Flash XFX DD BE 7970 to Unlock Voltage?

[Elfear]

I recently bought an XFX 7970 and stupidly assumed I could undervolt the thing for mining. Even with voltage control unlocked in AB the voltage slider is greyed out.

Anyone know if I can flash the bios to unlock voltage control or is it locked at the hardware level?

 

[thilanliyan]

Check recent newegg and NCIX reviews to see if that card is locked. Unfortunately some of the vendors are locking their cards.

 

[arkcom]

I tried with a 7950 and could never find a bios that would work. Scorching hot at the stock 1.25v.

 

[thilanliyan]

^Yeah I have no idea why they run these cards at 1.25v for Boost. All my 7950s can do 925MHz at 0.975v, which is nearly the boost speed of 950MHz.

 

[Stuka87]

The 1.25V is just to err on the side that some cards need more than others.

XFX DD's run smoking hot, undervolting would help. But really they need a better cooler. As even the non-boost models run hot.

 

[Elfear]

Thanks for the tips gents. Sounds like it's unknown whether a bios flash would fix the lock issue or not. I think I'm going to contact Newegg and see what my return options are.

 

[gpse]

does it use the stock AMD PCB? is there an AMD logo at the bottom near the contacts?
if so try flashing this bios:
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/123125/ATI.HD7970.3072.120628.rom
this is the latest ghz\boost bios for the reference AMD board, hopefully it is voltage unlocked.

 

[dawp]

Has anyone tried the above bios? I have the xfx black edition with the blower cooler and would like to unlock the voltage control. From what I can find online my card is a reference design.

 

[Rvenger]

Does it even have a ChiL controller?

 

[dawp]

the regulator on my card is a chl822x

 

[Rvenger]

You have a reference AMD board if its not a DD edition. So yes it would have voltage control by default?? Just flash to a standard ATI 7970 bios from Techpowerup.