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Got an XFX 4870 1GB

T

thilanliyan

Lifer
Well I was going to hold off my purchase of a new card but saw the XFX card for $295 CAD and decided to just go for it...a big factor for me was the warranty...hopefully they honour it if I need to use it (they allow modding of the card as well). I don't like the colour scheme but to each their own. Oh and the fan at even 40% is WAY too loud (I like my quiet, watercooled computer) but it does keep the card very cool. Thank goodness my GPU waterblock actually fits the 4870s so I'm going to end up watercooling it. Oh and exhausting heat out the back is much better than some of the non-reference designs. Another great thing is that it is about the size of my 8800GT so it fit nicely in my small case...had I bought a GTX260 or 280 I would have had a tough time fitting it into my Lian Li A05.

This is my first ATI card since an X1800XL (got the 8800GTS 640 on launch day and have had this 8800GT for about a year) and I've been eager to try ATI once again.

First of I'll say the 8.12 drivers have a flickering issue so I had to install 8.11s instead...not good ATI...I don't want to sacrifice reliability for performance increases or whatever was changed in 8.12 from 8.11. All seems to be fine now with the 8.11s. From what I've seen in these forums...I'm guessing it won't be the last issue I have with drivers...but I had issues with the GTS 640 too...but it didn't stop me from buying nV again.


EDIT (watercooling):

I got to watercool it. Some pics:
http://i53.photobucket.com/alb.../thilan29/P1140037.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/alb.../thilan29/P1150038.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/alb.../thilan29/P1150039.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/alb.../thilan29/P1150047.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/alb.../thilan29/P1150041.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/alb.../thilan29/P1150042.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/alb.../thilan29/P1150057.jpg

It was pretty easy to remove the stock heatsink and just put the plate/base back (actually I think if you're watercooling with a non-full cover block, the stock heatsink is pretty easy to deal with). However, some of the thermal tape (or whatever it was) on the VRMs was crumbling so I put some AC MX-1 thermal compound (leaving most of the old stuff on as it needs to be fairly thick) and put the base back on. I used AS5 (scraped over the GPU core as I've done many times before) and then attached my DD Maze4 GPU block (yes it's old and it's what I used on my X1800XL).

So far the card idles at around 43C and gets to about 50C at load (WOOHOO!!! 🙂). The VRMs however got to about 65-70 running the Far Cry 2 benchmark. Now running Furmark, the VRMs got to about 80-85 before I turned it off so it would have probably kept going higher. I've heard Furmark is tough on cards but is it that bad? Oh and uninstalling CCC and just using Ati Tray Tools for downclocking in 2D works well and gets rid of the flickering issue (thanks SSChevy2001).

I think I'm going to make a DIY cover like the stock heatsink so that air is exhausted out of the case.

EDIT (DIY cover):
The stock cover is pretty good so:
http://i53.photobucket.com/alb.../thilan29/P1160059.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/alb.../thilan29/P1160058.jpg

Maybe I'll spray paint it red one day. 🙂
 
Honestly thilan29 you should just dump CCC and load ATi Tray Tools. Create a custom profile for idle/2D ( 550/200 @ 1.083v ) and one for 3D. No more problems with flickering and some extra powersaving also.

Did you keep the stock base on the card while watercooling it?
Also what's the temps with watercooling? ( VRMs and GPU )
 
Originally posted by: SSChevy2001
Honestly thilan29 you should just dump CCC and load ATi Tray Tools. Create a custom profile for idle/2D ( 550/200 @ 1.083v ) and one for 3D. No more problems with flickering and some extra powersaving also.

Did you keep the stock base on the card while watercooling it?
Also what's the temps with watercooling? ( VRMs and GPU )
Click to expand...

Tray tools is still around? Lol I thought it was dead...I used it when I had the X1800XL but haven't heard much about it since.

Can you actually lower the voltage with it? And you can really go that low on the memory? I'll give it a go tonight.

I haven't watercooled it yet (will probably do it tonight)...I just wanted to test the card to make sure it worked fine. I'm planning to keep the stock base on with the fan and just do a ghetto mod and do a homemade cover with holes for the water tubes...that way the VRMs and memory are still getting some cooling. If it doesn't work well I'm gonna get a XPSC full cover block.

Thanks for the info by the way...I haven't used an ATI card in more than 2 years so I'm a bit out of the loop.
 
Originally posted by: thilan29
Tray tools is still around? Lol I thought it was dead...I used it when I had the X1800XL but haven't heard much about it since.

Can you actually lower the voltage with it? And you can really go that low on the memory? I'll give it a go tonight.

I haven't watercooled it yet (will probably do it tonight)...I just wanted to test the card to make sure it worked fine. I'm planning to keep the stock base on with the fan and just do a ghetto mod and do a homemade cover with holes for the water tubes...that way the VRMs and memory are still getting some cooling. If it doesn't work well I'm gonna get a XPSC full cover block.

Thanks for the info by the way...I haven't used an ATI card in more than 2 years so I'm a bit out of the loop.
Click to expand...
ATI Tools is dead, not ATi Tray Tools which is very alive and it many times better than CCC.

Yes you can that low with memory and change voltages which is great. Don't bother going lower on the core though as you'll only save a watt which is nothing. Overall with the stock cooler you should see a very nice drop in idle temp.

Also when you go to make these profiles you'll want to unlock the overclocking limits, which is under Tools & Options ->General Options -> Advanced.

Well enjoy.
 
Originally posted by: SSChevy2001
ATI Tools is dead, not ATi Tray Tools which is very alive and it many times better than CCC.

Yes you can that low with memory and change voltages which is great. Don't bother going lower on the core though as you'll only save a watt which is nothing. Overall with the stock cooler you should see a very nice drop in idle temp.

Also when you go to make these profiles you'll want to unlock the overclocking limits, which is under Tools & Options ->General Options -> Advanced.

Well enjoy.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info...I'll update the thread with watercooling and under/over clocking results once I get it all done.

So you can only go DOWN in the volts right?
 
Hey Thil, got any old GPUs that you wanna give to me? My sis currently has a X850XT and I'd like to get something better for her. Of course, it has to be able to run folding or there's no point in upgrading since all she does is MapleStory 24/7.

Anyways, enjoy that 4870. Try visiting Hardware Canucks for some good ol' Canadian LAN parties, eh. Ok, that sucked.
 
thilan29 are you going to cool the vrms via h2o also? Where did you get it for that price? Maybe I should get one and cool it with a thermalright.
 
Originally posted by: geokilla
Hey Thil, got any old GPUs that you wanna give to me? My sis currently has a X850XT and I'd like to get something better for her. Of course, it has to be able to run folding or there's no point in upgrading since all she does is MapleStory 24/7.
Click to expand...

All I have is a 8800GT but I'm gonna keep that as a back up and also in case I'm at some point able to run PhysX separately on it (if the driver limitations are removed in Windows 7).

Originally posted by: ronnn
thilan29 are you going to cool the vrms via h2o also? Where did you get it for that price? Maybe I should get one and cool it with a thermalright.
Click to expand...

No I'm going to leave the stock "base" on it so it cools the ram and VRMs. I'll post some pics of it when I do it.

I got it at NCIX...I think it's $299 now...still not bad for getting a double warranty so if you sell it your card should fetch a higher price down the road.
 
I saw this card $295 two days ago now it's $299 at NCIX. I should have waited, I don't like my GTX 260. 🙁
 
Originally posted by: SSChevy2001
There's only 4 voltage settings you can use ( 1.083v 1.143v 1.203v 1.263v ). 1.263v is already the default voltage for 3D.

Idle temps 4870 1GB @ 550/200 1.083v - 44c
Click to expand...

Okay I got it all to work but I left the memory at 400MHz. Anyway, is there a way to load the 3D profile automatically when a game starts?

Originally posted by: MegaWorks
I saw this card $295 two days ago now it's $299 at NCIX. I should have waited, I don't like my GTX 260. 🙁
Click to expand...

Why not? It's a good card isn't it? I almost bought a GTX 260 on ebay for about $270 but decided to hold out (warranty was a bit iffy) and then this card dropped to $295 so I snagged it (main reason for this over the 260 was that my current GPU block works with the 4870 but not the 260)...I'm sure it'll go down even more though (as long as the Canadian dollar doesn't tank).
 
Originally posted by: thilan29
Okay I got it all to work but I left the memory at 400MHz. Anyway, is there a way to load the 3D profile automatically when a game starts?
Click to expand...
There is but I haven't tried it yet go figure.

If you goto Game Profiles -> Manage Profiles. From there looks to just fill in the info and make a shortcut I would guess. Maybe this weekend I'll check it out.

By the way it looks nice! Watercooling the GPU should drop those GPU temps on load.

If you want leave the memory at 400MHz, but you serious don't need it that high. I played HD movies and light weight DX games no problem at 200MHz. Heck I still get over 600FPS on DX9 version of Tetris 5000.
 
Originally posted by: SSChevy2001
Originally posted by: thilan29
Okay I got it all to work but I left the memory at 400MHz. Anyway, is there a way to load the 3D profile automatically when a game starts?
Click to expand...
There is but I haven't tried it yet go figure.

If you goto Game Profiles -> Manage Profiles. From there looks to just fill in the info and make a shortcut I would guess. Maybe this weekend I'll check it out.

By the way it looks nice! Watercooling the GPU should drop those GPU temps on load.
Click to expand...

Cool thanks for the info. Reply or PM me if you get it working...it's not that big of a deal but I'm sure I'll forget to change it sometime.

Oh and check out the DIY cover (edited 1st post)...I think it looks much better without it but I just want some of the hot air exhausted out of the case and hopefully in the process help with the memory and VRM cooling.

EDIT: Hey I figured out how to do the automatic clocking but I think you might have to make a profile for every game. Let me know if you wanna know how to do it.
 
Wow now im even MORE depressed, thanks man 🙁 haha but very nice rig u rolling there, and P.S. i didnt even know XFX are making ATi? I thought they were solely Nvidia?
 
Originally posted by: VulcanX
Wow now im even MORE depressed, thanks man 🙁 haha but very nice rig u rolling there, and P.S. i didnt even know XFX are making ATi? I thought they were solely Nvidia?
Click to expand...

Hell froze over. The only nVidia-only board partners left are eVGA and BFG.

 
Originally posted by: thilan29
Oh and check out the DIY cover (edited 1st post)...I think it looks much better without it but I just want some of the hot air exhausted out of the case and hopefully in the process help with the memory and VRM cooling.

EDIT: Hey I figured out how to do the automatic clocking but I think you might have to make a profile for every game. Let me know if you wanna know how to do it.
Click to expand...
Cover cames out really nice. I've done a share of cover making for my 8800GTS 512, but I'm still wonder what I want to do with my 4870. I took mine apart today to see if I could put a fan on the HS, but the HS is blocked on the top so no go. I'll figure out something.

If you have time you can post autoclocking info, but don't go crazy. Also I wouldn't use Furmarks even if my card had proper VRM cooling, it just draws way to much amps which to me isn't normal usage. ATi Tray Tools has it's own arifact tester which works just nice.
 
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