4870 Overclocking Thread

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

I'm pretty sure I already told you (may have been some one else so forgive me if I'm wrong) that your FSB is far too low and your memory clocks are also very low. set your 8400 to 8.5 or 8 multiplier and raise the FSB to the right speed for the same overall speed you have now . Your computer will run much faster overall andyou will get a much higher scorenot only CPU marks by also graphics

[HamTard]

I didn't understand what you meant before, but this new post is much more clear to me, thanks.

I tried 8x375, which ran fine, and then I tried 9x378.

With 9x378 cpu, I now get 3100 CPU score and 6000 SM2 / 7000 SM3 (both improved) for a composite score of 14,000. It says that "comparable computers score 11,000 to 18,000", and that the "average" computer with E8400 and 8800GT is ~11,600.

[sandwichamwin]

Does a quadcore add that much to the score then? Is that just a 3DMark06 thing, or is having a dual core really that limiting for the 4870 in game?

From my experience, quads help in 3dmark but games make little difference.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

I didn't understand what you meant before, but this new post is much more clear to me, thanks.

I tried 8x375, which ran fine, and then I tried 9x378.

With 9x378 cpu, I now get 3100 CPU score and 6000 SM2 / 7000 SM3 (both improved) for a composite score of 14,000. It says that "comparable computers score 11,000 to 18,000", and that the "average" computer with E8400 and 8800GT is ~11,600.

I don't think you quite understand yet, I meant going to 8x420-430 for a similar clock speed with much higher FSB this will increase your RAM clock and give you the actual bandwidth you need

[dejanh]

Well, here is the latest state of affairs on my end on the successes (and numerous failures) OCing the 4870 XOC BE.

I managed to stabilize the last 4870 XOC BE I got. I am currently running at 850/1150 with 1.350V on the core (core voltage obtained through volt-mod) and 1.501V on the memory (stock memory voltage). ATITool is artifact free, 3DMark06 can run all test, including features and batch tests for hours without problems. Crysis benchmark runs without a hitch as well. Still no go on the FurMark. I realized that the reason it crashes is because the VRMs get way to hot. Using Everest I read the VRM temps at the moment when crash occurs in FurMark and they are as hot as hell. In fact, they pass 125C mark when FurMark blows up, which is much too hot. Unfortunately, there is no obvious solution to me at the moment that would do a better job at cooling the VRM. I installed the HR-03 GT which comes with bigger heat sinks than those with the Zalman VF1000 and the added fan blows a bit onto the VRMs. I could mod a fan to blow specifically on the VRM heatsinks, but I do not really care. In games the VRMs never pass 95C, so I am okay with that. It seems that I will be settling on this clock. I can push things to 875/1150 with 1.43V on the core, but I do not see the 25MHz gain to be justifiable for added 0.08V. It's not 950/1200, but I guess it is not bad. Only thing that sucks is that no matter what a core volt-mod is required if you truly want a rock solid stable card.

[BooStFeD]

BooStFeD - Did you run ATITool on it and FurMark at those clocks? I am curious if you will artifact in ATITool and if you can run FurMark stable. I artifact at those clocks at 50% fan on the card that supplied that XOC BIOS you are using

Let me know...

ATITool will not pass artifact free at 845/1050. Around one minute into the scan it starts to artifact.

3DMark 05 and 06 are 100% stable at these clocks as well as Crysis benchmark. Have not ran FurMark yet a little scared too

[dejanh]

ATITool will not pass artifact free at 845/1050. Around one minute into the scan it starts to artifact.

3DMark 05 and 06 are 100% stable at these clocks as well as Crysis benchmark. Have not ran FurMark yet a little scared too

The same as my experience. If you want to be artifact free and 100% stable in 3DMark0X and other Games, you need to up the volts. Just 3DMark0X and games you can stay at stock apparently. It seems the games never max out the GPU or the correct section of the GPU to actually cause artifacts. It is strange. Like I said, I am currently running at 850/1150, but I upped the core volts to 1.350V and left the memory at stock. The memory is unfortunately rated at 4000MHz, so I am already running 15% OC on it at 4600MHz. I did not notice that extra volts helped it higher + like I said earlier the VRMs get too hot.

I guess I am more concerned what happens when you get a game that will max out the GPU so I wanted to have true 100% stability across the board.

Oh and, no go on FurMark still for me. As I said before, the VRM gets too hot on FurMark and the core power gets cut by the safety circuit.

[0ut0fstep]

8.8 beta drivers helped my VRM temps alot you guys might wanna try them out.

[HamTard]

Does 8.8beta add any new features, or game-specific optimizations?

[dejanh]

Weird, why would the drivers affect VRM temps?

I will try it out...

Edit: Doesn't work. The drivers did nothing.

[xMrBunglex]

has anyone here tested max vGPU attainable through BIOS mods? i always thought it was 1.263, but i read on another forum that it's 1.276. i'm trying to get a little boost without hard modding my cards. does anyone know for sure what the max is?

[demowhc]

I'v heard 2 things regarding voltage on the 4870..

first one is the voltage cannot be changed via bios, no matter what you set it is still really 1.263v..


and then somewhere else I heard the voltage can be changed but you cannot go over 1.3v


take that with a grain of salt.. just what i heard

[dejanh]

Well, I've had three 4870 cards so far and none could soft-mod the voltage. So I'd say no dice on this mod...

[TurboDiv]

Any news on the 790mhz limit from CCC ? Can it be broken without flashing the bios ? The fan can be set with the profiles without any bios flashes so its fine. Its just that I don't really like to flash any bios if i get the ATI...

[0ut0fstep]

Any news on the 790mhz limit from CCC ? Can it be broken without flashing the bios ? The fan can be set with the profiles without any bios flashes so its fine. Its just that I don't really like to flash any bios if i get the ATI...

Easy answer pull the blue wire on the fan. Use amd gpu tool. Some stated they were able to get thier fan profile to work while using amd GPU tool but as far as I know everyone else has failed with that. everytime I launch amd gpu tool it just shuts my fan down to the stock 22% or wtv it is.

As far as VRM temps go maybe its a driver bug or bad reading on my card but my VRM temps seem to lock at 80 and not go higher with the 8.8 betas dont know why cant explain but I went back to 8.7 and my VRM will climb past 80 easy again. ill post some screens later im guessing its just a software glitch

[dejanh]

Sounds like a software glitch to me...

@TurboDiv - No, you cannot break the 790 limit without flashing the BIOS. The limit is set in the BIOS and unless you have a copy a BIOS with a higher limit you cannot go higher than 790.

[0ut0fstep]

Here is the score I pulled the other day with my q6700 and (1)4870 watercooled
non voltmod spec are in the title.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=280787

These are 8.8 beta's too

For some reason ORB is bugged for me and wont read the proper fsb of my board says 4500mhz on chip but was only at 3.6

[xMrBunglex]

how do you like the 8.8 beta driver?

[Major97702]

Here is the score I pulled the other day with my q6700 and (1)4870 watercooled
non voltmod spec are in the title.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=280787

These are 8.8 beta's too

For some reason ORB is bugged for me and wont read the proper fsb of my board says 4500mhz on chip but was only at 3.6

I don't get this, I have a worst system, only a q6600@ 3.3ghz and I think my gpu was the same and I got P10129, only 20oints off, but your cpu is 300mhz faster....

[r4st4m4n]

I don't get this, I have a worst system, only a q6600@ 3.3ghz and I think my gpu was the same and I got P10129, only 20oints off, but your cpu is 300mhz faster....

You won't see any difference in games between your CPU and his, so are your 3dmark vantage scores. It proves that 3dmark Vantage is not as CPU bound as was 3dmark06 .. as should be a 3D benchmark

[dejanh]

Here is the score I pulled the other day with my q6700 and (1)4870 watercooled
non voltmod spec are in the title.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=280787

These are 8.8 beta's too

For some reason ORB is bugged for me and wont read the proper fsb of my board says 4500mhz on chip but was only at 3.6

Wow, 25MHz more on core and 75MHz more on memory yields only a marginal increase in FPS and score. Maybe it is my CPU that's holding back the card a bit being that it is an Athlon 64 X2 @ 3.2GHz? Not sure, but I do think it is not sufficient for this video card. That and I am running it on an old 570 SLI board..anyway, here is my result at 850/1150...

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=280242

Only 95pts more overall, 0.07 FPS in Jane Nash and 0.49 FPS more in New Calico.

I did find though that 8.8 betas provided a boost in performance over 8.7. Not too much, but a boost nonetheless.

[affiliate13]

Did anyone come up with a good VRM air cooling solution for the 4870?

[Kondik]

My old solution worked magically, temps went down from 96 - 104 to 75 ~ 84 http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...55&postcount=2

[dejanh]

My old solution worked magically, temps went down from 96 - 104 to 75 ~ 84 http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...55&postcount=2

What did you use to measure your temps? Also, it seems all you did was put a fan to blow directly onto your sinks on VRM. In Everest with FurMark running this still resulted in >125C VRM temps even at just 1.37V on the 4870 core with no memory voltage change from stock.

[xMrBunglex]

who cares about Furmark? it apparently runs the VRM's 20 degrees higher than any game does. there are other ways to test for stability. that's why i just don't run Furmark.