ATI 4850/4870 voltmod thread

[Laykun]

Currently got the card running at 840 on the core with 1.276v which i believe is the max attainable in the bios.

Reading the actual voltage on the VGPU points gives me 1.19v at 1.276v bios, and 1.18v at 1.263v bios.

[wesleyclark]

OK, so i will be picking up the 4870 in a few days hopefully, and would be willing to be a "Guinea pig" to find a volt mod.
Just one question, do we need to install the hotfix over the catalyst 8.6 or install the hotfix as a standalone?

[qwertyaas]

Question about soft-modding my 4850 (I know, I know... this is all about the hard-mods ). The Voltage through BIOS is both for the Core and Memory correct? My Visiontek has a stock voltage of 1.046 idle and 1.084 (not actual) at load and my max OC (CCC) is 700/1050. Bumping the memory to 1075 artifacts after a few minutes in ATITool (max load temp was 66c at 65% fan speed).

So bumping the voltage to 1.15/1.2 should give me a nice amount of headroom on the memory correct?

[u22]

OK, so i will be picking up the 4870 in a few days hopefully, and would be willing to be a "Guinea pig" to find a volt mod.
Just one question, do we need to install the hotfix over the catalyst 8.6 or install the hotfix as a standalone?

The Hotfix is a standalone




where are the vgpu read point on 4870?

[Theta]

OK, so i will be picking up the 4870 in a few days hopefully, and would be willing to be a "Guinea pig" to find a volt mod.

The reason that the method in testing has not been posted publicly is precisely that - to keep people from becoming guinea pigs.

Once you get your 4870, PM jimmyz if you want to test with us.

And lastly, the mods in question currently all occupy the back of the card, not the front (to address earlier speculation).

[Theta]

where are the vgpu read point on 4870?

I posted it two pages back...

[wesleyclark]

or its right here. I spent the time to find it, so i might as well post it yeah?

can anyone with a borked card measure the voltages on the board? i marked the test spots for you



on your dmm put the black probe to ground (like case metal or the metal piece on the graphics card) and the red one to what you want to measure

yellow area and green area should be either mvddc and mvddq memory voltage (dont know which is one because i have no board). any of the pads in one color will work fine, it is safe to short between same colored pads

the blue area is vddc (gpu core voltage). as you can see two solder pads go together (white boxes on the pcb), one is ground, the other one will be vddc. test both, the one with the 0 volt reading is the gnd one. dont create shorts between those pads.

if you have questions ask before causing more damage

[wesleyclark]

The reason that the method in testing has not been posted publicly is precisely that - to keep people from becoming guinea pigs.

Once you get your 4870, PM jimmyz if you want to test with us.

And lastly, the mods in question currently all occupy the back of the card, not the front (to address earlier speculation).

What i meant was, i wanted to help you guys test it out. Sorry for the confusion. I will pm jimmyz once i get it.

[Theta]

or its right here. I spent the time to find it, so i might as well post it yeah?

I was simply pointing out that I had posted it TWO PAGES back... No use in littering the thread with large posts that are very CLOSE to one another in the same thread...

Still, it's not a huge deal.

What i meant was, i wanted to help you guys test it out. Sorry for the confusion. I will pm jimmyz once i get it.

Sounds good to me, I'm still trying to figure out if I've even hit the nail on the head... Voltage is going up, but not in the way it should be...

[Laykun]

Hey guys, question, what sort of read outs from the VGPU measure points do you get on your 4870s ? ( The ones with DMMs ).

[865pe]

need 4870 gpu measure point?

[Laykun]

It's about 3 posts above you.

[Booj]

Still clocking this 4850 up. Currently i have it up to 900/1120 @ 1.44v vgpu

Will submit to hwbot when i find the max

[diablos]

sorry guys,
Can you post a photo for 4870 vgpu mod?
wich trimmer can I use?
under watercooling, Which is the max safety vgpu for benchmark and wich for daily use?


thanks

[wesleyclark]

sorry guys,
Can you post a photo for 4870 vgpu mod?
wich trimmer can I use?
under watercooling, Which is the max safety vgpu for benchmark and which for daily use?


thanks

There is no confirmed 4870 volt mod. Some are working very hard on finding it, and confirming it. Be patient, and it will be here soon.
As for the trimmer, you'll have to wait until they find the volt mod first.

[diablos]

There is no confirmed 4870 volt mod. Some are working very hard on finding it, and confirming it. Be patient, and it will be here soon.
As for the trimmer, you'll have to wait until they find the volt mod first.

thanks

[vengance_01]

Wow guys screw the 4870. The 4850+mods is by far the best bang for your buck out thier period. Heading up to bestbuy to grab a 4850. I will be armed with a Zalman VF-900, volt meter and my trusty Number 2 pencil!!

[wesleyclark]

Wow guys screw the 4870. The 4850+mods is by far the best bang for your buck out thier period. Heading up to bestbuy to grab a 4850. I will be armed with a Zalman VF-900, volt meter and my trusty Number 2 pencil!!

But a 4870 vmoded would be a better performer...still within a reasonable price.
Which is what i am going for.

[Theta]

Wow guys screw the 4870. The 4850+mods is by far the best bang for your buck out thier period. Heading up to bestbuy to grab a 4850. I will be armed with a Zalman VF-900, volt meter and my trusty Number 2 pencil!!

Hate to burst your bubble, but here's the fact about what you're saying:

Best Buy 4850 = $199 + Tax (Maybe 10% off, Saving Tax)
VF-900 = $30-$35

So we're at about $240 for the retail 4850 w/ VF900. Now, the 4870 is $299, and can clock without mods to at least 790 on the core...

After modding 3 4850s, the best core @ 1.4v on an Accelero S1 was only 820 for me... All of my Visionteks were duds, I guess... I also hate to tell you that your VF900 will be overwhelmed after 1.35v on the VGPU, netting you an average of 810 on the core.

I posted my results of the vmodded 4850s vs the 4870s, and there was still over 10% of a difference in favor of the 4870...

Also, the volt mod will be available soon for the 4870, and the stock cooler may actually be able to handle a bit more voltage. I'm loading up at 48C on 1.3v, stock coolers, in CFx.

So really, it's up to you, but it's not a HUGE price difference, and the 4870 is still on top no matter how you slice it.

[wesleyclark]

Hate to burst your bubble, but here's the fact about what you're saying:

Best Buy 4850 = $199 + Tax (Maybe 10% off, Saving Tax)
VF-900 = $30-$35

So we're at about $240 for the retail 4850 w/ VF900. Now, the 4870 is $299, and can clock without mods to at least 790 on the core...

After modding 3 4850s, the best core @ 1.4v on an Accelero S1 was only 820 for me... All of my Visionteks were duds, I guess... I also hate to tell you that your VF900 will be overwhelmed after 1.35v on the VGPU, netting you an average of 810 on the core.

I posted my results of the vmodded 4850s vs the 4870s, and there was still over 10% of a difference in favor of the 4870...

Also, the volt mod will be available soon for the 4870, and the stock cooler may actually be able to handle a bit more voltage. I'm loading up at 48C on 1.3v, stock coolers, in CFx.

So really, it's up to you, but it's not a HUGE price difference, and the 4870 is still on top no matter how you slice it.

Thank you theta, that's exactly the kind of support i needed. I also plan on getting the soon to be released thermalright cooler, and sticking it on top of a pelt, so that should do some pretty good cooling for me.

[Theta]

Well, all that being said before, the guys with water cooling have it made with the 4850, as they're able to just dump voltage into it. 1.5v+ only nets 40-45C load

Since we don't know how the 4870 scales at the top end yet, the 4850 may be a better choice for top end benching and testing with high end water, phase, and LN2/DI.

Air is a different story though, and CF is a consideration for me, and many others... Can't go to crazy with air cooling in two PCI slots.

[vengance_01]

Hate to burst your bubble, but here's the fact about what you're saying:

Best Buy 4850 = $199 + Tax (Maybe 10% off, Saving Tax)
VF-900 = $30-$35

So we're at about $240 for the retail 4850 w/ VF900. Now, the 4870 is $299, and can clock without mods to at least 790 on the core...

After modding 3 4850s, the best core @ 1.4v on an Accelero S1 was only 820 for me... All of my Visionteks were duds, I guess... I also hate to tell you that your VF900 will be overwhelmed after 1.35v on the VGPU, netting you an average of 810 on the core.

I posted my results of the vmodded 4850s vs the 4870s, and there was still over 10% of a difference in favor of the 4870...

Also, the volt mod will be available soon for the 4870, and the stock cooler may actually be able to handle a bit more voltage. I'm loading up at 48C on 1.3v, stock coolers, in CFx.

So really, it's up to you, but it's not a HUGE price difference, and the 4870 is still on top no matter how you slice it.

hum... Well I already have the Zalman VF-900. If Bestbuy has the 4870 I might get that, but there are currently 0 volt mods for the 4870's. Also what were your temps at 1.4 volts? These cards seem to take the heat well. Also the 4850@800 core and maybe 1200 memory is still a fast card. Also I am not looking for top performance, but bang for my buck and thats where I see the 4850. I guess lastly it will be more fun to bench the 4850 then the 4870. Not in terms of score, but fun in general. =)

[Theta]

hum... Well I already have the Zalman VF-900. If Bestbuy has the 4870 I might get that, but there are currently 0 volt mods for the 4870's. Also what were your temps at 1.4 volts? These cards seem to take the heat well. Also the 4850@800 core and maybe 1200 memory is still a fast card. Also I am not looking for top performance, but bang for my buck and thats where I see the 4850. I guess lastly it will be more fun to bench the 4850 then the 4870. Not in terms of score, but fun in general. =)

Completely agree with you there! The 4850 is a ton of fun pushing it to the wall, and it's fairly cheap by itself. Hell, they ran a $150 deal a few weeks ago on it... Talk about a steal.

My temps were in the high 60Cs, low 70Cs at 1.4v. Topped out at 1125 memory on all cards @ 2.2v, didn't want to push it further.

Had to stop playing with them to focus on the 4870 volt mod tests.

[Morais]

nice clocks Booj !

[vengance_01]

Completely agree with you there! The 4850 is a ton of fun pushing it to the wall, and it's fairly cheap by itself. Hell, they ran a $150 deal a few weeks ago on it... Talk about a steal.

My temps were in the high 60Cs, low 70Cs at 1.4v. Topped out at 1125 memory on all cards @ 2.2v, didn't want to push it further.

Had to stop playing with them to focus on the 4870 volt mod tests.

ok thats what I wanted to hear.I wish I could have gotten the card when it was 150$. Also O/Ced 4850 can come close to a 4870 which is great. I mean when have we seen this kind of performance from a single slot card at this price.