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Ehi thanks Turrican

Tonight we did our last run with the 4870 and finally came the WR at 3DM01!! We met with Coolbits, we brought his CPU and togheter we worked out this 124,4K! As you can see from the frequencies, the card is almost degraded, probably the chokes are gone. So there was plenty of room for improvement but the time was little so we didn't manage to pass the 125K mark, but we're happy as well. Here is the screen: Finally a run at Aqua, bad efficiency, but the strange fact is that the VGA performs better, speaking about max frequencies... probably it's because Aqua is lighter that 3DM01.

So, on the left is the news overclockers league, on the right the teams league? The rankings changes in team ranks are already referring to the rev4 or the "+1, -1" is referred to the current ranking? In that case, it seems that, there isn't such a big revolution in team rankings, if I'm not mistaken.

i'm using the official F3, but I tried also F2b, my friend Mafio tried F3d: nothing changes between them. The biggest problem, anyway, is that you can't POST at any bclk above 101MHz, so you need to enter the bios, set for example 52x101 (with 2133MHz ram multiplier of course), save and exit, set 101,5x52, save and exit, then 102x52 etc...etc... until you get in the 106/107 area, suitable to bench. Remember, never shut down, only reset, because if you try to shut down you can't POST, you'll need to clear cmos and re-start with the loop I described above. If someone has other solutions to this issue, it'll be welcome, but this is what I found with the last bioses, no matter what of them you use, the problem is still there

Ehi mate, how about doing an ocp mod? Nobody vmodded a 4870 with your pcb? p.s.: what is this, Panda Invasion?

Update here: As I said, we just did another run with the 4870 with a better cpu, the goal was to set the new category WR, but we couldn't beat RedCobra's score of 121.527! Anyway, we reached 2nd spot, with the vga now@1110/1100! http://hwbot.org/community/submission/2159077_aoc_3dmark2001_se_radeon_hd_4870_120408_marks RedCobra said he's going to put his 4870@ln2, so it would be interesting to find out what he'll manage to get! We absolutely need a cpu like the one he has (approx. 150mhz better than ours).

Quote for that. And for the old motherboards, I want to remember that DFI mobos were named "lanparty", with a super-uber audio Karajan something on an external pcb, a BIG bundle with the bag with which one gamer could bring along his PC to reach gaming events etc... The fact that those mobos were ALSO used by us is an addiction... but we were paying at least a 20/30% more for things that we never ever used. So, chapeau to gigabyte and I agree with what Pieter is saying: this is the first OC board (they can improve it, ok, but it's a good start!) because it's built with our needs in mind. So we can buy a mobo that overclocks like a enthusiast gamers mobo (like the REX3), by paying less.

I'm posting my team point of view about SB. We haven't money to buy 980x/gtx580 etc... so we went through a nightmare in 2010, we couldn't keep the first italian position in team rankings, because everybody else was benching with 980x/gtx480/5870CF etc...etc... Yes, we gathered points, of course, but only little scores here and there, with a 975 at 5,3GHz at war with 6+GHz 980x. Globals not available for 3D section, because if you haven't the top VGA available on the market, you simply can't arrive to the first spots. So, true, SB is waaaaaay easier to overclock than Bloomfield, but it's even priced at 1/3 comparing to a 980x, so that teams like mine could come back in benching, hoping to obtain something good! In fact, in the last 3 months, we earned roughly 700pts in 2D and 3D! Just an example, a few days ago I benched my 4870... as you can see here: http://hwbot.org/hardware/videocard/radeon_hd_4870?tab=rankings#/manufacturer.rankings.do?applicationId=1&manufacturer=ati&hardwareTypeId=GPU_1361&hardwareType=GPU&tabid=gpubenchmarks if you select "1x", you'll see that AOC is in 18th place... I have the highest frequency but not a good 2600K... People in top5 have a good vga and also good CPUs. So your question about "Noobs clockers using SB on air, owning skilled people that use LN2 since years" is quite wrong I think, because even skilled people can buy one of them, bench it and do pwnage on the results of the so-called "n00bs" As Pieter just said, optimization and tweaks aren't something that everyone who's buying a 2600K knows. So someone who's skilled and someone who's not, if both of them buy the same cpu, surely the first one will get better scores (supposing the cpus run at a comparable frequency of course ). The problem is with the 980x, because someone who can't buy one, is completely out of the competition. So my thought about SB is that, even taking in account all the problems of this platform/architecture, it is finally a breeze of fresh air for overclocking for non-supported people!

Rofl, I see Pieter is paying hard the April Fool's joke he did :D :asd:

Hi rbuass, as Pieter was saying in another topic, Richbastard had to re-write some parts of Rev4 code, so it's under development

Hi bob, it'll be a though task to beat RedCobra, GHZ and Kal-El scores, but at least we'll try 120K is an awesome score

No OCP till now Don't ask me why, I used high voltages and frequencies so I thought that soon I would be blocked by OVP/OCP but... nothing. Yeah, on the 4890s you can go very high with the freqs, we have a 4890 Vapor-X that can do 1080+MHz on air, really impossible for 4870s. This is our non-reference blue PCB: Those crappy chokes are BOILING! @K404: thanks! We MUST find another 5,6+GHz 2600K

Hi Sam, given that there are only 3 people at 1100mhz in 4870 category and 13 for the 4850s, I think that the complexity resides in Gddr5 management for the GPU or to be more precise, for the MC inside the GPU. In fact, in our early session (it was like 2 years ago, prior to put this vga in the shelf to dedicate to other stuff ), we couldn't reach more than 1030mhz. 2 weeks ago we completed the vmods by doing VDDQ and Vdimm. I think that Vddq is the key: by having it at a higher voltage than stock, it gave to the GPU the extra stability needed to go up to 1,1GHz 2 pics of the card in action:

Hi guys, we're currently working on this Sapphire HD4870, the goal was to set all the italian hw category records but I'm posting this because, even if it's an old VGA, it still gives us a lot of fun and because of the crazy GPU frequencies reached! This is the screen, taken at the very last thermos of LN2 (the score could be improved by tweaking the OS, this is just a fresh installation with a crappy 2600K): http://hwbot.org/community/submission/2149422_aoc_3dmark2001_se_radeon_hd_4870_112592_marks As you can see on hwbot, 1,1GHz GPU is something that only hipro, pofigist and m4nol reached, wow! We did a run even at 1110MHz, but the score decreased due probably to high temps or low voltage (1,6v idle, 1,64v full), but we had no more LN2 to improve it. I hope to be back soon with some 115k+ 01 runs, this VGA deserves it!

LOL@Pt1t disapproving :D

Somewhere in Europe, in a far far away galax.. ehr... country, Pieter was looking at the public presentation of the X58A-OC: "WTF, USB3 advertising?!?"

...meanwhile, inside Marketing Man's head: "Wow, what's that crap mobo... it doesn't have nothing interesting to speak about! It should be something like low low low end mobo... allright let's see... WAIT it has usb3 ports! Here it is, finally something, on this silly mobo, to speak about!" :D

quote for you

Mmhh I think we have at least 2 good examples of well organized comps: - MSI MOA 2011 France: http://www.cowcotland.com/topic5762.html - Gigabyte GOOC National Qualifiers India 2010: http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Gigabyte_Announces_GOOC_2010_Competition/551-110916-581.html In the first case, I think that HW restrictions are too tight... they could allow to use SB because the higher priced CPU is the 2600K and it costs about 300euros, not 900/1000. The good point is that they selected 2D benchmarks only, pulling away the "vga problem" as I was saying in the previous post. In the second case I think that: # No i7 Gulftowns and i7 OR i5 based Xeons. # No engineering samples may be used. these two restrictions are clear as water, simply to apply and they permit also to have a wider range of partecipating users! So, my suggestions are based on a "mix" between those two comps: - No ES, no extreme CPUs (so, no Gulftowns and Xeons) - for the 3D section: HW restriction to the second or third performing VGA by ATi or Nvidia (so, today, GTX560 or HD6870) That way, overclocking an i7 950/960 is quite the same than a 980x, the "platform" is an X58 board. The VGA is taken from the same architecture and generation of the top performing available on the market, but it costs a half. If you're good in Vmodding, cooling down with LN2, optimizing the O.S., then I think you're ready to go and represent your country even if you'll be using top end HW given by MSI... You deserved that partecipation to the next international stage if you have beaten guys (with HW restrictions) that also had experiences with gtx580 and 980x! p.s: oh, and one last thing... hosting website should NOT be someone who takes part in the competition. It's weird I think...

The "average joe" can qualify and go straight to the live national event... here, if he doesn't know what LN2 is, he will be beaten by the other guys who will then go on to the european stage. Your thought is correct Pieter, but the fact is that we have a lot of experience with LN2 (almost 4 years now), but we simply can't buy high end hardware like 990x and gtx580 (I wrote "we", but I think that there are other people with the same problem arount the world ) So we couldn't enter the competition, but an "average joe", with a good liquid cooling system and a 990x+gtx580, yes. We can put under ln2 our 2600K, our 5870, but there's no way to beat a 5ghz 980x and a beast like the 580 at 3DM11. That is simply unfair I think.

I don't know what to think about MOA... here in italy, there was an online qualification session, the benches were 3dm11 and PI 32M, no hardware limits, no cooling limits, and the same website that hosts the competition also takes part to the qualifications with their clockers... Me and my team, simply didn't take part in the qualifications, because we don't have a 980x, a gtx580 etc, so we were forced off that competition because we don't have loads of cash to buy top end hardware. I proposed to adopt rules similar to France qualifications, with limited frequencies etc... it would have been more fair for everybody that doesn't have a 2.500euros rig to see who are the best clockers in tweaks and optimizations. Theid said (the hosting overclocking website) to ask directly to MSI, because they didn't have any role in writing the rules. So, here we are! Maxi, I explained the situation we have Italy that it's quite different from you... do you think you can "merge" and add also our country to the petition, to see some changes for the next years?

Hey stasio, I didn't see those links in the past posts or they popped up right now? In the first case sorry, it's my fault, in the second case, we'll try this new 1502 probably tomorrow night, and thanks

I think that Asus forgot to have also P8P67 series mobos and not only the M4E

"Wow, Finally I'm in homepage with a dedicated news! :D" "Ok Francesco, but it's not related to oc results..." "Shut Up, I'm in first page I said" :D Jokes apart, it was really a good time, I was in the overclocking hobby since 2003 or so, but in 2006 I started to use Dry ice and in 2007 LN2. This screenshot was made because, after weeks of work, I succeded in doing Vmods on an Asrock 4core that came with Conroe support (extremely fast cpus in february 2007), DDR1 and DDR2 slots, PCI-EX and AGP slot. So I put my shining E6600, a Mushkin DDR2 kit and this Full-modded 9800XT by Powercolor and here are the results! The cpu was limited so 2,9ghz because of the mobo that couldn't manage FSB higher that roughly 300mhz; liquid cooling on chipset. It was an honor to be "on top" of Macci and Oppainter, even if they used a Dothan or an AMD FX57 I think... but they had 100+°c of advantage using LN2 instead of Dryce

Great bench session and great eating session I see Really funny video