5850 overclocking issue??

[FreedomEclipse]

Hi guys - I just got my 5850 up & running. Im trying to overclock it but for some reason GPUtool tells me the voltage control is not supported. MSI afterburner wont let me change it either...

this is the card i got

due to some mistunderstanding in the shop they wouldnt value & give me store credit on the 5770 they were gonna give me - but on my dead 4870 which came out to £110 & I only had £120 in my pocket. that asside i still got a small discount. the 5850 i bought costs £245 but i got it for £235...

---

back to overclocking.....is there any way I could unlock the voltage controls?? I read in some posts that some people flashed their card to another brand to unlock it....


any advice would be kick ass other wise im stuck lol.

 

[erocker]

In Afterburner you need to edit the .cfg file for the value "UnofficialATiOverclocking" from 0 to 1. That's if you have a supported voltage controller on your card.

 

[unclewebb]

There is not any software available for some newer cards that use a different chip to control voltage. Some of these chips may not ever be supported or do not offer fine enough adjustment.

Have a look for a small chip about the size of a finger nail on the back side of your card near the PCI-E power connector end. Take a picture or post what model of chip that is.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

In Afterburner you need to edit the .cfg file for the value "UnofficialATiOverclocking" from 0 to 1. That's if you have a supported voltage controller on your card.

already did that.

sigh. looks like im stuck in another rut with this card

 

[digibucc]

that is non reference. only non reference cards have a cooler in the middle, it is at the back (near power) on reference 5850s
(non reference cards have no software voltage control)

the flashing to another card was the 5870 bios to 5850, to up the base clocks without using anything other than CCC in windows. otherwise keep your bios and use afterburner to accomplish the same thing.

even without voltage control you can get a decent OC from a non ref, in my experience. 899/1180 on my non ref, compared to 940/1200 on my ref, where i stopped trying anyway.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

oh well.. whats the most i can get out of a non reference??? Ive already got 800mhz on the core

 

[digibucc]

i've got mine stable in Xfire with both at 899/933.

memory clock made little difference in performance, but it was more stable with a higher core clock when memory was lower, hence 933 instead of 1100+

I have not tried to get the non ref any higher on it's own - but I doubt it would go too much higher. that's mine of course, who knows with yours! you could have a better chip that goes faster cooler... only way to tell is to test. jump it a bit and then run furmark (incl w/afterburner)

 

[FreedomEclipse]

i've got mine stable in Xfire with both at 899/933.

memory clock made little difference in performance, but it was more stable with a higher core clock when memory was lower, hence 933 instead of 1100+

I have not tried to get the non ref any higher on it's own - but I doubt it would go too much higher. that's mine of course, who knows with yours! you could have a better chip that goes faster cooler... only way to tell is to test. jump it a bit and then run furmark (incl w/afterburner)

you got those clocks WITHOUT having to tweak voltage??

 

[Tolip]

Have you tried going in in MSI afterburner settings and check the box where it says "Unlock voltage control"

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Have you tried going in in MSI afterburner settings and check the box where it says "Unlock voltage control"

already did that too

 

[FreedomEclipse]

oh well....not bad though - performs roughly about the same as my 2 superclocked 4870s but drink half as much juice.

 

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

oh well....not bad though - performs roughly about the same as my 2 superclocked 4870s but drink half as much juice.

And takes less room while producing much less heat. I'd say you're still doing well. Can always add a second one later and then you'll be laughing (hopefully laughing at crysis2).

 

[FreedomEclipse]

basically - I played around with RBE & tried to 'softmod' the bios, heres the fruit of my labour

but the scores are a bit low compared to other people of similar rigs... on the stock settings I call still pull over 20k points. but overclocked gives me roughly about 500ish more points on top.

I cant explain it - there are tests where it scores between 19 & 20k. then there are scores (like this one) that go over 20k...

 

[OnBoard]

1.1GHz I saw one non-reference review on youtube and most he got was 765MHz.

If I'm not too wrong most can't even reach that WITH voltage control. Maybe that clocks isn't really applied, you should get 5870+ scores with that?

There is sort of pencil mod for the sapphire boards, but seemed kinda hard as there isn't a resistor to pencil. But with most current 5850s boards max OC it's what you get is stock voltage. Asus and MSI has voltage tweak Sapphire, Powercolot, Club3D and XFX are the same board with no voltage. Gigabyte has own design. And then there is few random reference cards left.

Basically they made "greatest card ever" with the reference design that then went out of stock, up in price, out of stock, replaced with v2 or even v3 designs. Still same high price, but bigger power draw and half the overclocking

 

[FreedomEclipse]

well....who knows - this is pretty stable, been through 1hr of msi kombuster fullscreen & 8x AA then a load of stalker & BC2. I dont understand why my score is still low when ive modded & flashed the bios with the stable clocks.

 

[phanbuey]

because 3dmark 06 is f-ing old and doesnt measure too well anymore since it runs at a prehistoric resolution and you are CPU bound.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

even on Vantage -im pulling over 15k. - I do some more vantage runs later

 

[lyndonguitar]

oh well.. whats the most i can get out of a non reference??? Ive already got 800mhz on the core

Got the same card as you, exactly the same. Non-ref too.

check my clocks at my spec

 

[phanbuey]

what is your vantage GPU score? 1.1ghz on the core is retarded fast. you should be pulling 19+K easy on GPU and prolly 12 something on the CPU... so 15K sounds about right. do a screenie

 

[FreedomEclipse]

what is your vantage GPU score? 1.1ghz on the core is retarded fast. you should be pulling 19+K easy on GPU and prolly 12 something on the CPU... so 15K sounds about right. do a screenie

I'l post one up in a few mins.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

argh nvm... flashing it to the higher clocks might have created a conflict which the caused the card to default to its stock clocks (hence the low scores) & if lyndonrakista's clocks are anything to go by. i think my cards doomed to the same fate - I just have to admit it to myself that I cant do speeds that referance cards can do..

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I defaulted all bios settings & clocked down to 800/1200.

aparently me knobbing around with the voltage settings in the bios f**ked it right up - so heres the new clock.

(yet again - pitty its a non ref. hopefully a pencil mod might apear on the net somewhere)

 

[tbar]

(yet again - pitty its a non ref. hopefully a pencil mod might appear on the net somewhere)

Here's a link to a pencil mod.

http://www.overclock.net/ati/708571-sapphire-blue-pcb-5830-5850-5870-a.html

I haven't tested this personally so you're on your own if you fry anything
Oh how I hate the smell of ozone in the air! Smells like defeat.

I have the same card and I flashed it with the newest (4/13?) Sapphire 5870 Cypress BIOS and I get 890/1290 stable @ 62c without the risk. You won't get that much more at 1.2v and going beyond that voltage with a pencil mod is asking for trouble so why bother? I might try it some day if I run across a game I can't play at min 30fps but that day's not even close yet. Well, there it is if you just gotta have that extra bump .

Best of luck!

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Here's a link to a pencil mod.

http://www.overclock.net/ati/708571-sapphire-blue-pcb-5830-5850-5870-a.html

I haven't tested this personally so you're on your own if you fry anything
Oh how I hate the smell of ozone in the air! Smells like defeat.

I have the same card and I flashed it with the newest (4/13?) Sapphire 5870 Cypress BIOS and I get 890/1290 stable @ 62c without the risk. You won't get that much more at 1.2v and going beyond that voltage with a pencil mod is asking for trouble so why bother? I might try it some day if I run across a game I can't play at min 30fps but that day's not even close yet. Well, there it is if you just gotta have that extra bump .

Best of luck!

I eventually managed to hit 920 on the core.

I read about the bios flash & i may give it a go at some point. otherwise im fairly happy.

 

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

Nice.. how stable is it though? Can you do 3-5 loops of 3D06?

With the Q9550 there is a massive bottleneck in 3D06 for me.. I barely beat your score with my 5970