Have a few questions on 3870 cards.

[HTC]

My Sapphire HD3870 doesnt overclock at all..
But im getting a new cooler tomorrow or the day after and hopefully it will run faster than stock. ;-)
It runs at about 95 degrees celcius full load with the stock cooler.. :-(

I've got my Sapphire HD3870 to run @ 904 / 1233, using rivatunner and also increasing the fan speed, as suggested, on stock cooler, but i only OC my card for bench only: it's usually @ stock speeds.

 

[ShadowFold]

Get a HIS with IceQ3. then there would be no need for an aftermarket cooler I had my HIS 3850 at 819mhz and it stayed pretty cool(35c idle, 50c load.)

 

[DanishDevil]

Yeah, the HIS IceQ3 coolers are legit!

 

[asb2106]

I've heard good things about the Diamonds.

The HIS cards are awesome.

Eh, they are ok. If you read over some other HD3000 series you will see they are hit and miss. Ive heard of some that can clock 860 or higher, and others that cannot break 830.

GECUBE cards are pretty hard to find(I think COMPUSA has some), those clock awesome. My GECUBE could run 904 on the core and 1424 on the memory. Great great card. Only problem is if you have troubles with it, you have to ship it to Taiwan to RMA it.

I currently have 2 sapphire toxic cards, I can run both at 885 core and 1300 memory. I am going to hard mod both of the cards probably this weekend, and bump the voltage. I know the toxic cooler seems small and almost useless, but I ran 70% fan speed(not silent, but not loud) and @ 885 it ran 35 idle and 52 load. To me thats plenty of cooling.

Back to the HIS, it does have good cooling, but you are taking a risk if it will OC easily. If thats not your biggest concern, then I wouldnt worry!

 

[InnocentCriminal]

I'm getting the PowerColour 3850 AGP, I've had PowerColour and Sapphire cards before. Both seemed to be exactly the same, just the stock cooling on my Sapphire was crap. However, the PowerColour I'm getting has a Zalman type cooler compared to the standard crap Sapphire has. I'm talking about the AGP 'ere.

^^

 

[ShadowFold]

I'm getting the PowerColour 3850 AGP, I've had PowerColour and Sapphire cards before. Both seemed to be exactly the same, just the stock cooling on my Sapphire was crap. However, the PowerColour I'm getting has a Zalman type cooler compared to the standard crap Sapphire has. I'm talking about the AGP 'ere.

^^

Doesnt HIS have a AGP 3850 with Iceq3?

 

[asb2106]

I'm getting the PowerColour 3850 AGP, I've had PowerColour and Sapphire cards before. Both seemed to be exactly the same, just the stock cooling on my Sapphire was crap. However, the PowerColour I'm getting has a Zalman type cooler compared to the standard crap Sapphire has. I'm talking about the AGP 'ere.

^^

Powercolor does use good cooling! I didnt buy my cards for cooling though, the stock coolers stayed on for about 20 minutes of run time, just to make sure they worked fine. Then I bolted up the water coolers. I bought them based on the reviews of OCing that I read on newegg. I normally dont go by their reviews, everyone there is a computer expert, but the people that posted their results gave good reviews and went into good detail.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Doesnt HIS have a AGP 3850 with Iceq3?

They do indeed.

 

[trt740]

how about the asus cards from what I read they use samsung memory. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121217

 

[trt740]

I've heard good things about the Diamonds.

The HIS cards are awesome.

I seen in the reviews they don't work well with MF motherboards thats strange since it's at crossfire board?

 

[trt740]

you know I am just gonna go geforce they have a 8800 gts 512mb for 199.00 after a rebate. Thats ten dollars more and about 30 percent performance gain until amds new cards come out. Plus I will sell the game.

 

[sneekypeet]

Can you give a link to some pictures for the pencil mod for the 3870. I've got one coming tomorrow.

Its just about scrubbing some lead from the pencil on the r1222 , until the correct resistance is found. Pics of where to locate r1222 are found here!

If you need more help than that, shoot me a PM and I can try to help you more.

 

[asb2106]

you know I am just gonna go geforce they have a 8800 gts 512mb for 199.00 after a rebate. Thats ten dollars more and about 30 percent performance gain until amds new cards come out. Plus I will sell the game.

I do not disagree there whatsoever. at 199 bucks that card is a great!great deal.

That is a really fast card that will put the 3870 to shame. I wanted to get one a month or so ago but they were still 300 bucks, and that wasnt worth it for me. If I was buying a card now, I would get the GTS in a heart beat.