My 4870 has arrived: Picture, overclocking/benching soon!

GoldenTiger said:
In-game play works fine with the devmode FPS counter, it just wouldn't run when I renamed the .exe to try to disable any optimizations causing weirdness. With how Crysis is running in the timedemo I am pretty sure something's up with the drivers. The timedemo is not running as well as the in-game gameplay is, which sends up a red flag right away that something's funky.



85-87c or so load so far.



I played some TF2 on Dustbowl and Goldrush for awhile earlier and honestly, while the max FPS didn't seem to reach as high levels, the minimum framerate was a bit higher seemingly than with the GTX 280 (never dipped below 60 with FRAPS running, max was somewhat lower, whereas the GTX 280 had dips to 50, of course due to the dynamic nature of the gameplay it will vary, but overall it seemed just as good if not better).

As far as IQ goes, you'd be hard-pressed to find a difference in the AF, but the AA seems a bit better on this card (8x MSAA on the 4870 vs. 8x CSAA of the 280), less screendoor effect from shimmering edges/etc. and the transparency AA is just as good. I am noticing less of a performance hit with AA than the GTX 280 was taking (note it was overclocked to 687core/1444shader/2400ish RAM).

I'm finding my results in actual gameplay with FRAPS running to be nearly identical, honestly. I am amazed with the quality of this card, not to mention its overclockability which I have a feeling is going to be insane once proper tools come out.

My newest stable overclock is as high as I can go so far: 25 loops of the flyby Crysis bench with me watching most of the time, reading a magazine the rest while snacking, at 4400RAM (1100x4 DDR5, stock is 900x4=3600) and 790 core. 100% artifact free. The CCC overdrive will not go any further :eek:, but this card is barely heating up more with the overclock than it was at stock so it should go much higher :D.
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You can always use Radeon BIOS editor if you know how. As far as the memory clock is concerned, that is impressive!
 
Nuker said:
You can always use Radeon BIOS editor if you know how. As far as the memory clock is concerned, that is impressive!
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I thought that it wasn't released yet for the 4870s, not for another day or two.

GlacierFreeze said:
Don't get overly excited.... ya never know.
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True, my guess is this will hit a voltage-limit/clock wall, instead of a heat wall, when overclocking stock. Still interested to see where this goes...
 
Well the 4850 one is out. Maybe try it out and see if it detects the 4870? Either way, it should be soon..

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/Utilities/RBE/

Radeon Bios Editor 1.11

v1.11

* Fixed values written if look up table is used.
* Improved method of clock rates detection (old method was not working properly with some weired BIOSes).
* Added some FireGL device IDs.
* Added some stuff to the in-program-FAQ.
* Undated link to WinFlash.
* Fixed little bug occuring writing some BIOS infos.
* Fixed some confusion regarding 3650 cards.
* Added support for some exotic mobile card's BIOSes (experimental).
* Added support for HD 4850 (experimental).
* Added fan control for most 3870 X2s.
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People were achieving 800MHz on core for the 4850's... 900Mhz on water... I can't even imagine what an after market cooler (or water) + 4870 will hit
 
ZerazaX said:
Well the 4850 one is out. Maybe try it out and see if it detects the 4870? Either way, it should be soon..

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/Utilities/RBE/

Radeon Bios Editor 1.11



People were achieving 800MHz on core for the 4850's... 900Mhz on water... I can't even imagine what an after market cooler (or water) + 4870 will hit
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That's the brand-new one they were saying was coming in a day or two on their forums... I'll see if it detects it and if so I may give it a whirl. :) Thank you.
 
Nice going GT.

I bought the same 4870 and the driver will not load in vista. Trying like mad to figure out what is wrong.
 
It will install but upon entering Vista, I get a no driver signal and the screen goes blank.
 
Nuker said:
You can always use Radeon BIOS editor if you know how. As far as the memory clock is concerned, that is impressive!
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I can't get the clocks to increase with the BIOS at all, they just stay at the default values even if I enter something else and flash.

The fan settings ARE working though, so I set up a profile that keeps it at 31% (quiet) most of the time, and 42% once it hits 65c, running ATItool's fur-cube is making it go to 65c and 42% fan (not too loud) which is keeping it right around that temp. Very impressive! The fan before was running at 10-15% full-time, with the default profiles, making my idle temps nearly 80c, now they're down to 55-56c, with much lower load temps.

So, now that the temps are under control, I want to get the clocks higher! Any suggestions :)?

EDIT: Purecain's XS thread has the goods on that. I'm up to 820core/1125(4500)ram now :). I'm going to try pumping the core some after I test this more thoroughly.
 
G.T. you say that the Crysis timedemo doesn't run well, but in-game it does.

How would you describe the in-game experience? Compare it to other cards you've had, maybe an 8800 GT or whatever you used to run (besides the GTX 280). Would you say you get good even frames, even in the open foliage and mountain areas? Would you say it's better than a 9800 GX2? (I don't know what you ran before the new cards just came out, i'm only assuming you've had at least some type of SLI or 8800 GTX or ??.) :)

I wouldn't mind a 35-40 fps on just HIGH even throughout the game. With SLI, you're either getting 70 fps or 20 fps. I think that's where timedemo benchmarks can be misleading.
 
GoldenTiger said:
EDIT: Purecain's XS thread has the goods on that. I'm up to 820core/1125(4500)ram now :). I'm going to try pumping the core some after I test this more thoroughly.
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:eek:
My God sweet... Link?

Vantage, 3dmark 06?? Give us some numbers lol
 
where do u find the correct drivers for it i checked the amd website and the only drivers i see are the ones up too 3870?? can some one link me?
 
GT, you would be my absolute hero if you could do the following test for me... :)

Just oblivion, 1680x1050 16x AF, 8x AA with everything (grass, shadows, view etc.) set to max... Just stand in the middle of a forest on a nice day... And see what you tend to get frame-rate wise.

<3
 
Arcygenical said:
GT, you would be my absolute hero if you could do the following test for me... :)

Just oblivion, 1680x1050 16x AF, 8x AA with everything (grass, shadows, view etc.) set to max... Just stand in the middle of a forest on a nice day... And see what you tend to get frame-rate wise.

<3
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I second that , make sure you have QTP3 installed though.
 
gs29 said:
So you got 820 on core without any volt mod?
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Yes.

I'm sorry guys, but the card died on me when I tried flashing to 870/4500 with a slightly higher voltage in BIOS... it worked fine for Crysis and others for about 15 minutes just running hot, but due to temps I flashed back to stock... suddenly bluescreen, now no boot... put in a card alongside it and it shows up in Windows, flashed to default BIOS with higher fan speeds and it won't come back to life still.

So, just a warning, don't go above 820 for now on the core and 4400ram, to be safe I'd stick with OverDrive's 790/4400 limit, the card worked 100% fine at that for ages and even 820, but you really don't want to end up without a card like me!. What's weird is at 870 core and 4500 ram, the card performed at least 30% better than it did at 850 core/4500 RAM, almost as though some bottleneck had been lifted... until it died :(. Now trying to find somewhere to get a 4870 from that I'll take better care of /cry. I wouldn't try going beyond 820/4500 which I ran for hours without huge temperature gains just yet... at least not with BIOS flashing and such, wait for RivaTuner/ATItool/anything.
 
I always wonder at people flashing overclocks into their cards BIOS. Is using software really that bad? Sorry about your card, but hopefully others will learn from your mistake.

PS - I get that you were trying to go over the limits of OD.
 
Sorry to hear about the card GT. BIOS flashing is always risky :( going to wait for ATITool or RivaTuner (should be out sometime next month) to support the cars, or the new AMD OC tool.

Good news is that the 4870's are supposedly going to hit the streets in much larger #'s by the end of next week so we might see some price drops too
 
Hey GoldenTiger:

In this thread, some people that had modded BIOS's also killed a few video cards when they refused to POST but Jimmyz suggested:

You flashed them already? if your clocks are too high for the voltage it will not post, there is your issue. If you can perform the volt mod they will most likely work, I had a 4850 refuse too boot at 900 , raised the volts and it boots fine, the card with only 1 led is not getting juice, i bet it is your secondary right?
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Link

Take a look. If you have a second card laying around, trying using that to boot in and reflashing your BIOS again to a stable setup.
 
Pity... I was never planning to flash the BIOS to overclock but it looks like we'll all have to do it anyway to fix the horrible fan speed and idling clock. Is that relatively safe? Or is there some other way to do it?
 
GoldenTiger said:
Yes.

I'm sorry guys, but the card died on me when I tried flashing to 870/4500 with a slightly higher voltage in BIOS... it worked fine for Crysis and others for about 15 minutes just running hot, but due to temps I flashed back to stock... suddenly bluescreen, now no boot... put in a card alongside it and it shows up in Windows, flashed to default BIOS with higher fan speeds and it won't come back to life still.

So, just a warning, don't go above 820 for now on the core and 4400ram, to be safe I'd stick with OverDrive's 790/4400 limit, the card worked 100% fine at that for ages and even 820, but you really don't want to end up without a card like me!. What's weird is at 870 core and 4500 ram, the card performed at least 30% better than it did at 850 core/4500 RAM, almost as though some bottleneck had been lifted... until it died :(. Now trying to find somewhere to get a 4870 from that I'll take better care of /cry. I wouldn't try going beyond 820/4500 which I ran for hours without huge temperature gains just yet... at least not with BIOS flashing and such, wait for RivaTuner/ATItool/anything.
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Dammit, RIP. Mine should be here today, Fedex tracking says 6/27 by 3PM EST. Funny, its 6:10PM EST here and still no card yet. :mad:
 
Got mine! Impressed at how it handles things with all settings on high wooooot.
 
I don't ever overclock my video cards anymore for this reason. My 4870 will stay at stock speeds and keep me happy enough. Last time I modified the video bios was to fix the memory clock on EVGA's crap 7900GT video cards but that was to lower the ram speed and not OC it. EVGA break enough video cards all on their own by overclocking without any help from me. In fact, I made sure neither of my 2 8800GT cards were factory overclocked for this reason.
 
dnottis said:
Dammit, RIP. Mine should be here today, Fedex tracking says 6/27 by 3PM EST. Funny, its 6:10PM EST here and still no card yet. :mad:
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Jun 27, 2008 4:45 PM Departed FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN

Ship date Jun 26, 2008
Estimated delivery Jun 27, 2008 by 3:00 PM
Service type Standard Overnight

Still not delivered - 8:37PM EST now. What time does Fedex deliver till? Fuck this is making me mad.
 
I don't think they deliver past 9pm local time and even then i've never had anything come that late. Usually in my experiences if they aren't there yet, it probably got put on the wrong truck or something and you won't see it till Monday unless your local center is open tomorrow you may be able to pick it up.
 
jedolley said:
I don't think they deliver past 9pm local time and even then i've never had anything come that late. Usually in my experiences if they aren't there yet, it probably got put on the wrong truck or something and you won't see it till Monday unless your local center is open tomorrow you may be able to pick it up.
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Yea then ZZF is refunding my $27 for overnight shipping, thats BS, they sat on it too long. This was ordered weds with overnight. Now I wont have it till monday. ZZF FTMFL.
 
dnottis said:
Yea then ZZF is refunding my $27 for overnight shipping, thats BS, they sat on it too long. This was ordered weds with overnight. Now I wont have it till monday. ZZF FTMFL.
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Sucks that you have to wait. I know how it feels to have your expectations shattered. I'm glad that ZZF atleast compensated your for the shipping. It also doesn't help that our shipping companies pretty much suck. UPS is my least favorite, but Fedex isn't much better and they are pretty odd. I can have 4 things coming to me via fedex on the same day, but depending on how its shipped it can arrive in 4 different trucks throughout the day. UPS (if they don't screw up) delivers everything on one truck or atleast in my area.
 
jedolley said:
Sucks that you have to wait. I know how it feels to have your expectations shattered. I'm glad that ZZF atleast compensated your for the shipping. It also doesn't help that our shipping companies pretty much suck. UPS is my least favorite, but Fedex isn't much better and they are pretty odd. I can have 4 things coming to me via fedex on the same day, but depending on how its shipped it can arrive in 4 different trucks throughout the day. UPS (if they don't screw up) delivers everything on one truck or atleast in my area.
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He said he wants them to refund the shipping, not that they have :(.
 
jedolley said:
Oops, read that wrong. I hope they do, or atleast they should.
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yea, I will just wait and see if by some miracle it shows up uber late. Its going on 10PM EST here - still no delivery, last note in trackign at 4:45 leaving Memphis TN. We dont have Saturday delivery here so I wont get it till monday. But ordering it weds with overnight should not have taken so long. I couldve gotten the free shipping and had it monday. Or ordered from Newegg and had it yesterday.

Im pissed off, never again will I order from ZZF.
 
Try calling up FedEx and see whats up. They once supposedly lost a delivered a package of mine in the morning that wasn't at my door and they didnt come back til the afternoon after I called them about it.
 
dnottis said:
yea, I will just wait and see if by some miracle it shows up uber late. Its going on 10PM EST here - still no delivery, last note in trackign at 4:45 leaving Memphis TN. We dont have Saturday delivery here so I wont get it till monday. But ordering it weds with overnight should not have taken so long. I couldve gotten the free shipping and had it monday. Or ordered from Newegg and had it yesterday.

Im pissed off, never again will I order from ZZF.
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4:45 AM or PM and do you live in or near Memphis? Usually it should say "Out For Delivery" or something similar from you local facility. If it doesn't already say "Out For Delivery" its more likely that it didn't reach the local facility in time or still hasn't gotten there for whatever reason.
 
Nope, they fucked me. :mad: Called Fedex and said there was a freeway closed 2 days ago and the package is now rescheduled for monday. Funny, the package went out yesterday so wtf does that have to do with a closed freeway 2 days ago??? I reamed the idiot on the phone out. Of course he's some fucking shithead sitting in a call center in india so what the fuck does he care....

I have written an email to ZZF requesting being reimbursed for the $27 for overnight shipping. Fedex and ZZF will never be delivering items for me again. Newegg / UPS only from now on.
 
Sorry to hear that.:( I don't think I'd really overclock these 4870's a lot if at all. AMD is probably pushing these babies pretty hard as it is to get all the performance they can. At some point you've got to leave well enough alone.
 
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