How to save about 40w and drop 20 degrees from a HD4870

Mr. May

Mr. May

Mr. May

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Just been doing some experamenting with my 4870 and this is what happend

okay made a start on the 2d clocks managed to drop my 19-20 degrees from idle was 65 now its down to a cool 45 this is how

1st off you'll need to download ati tray tool link below as this version will let you change the voltages and memory clocks no problem

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=733

2nd once installed set the program to run as an administator and give it UAC conformation then go down to to tray right click on ati tray tool on your task bar go to hardware > overclocking settings

3rd you'll want to have gpu-z just to check it against but in the overclocking section you'll want to change the following settings in this order

[Voltages] from 1.263v - 1.143v (i tried 1.083v but my pc kept crashing on start up)

[Core speed] 500mhz - 450mhz

[Memory speed] at the top where it says values there will be a little box called show as DRR check this box and change the setting from 2880-900 which is effectivly 225mhz vs the original 900mhz

4th save this as a profile called 2d clocks and tick the 'load selected profile at startup' and save

5th in the overclocking opition there will be another tab called 'fan' go into this and this is manly down to user prefence but if your not bothered about the heat my card with the CCC auto fan was idling at 63 at only 3%-4%fan speed but the settings i've used are

temp fan speed%
40 20
50 25
60 30
70 35
80 42
85 50
90 80
100 90

Thats it for the 2d clocks now

now to set your 3d clocks and squeeze some more perfomance out off your card

1st go back to the Hardware > overclocking settings and set voltage to 1.268v and download fur mark and keep increaseing the core settings from default by 10mhz and running furmark to test for stabability in till it becomes unstable

2nd repaet above with the memory speed till you get your highest stable speeds

3rd un tick the 'load selected profile at startup' and save this prfolie as your 3d clocks

4th close the overlocing window and go back to Hardware > Auto overclocking there will be a little box named 'enable auto 2d/3d overclocking' tick the box and load the apropriate profile for each setting hopefully this should save you about 40w power draw in idle and will run a lot cooler mine has droped a full 20 degrees @ 20% fan speed

hope this guide has helped
 
Thanks for this.

I was running MSI Afterburner to run a lower clock profile but was restricted to a memory downclock to only 790 on my HD4890 Vapor-x. The 4890 has better stock power saving mode than the 4870 I think because it already downclocks Core to 240 in 2D mode.

I have it now running at 240 Core /250 Memory in 2D mode thanks to this little guide. Had a few crashes and reboots along the way, but that's part of the fun.

Was
2D 240/790
3D 905/1060
Idle at 60 degrees 30% fan (if lucky)

Now
2D 240/250
3D 905/1060
Idle at 52 degrees 30% fan

Low airflow in my case. Would expect lower temps if I liked to have lots of noise.

No idea how much energy saved in my case, but every little helps. :)
 
No Worrys been messing about with my 3d clocks got 800mhz core 975mhz on the memory @ 1.203v maxing at 70 with 35% fan well happy and all the VDDC's are not going past 90 this card is impressing more each day lol
 
No wonder the 4890 gets toasty, it's standard voltage is 1.313

Good thing they are rated to go over 100 degrees otherwise I'd need to underclock to run 3D.
 
try droping the voltage under the 3d profile one setting and see what oc you can get as it will lower the heat of it a lot more and let you push the clocks higher due to lower temps ;)
 
48xx cores are stable down to 160mhz. That should enable it to run with 1.083V.

Did the same thing on my old 4870 with Ati Tray Tools and had my 2d clocks at 160/225 at 1.083V with auto 2d/3d switching.
 
Nice one. Did this a little while ago myself. Have dropped my clocks from :

Core gpu clock 507 down to 255 mhz ; the memory clock was 500 mhz, now 250.

End result is that even in this weather the hottest of the two gpu's idles at between low and high 40's C, fan set to 29%. :)
 
Mr. May said:
try droping the voltage under the 3d profile one setting and see what oc you can get as it will lower the heat of it a lot more and let you push the clocks higher due to lower temps ;)
Click to expand...

Hmm next voltage option is 1.183, quite a ways down from 1.313.

I also have a lower voltage available of 0.923 instead of 1.053 for use in 2D settings, will fiddle with that later/tomorrow.
 
I am glad its been a help people as i found the other guides to be a little over complicated for what they where illl post some more results when i get some after market cooling and thinking off pencil modding it just to see how much you can really squeeze out off these gpu's as for the price they are selling at atm its a deal to good to miss on! :D

Tealc : you could try setting a new 3d voltage through your bios that should get you the best possible results
 
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Mr. May said:
Tealc : you could try setting a new 3d voltage through your bios that should get you the best possible results
Click to expand...

That's true, I could do that. Thanks.

I've already fiddled with the BIOS once to attempt this lowering of clocks but that ended badly with a nasty flickering.

Still I'm very happy with the 2D results so far. So much in fact I fancy getting one of those Watt meters to check how much money I'm saving.
 
Hey I've got a 4870 and am trying this, One problem though, I cant seem to take the slider any further down than 600MHz on the core any ideas?
 
Tealc : i was thinking the same thing as the heat and power consumption are the only down side's i can see with this card

simbady : have you tried reseting it to a stock setting applying it then trying to lower it again ? and be sides lowering the core really does save much heat or power as most of its from the GDDR5 ram
 
I found that I needed to choose the DDR option as explained in the first post to downclock the GDDR significantly. For some reason the lower value you can set changes between the two modes.

Mr May- If the 40W saving is to believed then it'd take quite a big if time to save the purchase price if one off those watt meters. But meh, it'd come in handy around the house and with it plugged into the tumble dryer it might even scare the missus from using it all the time.

Edit: Seems that this has also dropped my CPU idle temperature by a couple of degrees too. I noticed the Grfx card radiated quite a bit of heat from the top side, maybe this is slightly less now and doesn't heat my HSF so much. Bonus?
 
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simbady said:
Hey I've got a 4870 and am trying this, One problem though, I cant seem to take the slider any further down than 600MHz on the core any ideas?
Click to expand...

If you are using ATT then in the general settings iirc there are overclocking limits set by default. Just untick and all restrictions should be removed.

Can't remember exactly where it is now that I've switched cards but the option should be around there.

Tealc said:
I've already fiddled with the BIOS once to attempt this lowering of clocks but that ended badly with a nasty flickering.
Click to expand...

If you changed the memory clock then thats why you get the flickering.

As it was ATI's first usage of GDDR5 when powerplay came in to change memory clocks the screen would flicker therefore all the manufacturer bioses did not downclock the memory. Using ATT you only get one flick when changing the memory clock as it locks it to 2d or 3d mode while powerplay just bounces around between states.
 
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yes it should work for crossfire

Tealc : it was the reason i done it because off all the heat in this weather and putting the 4870 in was making my cpu idle about 4-5 degrees higher when i swapped the gfx cards
 
thanks for this guide managed to drop 10 degrees off the card.

but does anyone have an idea how i can get ati tray tools to load on startup on win7, because it has keeps coming up with the usually message from UAC "are you sure you want to let this program.....".



cheers.........
 
I turned UAC off, I got by without it on XP so felt the constant nagging screens were rather unnecessary and annoying.
 
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