AMD Radeon HD 6870: Overclocked

Run Barts, Run!

Overclocking a graphics card is relatively easy. You just have to apply some adjustments to the appropriate frequency settings, which are accessible through numerous Windows-based graphics card overclocking softwares, such as MSI Afterburner, Riva Tuner, etc.

MSI Afterburner was used in our first attempt. Unfortunately, the software wouldn’t allow us to push the core speed beyond 1000 MHz. The resulting 100 MHz overclock (up from the stock speed of 900 MHz), therefore, was somewhat disappointing because we suspect that it could’ve gone higher, if not for the limitation.

Another overclocking software, the Rivatuner 2.24, was thrown into the fray. With a little tweak, this tool recognizes the AMD Radeon HD 6870 properly. We managed to push the core frequency a bit higher to 1025 MHz, while memory speed was increased to 4400 MHz. At these settings, the graphics card was relatively stable.

To deal with the extra heat, we increased the fan’s spin rate to 100%. Our overclocked HD 6870 had a maximum temperature of 68 degree Celsius under full load and 49 degree when idle. That’s cool enough to maintain relative stability during the tests. It’s time to see how much we’ve gained from the overclock.