark05 again.

Suprise Suprise, I scored a 6997. This is the most performance i could get, without upping the voltage. The temps were around 50C full Load. This amazed me too. i liked it.


EDIT:

Restart and Back to Original Bios. 3dMark05 Score of 5884

Uninstall ATItool and Re-Install of Driver with a fresh restart 3DMark05 Score, Back to normal 6400's

So next I am going to try installing The Bios, followed by ATI Tool, then Re-Install my Vid Drivers, and overclock and see what kind of score i can get, it will be later on this weekend before i get results though.

But stock scores are back to 6400's which is a deccent score considering i think most of these laptops are scoring around 5600-5800

Temps are around 40C on GPU and 35C on CPU for Idle.

EDIT







So to sum it up, for me, there is no need to update the bios, or overclock, the current performance i had was plenty. Infact C&C3 took a major performance hit by updating the bios and overclocking where i was able to run it at full res, with Ultra high graphics and level 4 AA turned on. I could barely run the game.

So in other words, for me if im looking for those kinds of scores i will get a better laptop, im happy with what i have now.