Gigabyte HD3870 MOd Unlocked | 900/2100Mhz AiR cooled

[Barr3l Rid3r]

Good scoor for that CPU clock
OCZ is cheap? My A-data 2x1GB costs ~73$/~47€

This one is a DDR800 C5 and cost me around US$90... and sux for oc...

[ceemic]

Lol, I ran 2006 again and all C2D's are owned, also a lot of quads
http://ceemic.pri.ee/45nm/15384.jpg

And now the big one:
WR in 2003
HD3870@1134/1134
http://ceemic.pri.ee/45nm/53080.jpg

Vgpu=1,79V, outside temp +1C

"open_window_mod": http://ceemic.pri.ee/hardware/bench/

[Clint]

Lol, I ran 2006 again and all C2D's are owned, also a lot of quads
http://ceemic.pri.ee/45nm/15384.jpg

And now the big one:
WR in 2003
HD3870@1134/1134
http://ceemic.pri.ee/45nm/53080.jpg

Vgpu=1,79V, outside temp +1C

"open_window_mod": http://ceemic.pri.ee/hardware/bench/

Very nice, congrats!

In my opinion 3D06 is crap, too much weight on CPU....benching gfx should only be about benching gfx.

[ceemic]

I decided to edit my Gigas ORIGINAL BIOS and changed the GPU clock to 880! (limit is ~86x)
Here's the result: http://ceemic.pri.ee/hardware/bioshack.jpg
Whats happening? Its 13MHz OVER the limit??? Does it really work?

EDIT: http://ceemic.pri.ee/hardware/hack6897.jpg doesn't work Lowest RV670 score in 3D2003

[roadie]

Right, I now have an Accelero S1 rev2 on my card and it is begging to be overclocked further (850/1000Mhz currently). I have emailed Gigabyte asking for an unlocked BIOS and one that gives 1.3V in 3d mode, but haven't heard back, so I may go with the unlocked Sapphire 3850 one unless anyone has a better ideas?

[roadie]

Just received a reply from Gigabyte regarding the BIOS:

Hi,

The standard specification for this model memory clock is 775MHz and core clock is at 950MHz. The standard bios released by ATi had this limit, there are tools available online which can bypass this. We can't make a special bios to increase this range because this would jeopardize the stability and usage of our VGA cards. We can’t guarantee any results due to overclocking.

No help from Gigabyte like there has been from Sapphire

[ceemic]

HD3870@1174/1161 Vgpu=1,84V http://ceemic.pri.ee/45nm/81408.jpg crap score tho...
http://ceemic.pri.ee/45nm/28327.jpg
http://ceemic.pri.ee/45nm/53640.jpg

Outside temp was -4C

[roadie]

I asked Gigabyte about the difference in the 3 BIOS they have released so far for the card, which are upon the Techpowerup! database. They said:

Due to PCB version, it will be fitted by different BIOS version.

If user updated the wrong BIOS, system will not be able to boot up.

[Barr3l Rid3r]

I would love to have an unlocked bios for it that allows me to use CCC w/ faster speeds

[ante_ante]

Can someone help me. Have bought one Powercolor HD3870 DDR3 card and one more is on it´s way here for CF-session. Must change bios because i have that 862mhz lockup.

Have checked my memorys:

Samsung 801
K4J52324QE-BJ1A

What bios should i choose ??

Have this card:
http://www.powercolor.com/eng/produc...ProductID=1973

[roadie]

Not sure about the above, but my card won't allow me to flash to the Sapphire 3850 BIOS. I am also getting some Powerplay issues, where the card will drop down to the 2d clocks for a tiny period of time, which causes stuttering in Trackmania. It's a pain.

[ante_ante]

Is there any unlocked bios out there who is for samsung mems ?
Or can i flash with a gigabyte that dont say qimonda memory ?

[Barr3l Rid3r]

I just hate them! Still having to use an 3850 bios on my 3870, no way to use CCC and when I change memmory speed using the editor I've got some artifacts... so I need to overclock it manualy everytime i wanna play...

[Jamestuk]

Not sure about the above, but my card won't allow me to flash to the Sapphire 3850 BIOS. I am also getting some Powerplay issues, where the card will drop down to the 2d clocks for a tiny period of time, which causes stuttering in Trackmania. It's a pain.

Is it just me or is trackmania really easy to crash when overclocked. Stable for absolutely everything else but as soon as I play trackmania for 15 mins or so it crashes. Have resorted to getting rid of any overclock when I want to play.

Maybe its because it keeps downclocking or something if it wasn't stressing the card enough, I'll have to monitor it with rivatuner or something next time I play. Or whack AA/AF to their max and see if it still does it.

[Barr3l Rid3r]

I just can't believe that nobody found a way to fix the 860Mhz barrier without changing bios yet...

Don't edit memmory frequency using the compbase bios editor cause it might result in artifacts...

[roadie]

Trackmania United is 100% stable for me. They only game that I am having trouble with in terms of stability is STALKER, but I am not sure if that is CPU/memory related or my graphics card.

The 8.3 hotfix driver solves Powerplay issues, which makes Trackmania playable, but I'm still not 100% happy with the performance of my 3870 @ 850/2050Mhz. It's not a big improvement over my old card, a x1950xtx.

Gigabyte refuse to supply me with a BIOS to unlock the card, which is bloody annoying. I wish they would, as I feel there is a lot more potential in my card.

[Barr3l Rid3r]

Trackmania United is 100% stable for me. They only game that I am having trouble with in terms of stability is STALKER, but I am not sure if that is CPU/memory related or my graphics card.

The 8.3 hotfix driver solves Powerplay issues, which makes Trackmania playable, but I'm still not 100% happy with the performance of my 3870 @ 850/2050Mhz. It's not a big improvement over my old card, a x1950xtx.

Gigabyte refuse to supply me with a BIOS to unlock the card, which is bloody annoying. I wish they would, as I feel there is a lot more potential in my card.

please keep me updated if u got good news...

[roadie]

No, none so far. Gigabyte flat out refuse to do anything about the clock lock. It's disappointing for a company that specifically designed their own card, rather than just using the reference design.

[Barr3l Rid3r]

ok, There is a new board in the market.... 3870 PowerColor... using 512MB DDR3 we only need to know where to find it bios, if it got qimonda chips and if it is version newer then .71

[roadie]

Just for the hell of it I flashed my card to BIOS F2 from the link below:

Link

I used the Gigabyte flashing programme located here.

The BIOS source version is the same as the F1 BIOS I was running (010.700.000.003). I'm not sure if it will have added any other features or removed the clock lock limit, but it does mention some changed memory timings. Not sure if these are for better or worse yet!

Anyone else still mucking around with the Gigabyte 3870 DDR3?

[ceemic]

I have another Giga's 3870 and will try the new BIOS. Tnx for linking it!

[roadie]

The new BIOS didn't change anything for me. Highest stable clocks are 850/1025Mhz. Will load it up in RBE and have a play around to see if I can get any better results.

/Edit/ I raised the 3D voltage settings for the BIOS in RBE to 1.25 from 1.21, but still get a black screen when trying to overclock past 865Mhz. Obviously the BIOS lock on clock speeds is still there!