Guesses Please: What speeds do you think a B-Grade 7870 will reach?

[555BUK]

The card has already been received so I know the answers, but how far would you estimate an OcUK sourced B-Grade Gigabyte Windforce X3 7870 will clock with stability?

Here is the card in question.

I won't give any hints until I get a dozen or so estimates. The closest person gets a Kudos award.
edit: Well done to psychodil for guessing really close.

Guess GPU and VRAM max in the following format
SAMPLE - stock speed shown for reference
GPU: 1100MHz
VRAM: 1200MHz (4800).

 

[555BUK]

£149

 

[555BUK]

Would like to know, as I just ordered the last one from the clearance page!

What accessories were missing from the box? Did it come with the free games by any chance?

I'll guess GPU: 1280, VRAM: 5800? - worried its gonna be zero overclock tho lol

All accessories included, plus card and box look like new (apart from already being opened). No games.

 

[555BUK]

Teaser:

Here is a STOCK 7970 for comparison.

 

[555BUK]

I'll guess 1325/1550

You got one correct.

edit: oh well, here's the results.

Best completely stable results are 1325MHz core @ 1.3v and 1500MHz mem. On stock volts the GPU goes to 1250MHz. I can benchmark Heaven at 1360MHz and 3DMark11 at 1375MHx, but the card is far from stable at these speeds. The memory appears stable up until 1575MHz, but benchmark scores decrease indicating some error correction.

Here is another Heaven (showing background) and 3DMark11 bench @ 1325/1500.

I was expecting a B-Grade card to be a poor clocker, have coil whine, a noisy fan, or be in some way belmished. This one is the exact opposite. I am well happy.

..just a shame it cannot match one of my 7850's that got to 1400MHz for benches.

 

[555BUK]

ASIC quality is 84%, which matched exactly with the ASIC quality of my "golden" 7850. Seems 84 is my lucky number. All of the other 7800's I have tested have had lower ASIC's (60's and 70's) and clocked significantly lower.

Clock for clock, the 7870's seem about 5-10% faster than 7850's. Heaven seems the best case scenario for the 7870, so if you are on a budget get a 7850.

At 1325/1500 speeds, these cards edge out stock 7970's on similar systems. Of course the 7970's clock much higher as well, and they will also have the edge at higher resolutions, but within most games at reasonable resolutions you wouldn't notice any difference.

 

[555BUK]

Why do you buy so many cards 555BUK?

I have a mini PC factory in my garage. I build systems for friends, family, people at work. At the moment 7850's are my preferred choice of graphics card, but I spotted the B-Grade 7870 for the same price and decided to try that instead. I think that I have now installed and tested 6x 7850's, 2x 7970's, 1x 7870, 1x 7950 and several 7770's from AMD's 7 series lineup. Many people are happy with just the vanilla HD graphics offered by Intel's CPU's, but for those who want to game the 7850 is very popular. I build all of my systems for free, but I reserve the right to cheery pick the best parts for myself.

Only problem with the Windforce 7870 is that it doesn't fit onto an Asus Maimus V Gene motherboard due to the graphics cards extended heatsink hitting the SATA ports. I had to take a dremel to one corner of the heatsink, so it's just as well the card worked. The Windforce X3 is a great cooler for this card, perhaps being overkill for such an effficient GPU.

 

[555BUK]

I'm telling you mate ASIC means didly squat!!
I have two 670's with 100% ASIC and compared to others with lower ASIC quality I get an average overclock.

Nice o/c though, enjoy your cards
B Grade is always a gamble, you just got lucky.

There is no such thing as a 100% ASIC. Your 670 is simply being read incorrectly by GPU-Z and it is your 100% reading that means diddly squat. All 670's read as 100% so the measurement is a moot point for your card.

On the other hand I agree that high ASIC's (where the measurement can really be taken) do not gurantee high overclocks, but in my experience they make it more likely. ASIC is basically a measurement of leakage. Higher ASIC values mean the GPU requires less voltage to run at normal operating speeds. 7850's for example run by the following voltage table (I do not exact boundaries, but theay are roughly correct).

7850 ASIC/Voltage table
ASIC <70% = 1.218v
ASIC 70-80% = 1.138v to 1.176v
ASIC >80& = 1.075V

For 7870's the table is almost always 1.218v, irrespective of ASIC.

Now, a card that can run stock settings at a lower voltage will create less heat and SHOULD overclock better. Nothing is guaranteed however because the GPU is not the only component that dictates headroom. PCB components, power supply and other factors also contibute.

but, ALL of my 7800 series cards have overclocked roughly in line with their ASIC values.

 

[555BUK]

Congrats, mine has 84.7% ASIC but overclocking either does nothing or makes performance worse. It's either my PSU or a compatibility issue somewhere.

Which program are you using to overclock? I find Sapphire's Trixx software to be the most reliable for AMD 7 series cards. It is quite basic, but it works well enough.

 

[555BUK]

Tried them all, I've only tried the new beta drivers so it could be them.

I suggest the following.
i). Download the latest official Cat 12.8 drivers. Do NOT install yet.
ii). Download a program called Driver Sweeper and install.
iii). Uninstall old drivers from Control Panel.
iv). Restart Windows into Safe Mode.
v). Run Driver Sweeper from Safe Mode and clean AMD/ATI/NVidia files.
vi). Reboot into normal Windows.
vii). Install Cat 12.8 drivers.
viii). Try to overclock.

AMD love leaving junk from previous driver installs in the registry. Driver cleaner gets rid of the mess.

 

[555BUK]

You make me wish that I had bought one.
Was holding out on a 7950 once I get a bit more cash but it sounds like a decent clocked 7870 would be more than enough at 1080.

I have a v gene as well. Could you not have used a different sata port or used a right angled connector for it? Makes think it could be a issue with all cards of that side.

It is not the SATA cables which are the problem. The ports themselves and the size of the heatsink prevents the card from slotting into the pci-e slot. You will either need to mod the cooler, break off two SATA ports, or install another cooler to get it to work.

Don't buy this gard for a Maximus Gene V unless you are prepared to mod things. Most full sized mobos will be fine, but not this MATX board.

 

[555BUK]

Interesting thread.

I've got a B grade 7870 on the way. My first forray away from nvidia so will be on a bit of a learning curve. So my first question, of which there is bound to be a few in the coming weeks, is how do you get the measure for ASIC ?

Hope I get as good a card as yours OP

You need to download a tool called GPU-Z, then right click on the top left green icon to read ASIC Quality. It is a complete raffle, so good luck.

 

[555BUK]

Old copies of Driver Sweeper can be found easily enough by Googling.

The length of the card is about 11 inches in total. The heatsink overhangs the pcb by about 1 inch at the end. The problem with it is that it sits very low in comparison to the bottom of the card. I think most ATX mobos will be fine, but many MATX mobos may have issues with SATA ports preventing proper seating into the pci-e slot.

I had to cut a 1 inch x half inch chunk off of the bottom left heatsink corner in the pic below. It does not affect performance, but I didi invalidate my 90 day B-Grade warranty.

 

[555BUK]

Nice

I got a 3DM-11 Graphics Score of 7535 @ 1245 / 1500

And 1604 In heaven @ 1220 / 1500

My ASIC is 78.8

Anyone who gets 1200MHz+ on a 7850/7870 has got to be happy. They provide a hell of a lot of performance for the money. I think anything below 1150 can be counted as disappointing, but every extra MHz above that is a nice bonus. You are pushing 7950-7970 scores for Heaven and 3DMark11.

 

[555BUK]

Humbug ran a comparison for you matching your speeds 1220 / 1500 with a score of - 1604.

1220 Core 1500 Memory on a 7970 comes up at - 2094

Wow, 7970 with 60% more shaders, 50% higher memory bandwidth and ~65% price premium, running at same speeds, and the poor little 7870 is only 23.5% slower within the most shader intensive benchmark available. Bar-humbug.

 

[555BUK]

I had to down clock the memory from 1700 though.

@1215/1700



I agree though, not a lot in it.

My £149 7870 @ 1325MHz/1500 (24/7 clocks) is only 20.3% slower than that. I can run a balls out bench at 1355MHz/1550MHz but this is very far from stable. But I am sure at much higher resolutions the 7970 would pull away.

 

[555BUK]

Hi

So I got my B grade Gigabyte 7870 .. installed all fine, no problems.

Installed 12.8 drivers and gpu-z. ASIC of 88.3

Ran Heaven benchmark at stock speeds/voltages with result of 1425.

So what now... do I need afterburner to start playing ? Should I jump straight to 1200/1300 ?

please tell me if this is off topic and I should start a new thread

Thanks

That's a great ASIC. If you are lucky, 1300MHz+ should be possible at 1.3v. I suggest you download and install Afterburner, set volts to 1.275v and try 1250MHz to begin with. If that fails, lower MHz or increase voltage.

I ordered mine the evening before you guys.