Sapphire HD4830 shows 800 Shaders

[pointykitty]

I just purchased a Sapphire HD4830 and have checked using the current production 0.2.8 gpu-z and the test build from the test build forum, and both are showing 800 shaders:

The default clocks are those of a 4830. Do I have an mismarked and underclocked 4850? Or is gpu-z getting erroneous information from the BIOS? I'm also interested in how gpu-z gets the hardware information. I first heard about gpu-z from the stories about the initial batch of HIS cards with the non-production BIOS under-reporting the shaders, so I assumed that the info comes straight from the BIOS.

 

[niko084]

Interesting...

 

[spearman914]

Hmm. Isn't suppose to be 1200 shaders?

 

[pointykitty]

Interesting...

Agreed. I upped the clocks to default 4850 clocks using Overdrive and I saw extremely occasional and slight graphics corruption while playing HL2 E2. I reduced the memory to the clock shown in the screenshot and have seen no corruption in a few hours of gameplay. I think the memory could really use heatsinks. I have a feeling the core could crank up significantly, but I just don't need to stress it for the games and resolutions I'm playing at the moment.

 

[pointykitty]

Hmm. Isn't suppose to be 1200 shaders?

No, it should be 640.

 

[spearman914]

No, it should be 640.

Dam i'm blind. I was reading hd4830x2 and I'm so dumb i forgot it wasn't released.

 

[suraswami]

No, it should be 640.

Best way to find out is to run 3DMark and compare what W1z got. Taking out CPU out of the calculation you should get an idea whats going on.

 

[pointykitty]

Best way to find out is to run 3DMark and compare what W1z got. Taking out CPU out of the calculation you should get an idea whats going on.

Good point. I guess I need to obtain 3dMark06. Stay tuned.

 

[wolf2009]

hmm... interesting .. ...


but i'm not going to get my hopes up,

its a bug most likely

 

[pointykitty]

hmm... interesting .. ...


but i'm not going to get my hopes up,

its a bug most likely

Honestly, that's what I think as well. The 4830s have a separate driver download from the 48xx series at the moment, and the fan speed/control on this Sapphire doesn't show up in the 8.10 catalyst control panel. Currently it starts running full (loudish) speed whenever the card hits 35c, cools it down to 31 and shuts off. edit: gpu-z doesn't reflect fan speeds at all.

 

[pointykitty]

Ah, mystery solved. Whilst waiting for 3dmark to download I searched for W1z's thread about his 4830 tests and he linked a newer gpu-z which shows 640 shaders:

'Twas likely a bug in reading the register containg this info. Sorry to get anyone's hopes up. His thread regarding the 4830 is still interesting reading:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=74477&highlight=4830

 

[christof139]

Great card for its price. Chris

 

[pointykitty]

Great card for its price. Chris

It is, I'm very happy with it so far. Hopefully with the next driver update I'll get some fan control through the catalyst control center and I think I'll be set.

 

[afa3]

pointykitty - I accidentally found that Catalyst 8.11 will give some manual control over the 4830 fan speed. It's probably not what you want, however.

I also have the Sapphire HD 4830. I also like it, but would like to tone down the idle fan speed. My case temp runs 35C+, so the fan is on all the time and as you know, it isn't quiet.

I downloaded 8.11, not realizing that it apparently doesn't support the 4830. When the driver didn't install, I assumed something was messed up, so I forced Vista to install the 8.11 4800 series driver anyway.

Then CCC 8.11 showed the manual fan speed control in Overdrive. Minimum value is 20%, however, so it doesn't help to lower idle speed. If you manually edit the profile .xml file, it just ignores anything less than 20%. It's also a constant setting, so it doesn't let you dial in a new profile, just set a constant speed.

Since the 8.11 install, I reinstalled the 8.10 driver again, then 8.11 again to do some more experimenting. At the moment, CCC doesn't show the fan control in Overdrive, but editing the .xml will set it. Probably re-installing CCC 8.11 would bring the Overdrive GUI control back, but I don't really need it.

 

[pointykitty]

@afa3

Yeah, my fan cycles on and off every few minutes. It's slightly obnoxious but I can live with it for now. That's interesting about the xml file. I didn't think about profiles in CCC as I've never used them before. I guess setting that wouldn't help with idle times anyway since it would only activate with overdrive during a 3d session? I think I'll wait for 8.12 and see if they include the 4830 and what can be done there. Otherwise maybe ATI Tray Tools could help with setting a fan profile.

 

[1/2 bent]

Mine still shows 800 with gpu-z 0.2.8.0 Is there another version??