Radeon HD 4670: A perfect balance?

They make noise, too.

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udi13
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Post by udi13 » Wed Jan 28, 2009 5:14 am

Hi loimlo & Thanks for all your effort

In the Powercolor card is simple to understand the graph & the umber
But I cant figure out what the winning of all the number in the "Fan Setting"
At the HIS card????

Do you understand it?

Udi

Kriz
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Post by Kriz » Wed Jan 28, 2009 6:25 am

loimlo,

In RBE 1.18, my HIS HD4670 IceQ Turbo BIOS does not display anything in the Fan Settings page. I think my BIOS might have the fan fixed at one speed because I have not noticed any real change in the speed of the fan after stress testing the card.

Would you be willing to upload your HIS4670.bin file? I would be interested to see how our BIOS files differ.

My BIOS can be downloaded from HERE

loimlo
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Post by loimlo » Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:01 pm

Warning: You risk losing your card if you fail. Files will be deleted 3 days later.

http://myweb.hinet.net/home6/vn514026/HIS4670.bin
http://myweb.hinet.net/home6/vn514026/P ... or4670.bin

Chang
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Post by Chang » Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:54 pm

For those interested, Newegg has the passive Sapphire card (Sapphire 100255U Radeon HD 4670 512MB) now.

easyrider
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Post by easyrider » Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:16 am

Kriz wrote: Would you be willing to upload your HIS4670.bin file? I would be interested to see how our BIOS files differ.
There is also a bios database on Techpowerup. There you can download a bios or submit one that is not listed.

http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/inde ... el=HD+4670

plympton
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Post by plympton » Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:08 pm

Kriz wrote:loimlo,

In RBE 1.18, my HIS HD4670 IceQ Turbo BIOS does not display anything in the Fan Settings page. I think my BIOS might have the fan fixed at one speed because I have not noticed any real change in the speed of the fan after stress testing the card.

Would you be willing to upload your HIS4670.bin file? I would be interested to see how our BIOS files differ.

My BIOS can be downloaded from HERE
Just FYI: I got my HIS HD4670 IceQ turbo today from Newegg, and my BIOS shows the same info as loimlo 's BIOS does in RBE 1.18. Not sure why your's is different.

Also, replacing my Sapphire 3450 and Neo HE 430 Power supply with the HIS 4670 + Antec EarthWatts 380 PS dropped my idle power usage about 10-15 watts - from 80-85-ish to 65-69-ish. Haven't checked temps yet, but I assume it'll be better since the fan should be blowing out of the case now...

-Dan

Vicotnik
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Post by Vicotnik » Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:46 pm

Image

Image

^ Does anyone else have that problem? Notice the idle frequencies change depending on extended desktop being enabled or not.

Sucks to have to enable the secondary display (my LCD TV) everytime I'm gonna use it and then disable it again after, just to shave that last couple of watts on total system idle consumption.

Is it just a simple bug, or does it have to be like that? It's a HIS 4670 512MB btw and I run WinXP SP3 with Catalyst 9.1.

udi13
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Post by udi13 » Fri Jan 30, 2009 12:26 am

Hi loimlo

I just get answer from HIS support :

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
HIS Support â€

loimlo
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Post by loimlo » Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:15 am

Weird, I did perceive the accoustic change at that moment. I guess you mean chinese in the end? It would confuse lots of people here.

udi13
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Post by udi13 » Fri Jan 30, 2009 11:08 am

loimlo wrote:Weird, I did perceive the accoustic change at that moment. I guess you mean chinese in the end? It would confuse lots of people here.
Anyway thanks for all your help :D
Udi

fanerman91
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Post by fanerman91 » Sat Jan 31, 2009 5:30 pm

So after I figured that I could use either PCI-E slot and I'd just be limited to 8x on the one where I have space for a 2-slot card, I decided to get the HIS 4670 Turbo. I slapped an S2 on it. I have a 7V Panaflo 80mm blowing nearby and idle temps are at 30 C, load temps 43 C.

alecmg
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Post by alecmg » Sun Feb 01, 2009 3:21 am

I need to buy a new videocard and most likely I get Gigabyte 4670
Will fit my old Accelero S1 on it

Is it worth to get 1GB version? Any performance gain (1920x1200) or power consumption increase?

easyrider
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Post by easyrider » Sun Feb 01, 2009 4:51 am

alecmg wrote:Is it worth to get 1GB version? Any performance gain (1920x1200) or power consumption increase?
It uses 1GB of DDR3 clocked at 875 Mhz, the normal version has 512MB GDDR3 at 1000Mhz.

So, it is important to know if you really need that extra memory.

loimlo
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Post by loimlo » Sun Feb 01, 2009 6:29 am

It depends on what games do you play, yet 4670 doesn't have enough horsepower to deal with serious titles such as Crysis, Farcry 2 under 1920x1200 resolution. Though casual gamers may be satisfied with 4670 under 1920x1200, 1GB is meaningless for Sims 2 or WoW.

Were I you, I'd pick at least 4830 or 4850.

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Post by thejamppa » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:33 pm

That Sapphire HD 4670 Ultimate looks very, very good! I pulled trigger on this one with my local retailer. I really do like the fact passive cooling is more than enough, its small and has DVI, VGA and Display Port ^^

review in here: http://metku.net/index.html?path=review ... /index_eng

alecmg
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Post by alecmg » Mon Feb 02, 2009 1:22 am

All right, 1 GB is slower and useless

But the other topic here scared me, claims Gigabyt 4670 has coil whine. Lord knows I am so annoyed that my current 3870 (gigayte also) whines at high fps...

So I prefer not to take any risks and order MSI 4670 instead. Any problems I can expect when mounting Accelero S1 rev2?

loimlo
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Post by loimlo » Mon Feb 02, 2009 4:09 am

MSI 4670's Zalman fan is louder than Powercolor 4670 PCS or HIS 4670 IceQ. Were I you, I'd get HIS to save a few watts at idle as it implements fully-functional Powerplay. Btw, how can you hear coil noise while playing games?

Notice: After removing P182 side panel today to clean the dust, I found Powercolor's fan started generating a very gentle, low-volumed clicking noise, thus I've to RMA it. HIS gets one point here. Anyway, I'll keep HIS 4670 and give Powercolor 4670 to my brother.
Last edited by loimlo on Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

alecmg
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Post by alecmg » Mon Feb 02, 2009 5:09 am

some source said MSI had working powerplay too
don't care about fan noise, replacing it anyhow.

Not every game is loud and you wear headphones. Besides the whine is strongest on loadscreens, when fps goes 300+. Add to that a desently quiet PC, and coil whine becomes most annoying noise source.

HIS is not available here. Only Gigabyte, Asus, MSI and Club3d

walkingjohn
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Post by walkingjohn » Mon Feb 02, 2009 4:25 pm

loimlo wrote:After removing P182 side panel today to clean the dust, I found Powercolor's fan started generating a very gentle, low-volumed clicking noise, thus I've to RMA it.
Just another data point: my Powercolor fan has a faint click too, has had from day one. Really not "silent", but it doesn't bother me for my current purposes.

alecmg
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Post by alecmg » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:10 am

OK, received my MSI 4670
Stock cooling is very loud

The clocks drop to 165/249

But I have a strong feeling that voltage doesn't drop - temperture almost doesnt change.
Any way I can check it? If this is the case, I'll be returning it.

loimlo
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Post by loimlo » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:38 am

Based on my experience, HIS and Powercolors' idle temp was more or less the same at 35~39'c. Yet I found the system's idle AC draw with HIS one was 6W lower than Powercolor one by Seasonic Powerangel. In other words, different idle frequencies, cooler designs, and power draws didn't cause idle temp to change greatly.

easyrider
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Post by easyrider » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:51 am

alecmg wrote:But I have a strong feeling that voltage doesn't drop - temperture almost doesnt change.
Any way I can check it? If this is the case, I'll be returning it.
With HWMonitor you can check the current gpu voltage and minimum and maximum since program start. The newest version 1.13 has a bug and doesn't display it.

http://www.cpuid.com/download/HWMonitor_111.zip

~El~Jefe~
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Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Tue Feb 03, 2009 10:20 pm

Couldnt the 1 gig memory on a slower card be utilized if you do cad or photoshop or other graphical, 2d work?

i remember 8 years ago that pci cards had 1 gig of ram that were meant to be used for that stuff.

loimlo
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Post by loimlo » Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:46 am

CPU can't access the memory that resides at display card. 1GB on 4670 is a marketing gimmick.

Notice: Powercolor returned another 4670 to me and then unfortunately I found the same gentle clicking noise like previous one. I modified Powercolor's bios fan speed control from 38% to 20% at idle, which is barely noticeable in P182 now, by using Radeon Bios Editor. All in all, it's a very quiet but not silent fan-cooled 4670. It doesn't bother me at all, but someone who is more sensitive to noise character may need to get a passive-cooled 4670.

maf718
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Post by maf718 » Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:35 am

easyrider wrote:
alecmg wrote:But I have a strong feeling that voltage doesn't drop - temperture almost doesnt change.
Any way I can check it? If this is the case, I'll be returning it.
With HWMonitor you can check the current gpu voltage and minimum and maximum since program start. The newest version 1.13 has a bug and doesn't display it.

http://www.cpuid.com/download/HWMonitor_111.zip
I believe that program simply reports the BIOS settings for voltage rather than actual measured figures. Notice how it always says 0.90 V and 1.25 V exactly, rather than say 0.89 or 1.27 etc. I guess that is why the feature is removed in the latest version.

Many (most?) 4670 cards support undervolting in the BIOS but don't have the components on the card to actually undervolt. The only sure way I know to measure the voltage is with a multimeter.

spc
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Post by spc » Fri Feb 06, 2009 12:41 am

Power consumption of Radeon 4670 :

http://66.196.80.202/babelfish/translat ... ndex31.php
Idle :
PEG 3,3V 0.51 A 3.34 V 1.7 W
PEG 12V 0.54 A 12.25 V 6.6 W
Entirely 8.3 W

Load :
PEG 3,3V 0.49 A 3.33 V 1.6 W
PEG 12V 5.21 A 12.00 V 62.5 W
Entirely 64.2 W

alecmg
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Post by alecmg » Fri Feb 06, 2009 1:34 am

Some more on my MSI 4670

I installed S1 rev2 on it from my previous 3870, now I can compare temps.
3870 idle 45 load 60-65 (60 with custom undervolted bios)
4670 idle 35 load 55 (I'd say this looks like under 10W idle)

Squealing is less, but still present.

After installing S1 gave me a bit of a scare when it didn't clear south bridge. Removing plastic shroud allowed it to juuust fit.

I have a cheap chinese multimeter. Probing the GPU voltage points gave me weird numbers - double of what it should be. 1.95V at idle and 2.4V load. Assuming the scale is wrong, this could refer to 0.95 and 1.15 :)

loimlo
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Post by loimlo » Fri Feb 06, 2009 5:52 am

Thanks for such an useful info on VGA power consumption. Btw, I recently found the same 4670 chips with different PCB designs (ASUS, HIS, Powercolor tested) would cause different whole system power figures. HIS (91W) is the most energy efficient, ASUS (94W) is average, and Powercolor (97W) is the least energy efficient 4670. Your mileage may vary depending on what card you purchase.

Here's Xbitlab's Powercolor 4670 power figures. I got exactly the same card but came with less bundle packages like crossfire cable, DVI to HDMI adapter in this review.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... 2mb_5.html

QuietOC
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Post by QuietOC » Fri Feb 06, 2009 8:10 am

loimlo wrote:CPU can't access the memory that resides at display card. 1GB on 4670 is a marketing gimmick.
Shouldn't 256MB be enough for the 4670? My 384MB 9600GSO is faster than my 512MB 9600GT. 256MB wasn't enough for the 8800GT and 3850, but the 4670 seems to run out of ROP power before the point the 3850 benefits from an extra 256MB.

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Post by Mr Evil » Fri Feb 06, 2009 8:48 am

QuietOC wrote:
loimlo wrote:CPU can't access the memory that resides at display card. 1GB on 4670 is a marketing gimmick.
Shouldn't 256MB be enough for the 4670? My 384MB 9600GSO is faster than my 512MB 9600GT. 256MB wasn't enough for the 8800GT and 3850, but the 4670 seems to run out of ROP power before the point the 3850 benefits from an extra 256MB.
I just looked at the memory stats that Unreal Tournament 3 provides; on a simple DM map it said ~270MB of texture memory used (which doesn't count all the other things that want video RAM). This suggests that 512MB will help a lot compared to 256MB.

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