Possible issues with Sapphire 4830 when oc'ing

[way2fast91]

I recently upgraded from 7600GT to the 4830 512 mb. One reason I picked this card was the myriad of reviews on Newegg that stated this card could easily be oc'ed to 4850 levels. So after I dropped this in my system, I used ATI CCC and let it detect the best oc settings. It set the GPU to 690 Mhz and Memory to 1100 Mhz. So I started up Fallout 3 and was disappointed to find that shadows were all flashing green spots and there was a strobe effect, like the game was having a seizure. I continued to bump down the graphic settings until I was basically back where I started with the 7600 GT and it was running ok. So I pushed the setting back to High/Ultra High and pulled back on the oc. Finally around 600 MHz GPU and 1000 Mhz memory, I found a happy place and finished the game. Well I have been running like that while playing Left 4 Dead recently with everything maxed out and it runs well, however I still notice the occasional flash of green spots in shadows. According to CCC the GPU temp isn't going above 42c when I am playing, so why is it that I am having issues, when others seem to be able to run fine oc'ing the lights out on this card. Do I have a bad card? Need to check for updated drivers maybe?

Ideally I would like to be able to run this thing as fast as it'll go with staying around the 50c temp range, and get maximum performance in games.

 

[napes22]

I've had the same issues; it artifacts with any overclocking, even though temperature appears stable. With dual monitors, the card crashes with OC.

I'd love to hear a solution to this too

 

[Tempered81]

Imo, its because the ram is overclocked too high. The gpu core could probably handle more mhz with an increase in fan speed.

good luck.

 

[way2fast91]

It appears with this card the memory is the culprit. I set the GPU to 690 Mhz and the memory to stock (900 Mhz) over the weekend and played for several hours with no artifacting, no issues what so ever. I think I saw someone post in another thread about the memory not having a heatsink or any cooling at all, and it just doesn't handle the extra heat very well. I haven't taken a closer look at the card yet to verify this. To be honest I am happy with the 690/900 setup.

 

[error8]

Who told you can raise clocks blindly and then play games? Nobody does that. Overclocking is not granted, you might be lucky and get past 4850 clocks or you might not. There was someone on this forums, that had three or four 9600 GSOs and each card had different stable clocks.

For example everyone I know with a 4870 overclock their GDDR5 between 950-1100 mhz,but, I can't get the ram stable not even 20 mhz over stock. It's only stable at 900mhz and nothing more. Next time when you overclock your card, start slowly with just a couple of mhz at a time. Test that for stability and then raise the clocks higher and so on until you run into stability issues. Don't set your clocks on values that other people found stable. Identical cards overclock different. It's a fact.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Those GDDR3 chips just can't handle the speed you're throwing at it (partly why the HD4830 is so cheap), especially if you are using a 4830 that doesn't have direct cooling for them. And when you overclock you should only overclock one thing at a time.

 

[SlowSpyder]

As others are saying, overclocking is not a guarantee. Even if you found that the card ran perfectly at stock settings, but neither the memory or core could overclock even 1MHz without problems, then the card is working fine. It's only guaranteed to work at the factory frequencies.

Now with that being said, cards like the 4830 that are known to overclock well in general, just start with overclocking one component at a time. Start tweaking the core until you find where it starts to show signs of instability. Once you establish what your core is capable of start tweaking the memory. Just taking the card and setting both the core and memory to some speed you read that someone elses card did on a Newegg review could very well end in disaster for your card.

Anyway, glad you got it figured out. For the money those cards cost, with your core at 690MHz I'm sure it is quite a screamer for the money you paid.

 

[napes22]

I have had the same OC'ing issue as the OP, however, when I plugged in my 2nd monitor and enable overdrive, the screen gets striped with green lines and no picture behind it and I have to reboot. I don't even have to adjust the clocks; as long as Overdrive is enabled when I have both monitors enabled, the system crashes. Is that the card not being able to handle two monitors and OC'ing, or does this sound like an issue with the card itself?

 

[way2fast91]

Thanks for the feedback guys, definitely all good points I will be much more mindful of from this point forward. In the thread title I said possible issues, that was meant more along the lines of driver issues or the off chance that I might be the only person not able to successfully oc this card. For the price 575/900 (stock) would be more than acceptable. But I will admit that from the reviews I was expecting at least 4850 speeds for my money (625/900) and at 690/900 stabaly I am a happy camper. Now on to the cpu...

napes, I am no expert on gpu/monitors but from my experience with dual monitors (I am a programmer) it seems to require more juice to run dual monitors. How does it run with Overdrive disabled? Is the card at stock settings able to run duals ok? You may be better off running two of these in xfire or if your MoBo/psu can't handle it, then get a 4870. There are 1 GB 4870's going for $199 now. Hell I am even tempted to trade up now.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: way2fast91
But I will admit that from the reviews I was expecting at least 4850 speeds for my money

Strangely, this is what I've always felt about my videocards. All the reviews speak about massive overclocks, but when I overclock my card, I don't even come close to their numbers. Who knows, maybe they receive hand pick samples for reviews or maybe they are dumb overclockers and do not now what an unstable card looks like or I'm just the most unlucky human on the planet.