Xfx Radeon 4870 Overclock.

[sack_patrol]

Well..I'm not actually gonna start overclocking it yet. Probably tomorrow. First I wanna know what the average temperature of an unoverclocked 4870 is, with the stock cooler. I'm getting ~75C with 1650 rpm/50%.

 

Last time I tried to overclock it, it didn't work out that well. I'm gonna give it another try...maybe I'll get a few extra mhz from it.

 

Also I wanna ask if anyone knows any volt modding guides for this card. Or volt modding guilds in general so I can learn how it works. I probably won't be volt modding any time soon cuz I don't have the proper equipment but it won't hurt to know how, for when I decide to do it.

 

Thx.

 

P.S. - Do the gpu drivers have any impact on an overclock, or does it only matter on the card and it's chips?

 

P.P.S - Concerning the volt modding. I've read that a pencil could be used since the graphite provides conductivity. Maybe I could try that before I decide to get of my lazy butt and buy some resistors, soldering iron, tweezers and a multimeter. And anyways...isn't it the same thing if I just flash the bios with a higher voltage? What's the difference between that, and a hardware volt mod?

[RogerDeath]

75C sounds high to me, but then again I'm sitting on a Vapor-X 5770 (smaller process and better cooling). I will assume that is full load though, which puts it in about the average spot for auto-fan. Kicking the fan speed up more should allow for more overclocking headroom so that you can get more out of the card. GPU cores seem more heat resistant then CPU cores do, so anything below 95 for a 4870 looks fine to me overclocked.

 

Drivers will have an effect because if the driver gives a performance boost in certain games then the overclock in that game will be more noticeable then if it had no driver improvements. Volt-modding is kinda reckless to me when you've had this little experience working with this card in the OC department, so just leave it as-is. If you need to, flash a MSI bios on there to change the voltage...

 

EDIT: Tom's Hardware shows a temp of 80C in load at stock, no problems reported, so 75C should be fine there....

[NuComer]

Wich model do you have?, reference or the egg shaped thing?

[sack_patrol]

75C sounds high to me, but then again I'm sitting on a Vapor-X 5770 (smaller process and better cooling). I will assume that is full load though, which puts it in about the average spot for auto-fan. Kicking the fan speed up more should allow for more overclocking headroom so that you can get more out of the card. GPU cores seem more heat resistant then CPU cores do, so anything below 95 for a 4870 looks fine to me overclocked.

 

Drivers will have an effect because if the driver gives a performance boost in certain games then the overclock in that game will be more noticeable then if it had no driver improvements. Volt-modding is kinda reckless to me when you've had this little experience working with this card in the OC department, so just leave it as-is. If you need to, flash a MSI bios on there to change the voltage...

 

EDIT: Tom's Hardware shows a temp of 80C in load at stock, no problems reported, so 75C should be fine there....

Thx for the reply.

 

The 75C @ 1650rpm is idle temperatures. When I bought the card, I even changed the thermal paste with some AS5. In fact, it was the first thing I did when I opened the box. I have a feeling that it should be lower on idle. Like around 50C.. And I know that gpus can candle more heat, but for overclocking, I'll take every -1C I can get. Maybe that's why my overclock failed. Because something is wrong with my temps and they are higher than they should be? If I find out that they are in fact higher I might have to open it up and see if I didn't mess up the tim...I don't see any other possible cause. Though I remember that I watched some guides on applying tim on gpus and it said that they, unlike cpus, need a bit more so that they make contact with the heatsink well.

 

As for the volt-modding. Yea my experience isn't very much but unless I start doing things myself, that's where it will stay. This is what this PC is for.

 

Wich model do you have?, reference or the egg shaped thing?

XFX Radeon 4870. There is only one model. The other one is XFX Radeon 4870 XXX which has a small differece in one of the edges of the cooler though they don't really show them as different gpus online. If you look for a review for example of the card, you'll almost always see the XXX version with nothing mentioned for it to be XXX and not the normal.

 

 

EDIT: this model is supposed to be one of the hotter ones because of it's stock cooler but the idle temps should be lower than 75 I think.

[krazypoloc]

Thx for the reply.

 

The 75C @ 1650rpm is idle temperatures. When I bought the card, I even changed the thermal paste with some AS5. In fact, it was the first thing I did when I opened the box. I have a feeling that it should be lower on idle. Like around 50C.. And I know that gpus can candle more heat, but for overclocking, I'll take every -1C I can get. Maybe that's why my overclock failed. Because something is wrong with my temps and they are higher than they should be? If I find out that they are in fact higher I might have to open it up and see if I didn't mess up the tim...I don't see any other possible cause. Though I remember that I watched some guides on applying tim on gpus and it said that they, unlike cpus, need a bit more so that they make contact with the heatsink well.

 

As for the volt-modding. Yea my experience isn't very much but unless I start doing things myself, that's where it will stay. This is what this PC is for.

 

 

XFX Radeon 4870. There is only one model. The other one is XFX Radeon 4870 XXX which has a small differece in one of the edges of the cooler though they don't really show them as different gpus online. If you look for a review for example of the card, you'll almost always see the XXX version with nothing mentioned for it to be XXX and not the normal.

 

 

EDIT: this model is supposed to be one of the hotter ones because of it's stock cooler but the idle temps should be lower than 75 I think.

Yeah thats very very bad for the idle temps. The 4870's are known to run hot though. You might try and find a Thermalright TRad2 on fleabay or a forum for cheap. I got mine for $50 shipped with 2 92mm yate loon's. It made a miraculous difference in both idle and load temps.

[sack_patrol]

Yeah thats very very bad for the idle temps. The 4870's are known to run hot though. You might try and find a Thermalright TRad2 on fleabay or a forum for cheap. I got mine for $50 shipped with 2 92mm yate loon's. It made a miraculous difference in both idle and load temps.

You're missing the point. I don't need a new cooler, I need to know if the temperature is hot for my gpu. Now that I know that it's more than it should be, I'll open it up and check if I messed up when applying the tim or something.

 

BBL.

[Lackadaisical]

I have a VisionTek 4870, it has the original reference cooler. Unless I actually turn up the fan speed using Ati Tray Tools it will hit 80C at idle all the time time. Once it gets up to 80 the fan will start kicking in though. Ive seen it go as high as 90 under full load. This was before I created a fan profile to stop that. Now It does not go above 80 fully loaded and stays around 70 idle with the fan at about 33%. I have not encountered any problems with it due to temps and I have had it for nearly two years now. Clocks are set to 795/1140. Card runs hot, but it works fine

[krazypoloc]

You're missing the point. I don't need a new cooler, I need to know if the temperature is hot for my gpu. Now that I know that it's more than it should be, I'll open it up and check if I messed up when applying the tim or something.

 

BBL.

I'm not missing the point at all....thats why my opening statement was "Yeah thats very very bad for the idle temps. The 4870's are known to run hot though."......and thats about all the advice I have for you....goodbye.

[sack_patrol]

I have a VisionTek 4870, it has the original reference cooler. Unless I actually turn up the fan speed using Ati Tray Tools it will hit 80C at idle all the time time. Once it gets up to 80 the fan will start kicking in though. Ive seen it go as high as 90 under full load. This was before I created a fan profile to stop that. Now It does not go above 80 fully loaded and stays around 70 idle with the fan at about 33%. I have not encountered any problems with it due to temps and I have had it for nearly two years now. Clocks are set to 795/1140. Card runs hot, but it works fine

hmm...last time I tried to overcock my card it didn't work at all...I got 0% overclock to work. I doubt it'll be different now but I'll try.

 

Anyway, I reapplied the thermal paste and nothin happened. Zero change. I guess I'll just increase the fan speed and try the overclock. It's gonna be pretty noisy but I have headphones on all the time so it's not that big of a nuisance.

 

I don't wanna get a new cooler because I don't know if it will overclock even with lower temps meaning that I don't know if I have a good chip or not so if I get anything out of the card as it is, that will be it. I'm not sure it's worth the extra money.

 

Also, I never got an answer to my question abut the volt mod. The difference between a hardware volt mod and a one done through bios flash. And, will some extra voltage really help with the overclock? Say I increase it a bit...and also the fan since I know the extra voltage isn't healthy at all, will I get more overclocking room? I have a feeling that it's not a very good exchange...

[sdy284]

extra volts = more heat which will just compound your actual problem. Get your temps under control before you start worrying about volt modding. and generally hardware voltmodding allows you to get even more volts than what the bios can provide

[joel.monteiro]

if ur idle temps are so high wht are ur load temps,good i dint buy the reference when i bought the 4870 i have the sonic i get 55 idle and load 70-75 @ 775/1000

[sack_patrol]

if ur idle temps are so high wht are ur load temps,good i dint buy the reference when i bought the 4870 i have the sonic i get 55 idle and load 70-75 @ 775/1000

I don't think it goes up too much on load. Probably around 80.

 

What I think I'll do is flash the bios with some higher mhz + I'll modify the fan scheme in a way that I get higher rpm for lower temps. So for example, instead of 70'C = 52% I'll do something like 70'C 60% or maybe 65%...