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

[Mr. May]

Had this posted in the Overclocking and cooling section thought it might help some people in this section so here it is

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

 

[Tealc]

Also works on HD4890.

Idle clocks at BIOS standard 240/1050:- 245.0W (Vapor-x)

Ati Tray Tool trick 2D clocks 240/250 Idle:- 205.6W


Dropped my idle power usage by 40 watts and lowered my temps by 12 ish degrees in GPU and 4 degrees on CPU.

 

[toxicredcat]

I used to create a profile in CCC for my 4870x2. Edit the profile and set the core and memory to 300Mhz (lowest it allows) and the voltage to 0.95 for idle. Lowest possible power consumption and temperatures plus you don't need any 3rd party software.

 

[Mr. May]

post some befor and after results as iam really intreaged how well this works on the 4870x2

 

[Tealc]

CCC doesn't auto switch though does it? You'd need to set a hotkey to switch profiles. Or did I miss something?

 

[toxicredcat]

CCC doesn't auto switch though does it? You'd need to set a hotkey to switch profiles. Or did I miss something?

You just edit it idle setting for the profile you make and it will switch to your 3D settings automatically even if you overclock.

 

[Mr. May]

CCC does auto switch when its triggered ie playing games photo editing but when its idling ie surfing the web writing a document it use's the 2d clocks which are rubbish as long as you make 2 profiles in the auto overcloking seting of ATT one for 2D and 3D it will continue to switch in the same manner but also have better efficency and more power when gaming

Personaly i perfer to switch it manually some times it use the 3d clocks for silly things like watch films and looking at photos which it has enuff power to do it with the 2d clocks

 

[drunkenmaster]

I've always done this, personally I prefer to have my own settings, a profile with all idle speeds, voltages, fan speeds, and a full 3d profile, without idle settings, for the odd game where it will not hit full speeds all the time, or windowed games which often have a problem being detected as needing full speed, then a full 3d and overclocked profile, as for instance stock 5850 voltage and clocks, you could easily use 40-50W more by using the highest voltage and clocks available, and lets be honest, WoW, or the original starcraft or HL2 just doesn't need that power so its a waste.