Did i get a dud 4890?

Ben90

Platinum Member
Jun 14, 2009
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Hey guys; just purchased a 4890 because ive heard they overclock like mad
Ive heard that 95% of cards can hit 950/xxxx so i was like: im prolly in a 95% so i put it to that... any time the card went into 3d it crashed... was like damn im unlucky...

Anyways tried 900; works for maybe 5 seconds then the app crashes and i get a "driver has recovered from a serious error"

at 880 it works for about 10 seconds at a time, the driver still crashes but it recovers and doesnt crash the app (just lags it for like 10 seconds)

Whats weird to me is that there are never any artifacts... it just crashes which makes me think i have a 0.01% chance that its actually not my card at all, just the driver... Can anyone confirm my fears?

My old 7800GTX overclocked from 430 to 550 on stock cooling, and was "rock" (a lot of artifacts on newer games) stable
 

OCGuy

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
27,224
37
91
Whoever told you that 95% of a certain card can OC to "x" is rediculous. :(

 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,791
6,351
126
Originally posted by: OCguy
Whoever told you that 95% of a certain card can OC to "x" is rediculous. :(

this

OP: When you hear a number like that, don't believe it, especially when stated in that a way. The only really reliable statement regarding Overclocking is something like, "X is a very good Overclocker". There are no guarantees even then though, Good Overclocker or not, sometimes Product X will not Overclock at all.

Which is reason #3 as to why I never Overclock New Hardware.
 

Davidpaul007

Member
Jul 30, 2009
176
2
81
Interesting...I have a 4890 as well and run it at 900 Mhz (GPU) and 1000Mhz (Mem) I believe and it works fine. However, if I try to max the card out using ATI Overdrive it crashes my computer almost immediately. Increasing clock speeds slowly I typically get some artifacts in a game and then any higher will crash the computer.

I'm thinking 850-900 (GPU) is considered "stock" for the 4890 so it shouldn't be crashing. Perhaps a poster above hit on it when they asked what powersupply you have.

I'm using a 600W OCZ and I'd be shocked if that was the culprit.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,791
6,351
126
Originally posted by: IlllI
95% of statistical percentages are made up

This. 3-4 times out of 5

^^clearly accurate because it's not stated as a Percent value^^
 

Udgnim

Diamond Member
Apr 16, 2008
3,681
124
106
since you've gone from Nvidia to ATI, there's a possibility that not all Nvidia drivers have been cleaned from your system and thus causing a driver conflict with ATI's. You can run the 4890 at stock or DL a driver cleaner program to find out.
 

Ben90

Platinum Member
Jun 14, 2009
2,866
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nah, completely different computer; the 7800 never touched this mobo/HDD

95% of i7 920 D0 can overclock to 3 ghz... am i rediculous? id like to see someone that cant get it past that

and actually from what ive read everywhere, people are saying the 4890 overclocks like mad not: it can overclock ~1% before it crashes
 

OCGuy

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
27,224
37
91
Originally posted by: Ben90
nah, completely different computer; the 7800 never touched this mobo/HDD

95% of i7 920 D0 can overclock to 3 ghz... am i rediculous? id like to see someone that cant get it past that

and actually from what ive read everywhere, people are saying the 4890 overclocks like mad not: it can overclock ~1% before it crashes


GPUs != CPUs.


Generally on the GPU side they are trying to put the least amount of voltage to make it stable at the advertised speed.

As far as the OP is concerned, maybe his card would OC a little higher if he overvolted, but you can never be sure.

You have to remember, that when you are in BIOS upping a multiplier or FSB, etc, it is easy to up the voltage. I am a pretty big hardware enthusiast, and I am much more skiddish upping voltages on my graphics cards than I am my CPU.