How do i Overclock a 3870

[RyanWhitell]

How do i overclock my 3870? will i need extra cooling, totally new at overclocking.

 

[thirdshiftdj]

get ati tool, move core and memory up alittle at a time and scan for artifacts.

 

[RyanWhitell]

ati tool didnt work so im using power strip, moving my clocks up and instead of scanning for artifacts im running 3dmark06 and seeing if my compter crashes, or am i an idiot. Whats scanning for artifacts? also if i am doing it right when i get to the crashing point and set it down a bit so its 100% stable will it be good then, no overheating.
what clocks should i be able to get to. my Card started at GPU 777 Mhz and MEM 1126 MHz (think this is actually 2.5 GHz but not shure because of DDR can someone explain?)

 

[RyanWhitell]

k im trying
GPU 860
Mem 1250

 

[RyanWhitell]

k power strip must suck because i changed mem to 1263 and GPU to 877 and i got about a 50 point change in 3dmark. that didn't seem worth it I must be doing something wrong, i need help.

 

[thirdshiftdj]

rivatuner. 877 is a good clock. If you go to xtremesystems they have unlocked bios there so you can clock pass that.

edit:
Gigabyte HD3870 MOd Unlocked | 900/2100Mhz AiR cooled - XtremeSystems Forums
they have tons of info on the 3870

 

[commandercup]

you can't expecct incredible gains in 3DMARK06 scores by just overclocking your GPU... little increases means little increases in scores.... 50 points is quite a lot to gain

anyways, are you sure ATI Tool isn't working? do you have the latest version or is your card just not supported?

also, its not always safe to just run a program and hope it doesn't crash your pc... you need to be monitoring temperatures and checking for actual stability

artifacts are little problems on your screen such as small white pixels that show up when your GPU is having problems, when you overclock too much, the picture that shows up on your screen may tear, pixelate, get artifacts etc. that is an indication your card is not getting enough voltage or is getting too hot

 

[veg1992]

hey its commandercup!

long time no see dude!!

first I'll answer your questions:

a. the hd3870 has pretty good cooling, and it overclocks well even with the stock cooler
b. thirdshiftdj has shown an excellent unlocked bios for your video card, so you can increase it as much as you want (as long as you don't over do it)
c. don't expect a high gain just by oc'ing a little

 

[commandercup]

hey mate

stopped messing with my PC for a while lol, but I'm back

anyways, btw, don't double/triple post, against the rules and its harder to read other people's posts

 

[veg1992]

its not so bad compared to the Quadruple and Quintuple posts he used to make when he had build questions

also did the HD3870 BIOS work?