How-to: Pencil mod your HD 3870!

[Wile E]

oh your talking about the retailers RMA, i trust the Manufacturer more than the Retailers.

Unless it's Newegg. Newegg's RMA process is spectacular. lol.

 

[trog100]

if its not gaming or windows stable its not a True Clock

my answer to that one is to have several clocks.. i have a furbench clock.. a 2006 clock and a gaming clock..

the 3870 card is an odd card in this respect.. a huge not quite stable speed range.. never known a card like it before..

mostly if a card made 2006 stable it would game stable.. not the 3870.. its an odd one.. i think its the very high frequencies being used.. odd things happen that never used to happen at lower frequencies..

i forgot one.. i have a lower still crossfire clock.. he he

trog

 

[Wile E]

my answer to to that one is to have several clocks.. i have furbench clock.. a 2006 clock and a gaming clock..

the 3870 card is an odd card in this respect.. a huge not quite stable speed range.. never known a card like it before..

mostly if a card made 2006 stable it would game stable.. not the 3870.. its an odd one.. i think its the very high frequencies being used.. odd things happen that never used to happen at lower frequencies..

trog

My 8800GT and 2900XT are like that, too. Those are the first cards that I have had be that way as well. I remember that my X1800XT was gaming stable at whatever was 06 stable.

 

[trog100]

My 8800GT and 2900XT are like that, too. Those are the first cards that I have had be that way as well. I remember that my X1800XT was gaming stable at whatever was 06 stable.

my last one was the 1900xtx.. if it ran 2006 stable it gamed stable.. life was simpler in those days..he he

its something worth noting thow for all these new tweakers..

trog

 

[P4-630]

I have a Gigabyte 3870 and it runs in one simple soft tweak @ 900 core and 1100 mem stable.
I did not try any higher clocks, but I'm sure that this card can oc much higher then this.
It was rather a quick test and there was no pencil mod needed to achieve this.

 

[Random Murderer]

I have a Gigabyte 3870 and it runs in one simple soft tweak @ 900 core and 1100 mem stable.
I did not try any higher clocks, but I'm sure that this card can oc much higher then this.
It was rather a quick test and there was no pencil mod needed to achieve this.

2200 is pretty damn good for gddr3.

 

[SpookyWillow]

ok i sorted the OCP on my card, i dont know what the max voltage i can run but its running 1.65 (1.63 under load) had to put the water block back on as temps shot to 90c instantly with the stock cooler but they are around 55c now on water.

to get past OCP with a pencil mod i shaded a few resistors, the 2 marked in the blue box and the one to the right of the smaller blue box.

R657 initial resistance 6 ohms - lowered to 4.3 ohms
R659 initial resistance 6 ohms - lowered to 4.3 ohms

R658 initial resistance 100 ohms - lowered to 46 ohms

off to do some testing

 

[Random Murderer]

nice work. i'm sure others with the same board as you will appreciate the work you have done.

 

[SpookyWillow]

thanks

i just did a 3dmark06 run @ 945/1125 and got 9214, is that any good? my cpu score is about 200 points lower than normal

 

[freaksavior]

thanks

i just did a 3dmark06 run @ 945/1125 and got 9214, is that any good? my cpu score is about 200 points lower than normal

*25* 10332 - reverze - Athlon X2 @ 3.0ghz 3870 @ 857 Core 1251 Mem - XP
*26* 10059 - -=CrAnSwIcK=- - Athlon X2 @ 3.0Ghz 3870 @ 820 Core 1044 Mem - XP
*27* 9574 - Steevo - Athlon X2 @ 2.7ghz3870 @ 855 Core 1201 Mem - Xp
*28* 9567 - Makaveli - Opteron @ 2.8ghz 3870 @ 776 Core 1125 Mem - XP
*29* 9530 - Joe23 - Athlon x2 @ 2.8ghz 3870 @ 810 Core 1225 Mem - XP
*30* 9402 - Steevo - Athlon X2 @ 2.6ghz 3870 @ 816 Core 1224 Mem - XP
*31* 8541 - 0elemental0 - Athlon X2 2.4ghz 3870 @ 777 Core 1125 Mem - XP

 

[SpookyWillow]

Hmm not good then judging by those scores, steeve's score is similar yet he's 100mhz slower on the cpu and 130mhz slower on the gpu time for a c2d upgrade.....

 

[freaksavior]

oc the cpu and you should boost your score to 10k

 

[SpookyWillow]

i cant, 2.7 is the limit on this mobo. something is wrong in my pc anyway, my cpu scores have gone down and my games stutter really badly compared to when i had my 1950pro.

cod4 is always around 30-40fps with lots of stuttering regardless of settings.

 

[eidairaman1]

hmm have you cleaned out all dust?

 

[SpookyWillow]

watercooled

 

[cdawall]

watercooled

well than i for one hope that there is no dust


i might be getting a sapphire 3850 256mb soon will one of these mods work with it?

 

[Random Murderer]

well than i for one hope that there is no dust


i might be getting a sapphire 3850 256mb soon will one of these mods work with it?

yes. definitely. if there's not one in this thread that will work, take me some high res pics of the card and i'll work it out for you.

 

[MagnusLL]

yes. definitely. if there's not one in this thread that will work, take me some high res pics of the card and i'll work it out for you.

Any hope of getting that trimmer mod for the pcs 3870?

..wait, let me rephrase that: can I use the stock trimmer points for the pcs 3870 (the ones originating from the 13th leg of the P6201AQ) even if it's not reference? The pencil mod I'm using works by shading one of those points. Stock resistance is about half that of the reference cards (2.54 vs 5.12) so a 100k pot should be fine, I think.

 

[Random Murderer]

Any hope of getting that trimmer mod for the pcs 3870?

..wait, let me rephrase that: can I use the stock trimmer points for the pcs 3870 (the ones originating from the 13th leg of the P6201AQ) even if it's not reference? The pencil mod I'm using works by shading one of those points. Stock resistance is about half that of the reference cards (2.54 vs 5.12) so a 100k pot should be fine, I think.

sounds good, but i'd like pics.

 

[MagnusLL]

sounds good, but i'd like pics.

Here's one, straight from you :

Correct me if I'm wrong, but: the soldier point is the upper one of the two bridged by the pencil shading (or any other one on the same PCB trace). Second soldier point is any ground point, of course.

 

[Random Murderer]

Here's one, straight from you :

Correct me if I'm wrong, but: the soldier point is the upper one of the two bridged by the pencil shading (or any other one on the same PCB trace). Second soldier point is any ground point, of course.

you're correct.

 

[cdawall]

well than i for one hope that there is no dust


i might be getting a sapphire 3850 256mb soon will one of these mods work with it?

if the seller still has it (which i doubt @$70 for the card) it will be mine soon if not i have an 8600GTS....wahoo

 

[Cold Storm]

Hope ya get it man! I'd like to see an AMD ATI on that Avatar!

 

[eidairaman1]

Ya im thinking of the Visiontek 3870 Myself and possibly buying a second stock cooler for it for modification, so in event of total failure i can reattach the non modded heatsink.

 

[SpookyWillow]

random can you give us a bit of help m8?

i need to hard mod my card as it wont run on stock voltage (1.29v) where do i need to put the pot? do i just solder it on to the resistor i shade?