Have a few questions on 3870 cards.

[trt740]

Been a long time since I owned one. Whats a average overclocked 24/7 setting with the stock cooler. Also is atitool not compatible with overdrive, because as soon as I load ati tools it freezes. I have the newest version.

[sneekypeet]

RM made a second clocked bios IIRC it was 800/1200. Really depends on the cards tho trt, I have seen a few clunkers over in the 3K threads.

Plus with a little bit of pencil,I got mine to 918 stable in all games, 65*C max 70% fan, and 1.51V to the core!

Hope that helps!

Also you can use RivaTuner to tweak and furbench to check for artifacts.

[erocker]

The latest RivaTuner works great with my 3870's. I have mine flashed to 837/1190. I'm using the HIS IceQ cooler though.

[trt740]

mine comes clocked at 800/1126 and its a ddr4 card. So I bet it doesn't have much head room. Whats up with ati tools? It won't load at all? I reinstalled it.

[trt740]

anyone know is there a soft voltage mod for these cards

[erocker]

Nothing that I know of yet, but I think W1zzard may be working on something;) http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=53220

[trt740]

I think I got another bad card here it randomly crashes and kicks me from windows after a freezes and pixelation. Thats three bad cards in a row. One bad 8800 gt 1 gb from palit , one 8800gt from msi with a bad fan and now this 3870 MSI card randomly crashing. It might be my pcie bus overclocked. I hope it is this is a cool card and this is getting old fast.

[Dr. Spankenstein]

You might benefit from checking out the latest Beta of ATITrayTools (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=255769). It has voltage adjustments up to 1.60.

You'll never want CCC on your comp again!;)

You're gonna have to spin up those fans whether you like it or not. Crashes will continue until you do so.

[DanishDevil]

Does the voltage adjustment actually work!?!?!?

I think I got another bad card here it randomly crashes and kicks me from windows after a freezes and pixelation. Thats three bad cards in a row. One bad 8800 gt 1 gb from palit , one 8800gt from msi with a bad fan and now this 3870 MSI card randomly crashing. It might be my pcie bus overclocked. I hope it is this is a cool card and this is getting old fast.

Lock all your bus frequencies man!!!

[Dr. Spankenstein]

You know, I tried it. Then I realized that I had the jumper on my hard mod. So I'm not sure.
Pretty exciting, to say the least.

[magibeg]

Mines kicking around 850 just using overdrive to OC. No mods or added cooling needed.

[Megasty]

I've been messing around with the tri-fire for 2 months now. I just OC'd them, the X2 & 3870, by the max settings in overdrive. I do have another Diamond 3870 that I pretty much pushed to the limits, however it does have a huge all copper heatsink. I pushed it to 854/1372 on the stock cooler @ regular fan speeds. When I up'd the fan to 100% it was able to reach stable gaming clocks of 863/1393.

After finally going ahead & pencil modding it to 1.5v, I up'd the thing to the max 920/1422. I also had to take the red case off & tie a 120mm Scythe UK on the heatsink & the core never went above 48C. Lemme see watercooling do that :rockout: It was rock solid even in Crysis, high, 1920x1200 & it took the whole game with an avg 34 fps. I'll use that game as a torture test for any card.

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

rma it.

[trt740]

this card has the worst ram i have ever seen

[trog100]

this card has the worst ram i have ever seen

the last one i played with seems odd.. it will run a furbench with the memory at 1300.. a 2006 run at 1250..

but loading a submarine game.. cant remember the name it kept crashing at 1250.. it crashed exactly the same at 1200.. it crashed at 1150.. at the exact stock speed of 1126 it works perfectly.. any attempts at 1150 produces the game crash.. its 100% repeatable and definitely the card memory speed..

hard to figure.. these card can be weird.. i run both mine now at 840/1250.. but they vary one hell of lot.. i would say take no notice of claimed clocks.. play a dozen games then make your own mind up..

trog

[trog100]

this card has the worst ram i have ever seen

the last one i played with seems odd.. it will run a furbench with the memory at 1300.. a 2006 run at 1250..

but loading a submarine game.. cant remember the name it kept crashing at 1250.. it crashed exactly the same at 1200.. it crashed at 1150.. at the exact stock speed of 1126 it works perfectly.. any attempts at 1150 produces the game crash.. its 100% repeatable and definitely the card memory speed..

hard to figure.. these card can be weird.. i run both mine now at 840/1250.. but they vary one hell of lot.. i would say take no notice of claimed clocks.. play a dozen games then make your own mind up..

trog

ps.. if your pci bus is overclocked all bets are off.. he he

[Darknova]

My RAM runs at 1250, won't go any higher...clock is sat at 830, I just haven't pushed any higher on it.

I used ATITool to begin with, then once I found it was all stable, I used RBE to edit the BIOS and flashed that :)

[asb2106]

You might benefit from checking out the latest Beta of ATITrayTools (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=255769). It has voltage adjustments up to 1.60.

You'll never want CCC on your comp again!;)

You're gonna have to spin up those fans whether you like it or not. Crashes will continue until you do so.

hey Dr, does the software voltage mod actually work? Ive heard all software volt mods dont really do anything, basically just locking it in at 1.33 and not letting it drop in 2d mode

[asb2106]

my stable clocks now,

both cards - 872core/1302mem

I can bench the cards at 891 core but games will randomly lock up. Sometimes it never happens, and other times it locks up every 20 minutes. Im pretty sure its not temp related, my cards have never seen 50c(WC). Im actually wondering if it might be the voltage switch the cards make when it drops to 2d mode. hmmmmm

[trt740]

whats the best brand 3870 anyone know? Im done with MSI no quality control at all.

[Paulieg]

RM made a second clocked bios IIRC it was 800/1200. Really depends on the cards tho trt, I have seen a few clunkers over in the 3K threads.

Plus with a little bit of pencil,I got mine to 918 stable in all games, 65*C max 70% fan, and 1.51V to the core!

Hope that helps!

Also you can use RivaTuner to tweak and furbench to check for artifacts.

Can you give a link to some pictures for the pencil mod for the 3870. I've got one coming tomorrow.

[levi__]

My Sapphire HD3870 doesnt overclock at all..
But im getting a new cooler tomorrow or the day after and hopefully it will run faster than stock. ;-)
It runs at about 95 degrees celcius full load with the stock cooler.. :-(

[DanishDevil]

Use rivatuner to set a higher fan speed.

[Darknova]

whats the best brand 3870 anyone know? Im done with MSI no quality control at all.

Powercolor :D

[DanishDevil]

I've heard good things about the Diamonds.

The HIS cards are awesome.

[HTC]

My Sapphire HD3870 doesnt overclock at all..
But im getting a new cooler tomorrow or the day after and hopefully it will run faster than stock. ;-)
It runs at about 95 degrees celcius full load with the stock cooler.. :-(

I've got my Sapphire HD3870 to run @ 904 / 1233, using rivatunner and also increasing the fan speed, as suggested, on stock cooler, but i only OC my card for bench only: it's usually @ stock speeds.

[ShadowFold]

Get a HIS with IceQ3. then there would be no need for an aftermarket cooler :D I had my HIS 3850 at 819mhz and it stayed pretty cool(35c idle, 50c load.)

[DanishDevil]

Yeah, the HIS IceQ3 coolers are legit!

[asb2106]

I've heard good things about the Diamonds.

The HIS cards are awesome.

Eh, they are ok. If you read over some other HD3000 series you will see they are hit and miss. Ive heard of some that can clock 860 or higher, and others that cannot break 830.

GECUBE cards are pretty hard to find(I think COMPUSA has some), those clock awesome. My GECUBE could run 904 on the core and 1424 on the memory. Great great card. Only problem is if you have troubles with it, you have to ship it to Taiwan to RMA it.

I currently have 2 sapphire toxic cards, I can run both at 885 core and 1300 memory. I am going to hard mod both of the cards probably this weekend, and bump the voltage. I know the toxic cooler seems small and almost useless, but I ran 70% fan speed(not silent, but not loud) and @ 885 it ran 35 idle and 52 load. To me thats plenty of cooling.

Back to the HIS, it does have good cooling, but you are taking a risk if it will OC easily. If thats not your biggest concern, then I wouldnt worry!

[InnocentCriminal]

I'm getting the PowerColour 3850 AGP, I've had PowerColour and Sapphire cards before. Both seemed to be exactly the same, just the stock cooling on my Sapphire was crap. However, the PowerColour I'm getting has a Zalman type cooler compared to the standard crap Sapphire has. I'm talking about the AGP 'ere.

^^

[ShadowFold]

I'm getting the PowerColour 3850 AGP, I've had PowerColour and Sapphire cards before. Both seemed to be exactly the same, just the stock cooling on my Sapphire was crap. However, the PowerColour I'm getting has a Zalman type cooler compared to the standard crap Sapphire has. I'm talking about the AGP 'ere.

^^

Doesnt HIS have a AGP 3850 with Iceq3?

[asb2106]

I'm getting the PowerColour 3850 AGP, I've had PowerColour and Sapphire cards before. Both seemed to be exactly the same, just the stock cooling on my Sapphire was crap. However, the PowerColour I'm getting has a Zalman type cooler compared to the standard crap Sapphire has. I'm talking about the AGP 'ere.

^^

Powercolor does use good cooling! I didnt buy my cards for cooling though, the stock coolers stayed on for about 20 minutes of run time, just to make sure they worked fine. Then I bolted up the water coolers. I bought them based on the reviews of OCing that I read on newegg. I normally dont go by their reviews, everyone there is a computer expert, but the people that posted their results gave good reviews and went into good detail.

[InnocentCriminal]

Doesnt HIS have a AGP 3850 with Iceq3?

They do indeed. (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-095-HT&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=403)

[trt740]

how about the asus cards from what I read they use samsung memory. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121217

[trt740]

I've heard good things about the Diamonds.

The HIS cards are awesome.

I seen in the reviews they don't work well with MF motherboards thats strange since it's at crossfire board?

[trt740]

you know I am just gonna go geforce they have a 8800 gts 512mb for 199.00 after a rebate. Thats ten dollars more and about 30 percent performance gain until amds new cards come out. Plus I will sell the game.

[sneekypeet]

Can you give a link to some pictures for the pencil mod for the 3870. I've got one coming tomorrow.

Its just about scrubbing some lead from the pencil on the r1222 , until the correct resistance is found. Pics of where to locate r1222 are found here (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=48544)!

If you need more help than that, shoot me a PM and I can try to help you more.:D

[asb2106]

you know I am just gonna go geforce they have a 8800 gts 512mb for 199.00 after a rebate. Thats ten dollars more and about 30 percent performance gain until amds new cards come out. Plus I will sell the game.

I do not disagree there whatsoever. at 199 bucks that card is a great!great deal.

That is a really fast card that will put the 3870 to shame. I wanted to get one a month or so ago but they were still 300 bucks, and that wasnt worth it for me. If I was buying a card now, I would get the GTS in a heart beat.