3870 is more power hungry den 8800gt wen loaded.

RV790............dis is a tough call..............i still think its a rumor..............
now i only fingers cross on ATI big bang driver..........

there is 2 bios in the card, both wit different default clock & different voltage setting.
the switch is use to change between 2 bioses.
its like bios OC instead of manual OC.

its a requirement to restart if u switch bios.
dis is y IMO, the bios switching is not a bright design.
basically u can always just run using the OC bios, den create an idle profile which is underclock.
switching between profile doesn't require restart.
the only different wit using the bios switch bios the "stock" bios uses lees power.
but dis wont mek a a different unless ur rig is a 24/7.

nop.............the best u can do it use ATI tray tools to underclock beyond CCC & also lower the voltage.

another plus side of twin turbo is it dun get dirty too fast.................

now zalaman.
b4 dis i use twin turbo on my 4870 512, now the twin turbo is sitting idle.........
working superbly well.
in a non-air con condition, my 4870 idle @ ~40c, load, even after 5 straight hours of gaming, temperature max also 45c, nvr go beyond 45..............
temperature is taken wit my 4870 OC to 865/950.
50% fan speed on idle & 100% on load. (dun worry, its not noisy......... )

yeah, my last 4870 is a 1st batch, so reference is very hot.
b4 twin turbo, idle 80+c, after 5 minutes of gaming, 95c. (auto fan speed)..............x_x

twin turbo only tek a little more den 2 slots........
how many slots t-rad took wit 12cm fan?
+, u'll definitely need ram sink to go wit 4870.

oo, 1.5 slots?
dats thinner den stock cooler.
plus fan, dis will eat up all the pci slots.........

GPU-z
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/search.php?q=gpu-z
=.=

both side.
i saw dis cooler last time @ pc fair.
i also saw i @ 1 of the shop in mines.

dis is b coz the fan is 2 pin.
u can still use the CCC to manually afust fan speed.
but GPU-z will always show 1 rpm.

yes, i'm one of'em.........

finally, the quad optimized is here.........

ATI calatyst 9.1 download

i just finish testing CCC 9.1.
wat i did is, i use the setup uninstaller to uninstall previous driver & CCC.
den restart, install new driver den restart again.

my setup is as my siggy. GPU & vram speed is default.
i just tested Fallout 3, all setting max, 8x AA, 15x AF, 1680*1050 resolution.

i took 2 situation as comparison:
1) fps during outdoor
2) fps when looking @ the opening of the hatch (when u escape 101)

for 8.12, i'm getting like ~45 outdoor & on situation 2, the frame choke to 9 fps minimum.

after i installed 9.1, i'm getting solid 60fps outdoor (coz my monitor refresh rate is set to 60), nvr drop bellow 50.
for situation 2, minimum frame only 21fps.

i'm happy with the improvement.........

i also tested RA3.
max setting, 8x AA, 1680*1050 resolution.
what i did is i built 4 super reactor close to each other on sea wit a square formation. i purposely damage it, throw a vacuum imploder bomb on those super reactor so all of the supur reactor will explode simultaneously.
in both driver dat i tested, both occasion, the fps also choke to 3fps..........

This post has been edited by tech3910: Jan 30 2009, 04:17 AM

i think the performance gain vary from game to game.
i dun mind if benchmark score drop, important is gaming fps.

so far, i'm happy with the fallout 3 performance gain wit max setting...........

i dun care bout GPU utilization, i only care about the frame rate dun suffer.

4k series owns GRID & NFS.

if ATI still doesn't come out wit a nice driver b4 late q1, i'm gonna sell my 4870 on early q2.............

This post has been edited by tech3910: Feb 4 2009, 10:56 PM

lowering the core voltage does help save more power & @ the same time, lower idle temperature.

remember those 1st batch 4k series where it is super hot? (coz bios core voltage is set to max all the time)
i use to use ati tray tools to create an idle profile which lowers the core voltage to absolute minimum.
change to OC profile wen i wanna gaming.