Quick Guide to getting your 4850/4870 up to and running

[idiotekniQues]

i am very pleased to report that the dvi to hdmi out on the 4870 works perfectly with audio running over the hdmi cable as well.

god i love this feature!

batman begins in HD tonight running from my pc to my plasma as a prelude to the dark knight tomorrow.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: drinklime
How low is the clock supposed to go idling in windows? Mine goes to 500/750 i think

(im using 2 displays, if that matters)

Your speeds seem to be 4870 speeds.

On the 4850 with bios fix I am getting 160 idle, 500 video decode, 625 gaming.

 

[idiotekniQues]

man i want somethin to try to OC this 4870 farther. maxed out at the CCC ceiling of 790 and 1100 mem.

 

[Avalon]

BIOS flash on my 4850 worked well, thanks Taltamir! Powerplay is properly working now, and after some slight fan speed adjustments, my temps have gone down from 80C/95C idle/load to 70C/88C, which is still hot, but a good improvement.

 

[Ender17]

I adjusted my fan speed to 35% using the CCC profile method. Everything seems fine, I play a game and it's working great. I reboot and the computer won't start. I try turning it off, it won't shut off. So I turn off the PSU, then the computer is completely dead. I swap in my old video card and it boots up fine.

WTF

 

[taltamir]

how long have you had it, did you apply the fan speed change before using it at all?
at 35% it might have overheated to the point where the chip got heat damage.

 

[Ender17]

Originally posted by: taltamir
how long have you had it, did you apply the fan speed change before using it at all?
at 35% it might have overheated to the point where the chip got heat damage.

I had it at stock for about a day and it was burning up, so that's why I increased it to 35%
I set it and played Portal for about 30 minutes, then restarted. It was a lot cooler than it was before - idle temp was like 80 at stock and was around 50 after I changed it.

 

[taltamir]

then it is just a delayed DOA (aka, breaks within a few days, happens)... If you lowered the idle from 80c to 50c then it was probably not the temp that killed it. Maybe an electrical insulation issue or some other issue.

Although, I recommend checking the LOAD temp when you set an exact speed.

Still, this is really for preventing crashes. The card supposedly has a max temp at which it will automatically downclock and downvolt and even shut down. well, in theory, in reality it probably will harm it over a long period of time. just like those nvidia latop chips are burning up.

 

[Ender17]

Originally posted by: taltamir
then it is just a delayed DOA (aka, breaks within a few days, happens)... If you lowered the idle from 80c to 50c then it was probably not the temp that killed it. Maybe an electrical insulation issue or some other issue.

Although, I recommend checking the LOAD temp when you set an exact speed.

Still, this is really for preventing crashes. The card supposedly has a max temp at which it will automatically downclock and downvolt and even shut down. well, in theory, in reality it probably will harm it over a long period of time. just like those nvidia latop chips are burning up.

I gave it the finger test and it was barely warm, compared to stock speeds when it almost burned me

 

[idiotekniQues]

35% keeps the card cooler under load than not changing the fan in XML in CCC profiles i thought

 

[Elcs]

Powercolour HD4870 512mb

26% with Auto keeps me 80-82C idle and the fan speed ramps up and down slightly.

30% Manual keeps me idle at between 56C and 61C (room fluctuates a lot).

EDIT:

Just installed my Thermalright HR-03 GT (Tuniq TX-2 TIM) with the heatsink facing up, just below my CPU. I have also attached an Arctic Cooling Turbo Module to it to blow down onto the GPU.

Ambient temp: 23C
Idle: 51C
Load (30 mins Hellgate:London): 57C

Furmark is crashing my PC out for no good reason today so I cannot use that to test.

The problem I have now is that my GPU and CPU are both wanting the same air and as a result, my CPU temps are going through the roof when applying load, rapidly dropping to normal quickly after load stops.

I may have to re-fit the heatsink below my card to resolve that issue but overall, things feel cooler inside.

The stock heatsink is an absolute copper monster, heatpipes and all. I am surprised at the "poor" cooling offered by it Perhaps a thin metal should would be better that plastic hmm?

 

[Cookie Monster]

Damn need those cat 8.7s now..

In the meantime i am going to try out the cat 8.6 hot fix drivers. (note to others, these are standalone drivers! not a mere patch)

 

[User5]

Originally posted by: Elcs
The stock heatsink is an absolute copper monster, heatpipes and all. I am surprised at the "poor" cooling offered by it Perhaps a thin metal should would be better that plastic hmm?

Dunno, mines idling at 48c right now with the manual fan fix. Thats a few degrees cooler than what most my video cards have always been running at.

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: User5

Originally posted by: Elcs
The stock heatsink is an absolute copper monster, heatpipes and all. I am surprised at the "poor" cooling offered by it Perhaps a thin metal should would be better that plastic hmm?

Dunno, mines idling at 48c right now with the manual fan fix. Thats a few degrees cooler than what most my video cards have always been running at.

26% blended in with my PC and offered awful cooling, the fan constantly ramped up and down to keep it at 80-82C.

At 30%, it offered good cooling but became annoyingly loud for me.

HR-03 GT with Turbo Module on is silent at max speed.

I was shocked and slightly disturbed when I took apart the heatsink on my HD4870. Ill see if I took a pic.

 

[divinepoptart]

Ok, so I installed hotfix 8.6 and the same problem persists. The system freezes, then usually followed by a flash of glitches, after that the monitor ceases detection from the VGA. The monitor LED then just blinks on and off, indicating power saving mode.

What else can I do?

I don't know much about computers... I'm just real complicated about this entire situation.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Elcs

Originally posted by: User5

Originally posted by: Elcs
The stock heatsink is an absolute copper monster, heatpipes and all. I am surprised at the "poor" cooling offered by it Perhaps a thin metal should would be better that plastic hmm?

Dunno, mines idling at 48c right now with the manual fan fix. Thats a few degrees cooler than what most my video cards have always been running at.

26% blended in with my PC and offered awful cooling, the fan constantly ramped up and down to keep it at 80-82C.

At 30%, it offered good cooling but became annoyingly loud for me.

HR-03 GT with Turbo Module on is silent at max speed.

I was shocked and slightly disturbed when I took apart the heatsink on my HD4870. Ill see if I took a pic.

My 4870 idles anywhere between 77-79c,max temp I have had it at is 92 c with Furmark but no game I have gets that high ,personally I'm not worried about the temps since its quiet,rock stable with no artifacts,good case cooling helps (in my case I have 4x80mm fans and 2x70mm PCI slot fans right next to my 4870 card,they are set on low speed)..

I can see overclockers wanting to put a better cooler/heatsink on the card.

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: Mem

Originally posted by: Elcs

Originally posted by: User5

Originally posted by: Elcs
The stock heatsink is an absolute copper monster, heatpipes and all. I am surprised at the "poor" cooling offered by it Perhaps a thin metal should would be better that plastic hmm?

Dunno, mines idling at 48c right now with the manual fan fix. Thats a few degrees cooler than what most my video cards have always been running at.

26% blended in with my PC and offered awful cooling, the fan constantly ramped up and down to keep it at 80-82C.

At 30%, it offered good cooling but became annoyingly loud for me.

HR-03 GT with Turbo Module on is silent at max speed.

I was shocked and slightly disturbed when I took apart the heatsink on my HD4870. Ill see if I took a pic.

My 4870 idles anywhere between 77-79c,max temp I have had it at is 92 c with Furmark but no game I have gets that high ,personally I'm not worried about the temps since its quiet,rock stable with no artifacts,good case cooling helps (in my case I have 4x80mm fans and 2x70mm PCI slot fans right next to my 4870 card,they are set on low speed)..

I can see overclockers wanting to put a better cooler/heatsink on the card.

It was silent until it reached 80C then it starts ramping the fan up to keep it quiet which it did constantly for me as it idled aroubnd 80-82C. As soon as the fan speed increased, I could hear it and that was annoying.

The HR-03 GT was a solution to stop the noise and chosen over the accelero s1 rev2 because of size concerns. If the noise at 30% fan speed was no issue for me, I had no reason to change because stock worked wonders for me.

With my stock heatsink, Im going to mod it into a slot cooler. The fan itself was quite nifty at 26% and did a nice exhaust job. I do have an issue with the 4-pin connector it uses. Does anyone know of a converter for this 4-pin mini plug or can I just get rid of the blue cable and use a 3-pin header? Its going to be a low draw fan so stick it on a fan header and forget about it

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: divinepoptart
Ok, so I installed hotfix 8.6 and the same problem persists. The system freezes, then usually followed by a flash of glitches, after that the monitor ceases detection from the VGA. The monitor LED then just blinks on and off, indicating power saving mode.

What else can I do?

I don't know much about computers... I'm just real complicated about this entire situation.

does it happen during gaming?
If so I would guess your card is overheating, try the heat related solutions in this thread.

 

[divinepoptart]

Originally posted by: taltamir

Originally posted by: divinepoptart
Ok, so I installed hotfix 8.6 and the same problem persists. The system freezes, then usually followed by a flash of glitches, after that the monitor ceases detection from the VGA. The monitor LED then just blinks on and off, indicating power saving mode.

What else can I do?

I don't know much about computers... I'm just real complicated about this entire situation.

does it happen during gaming?
If so I would guess your card is overheating, try the heat related solutions in this thread.

It happens during simple browsing, as well as gaming. Should I scroll in a website, the text may be distorted, or, in some instances, even become entirely glitched out. For example, there are 2 paragraphs on a page. I scroll down so that I no longer see paragraph 1, then I scroll back to it, it could contain distorted contents of paragraph 2. The text becomes so chaotic as to that the text line is slanted with a seemingly vanishing point on one side. I suppose it's attempting to become 3d...

After such an event, the ominous freeze, flash, and, thereafter, darkness.

Also, how do I save the current BIOS in my VGA? I have an ASUS HD4850 "Rock solid. Heart touching." And running Windows XP SP2

 

[taltamir]

mmm, if it happens during 2d then you seem to have a defective card. RMA it.
The heat solutions here are for people who have crashing during intense 3d gaming due to card overheating. Or people who want to prolong the life of their card.
It should not be needed for 2d browsing.

 

[User5]

Originally posted by: Elcs

Originally posted by: User5

Originally posted by: Elcs
The stock heatsink is an absolute copper monster, heatpipes and all. I am surprised at the "poor" cooling offered by it Perhaps a thin metal should would be better that plastic hmm?

Dunno, mines idling at 48c right now with the manual fan fix. Thats a few degrees cooler than what most my video cards have always been running at.

26% blended in with my PC and offered awful cooling, the fan constantly ramped up and down to keep it at 80-82C.

At 30%, it offered good cooling but became annoyingly loud for me.

HR-03 GT with Turbo Module on is silent at max speed.

I was shocked and slightly disturbed when I took apart the heatsink on my HD4870. Ill see if I took a pic.

Hmm thats really odd.. On my card, its just as silent at stock "27" as it is with "40".. and it now has LOAD temps better than its stock IDLE temps! The only time I hear it is when I put it to like 45.

 

[divinepoptart]

Originally posted by: taltamir
mmm, if it happens during 2d then you seem to have a defective card. RMA it.
The heat solutions here are for people who have crashing during intense 3d gaming due to card overheating. Or people who want to prolong the life of their card.
It should not be needed for 2d browsing.

Oh damn... how long do you figure that would take?

 

[idiotekniQues]

you can definitely hear the fan when you up it from stock to 32% or 35% or where i have it now 38% - i tried all 3. at 45% it was getting just plain rude sounding.

if you cant hear it till it gets to 45% you either have bad hearing, very loud surroundings, or the most sound dampened case.

what i really want is simply for ati to fix the firmware so this thing runs at a lower clock speed in 2d with minimal fan speeds, and ramps up during gaming where i could care less about how loud it is since im dropping nukes in WIC

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: divinepoptart

Originally posted by: taltamir
mmm, if it happens during 2d then you seem to have a defective card. RMA it.
The heat solutions here are for people who have crashing during intense 3d gaming due to card overheating. Or people who want to prolong the life of their card.
It should not be needed for 2d browsing.

Oh damn... how long do you figure that would take?

i dont know. probably a week total.

 

[DaveSimmons]

bump for a new day