eVGA 8800GTX/GTS New BIOS

[garikfox]

Dated: 12/29/06

Bios Version : 60.80.0E.00.B1
BIOS Date : 12/29/2006

Notes : The updated BIOS?s are only for EVGA 8800 graphics cards, part numbers 768-P2-N831 and 640-P2-N821:

http://evga.com/support/drivers/

 

[Kromis]

So uhh...what exactly does the BIOS do or improve?

 

[lopri]

It's got to do with the clock speed jump/domain. Via Rivatuner monitoring, I noticed there are those 'critical' points where a 1MHz overclock make a bigger difference than 10MHz overclock. With the new shader clocks hovering around 1400MHz, the clock generating logic looks somewhat more complicated than the traditional G70/G71 series cards. So when I saw XFX just came out with their usual XXX version of 8800 GTX, I couldn't help but grin. Because they advertise their clock speed as 630MHz, but Rivatuner says the real performance jump occurs @635MHz. 630MHz gives, iirc, the same performance as 620MHz.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: lopri
It's got to do with the clock speed jump/domain. Via Rivatuner monitoring, I noticed there are those 'critical' points where a 1MHz overclock make a bigger difference than 10MHz overclock. With the new shader clocks hovering around 1400MHz, the clock generating logic looks somewhat more complicated than the traditional G70/G71 series cards. So when I saw XFX just came out with their usual XXX version of 8800 GTX, I couldn't help but grin. Because they advertise their clock speed as 630MHz, but Rivatuner says the real performance jump occurs @635MHz. 630MHz gives, iirc, the same performance as 620MHz.

Wha? What did I miss here? How does 5MHz cause a major performance jump?

For the record, I have an XFX card, and noticed I think last week the new XXX series, all that appears different is clock speeds?

 

[SKoprowski]

Clockspeeds?? The bios just fixes an incompatability with Apple 23" monitors.

 

[Nightmare225]

Anyone know how to install this if you don't have a floppy drive?

 

[Energinerbuzzy]

Yes I know how but DON'T DO IT!!! Unless you need to run a Apple 23" display, you don't need this BIOS.
I flashed my EVGA 8800 GTX yesterday. The flash is simple...........run the EXE and it makes a bootable file on your floppy...........you select to boot from the floppy drive and the BIOS install begins............You see a message that BIOS update has completed successfully and you reboot.
Sounds easy right? Well I now have to RMA my card. Windows runs for about 1 minute then I get the blue screen of death with some kind of "IRQ_NOT_EQUAL_OR_LESS_THAN" error.
I have reformatted and reinstalled windows twice to try to isolate the problem. And I only get errors when I install the 8800 GTX.
Up till yesterday before the BIOS flash, the card and windows ran just fine.
Maybe something went wrong with the flash, I don't know. But what I do know is that the only thing this BIOS does is add support for the Apple 23" display.
And I am a dumb A%@# for flashing my card.

 

[garikfox]

Thats funny Ive been flawless for 6 hrs plus 2 hrs just now on WoW.

 

[garikfox]

Originally posted by: Energinerbuzzy
Yes I know how but DON'T DO IT!!! Unless you need to run a Apple 23" display, you don't need this BIOS.
I flashed my EVGA 8800 GTX yesterday. The flash is simple...........run the EXE and it makes a bootable file on your floppy...........you select to boot from the floppy drive and the BIOS install begins............You see a message that BIOS update has completed successfully and you reboot.
Sounds easy right? Well I now have to RMA my card. Windows runs for about 1 minute then I get the blue screen of death with some kind of "IRQ_NOT_EQUAL_OR_LESS_THAN" error.
I have reformatted and reinstalled windows twice to try to isolate the problem. And I only get errors when I install the 8800 GTX.
Up till yesterday before the BIOS flash, the card and windows ran just fine.
Maybe something went wrong with the flash, I don't know. But what I do know is that the only thing this BIOS does is add support for the Apple 23" display.
And I am a dumb A%@# for flashing my card.

I see what yer prob is.

It only flashed 1 card you have SLI.

You have to flash the other card the same BIOS or yer Hosed like you said.

 

[Energinerbuzzy]

No I have the other 8800 in one of my other rigs. I only flashed one card. and only had one card in the machine.
I'm not saying the BIOS is no good. I am just warning those who do not need it should not use it as there is the chance for something to go wrong. Like it did with mine for whatever reason.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it...............
And in case you are wondering, yes the other 8800 GTX works fine with no errors. It is the one I flashed that is now giving me problems.

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: Energinerbuzzy
No I have the other 8800 in one of my other rigs. I only flashed one card. and only had one card in the machine.
I'm not saying the BIOS is no good. I am just warning those who do not need it should not use it as there is the chance for something to go wrong. Like it did with mine for whatever reason.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it...............
And in case you are wondering, yes the other 8800 GTX works fine with no errors. It is the one I flashed that is now giving me problems.

Did you try reflashing the card?

 

[BFG10K]

So uhh...what exactly does the BIOS do or improve?

AFAIK it's a fix for for crackling sound problems with X-Fi sound cards.

 

[Centurin]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

So uhh...what exactly does the BIOS do or improve?

AFAIK it's a fix for for crackling sound problems with X-Fi sound cards.

I believe thats a motherboard issue, not GPU.

 

[customcoms]

we have three different answers to the "what does the bios fix" question lol. Read the support documents people (unless they don't exist). And support documents have rarely stated that an increase in something useful like overclocking occurs b/c of this piece of software...that is always left for us users to answer.

 

[Tegeril]

Originally posted by: Kromis
So uhh...what exactly does the BIOS do or improve?

This BIOS fixes an incompatibility with 23" Apple Cinema Displays, among, I assume other issues.

Previously, 8800s would not display any signal before complete load of the OS to a 23" Apple Cinema Display, and would appear to be "asleep".

 

[Yreka]

Originally posted by: SilentRunning

Originally posted by: Energinerbuzzy
No I have the other 8800 in one of my other rigs. I only flashed one card. and only had one card in the machine.
I'm not saying the BIOS is no good. I am just warning those who do not need it should not use it as there is the chance for something to go wrong. Like it did with mine for whatever reason.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it...............
And in case you are wondering, yes the other 8800 GTX works fine with no errors. It is the one I flashed that is now giving me problems.

Did you try reflashing the card?

That's what I was going to suggest. Try to reflash, with the old BIOS if possible.

 

[Energinerbuzzy]

Originally posted by: SilentRunning

Originally posted by: Energinerbuzzy
No I have the other 8800 in one of my other rigs. I only flashed one card. and only had one card in the machine.
I'm not saying the BIOS is no good. I am just warning those who do not need it should not use it as there is the chance for something to go wrong. Like it did with mine for whatever reason.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it...............
And in case you are wondering, yes the other 8800 GTX works fine with no errors. It is the one I flashed that is now giving me problems.

Did you try reflashing the card?

Yes I reflashed again and then I downloaded it it to another computer and created another floppy on it. Still no good after flash.
I am now thinking that it may just be a coinsidence that it happened at the moment I flashed the card and that maybe the problem lies with the EVGA 680i. The whole reason why I flashed the card to begin with was due to a complete reformat (again) because of yet another SATA issue. Just so happened when I went to download the 97.44 driver I also saw the BIOS update and said why not.
Whatever the reason I have already RMA'ed the 680i and will see if the problem is still there with the new board.

 

[BFG10K]

I believe thats a motherboard issue, not GPU.

I thought I saw something from eVGA that stated the BIOS changes the way the GPU generates bus traffic.