ATI 3850/70 Maximum Overclock

[RaiderX]

Hi, as i have just got my 3870 i have clocked it as much as i could running 3dmark each time i changed the clock. the maximum i could get to bench was 890MHz on the core and 2800MHz on the memory, this is with the stock cooler and fan on 100%, no volt mods were applied to the card and i got load temps of 41c. i am posting this to see what clocks other people have got on there cards, please state cooling used, any volt mods, core clock, memory clock, and 3dmark score including individual SM2/3 scores. i will add a table when enough scores come in.

Example:

Card: Sapphire 3870 512MB
Cooling: Stock
Maximum Core: 890MHz
Maximum Memory: 2800MHz
3DMark06 Score: 13059
SM2: 5117
SM3: 5541
CPU/Clock: Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.2GHz
O/S: Windows Vista Ultimate

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=4649340

This is for both 3870s and 3850s so we can also get a comparison between the 2. table will be ordered by core clock, then memory

 

[RaiderX]

Thought the Bios's on the HD series were locked at 860Mhz...?

theres a bios update that fixes that

*snip*

was that with volt mods?

 

[RaiderX]

You sure your mem is running at 2800mhz ? that kinda overclock to me looks impossible unless using dry ice or something else exotic.

yea it was running 2800MHz, only for the bench, it was slightly unstable, stock cooler tho

 

[RaiderX]

Pretty good, can't you clock that quad a bit more ?

not when im on stock cooler

 

[RaiderX]

Can anyone link me to the Triplex BIOS updates? Can't find any so far...

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=2120791

 

[RaiderX]

my card is a 3850 made by triplex, how can I find out if I can use a standard ATI BIOS on it?

the bios update currently only applies to the 3870 cards, it will use the standard ati bios

 

[RaiderX]

well i got very poor overclocks with my card, so i updated the bios to the oficial one and no luck, i then updated to the lowest clocked one from the above site and no luck, i then upped the pci-e frequency from 100 to 100 and BANG the memory overclock increased by a megaload

without changing pci-e

Card: Sapphire 3870 512MB
Cooling: Accelero-s1 with turbo modules
Maximum Core: 830ish
Maximum Memory: 1146 or 2292 (effective)
3DMark06 Score: wont run on my vista
SM2: n/a
SM3: n/a
CPU/Clock: Core 2 Duo E6600 @ Stock with Speedstep
O/S: Windows Vista Home Pemium 64-Bit

with pci-e at 110

Card: Sapphire 3870 512MB
Cooling: Accelero-s1 with turbo modules
Maximum Core: 864
Maximum Memory: 1287 or 2574 (effective)
3DMark06 Score: wont run on my vista
SM2: n/a
SM3: n/a
CPU/Clock: Core 2 Duo E6600 @ Stock with Speedstep
O/S: Windows Vista Home Pemium 64-Bit

it has been stress tested using ati tool, rthdribl and 3dmark 03

i will run 3dmark 05 tomorrow and i found a fix for 06, i will install tomorrow and report back

if you want to get the best from your 3800 series card there are 3 steps to follow

1. fit an arctic accelero s-1 (cheap and better than watercooling in my opinion)
2. use a modded bios from here http://www.iax-tech.com/video/3800biosmod/03.htm these bios's are dogs danglies
3. try different pci-e frequencies ranging from 101 to 110, these are perfectly safe levels if your running sata drives, if you use ide drives then you can go up to 120

if the 06 problem you are having is related to openal32.dll, you can download it here http://www.openal.org/downloads.html get the windows installer and make sure you run it as admin