Mobility 3870 Default Clock 550Mhz???

My m15x with the ATI Mobiity 3870 only shows the default clock as 550MHz. I thought it was supposed to be 660MHz? I tried 3 different versions of GPU-Z to check as well as the Catalyst software and all display the same thing. I'm thinking this may have something to do with the firmware. Anyone else with this card have the same issue?

 

Yeah, it should be 660MHz. It's quite possible that you've got a 3870 with a different vBIOS flashed to it.

 

Thanks for the reply. I figured as much so I called AW last night. Spoke with two different "technicians," both completely clueless.

If there's anyone else out there with an m15x and the 3870, I'd really appreciate if you can check your clock speeds so I can confirm that mine has been down-clocked in the firmware. Thanks.

 

you can extract the bios in gpuz by using the dump button and open it with radeon bios editor to cheq if the clock are downed

 

Hmm, how come my 4850 is running at 550Mhz too? Maybe it's normal? I'm clueless too.

 

My default clock is 500Mhz and my memory is 800Mhz on my 4850's. This is normal as per:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-4850.13975.0.html

For the 3870 though, they should be 660 MHz default clock and 850 MHz memory:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3870.9597.0.html

 

node if your 4850 are runing a 550 they are overclocked the 4850 should run at 500

at 550 the 4850 almost becomes 4870 just a little overclock on the meme and you have 4870

 

Is it worth it to overclock the extra 50Mhz?

 

depends on your cpu with a 287 mhz overclock on my cpu and my gpu at 550/900 i've seen a 7-10 fps improvement in crisis

i've been able to push up to 600/1000 but it requires a voltage up and the cooling is insufisant but not by much so 585 shoul be fine
how ever with a 287mhz overclock on my q9000 i get a 14-20fps bump

i'm gonna experiement if it's possible to do some hard core cooling mods to run permanently at 600

 

I overclocked my T9600 with 400Mhz.

It's stable, but i notice stuff ingame is teleporting and warping...

Maybe i should stick to a 200Mhz overclock instead and overclock my cards to 550 850.

What do you think?

[edit] also i asume you use ATI Tray Tools for overclocking, don't you have the problem that the cards don't downclock in idle when OC'ed with Tray Tools? I tested it and mine stay at the new clocks no matter if i idle or game...

 

maybe the only way to know is to try
but a 400mhz overlock on a non extreme cpu might be a little to much and that t9600 is adrealy runing quite fast so maybe a 200mhz overlock would adrealy be enough

don,t hesitate crank that mem up to 900

 

Alright ill do that indeed.

Gonna set CPU to 3Ghz and cranck the cards up.

Do you use the profiles for autoloading the clocks with windows startup?

 

i use atiflash and RBE

so i can keep powerplay and even enhance it

even the UVD is overkill in clock speed the 4850 can read a blueray with 200/300 clock speed but for the sake of stability having hd video beeing processed at that speed was not a good idea

 

Hmm all that bios stuff goes a bit too far for me hehe.

I'm keeping it simple: edited setfsb and added it to startup with windows, it automaticly sets my cpu to 3.0Ghz.
Then i use Ati Tray Tools and enabled auto overclock based on 3D/2D.\
It clocks my cards up to 550 / 888 when i run 3D apps and to 250/400 when i run no 3D apps.

 

give us some numbers

so your voltage always remain the same that was my main reason for using the bios flash so i could get some more baterie life out of this lappy it sorta worked but the baterie died on me and the replacement aliware sent jumped from new to 23% wear ... so i still don't know

 

Voltage is set to 1,030, didn't touch that.

Just changed core speed and memory speed to match the 4870.

I never use this laptop on battery btw.

Which numbers do you need?

 

1.030 that can't be true my 4850 are tock at 1.050

Open Hardware Monitor | CPU Temperature, Fan Speed, Voltages, Clocks and More thake a shot at thi is give more info then hwmonitor

maybe a vantage run? i'm curious to see how far this baby cna go with a decent cpu

 

You are correct.

Guess ATI Tray Tool is just outdated and doesn't read the cards correctly.

They are 1.05

 

and what about some number on the benefit of that oc

 

Haven't done any testing yet.

If you want something tested i guess i can do it.

 

well a vantage run and when ever you game you can tell if there is a diference and fraps will confirm if there is one


and while we are at it i'd like to take a look at your vbios (unless you changed the clock yous self) nodefx if you could plz extract it for me you only need to follow mandrake's first etape to extract the bios and upload it (both card have diferent bios at least on mine)
cause as far as i know you got your cards later then me so you might have a newer bios or even a newer card


http://www.notebookforums.com/thread230061.html