Any overclock crashes drivers

[Spiderlemur]

Using an XFX ATI Radeon 4890, tried overclocking this card with Rivatuner, and then the ATI drivers. Any sort of overclock, even a 1MHZ overclock, will crash the drivers, freezing the game, the drivers recover, and then the game unfreezes. If the overclock is anything higher than 20MHZ or so, I just get a screen of graphical artifacts instead. The card isn't getting very hot at all, I doubt heat is an issue since it's doing this with only a 5MHZ increase. Has anyone heard of something like this before, anything I can do about it? It saddens me that I cannot overclock this card, because according to reviews it's a pretty nice overclocker.

 

[bystander]

It's ATI tool or RivaTuner. When I installed my 5870, ATI tool worked, after 9.11 or 9.12 drivers were installed, it gave me the same issue.

ATI Overdrive does allow for overclocking, but has a fairly low limit. I believe we will just have to wait for updated tools in order to OC beyond ATI Overdrives limits.

 

[mactronix]

You cant ever take an Overclock as a given im afraid. Some cards and it seems like you found one just wont take any sort of overclock at all before becoming unstable and crashing out.
Im guessing its possable you are close to maxing out your PSU and the OC is making things unstable but thats just me guessing. Im also going to assume you have both power connectors conected properly ?
I dont know but would think lack of power would either make the card drop down to 2d settings, or just not run in the first place. Lack of power can cause some weird symptoms for sure.
If you are sure it shouldnt be a power issue then it would seem you just got unlucky and have a card that wont OC.
Dont supose a friend has one you could try in its place ?

Mactronix

 

[korogui]

The best tool Ive used so far is MSI Afterburner. (You must edit an ini file in the program directory to allow higher clocks clocks).

Works fine till driver 9.12 (9.12hotfix gives me BSODs).

My Crossfired 4770 were really weak for overclocking using the default catalyst overclocking tool. (820x850 were unstable) Using MSI Afterburner and raising GPU voltage to 1.2v allows me to run with rock sollid 870x1000 clocks! (Ah, i got some additional cooling fans over the cards)

 

[sayantan]

4890 is not a suitable card for overclocking....In fact 4890 can be considered as a factory overclocked 4870...U see both of em have same no. of stream processors and same manufacturing tech(55nm) but different memory and core frequency..

 

[mactronix]

4890 is not a suitable card for overclocking....In fact 4890 can be considered as a factory overclocked 4870...U see both of em have same no. of stream processors and same manufacturing tech(55nm) but different memory and core frequency..

The 4890 is basically a revised 4870 and its true its basically the same but they added some transistors to allow higher clocks, if i remember right it was something to do with leakage on 4870's when the clocks went up. Im not certain but it was something like that.

As for the 4770 well that card is one hell of an overclocker in general but as with all other cards im sure its possable to get a bad one. It is more probable to get a bad card (thats one that wont OC) when you are talking about a chip that has the bits tweaked off it already = 4890.

Mactronix

 

[bystander]

I think you both are not paying attention. Using ATI Tool, any tweak, even an underclock causes an automatic crash. This has been happening to sinse the 9.11 Cat drivers release. Something is incompatable in the new drivers. It's not the card, it's just the drivers are now incompatible with those tools.

 

[mactronix]

I think you both are not paying attention. Using ATI Tool, any tweak, even an underclock causes an automatic crash. This has been happening to sinse the 9.11 Cat drivers release. Something is incompatable in the new drivers. It's not the card, it's just the drivers are now incompatible with those tools.

Well i didnt see a mention of ATI tool for a start. When Spiderlemur said "and then the ATI drivers", i thought it was the CCC that was being discussed, hey i could be wrong. Also no mention of wanting to go over the limits set by ATI Overdrive either, or underclocking for that matter.
Who's not been paying attention now then ?

Mactronix

 

[bystander]

Well i didnt see a mention of ATI tool for a start. When Spiderlemur said "and then the ATI drivers", i thought it was the CCC that was being discussed, hey i could be wrong. Also no mention of wanting to go over the limits set by ATI Overdrive either, or underclocking for that matter.
Who's not been paying attention now then ?

Mactronix

Sorry, he said RivaTuner. RiveTuner, MSI Overdrive and ATI Tool are all broken as of the last catalyst drivers. It's far more likely that he typoed when he wrote ATI drivers and meant ATI Tool rather than ATI Overdrive, as this topic is up in multiple locations all refering to ATI tools and Rivatuner problems.

 

[mactronix]

Sorry, he said RivaTuner. RiveTuner, MSI Overdrive and ATI Tool are all broken as of the last catalyst drivers. It's far more likely that he typoed when he wrote ATI drivers and meant ATI Tool rather than ATI Overdrive, as this topic is up in multiple locations all refering to ATI tools and Rivatuner problems.

Ok thanks for the heads up.
Spiderlemur, do let us know if using something else works or if an update to the mentioned apps does the trick.

Mactronix

 

[daedalus685]

4890 is not a suitable card for overclocking....In fact 4890 can be considered as a factory overclocked 4870...U see both of em have same no. of stream processors and same manufacturing tech(55nm) but different memory and core frequency..

That is blatantly false...

The 4890 was easily the best overclocking card of the 4000 series. It is a revised core, it is not a 4870.. It is capable of MUCH higher clocks than a 4870.

 

[welshmousepk]

That is blatantly false...

The 4890 was easily the best overclocking card of the 4000 series. It is a revised core, it is not a 4870.. It is capable of MUCH higher clocks than a 4870.

+5

i thought everyone had figured that out within a month of the 4890s release? it sure as hell not just an overclocked 4870.

 

[sayantan]

That is blatantly false...

The 4890 was easily the best overclocking card of the 4000 series. It is a revised core, it is not a 4870.. It is capable of MUCH higher clocks than a 4870.

I myself own a sapphire hd 4890 and whenever I overclock the core speed even by just 20Mhz it crashes during gaming and while running vantage..So how can you say its the best overclocking card of 4000series....

 

[bystander]

I myself own a sapphire hd 4890 and whenever I overclock the core speed even by just 20Mhz it crashes during gaming and while running vantage..So how can you say its the best overclocking card of 4000series....

What Cat drivers are you using, and what software are you using to overclock?

 

[sayantan]

What Cat drivers are you using, and what software are you using to overclock?

In vista I have used cat9.8 to overclock

 

[welshmousepk]

one bad card doesnt make a bad series of cards.

mine was clockable up to 970 core, and i know six or seven others with the same card who all got around 950mhz.

 

[bystander]

So ATI Overdrive? I'm guessing you've replaced the card given the driver number. I was mostly checking if you were using RivaTuner/ATI Tool/MSI Tools (or what ever it's name is) and 9.12. Those are currently having issues.

 

[sayantan]

one bad card doesnt make a bad series of cards.

mine was clockable up to 970 core, and i know six or seven others with the same card who all got around 950mhz.

Do you mean to say specifically my card is bad or the entire sapphire family??what card are u using???

 

[welshmousepk]

mine was HIS, and no the sapphire family are some of the best. you must have just got a bad one.

i no longer have my 4890 though, sold it this morning after receiving my 5870

 

[sayantan]

mine was HIS, and no the sapphire family are some of the best. you must have just got a bad one.

i no longer have my 4890 though, sold it this morning after receiving my 5870

but without any overclock it works fine!!!

 

[welshmousepk]

exactly. the card works, so they sell it. you jsut got one with no overclocking headroom.

most people can overclock the hell out of their 4890s without even chaning voltages. mine got to 970 on stock volts, so i cant imagine how far i could push it with a voltage boost.

 

[Spiderlemur]

Sorry for the delayed update, kind of forgot about this thread.

I see it's a driver issue then, basically meaning I don't have a bad card?

Edit: When I said ATI drivers, I meant the CCC ATI Overdrive