ATI 4850/4870 voltmod thread

[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.

[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.

[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.

[keninishna]

How are you guys determining the voltage on the card for the 4870 the only pic I've seen in this thread is just a general area to try out unless I've missed something I'm going to solder a set of 4 10 ohm fixed resistors together and use that as the mod because I've had experience with vrs moving over time.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

How are you guys determining the voltage on the card for the 4870 the only pic I've seen in this thread is just a general area to try out unless I've missed something I'm going to solder a set of 4 10 ohm fixed resistors together and use that as the mod because I've had experience with vrs moving over time.

im thinking i will do this too because I can get nice metal oxide resistors at my local shop in 10 ohm, as i will be doing 24/7 at the volt mod and not LN2'ing or anything just a small voltage bump should be fine for me

[qwertyaas]

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.

I know how you feel. I got mine for $140 brand new. For that price, it's just too hard to beat (and turn down)!

Too bad I'm afraid to hardmod my card (and never done it either) so I will be sticking to BIOS modding

[vengance_01]

Guys I am trying to do the pencil mod. I have my volt meter and I am getting 1.06 on idle and 1.10 on load. I have a VisionTek version. Temps are fine at under 60C and I look semi stable at 700/1100 at these volts. I am using the right points before. I used this same DVM when I had my GTS 8800. Do I need to flash my bios to unlock the extra voltage? Because outside of windows I measure at 1.14
I think.


Edit I was able to flash my bios. with 1.19 volts on load, 740/1100 looks to be stable. Temps are around 65-66C when running Mass Effect. I think I will keep it here. Temps are pretty high and I am almost close to 4870 performance.

[piebaker]

I had my Powercolor 4850 at 750 and 1150 with bios flash with bios vgpu set 1.4 if that stuff works or not. And 3dmark06 15180 in vista with q6600 @ 3.6

I have a TT Duorb installed on my card. Auto tune went to 690 and 1153 completely stable.

Would a volt mod make the 750 stable then?

[adpr_02]

Just got my water block.

900/1110 clocks for 24/7. LOVE this card. Have yet to try higher...

What is the voltage ppl. are putting though the memory, 'cause at this point, that is what is bottlenecking me. What do you think the max I should put is? I've got heatsinks on it, btw.

[vengance_01]

nice clocks. My memory will not go above 1100. I even upped the voltage from 2.0 to 2.2 and it did not help. Oh well my 725/1100 clocks are find for air cooling during the hot summer weather out here in CA.