Going crazy with the 5450

[minx]

1. Intro

I recently finished my personal project to build a decent pc for absolutely no money. To do that i "robbed" several local Hardware dumps. What i got was:

Mobo: 939NF6G-VSTA
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 2,4GHz
Memory: 2GB (DDR3/400 Kingston HyperX)
GPU: Onboard GeForce (256M i think...)
...and a ****load of HDDs

Not bad for 0€. Well, i figured out that the GeForce might not be as powerful as i want it to be, and since it's a integrated card, there is no oc ability at all.

I thought myself: A mid-End GPU might be enough to fulfill my needs. So i bought a Sapphire 5450 (1GB) from Amazon for about 15€. The cards specs are:

GPU: Cedar, 40nm, 650 MHz
Mem: 667 MHz
Cooling: passive
Special: OpenCL, DirectX 11.0

I needed a OpenCL card, since I'm a pretty advanced developer for graphic interfaces and for my newest library, i wanted to use OpenCLGL interop.

It is not secret that the 5450 easily overclocks to 800/850, but i wanted to go a step further. And holy * this card has some unknown abilities!

2. First results

I've mounted a fan on the passive cooler of the GPU. That was a bit difficult to do, since there are just no mounting points and the airflow gets disturbed very easily if the fan blows at the wrong angle. Every result was achieved / tested with a 2-monitor Eyefinity setup. These are the first stable results with custom air cooling:

Smashing! A cheap 1GHz card. TM Nation Benchmark running at 45FPS with everything maxed out, older Games like COD4 run smooth (maxed out). The card passes my custom OpenCL test (a 24h run). So, yep, a faster stable card. But what is the limit of the card?!

3. Going crazy

The benchmarks / the oc are happening right now. Current record: 1400/1550!

Validations:
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/bbgfv/
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/6q3cu/
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/guag3/
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/dza4m/


Remark: Past the 1Ghz mark, OpenCL quits. It just won't work anymore. The latest results are achieved using ice Packs, formed according to the cooler, changing every few minutes. Simple OpenGL benchmarks show: the Card is still working. For time saving reasons i bench with my own benchmark now (CityMark, results depend on CPU AND GPU, but since the CPU speed doesn't change, just the GPU progress will be recognizable). The benchmarks run NOT for the results, but for stability-testing. A dedicated DirectX benchmarks works from time to time, but crashes randomly. You see, the limit is still to be evaluated.

I will update the progress here.

// Forgot to mention that the CPU is OC'ed to 2,97 GHz.

 

[ne6togadno]

very impressive
and sub

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Also impressive-on the other end of the spectrum-is that this thing uses only 6 watts at idle. That plus the passive cooling made it perfect for my desktop-turned-server box.

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

How high are your voltages?

 

[ruff0r]

How high are your voltages?

That would be the next step. We demand Volt MODS

 

[minx]

Voltages

Volts are constantly maxed @ 1,050V. (1,000V stock).

// Doesn't matter but CPU volts are dynamic (max 1,4V)

/// As soon as i get my hands on a new MoBo I'll continue experimenting. Mine quit it's job without any obvious reason a few hours ago. I also consider to get a second GPU to test them in Crossfire (both OC'ed). Lets see what the future brings wink.gif

//// The NF6G is a OC board for Athlon / Operon CPUs. I suppose that the previous owner did some unexperienced OC action with this poor thing =)

 

[McSteel]

This is some serious WTF material. I like.

Carry on.

 

[maksic87]

I like this, underdog card that went so high GO GO GO I want more

sub