ATI Auto-Tune Question on XFX 4890

[GearJunkie]

Auto-Tune completed and gave passing results for my XFX 4890 of 955 MHz for the GPU and 1145 MHz for the Memory. What's another way to check to see if this is stable? The only game I own right now is Call of Juarez. Would 3dMark06 be a good gauge?

I definitely want to be on the conservative side for the overclock, as the card idles at 62C and loads over 82C. And the caps on this card are screamers that can be heard until the fan speed gets over 40%!!! ATI's reference design really sucks for this lone reason.

 

[kmmatney]

Autotune gave me almost the exact same numbers on my MSI HD4890.

I agree the reference design isn't great - it's a little too noisy for me. My caps aren't noisy, at least.

 

[error8]

Auto tune is crap. Never use an auto overclocking program!. Auto tune, most surely found clocks that are way too high for your card.

First of all, tweak the fan speed, because 82 C might limit your overclock. After this, you can use Furmark to see if it's stable. Run it for an hour at least at full screen. From what I've seen, Furmark detects very fast unstable core clocks, but it's not that good for memory stability checking. And be careful, since it heats the card like hell, so keep your eyes on the temperatures.

 

[MarcVenice]

Pretty reasonable if you ask me. The memory clock is a bit 'high' though. I managed to get a HD 4890 to 975/1100mhz. Several other reviews on the web got the memory at around 1100mhz as well.

 

[GearJunkie]

Thank you for the advice everyone! I?ll give furmark a try at 900/1050, and leave the case open to help out the temps a bit. I?ll also crank up the fan/vacuum cleaner.

I have an AC Turbo that I?m waiting to install, but I?m still not sure that I?m going to keep this card? the noise from the caps is really obnoxious. There might even be something wrong, being that they are louder than fan up to about 40% fan speed (which is also quite loud).

Does anyone know if the cap noise an issue with all 4890?s?

Thanks again!

 

[Munky]

Auto tune gave me clocks which were too high to be stable. It set 1145mhz for the mem, which was fine, but it set the core at 945mhz when in actual games and apps it only stabilized around 920mhz.

As far as caps noise, I only notice it when rendering something at ridiculously high triple-digit frame rates. Pretty much all my previous Ati cards had the same issue, but it didn't cause any problems.

 

[GearJunkie]

What actually causes the cap noise? Are they vibrating? On my card, the noise changes pitch as the framerate changes. The higher the framerate, the higher the pitch of the buzzing???

 

[error8]

It's a specific coil that vibrates, from what I know. This is an issue found at almost all the high end cards on the market right now and it's related to the high power consumption of the card, I guess.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Pretty reasonable if you ask me. The memory clock is a bit 'high' though. I managed to get a HD 4890 to 975/1100mhz. Several other reviews on the web got the memory at around 1100mhz as well.

all i could get out of my Diamond HD4890-xOC was 960/1055 .. a mini oc on the RAM
- and still the FPS scaled nicely on the core OC

it was was not like that with my first ASUS [reference] 4870 - i got 1125 on the RAM; but my current one is a DOG also with the GDDR5

i *can* get higher on both the core and the Memory but i cannot *stand* the VGA fan louder than 55%