Gigabyte HD 6870 vmodded - running 1200 Mhz GPU aircooled

[Micutzu]

Our colleague poparamiro managed to hit the 1200Mhz mark with a voltmodded Gigabyte HD 6870, boosting the VGPU from 1.17V to 1.51V in under 5C ambient and using a Thermalright Spitfire cooler to keep temperatures in check.



3DM05 @ 1200/1190 (click to enlarge)



I think this says alot about what the new Barts cards can do, as the voltage and temperature scaling are great.

You can find the full article here: Gigabyte HD 6870 - overclocking study - translation

To mods: if you feel this doesn't deserve a separate thread, feel free to join it with an existing HD 6870 topic.

[xdan]

This is avesome so from 900Mhz stock, up to 1200, 300Mhz so 33% frecuency increase....
poparamiro, as always first with such frecuencys, beating all that it's on net...
I'm proud to be member of lab501 forum.

[Russian]

If you can call that behemoth aircooled. :P

[spursindonesia]

Can this be regarded that HD 6870 is a better OCer than what was previously suspected ? I still think if power requirement & heat are not a problem, GTX 470 seems still the card to get for OCing user out there.

[zalbard]

LOL, nice! Do you really need 1.5V for such an OC, though?
Nice temps, btw. There might be more in it!

[Mean Machine]

No OCP?

[Micutzu]

@ zalbard: yes, it needed that voltage ... only did 1150Mhz with 1.45V and so on. It should rock on LN2 though, the PWM area was cool during this time, the DrMOS seems to be a very good solution.

@ Mean Machine: nope, no OVP, no OCP, just mod and up the voltage.

I'm sure poparamiro can fill you in with more technical details when he will wake up .

[tajoh111]

@ zalbard: yes, it needed that voltage ... only did 1150Mhz with 1.45V and so on. It should rock on LN2 though, the PWM area was cool during this time, the DrMOS seems to be a very good solution.

@ Mean Machine: nope, no OVP, no OCP, just mod and up the voltage.

I'm sure poparamiro can fill you in with more technical details when he will wake up .

What was the max at regular room temperature?

[Mean Machine]

What was the max at regular room temperature?

Read again. 5c ambient.

[K404]

Read again. 5c ambient.

Most people dont class 5c as normal ambient :p

I hope Mic can share default vCore so we can know if 1.5v is crazy or normal..... at least it's possible the MHz scale more with voltage instead of stopping around 1.35

1100MHz 24/7 stock cooler? 1300MHz cranked under water? should be 1500++ under cold if no coldbug... all this bodes well for 6970

[Micutzu]

All the details are in the article, although it's not english and usually Google Translate does a bad job translating romanian to english.

http://lab501.ro/placi-video/gigabyt...e-overclocking

The testing has been done with four settings:

Stage 1
stock clocks (900MHz core/1050MHz GDDR)
stock cooling
auto fan
default VGPU (1.185v)
~21c ambient


Stage 2
1025 Mhz GPU / 1200 Mhz GDDR
stock cooling
fan @ 100%
default VGPU (1.185V)
21c ambient


Stage 3
1105 Mhz GPU / 1190 Mhz GDDR
Thermalright Spitfire
1700RPM/140mm
VGPU 1.350v
~21c ambient


Stage 4
1180+ Mhz GPU / 1190+ Mhz GDDR
Thermalright Spitfire
6000RPM
VGPU 1.510v
1-5c ambient

Also some runs at 1150 Mhz GPU / 1150 Mhz GDDR with 1.45V and 21C ambient seemed stable.

[poparamiro]

Stage 3 is 1105mhz/21c/1700rpm, unfortunately i have less than a day for the article so there is room for improvements.

LLC of the gpu vrm stage did a litle overvolting, 1207mv default voltage in furmark load (digital multimeter reading), 1195mv on unigine and ~1185 on light load, so 1.5v not so high

As my colegue said, strong 4 stage vrm for this card, i have scaling al the way up to 1.49-1.52 volt, in those conditions.

[WaterFlex]

good job man.

[Tomasis]

for comparison, how much 5870 was able to oc for similar setting?

[Manicdan]

not to sound dumb, but 1.5v is higher than 80nm parts were running when OCed on water.

i bet at that voltage your power draw also MORE THAN doubled, and you clearly are taking up more space. nothing wrong with pushing these things. its just probably not an option that any owner who wants 24/7 to run with. they might aswell have gone with xfire, or waiting for caymen.

i am however curious what it takes to get such clocks on a 6850, where its already 125mhz lower. a 300mhz gain with such extreme air is honestly a little pathetic i think. but if its 425mhz, then were talking.

all in all, that is sofar the most extreme 6870 to date!!

[poparamiro]

I can do 1150 mhz vantage with 5870 (very good one), ~1.47v/10c ambient.

[ColonelCain]

I call shenanigans on the thread title. Horribly misleading.

[ElSel10]

Holy bannana. But nobody can actually use such a cooler in any practical situation.

[Monstru]

Damn, last time I checked this forum was called Xtreme Systems, not xtremely practical situations system

[Tomasis]

Damn, last time I checked this forum was called Xtreme Systems, not xtremely practical situations system

right

kudos for lab501 being fast to oc that card already

[clo007]

Damn, last time I checked this forum was called Xtreme Systems, not xtremely practical situations system

Well some of us like to be xtreme on processors and not gpus. Also alot of us try to make real-world xtreme set ups by maintaining functional cases.

[Iconyu]

Holy bannana. But nobody can actually use such a cooler in any practical situation.

Not going to jump on your back over this, but if it can be done on air it can be done on water too. I want to see what these guys can do with Cayman.

[bamtan2]

Well some of us like to be xtreme on processors and not gpus. Also alot of us try to make real-world xtreme set ups by maintaining functional cases.

that heatsink works in functional cases. I don't know what is wrong with you sissies.

[ElSel10]

Not going to jump on your back over this, but if it can be done on air it can be done on water too. I want to see what these guys can do with Cayman.

Oh I know that! But I mean for an average user, this won't be a realistic expectation on air.

[damha]

I call shenanigans on the thread title. Horribly misleading.

fo shizzle mai nizzle.



Thanks for sharing results Micutzu