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AMD HD7970 Windows XP 1440p 144hz (Including 3d!) guide

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First post, by HugoBoss1985

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I wanted to share with you my guide to getting a 1440p high refresh rate gaming experience under Windows XP 32bit with an AMD HD7970 graphics card.

I spend a lot of time collecting parts and making a 1440p high refresh rate Windows XP EAX gaming pc.
A lot of time went into getting this to work, especially the 144hz refresh rate override in a 3d (gaming) environment.

What you need:

-AMD HD7970 graphics card (with a specific bios; my card needed 015.21.000.003.001364 for 144hz 3d refresh rates override to work in all games)
-Optional: atiwinflash 2.0.1.18
-Club3d CAC-2170 active adapter from Mini-DP 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 (CAC-1180 might also work, untested!)
-1440p capable monitor with at least HDMI 2.0 and 144hz refresh rate

Test system:

OS:

Windows XP32 bit Service Pack 3

Hardware:

XFX HD7970 BE non-ghz card with ghz bios 015.21.000.003.001364
Asrock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional with bios 1.70b beta
Intel i5 3570k @ 4,8ghz all cores 1.304v
Noctua U14S
2x 4 gb G-skill Ripjaws X 1600 cl9 1.5v @ 2400 cl10 1,65v
Creative Xfi Titanium
NZXT S650 SFX-L psu (rebranded Seasonic SGX650)
Crucial M4 Sata 3 128gb with latest firmware and partition aligned (AHCI mode)

Monitor:

MSI G272QPF E2 1440p 180hz

Mini-DP 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 adapter:

Club3d CAC-2170 (CAC-1180 might also work)

Notes:

The desktop is sometimes garbled on Windows startup, this seems random. I can solve this by selecting 144hz instead of 85hz (following some steps in this guide/the pictures).
The system always reverts back to 1440p 85hz. I don't know why, maybe because I am using the Club3d CAC-2170 active adapter.
I have to press "detect displays" (I have to press it 2 times if I don't let CCC "detect whenever CCC is opened" !) for the 144hz (and 120hz) option to appear each time after loading Windows.

Not even the program called "refresh lock" would change this.

With the original bios of my AMD Radeon HD7970 I could not get 144hz working in all games with the "3d refresh rate override" set to 144hz in the Catalyst Control Panel.
It would revert to 60 hz in most games.
ID-Tech games like Quake 4 would work with 144hz.
Far Cry would only work with 60hz.
If I set a "3d refresh rate override" of 120 hz all games would work fine with a 3d refresh rate of 120 hz.
My card originally had bios 015.012.000.004.

After force flashing (with atiwinflash 2.0.1.18, through command prompt) a newer, GHZ card, bios (015.21.000.003.001364) into my XFX HD7970 BE every game works with an ingame refresh rate of 144hz.
The newer bios has 4 boost (GPU clock and VRAM clock) stages, the original bios had 3 boost stages.
I tried 4 different bios'ses, including the original bios and the GHZ bios before this worked.

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Reply 1 of 2, by agent_x007

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1) No overscan issues on HDMI with default settings (I know ATI/AMD can have this issue) ?
2) Why DP to HDMI 2.0, and not just native DP 1.2+ ?
3) 85Hz problem sound like something a Pixel clock patcher would be worth a try (HBR limit)

Reply 2 of 2, by HugoBoss1985

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agent_x007 wrote on Yesterday, 16:07:

1) No overscan issues on HDMI with default settings (I know ATI/AMD can have this issue) ?
2) Why DP to HDMI 2.0, and not just native DP 1.2+ ?
3) 85Hz problem sound like something a Pixel clock patcher would be worth a try (HBR limit)

1 no weird issues, except sometimes the garbled screen on Windows desktop at boot.
But my monitor has an automatic aspect ratio correction (enabled) or a manuel selection. If that means anything.
With some 4:3 games like Aliens Versus Predator, need For Speed Underground 2 or Vietcong I have to lower the refresh rate or the screen becomes centered (black bars all around).

With Carnivores 2 i get a streched screen (wrong FOV)

These 4 games are all (4:3) 1600x1200 in settings.

Best is setting 1440p, 85hz and "maintain aspect ratio" scaling in CCC. This gives only black bars left and right.

It's a trade off between 1600x1200 144hz with centered image (black bars all around) or 1600x1200 85hz with only black bars on the sides.

2 my DP connector on the monitor is already in use with another pc.
Good point, I guess an (active) adapter is not strictly needed.

3 I will try this.

Something i discovered today. Quake 4 had "r_displayrefresh" set to 144hz in the config file. I forgot that I changed that. But the funny thing is... when the pc boots Windows it is always 1440p 85hz. Without changing anything, launching Quake 4 with r_displayrefresh 144 and then going back to desktop... my desktop is 1440p 144hz!

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