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its taken me nearly a month to get my hands on two of these for my 3870's.
before i installed these coolers my cards were limited to gaming at 840mhz core 1250mhz mem...
with the duorb i'm running crossfire at 885mhz core 1326mem.
i'm really enjoying the testing with these cards now as the original hsf was garbage...
i'd be interested to hear if anyone else has this comabination of card and cooler and what clocks theve been able to hit...
ive had them all the way up to 900mhz / 1350 on memory... new benches comin up :)
on the the duorbs... this is good news.. i've reached my limit on the mem until i do the mods to my card... i think i might flash a bios which gives me more room in overdrive... so can you game for hours at 900mhz????
thanks for the info....
i just recieved the duorb for my 3870 http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ilies/yepp.gif
and I'm gonna be working to get up around 1 ghz with a voltmodded card (shipped to me @ 1.4), so this thing is gonna take a beating.
sounds like fun m8..... i'm looking forward to trying the powercolor extreme bios... if i cant get my hands on it within a couple of weeks i'm going to do some hard mods....
Just benching at 900mhz, no real gaming unfortunately needs more voltage, but it stayed cool :up:
well at least were ready for the voltage mods and better bios versions.
I should have my duos around next thursday, Ill see what i can do then. Thus far ive been able to bench 860/1300 with the stock fan (temps do get high so i have to manually set fan speed in riva tuner). Not sure If i wanna flash bios, because 860/1300 is pretty comfortable, need better temps though!
anyone come across some better bios version???? post em here...
my duorbs are pretty loud, just wondering what other peoples are like....
I am running an old school 939 3200 xpress rig with Pcie slots that are quite close together. My HIS 3870s almost touch one another (1 MM apart). What is everyone noticing about the size of the orbs vs stock cooling?
I am concerned that they will make contact.
My temps are rediculous on my top 3870 because it barely has room to draw air.
they wont touch, you can take my word for it.
get em on....
Nice. Got any pics?
Thanks Cain Lord, ill take your werd for it. Where is everyone getting their orbs? Who has the deals? The egg have a good price on them?Quote:
Originally Posted by purecain
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835106112
Also, do the orbs provide the same molex headers as the OEM fans? Do you still have control over fan speds etc...?
What kind of load and idle temps are you guys getting out of the orbs? Just trying to compare it with the V2 I'm using at the moment.
i cant be bothered to open my case up right now but i'll give you a through shot.........Quote:
Originally Posted by Truckchase!
48-52c load
is everyone using their DuOrbs with the stock ramsink still on the card? does the stock plate seem better than aftermarket ramsinks?
LoL... you solder that thing shut or.....?Quote:
Originally Posted by purecain
lol nah i have one of my fans controlled be the motherboard and it has to be disconnected when removing the side panel... i'll take some propper pics tommorow, i'm having a benching day... ;)
by the way i used the stock ramsinks but i was very tempted to remove them. would love to here of anyone getting superior results using alternative ramsinks...
Just mounted my orbs. These things are loud. My temps fell like 30C tho. Cain, r u using stock BIOS?Quote:
Originally Posted by purecain
WHat Kind of Core/Mem speeds are you getting?
i'm using the updated bios, my clocks for both cards are
860mhz core, 1311mhz mem....
i'm glad its not just me that think these things are loud. good performers though. we just need a better bios now....
Hey Cain, Mind linking me to the bios you are using? Ill be overclocking them tonight.
I really need to find a way to get my case shut to deal with the noise. ive already lopped the ihs off my x2. It seems that I have too much stuff in a small case.
Here are some pics...
Hrm... how bout these?
gawd, those new GPU's are teeny. that's awesome. if the noise is really bothering you, you can get a fan speed controller and 3-pin to Molex converters. that will just add to your wire clutter, but a 5 1/4-bay fan speed controller would be the most convenient way to handle the situation. you could also get a Molex to 3-pin conver to plug the DuOrbs directly into your motherboard and use software to control their speed. ThermalTake messed up by not offering these with 3-pin connectors in the first place.
Bacon, my experience with Zalmans and my old CrossFired 1900's showed me that the fans are louder when there is another card right up next to them. looks like your mobo is full, so the only thing you can do is lower the fan speed or sound-proof your case.
I tested a DuOrb on an 8800 Ultra and it came nowhere near the stock cooler. Performance at idle was good, but who runs their cards at idle? At load, the DuOrb was beat on temps when running several different GPU benchmarks by the stock cooler which was running at only 80% fan speed. At 100% on the stock fan, the DuOrb simply couldn't come close. Not to mention with the DuOrb the back of the card was very hot to the touch and was adding heat upward to the CPU and mobo VRM's, etc. And this was with RAM sinks on the Ultra as well. Without the ability to exhaust the hot air out the rear of the case, this poses additional problems with heat on other components.
Not sure if the 3870 coolers are inherently worse than the one on the Ultra and therefore the DuOrb performs well on a 3870. My guess is the smaller GPU and design of the 3870 cooler makes the DuOrb proportionately better........but against a stock 8800 Ultra, the DuOrb was simply outclassed. It would seem the Ultra's stock cooler is actually very efficient at removing heat from both the GPU and the case. Rather disappointing, I was expecting a better showing by the DuOrb. I'm hoping the new Zalman VF-1000 puts up a fight..........
of course the original hsf is worse.... infact its on par if i use the old hsf at 100%.... but who wants to do that(oh i just noticed you did, you were using the original hsf at 80%). at least the duorbs can be run at full pelt without too much whining.
@bacon here ya go m8.... http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/....php?p=2606896
the bios you need is in that thread, you should give it a read if you havnt already.
post back with your results m8....
by the way m8, i just noticed you dont have a fan to exhaust hot air out the back... or youve taken it off for some reason. dont forget to put it back on before you put the side of your case back on.... have fun m8
Thanks for the link, Cain. Im assuming you are using the bios that is cranked the highest? 875/1250? No issues?
duh? don't compare the heatsink on a $600 card to the heatsink on a $220 card. the 3870's heatsink was designed to be good enough. the GPU doesn't get very hot. i can game for hours, hold my hand to the back of my case where the air exhausts, and feel that it's only warm. my old 1900's used to spit fire out the back.Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyguy
Surely the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 is a superior, cheaper and quieter cooler than the Duorb? That's what I'll be considering for mine if I need an after-market cooler
The Duorb might be worth it if it had another two heatpipes and a 3 pin connector for its fans so their speed could be controlled.
Good point Bungle.......very valid point. But I wonder, does that open up a can of worms? What I mean is when everyone tests hardware, do they put in the low-end components, and only push the products a little? Or do they put in the heavyweights? There's nothing wrong with comparing stock coolers to aftermarket ones for any product......people want to know whether they're good or not, and if they're worth the money. True, a $600 card/cooler has higher standards and expectations, but it also give a better indication of how well a cooler performs.
If that weren't the case, why are 2900 PROs included beside 8800 Ultras in GPU testing/reviews? Because we want to know how something responds when pushed HARD. It's a universal, simple concept common to all hardware/tech sites, including this one.
Otherwise, I think it should be stated that the DuOrb/VF-900/Accelero/etc are each good, but only for mid/low range cards at most, and don't bother if you're a serious gamer or are want something that performs top-notch. No shame in saying a product is geared towards the mainstream, non-enthusiast, low/mid-range market.........but I would suggest that doesn't boost sales for the companies that want these products reviewed ;)
Just my opinion though. If someone is happy with their Orb/VF/S1/etc, that's great!! But no harm in pointing out its limitations or how it stacks against all competitors.
All things being equal regarding the DuOrb, however........it does great at idle, but not so great at load.....its efficiency drops considerably. It does not have a fan-speed adjustment, and is rather noisy compared to other products on the market. When taking its price into account as well, it's not the top contender. That's simply a fact. Is is a good cooler? Yes. But only in very specific circumstances, and has design features that pose potential problems. If we ignore that, then we are foolish. We're here to become informed, so........that's lowdown on the DuOrb :)
So you can just leave the stock ramsinks on when installing the Duorb? And the Duorbs are powered by a molex connector correct? Is there only one fan speed then?
Molex connection, one fan speed. Unless you put on a 3-pin adapter and then connect to a fan controller.
As for stock ram sinks.......depends on the card I guess. 8800 Ultra/GTS/GTX cooler covers the ram so separate ram sinks are required (they come with the DuOrb)
+1:up:Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyguy
Thanks, yeah I was referring to the 3870.Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyguy
LOL. OOPS, sorry.:rolleyes:
MSI Radeon HD 3870 512MB OC Edition bios.... link http://www.mvktech.net/component/opt...7157/catid,12/
half way down the page..... i'm gonna try these later...
when i installed the duorbs on my 2 70's i kept the original ram sinks. they fit perfectly,
they do but i'm hearing they dont do much for cooling.... i'm going to replace them the next time the cards are out of my case....
:yepp:Quote:
Originally Posted by roadie
EBL
i've heard a lot of good thing about Acceleros, but they're so damn ugly. i might consider DuOrbs if they ever revise them to have 3-pin connectors standard. until then, none of the aftermarket heatsinks are screaming my name.
Purecain, thank you for that. please make sure you let us know how it goes when you swap ramsinks. is there a program that works with the 3870's and shows memory temperature yet? my version of Everest doesn't recognize my 3870's.
no mate, no software.... that would be too easy....
have you tried any of the oc bios versions yet... i'm gonna start experimenting as soon as i get a free day.....
i haven't flashed my BIOS yet. i'm not sure if it's really necessary with the stock cooler. i can run 3DMark at 850/1300, but if i try to play CoD4 with those clocks i'll usually crash in about 10 minutes. i assume it's heat-related, so i won't bother trying to get mad clocks on these cards as long as i have the stock heatsink.
well the oc bios is said to run the stock cooler with differant settings. could work if it raised the speed of the fan but that woulld also raise the db...
maybe i'll give it a shot. i downloaded some stuff when the new BIOSes started coming out. i have ATiFlash349 and another zipped file called HD3870_PLLVCO_v010.071
is that current or are there better versions out now?
the new bios versions from the OC cards would be newer but not necessarily better. just wait untill i give em a go if you like and i'll let you know which bios has the most potential. i wont be able to tell how the stock fan speeds are affected as i have taken them off... let me know if you decide to start experimenting with them....
awesome. thank you for contributing so much. i really appreciate all the work you're doing. i will stay tuned!
Yeah, I think you really need to keep the card under 50 degrees when it is under load.Quote:
Originally Posted by xMrBunglex
I would like to flash my Diamond 3870's BIOSes with the newer "FIXED" bios, but where can I find them at, and which one do I want to flash to? Never done this before. ThanksQuote:
Originally Posted by purecain
right.... you have a selection of bios's to choose from at the moment. there is a thread in this forum which youll be able to find easily which gives a good instruction on which and how to flash the right bios.
when youve done that which is easy by the way, come back and try the oc bios i linked to or any of the 3870 OC bios's which are emerging daily....
i'm off my feet at the moment with builds and i'm not getting the chance to play myself.... but when i do i will be posting my results here.... i'll pm you mr.bunglex with a link to the best bios i tried and tested.... np...
by the way i just installed ccc7.12 and got a 100 point increase in 3dmark 06.... dying to see if there is a decent improvement in 05 but i'm up at 7 so i've got to get my head down....
Could you do me a favor please, and PM me which BIOS you find to be the best when your done testing? I'll be your best friend:DQuote:
Originally Posted by purecain
Cainman, hit me up with your bios too. I tested the 875/1250 one. too high. What are you using now? Please advise and PM a bios if u get a chance.Quote:
Originally Posted by newls1
BTW I just ran crysis in dx9 mode and saw a MASSIVE FPS increase with my xfire setup. I guess from reading all the bencies i should have known. But honestly, this game is buggy in DX10 mode under Vista x64 vs DX9
no need for pm's.... i've just finished testing and there is no improvement in any of the OC bios's. the fixed dll bios which ati released first reached the max stable clocks even if certain games would need lower clocks set.
the oc card bios's were all terrible and all crashed when trying to bench over 870..... so for all my trouble i'm no better off.
at least i can stop anyone else from making the same mistake and whatever you do DONT buy an OC model.....
trog has made my favourite(and the one i'm now using) version with 830mhz core 1200mem set as default.... heres the link http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=578618
this one also improves the stock fan settings so jump on it.... thanks trog...
i can bench at 900mhz core 1311mhz mem with this bios with no artifacts.... used surface deformer bench and 3dmark 05 to test stability....
thanks purecain
Purecain for President. thanks a lot for doing all the footwork for us. you made it into my will ;)
I just used the HD3870_PLLVCO_v010.071 bios. I let CCC run auto-tune, and it set the card to 872,1376. I can run 3D Mark 06 and Aqua mark with no problems. I may try the bios you linked to and see what it does.
so cain, what are your idle/load temps at those settings with the duorb? I am (still) anxiously awaiting that arrival of my 3870 !
my temps reach 53c load and idle around 31c.... i've only ever seen it @55c after hours of crysis. these duorbs really do the trick and load is usually between 38-49c...
how about all those OC bios's being poor... i felt wounded when they all turned out to be crap. imagine paying extra for an oc card and it just being exactly the same as a stock card apart from a higher stock clock with no work at all being put into the bios...
anyway heres hoping atitool gets voltage support for the 3870's as these cards will be benching monsters....
more volts and 900mhz would be stable in every game.... cant wait...
Hey Cain, what settings are u using in Crysis?
Resolution, Med, High, Very High?
DX10, DX9?
32bit or 64 mode?
also, how much ram does crysis chew of your 4 gigs during gameplay?
Cain, how did you flash the bios? in DOS or Windows?
And of course with what program...
A last question, what can I use to adjust the fan speeds?
I have 2 Asus HD3870 cards right now but I'm afraid they're spinning @ around 20%... sux pretty hard imho :down:
If anyone could answer my questions... I would really appreciate it :)
I can 1000000% understand your fan speed concern. I just went thru this hell and total game stability was in the :banana::banana::banana::banana:er due to 90+c temps on my GPU's. Download a program called Rivatuner 2.06 (http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163) by using this program, you can manually adjust the fan speed and it work AWESOME:shocked: . I have both of my cards using the 75% fan setting 100% of the time, I have both my 3870's @ 860c 2.54GHz ram. My idle temps are 25-28c, load temps are 45-52c:up: My games all run perfectly, no freezes, hiccups, nothing, just pure gaming fun now. If you have a crossfire setup, make sure you set *BOTH* cards fan speeds, cause adjusting 1 card, will not adjust the *OTHER* card. In the first screen you see when Rivatuner starts, click the drop down arrow, and select the OTHER card, and repeat the same process you did for setting the fan speed for your first card. Make Sense? Let me know if you need more help. Good LuckQuote:
Originally Posted by Garrett
@bacon i used dx10 64bit code path and very high settings aside from a medium setting here and there.
in other words i played the game with all the bells and whistles at 1680x1050 and averaged 35fps(which was oddly sufficient) and played very smooth.
as far as my ram usage its hard to say with vista as it has a tendancy to use all my ram whenever possible, so even though 3.5gb were being used i'm not sure how much of that was being used by crysis... i should of checked in processes. i will next time i play it...
i'm playing cod4 on the the hardest setting which has made the game almost unbeatable, i screamed out loud in frustration a good few times last night aswell.... lol
@Garret flashing the bios on your hd3870 is easy.... make a bootable dos disc or bootable flash drive. google for the instructions on this part, you wont have any trouble....
once you have a bootable disc add the latest copy of ati flash. you can dll this from techpowerup forum's dll section.... easy...
copy ati flash to the bootable disc with this bios http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=578618
name it newbios.bin
thats the disc ready.... all you have to do now is restart your pc.
go into the bios and change the boot order so that you boot into dos from your flash drive...
restart....
now your in dos with a black screen... type atiflash and press enter...
you now have to press any key you like four times to go through all the commands available. youll see what i mean when you do it.
now you are able to type the command which will flash your bios....
type....
atiflash -f -p 0 newbios.bin
press enter this will flash the first card... if you have another type...
atiflash -f -p 1 newbios.bin
the flash takes place now and you have to restart to finish.
go back into the bios to change the boot order back to your drive with windows.... your done.... congrats
sometimes atiflash says it cant find the file and if it does this make a few more copies and rename them newbios1.bin newbios2.bin and so on. one of them will work.
i have no idea why it does this.....
as far as the fan speeds, they will of been improved with this bios but i recommend getting yourself a 20 quid duorb.....
good luck m8....
Well newls1, I have used Rivatuner for ages, and I mean 4 years or so, but since enabling CF it won't do that anymore, you see I had 1 card running 50%, just nicely but the other at... what is it, like 20%?
It simply cannot be done anymore :down: neither card can
And purecain, that will leave me with 1 card flashed... I have CF so 2 cards ;)
atiflash -f -p 1 bios.bin will that flash the second? (0 to 1)
See picture of rivatuner for my problem, I think it will be very clear
-edit- I may use this thing and hook the fcking fans on my rheobus :mad:
http://www.microcenter.com/image.pht...360&sku=685289
edited for you pal................
by the way... atitool will be the best for controlling fan speeds on both cards. i am unsure if 3870's are compatible with atitool to this extent yet....
nope... been there done that... damn I'm not feeling too good about buying these cards... gotta search everywhere to get them working as they should... I'm really pissed now, bit scared to flash the card, how many times does it go wrong in DOS mode? :D
and this ati winflash looks a bit fishy to me too... bah wish I had tri SLI lol... but I don't have 1500 euros left for pure overkill...hahaha damn I gotta stop making myself nervous :D
edit:
PS I see you have the P5E board, that doesn't include the Voltage Damper option in your bios or does it?
Mine has, I love it :)
1.35v in bios is 1.32v idle and 1.31v under quad load... very nice indeed, my former Asus (the P5N-E SLI) used to drooooooop over 0.1v (bios set voltage and then to dual load) :eek:
it does have the voltage damper and with the pencil mod i can set 1.425 and get 1.410-1.420... cant ask for much more than that....
the p5e is easily the best board i've ever worked with.... highly recomended...
OK so I've flashed both cards, never seen flashing go so fast but the speeds say 830/1200 so it's all good.
However the fans still spin very slow, I reinstalled Rivatuner 2.06 which allows me to adjust 1 card, the top one... not the bottom one so it's not really what I want... any suggestions?
Garrett, are you stable in games with that BIOS and the stock cooler? it seems to me like the fan runs just as fast as it has to to keep the GPU from going over 90°C.
No problems here :)
I'd rather have a tri SLI setup but that's a bit more expensive though ;)
I installed the BIOS mentioned in purecain's post (51) on my 3870 yesterday. I used Winflash 2.0.0.2 to do it and it worked perfectly.
The fan speed does seem to pick up more quickly than the stock BIOS, and obviously the standard clocks of the card are now faster. However, the card still hit over 90 degrees when using the Fur stress test so I force fan speed to 70% using Rivatuner when gaming. This is very loud but I drown it out with my speakers.
I'm at my parents house until the New Year now so can't test the card any further but I should have an Accelero S1 by then to help curb temps :)
i'm glad people are finding that bios useful... i spent a good four hours looking at the hex file trying to figure out why the voltage wont go any higher. next step is to try a bios with higher voltage set and the over voltage protection removed.... just got to find where that is on ther card and how to remove it safely.... any info on this would be greatly appreciated....
I am only using a single Sapphire 3870. Not modded the Bios and just with the stock cooler (doing as it pleases), using Overdrive i run the card @ 860/1301. Tested in real gaming. I leave it at what it's now, think it's just fine without hassle.
Yes the temp goes up to 89c at 99% GPU load (crysis bench in windowed mode), so i think i'll try to force the fanspeed then.
EDIT. No! 70 ~75% fanspeed makes too much bloody noise! :D Uninstalled RivaTuner again... Leaving things as they are right now. :)
im telling you right now, that if you run your GPU at those temps, it will suffer from a loss of life sooner then you think. Install Rivatuner again and force it to 60%. If you find that loud, then WOW! That is almost dead silent SIR. Forcing at least 60% will drop your load temps by a HUGE number.Quote:
Originally Posted by Unbornchild
the longest i ever owned a video card was one year. it was a Radeon 1900XTX and the thing ran hotter than the devil himself. maybe it would have only lasted five years, but i'd never stick around long enough to find out anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by newls1
I did as you advised. 60%. Man you are so right. The 89c peak has sunken 33 degrees! celcius and has not surpassed 56c at full ("99%") load. Very effective, while at the same time the noise at 60% stays very acceptable. Thanks! :up:Quote:
Originally Posted by newls1
new pencil mod available.... say hello to 1.41v ...... ;) i just tried pencilling the r1222 resister and it didnt work so i have one more to go.... will post in a couple of days when i pull my machine apart to redo it.... anyone else has any luck let us know how you do... heres a link to the thread... http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=166623&page=9
Glad to have been of service:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Unbornchild
Yes, thanks, but 55% proved even better qua noise and just as effective.
Note: 54% produced a slight whistle! :eek: 55% it stays. ;)