AMD GPU clock not working with my 4870 (please help)

[7Enigma]

Hello everyone,

I've wasted about 5 hours the last 2 days trying to figure this one out. I game occasionally but the majority of time I'm just searching the web. My office gets pretty hot from the space heater that is the 4870 and so I wanted to underclock the 2D mode to well below stock. I've read all about creating shortcut profiles so I can quickly go from underclocked to stock/OC and thought this was great.

So I downloaded the latest version (0.98), installed, and went to use the program. When I load it up I can see my current stock settings (when I click Get Clock Info), when I go to temp sensors I only see one but it works (ASIC Temperature via internal TSS), but when I try to change any settings I get "Set Clock Failed: Please Check device configuration".

I tried uninstalling CCC and the display drivers, reinstalled the latest ATI drivers without CCC, but still I get the same error.

I don't know if this is an issue with my particular card (see topic summary), or if it's a bios thing, or what (OS?). Are there any specific bios settings I need to have properly set to allow dynamic clock settings in Vista?

I've exhausted the google searching and have not found anything like my particular problem that a simple driver reinstall didn't fix.

I thank you in advance for any advice,

justin

 

[Sylvanas]

It's probably AMD GPU clock tool. It hasnt been updated in a while. Use Rivatuner instead or you could try 'GPUTool' which is the updated ATItool/AMDGPUclock tool from W1zzard- but it's still in Beta, so best just use Rivatuner.

 

[7Enigma]

Holy crap thanks for the GPUTool! Should have just posted here because I could have saved an incredible amount of time. All the temps are showing properly, now to try the gpu/memory settings.

EDIT: Program works perfectly! I've got the GPU down to 175 core, 250 memory for 2D and other than occasional flickers when I switch from clocks to sensors it seems stable. Can anyone recommend for normal browsing in 2D a good way to benchmark that everything is stable?

Thanks so much W1zzard. I wanted to stay away from RivaTuner since it appeared I needed to have driver signing disabled at boot which I currently don't want to use if possible.

 

[7Enigma]

Unbelievable! Using the GPUTool I took my idle system draw from 130w to 90w just by downclocking my 4870 to 140/225 (gpu/memory). That equates to a 10C drop from 52C to 42C, and that is without lowering the voltage (GPUTool doesn't seem to work properly yet with changing the voltage). Why in the hell didn't ATI have something like this in the driver? I mean 40w and 10C is quite a large drop.

I'm going to see if I can push it a bit further, but think I'm at about the edge.

Thanks again.

 

[Marty502]

Yeah, that's good stuff. My video card's 2D mode was 500 mhz core and 700 mhz memory. Way too high for Solitaire and Firefox.
Took it down to 150 mhz core and 300 mhz memory via BIOS flashing. Now the card is officially passive unless it's gaming time. 😀

 

[7Enigma]

Yeah, my Toxic card is stock overclocked to 1000MHz on the memory, which increases the power even more than a stock 4870. Forgot to mention in my last post that the temperatures could be even lower but the card automatically lowers the fan speed when I underclock. At stock clocks I think I remember the fan was @38%. At my 140/225 setting the fan was spinning @11%, silent in my particular case since my ambient noise level is somewhat loud. I bet if I set the fan speed higher I could drop below 100F!

I spent 2 seconds last night after I posted to mess with the voltages. Again GPUTool doesn't seem to work with the 4870 at the moment (or at least my particular card) so any change to the voltage drops the voltage to 1.16 from the 1.2X stock voltage. Just that slight drop took me down another 5w on total system draw so I'm down to 85w at idle.

I just can't get over how low the system is now idling. With the summer here and the office having 2 computers and a tropical fish tank, my A/C had to be on quite a bit. I'll take any power savings I can get as that is less heat that needs to be removed from the room!

EDIT:

Question: Is there a way with GPUTool as in ATIgpuclocktool to create shortcuts that will automatically set all of the 2D/3D settings with a single click? I love the program but it is a bit annoying to have to click 2Dlow, load profile 1, apply, clock 2Dmedium, load profile 1, apply, etc. Or am I doing this wrong and there's a faster way?

 

[SSChevy2001]

ATi Tray Tools is much better for setting up profiles that change clocks, voltage, and fan speed a automaticly.

Once you created the 2D and 3D profiles just enable the Auto Overclocking and it will change your 2D/3D clocks for you when you enter or exit a game.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: SSChevy2001
ATi Tray Tools is much better for setting up profiles that change clocks, voltage, and fan speed a automaticly.

Once you created the 2D and 3D profiles just enable the Auto Overclocking and it will change your 2D/3D clocks for you when you enter or exit a game.

Yes but sometimes, something gets screwed up and voltages and clocks do not activate in 3d mode. This happens for example in ATI tool, where you have to turn it on manually. And other times it happens in games, where the 3d profile you've set,works for a couple of minutes, then all of a sudden it resets back to the 2d profile, giving artifacts all over the screen. Had this happening in PoP.

It might just be an issue only on my system, but now I'm only using ATi tray tools just for the fan profiles. I'm lucky that my Gigabyte undervolts itself to 1.2 V in 2d from the stock 1.26 V, so I'm saving some power when I'm idleing.

 

[yacoub]

I wonder if it can cause slowdowns, dropped frames, or other issues playing HD video content or up-scaled DVD movies on a 1680x or 1920x display when you underclock 2D mode that much. I do believe the GPU handles a good portion of video processing/pre-processing/decoding/encoding these days, yes?

 

[7Enigma]

Originally posted by: yacoub
I wonder if it can cause slowdowns, dropped frames, or other issues playing HD video content or up-scaled DVD movies on a 1680x or 1920x display when you underclock 2D mode that much. I do believe the GPU handles a good portion of video processing/pre-processing/decoding/encoding these days, yes?

All depends on what codec you are using. Also within GPUTool there are 3 2D settings (low/med/high). I'm assuming depending on the load on the gpu it can scale to higher settings (though to avoid flicker I have to set all 3 to the same setting). I don't know once a newer version comes out whether this will be fixed or whether this is a card/driver issue. Right now though I'm extremely happy. If I were to watch an HD video I would just put the settings back to stock, or find something in the middle since the 4870 is much more powerful than needed for HD movies.

My final stable settings (without voltage modding since I can't do that with the current version of GPUTool) are 140Mhz core, 220Mhz memory for a total system draw of ~85w when idle. Just to put that in perspective that is a 37% reduction in total system power......just jaw dropping IMO.

 

[Marty502]

Originally posted by: yacoub
I wonder if it can cause slowdowns, dropped frames, or other issues playing HD video content or up-scaled DVD movies on a 1680x or 1920x display when you underclock 2D mode that much. I do believe the GPU handles a good portion of video processing/pre-processing/decoding/encoding these days, yes?

That's the benefit of setting clock speeds through BIOS flashing.
At least my card has a PowerPlay mode for video playback under the BIOS, which I left at the stock speeds and voltage. I think all Radeon 4xxx cards have a PowerPlay clock section. And a 3D mode which I've got overclocked with the numbers on my signature.
But I flashed it for super low speeds at regular 2D use, like typing this here now. I avoid any issues with 1080p videos that way.