HD4870 Superclock Guide + Crysis very high settings for XP

[SpinachEater]

This stuff is all old news but I wanted to compile these two tricks for the TH forums for anyone new to the HD4870 or who has missed it. This OC alternatively works with the Gainward fan control + AMD GPU Clock tool but I found that the Gainward tool isn't XP64 friendly. This post is aimed at XP gamers who want better DX10 Crysis graphics and can't get their HD4870 beyond the CCC limits. As a side note, I replaced the thermal paste on my GPU with what I put on my CPU. I would suggest doing this to help keep temps down.


Disclaimer: Overclocking your GPU will void the warranty and potentially reduce the longevity of your card (doing so gets you totally sweet results though) I am not responsible if you cook your card.


HD4870 Superclock
So the first step is to OC your HD4870 beyond what CCC will allow you to. For my Sapphire card, the limit it is 790 MHz for the GPU and 1100 MHz for the memory. I would suggest not going too far with the memory since you cannot monitor the temperatures. I can run my card at 830/1100 with no heat issues or artifacts or voltage changes. Depending on your GPU, you might be able to go beyond this or maybe you will not even be able to get past 800MHz. Try it out, see where you can get.

You need four things to start:

1. The latest version of GPU-z to monitor your video card.
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1207/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.2.8.html

2. ATITool version 0.27 beta (other versions freeze up on me)
http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/ATITool_0.27b3.exe

3. AMD GPU Clock Tool
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1128/AMD_GPU_Clock_Tool_v0.9.8.html

4. Catalyst Control Center (CCC) - I am using 8.8 currently

Once you have these all installed, the first thing you want to do is go into the overdrive features in CCC and create a new profile. I called my "AMD OC Tool - 40% fan" for an example. The clocks don't matter because you will later delete them so just leave them as the default values. Once you have your profile saved find the overdrive profile that you just created.

In XP (don't forget to view all folders):
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\ATI\ACE\Profiles


Open your AMD OC profile in notepad and delete all of the text. Replace it with the text below (you can change the fan to whatever you choose but watch the temps if you go lower) :

<Profile>
<Caste name="Graphics">
<Groups>
<Group name="Overdrive5">
<Feature name="TimeUnlocked" />
<Feature name="OverclockEnabled">
<Property name="OverclockEnabledProperty" value="True" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="CoreVoltageTarget_0">
<Property name="Want_0" value="1263" />
<Property name="Want_1" value="1263" />
<Property name="Want_2" value="1263" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="MemoryVoltageTarget_0">
<Property name="Want_0" value="0" />
<Property name="Want_1" value="0" />
<Property name="Want_2" value="0" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedProtocol_0">
<Property name="FanSpeedProtocolProperty" value="Percent" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_0">
<Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Manual" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="0" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="40" />
</Feature>
</Group>
</Groups>
<Adapter name="PCI_VEN_1002&amp;DEV_9440&amp;SUBSYS_05021002&amp;REV_00_4&amp;17D528C6&amp;0&amp;0008A">
<Aspect name="Overdrive5" />
</Adapter>
</Caste>
</Profile>

This profile is missing the lines that call up the GPU and Memory clocks and has the fan set at 40%. Save it.

Here is the secret to get this to work. I pounded my head against the wall to figure this out. It only works for me when I restart my computer and have CCC load automatically to the system tray. If I close and try to open it then it doesn't work for some reason. So if you can't get this to work, I found that it works every time after a restart.

Open up the AMD GPU Clock tool and set your GPU clock to 800MHz for a test run. Do not open up CCC, instead, right click on the system tray icon and activate your AMD OC profile from there. This should set the fan speed and keep the AMD GPU Clock settings since the profile cannot call them up (remember, you deleted them).

Open up GPU-z just to double check that you have an overclock for your GPU and the 40% fan speed. You are set to go. If you want to "turn the OC off" just click on restore default clocks in the AMD clock tool.

It is a good idea to run ATItool artifact scanner with each OC to see where your upper GPU clock limit is. This will also allow you to see what temps you will be hitting on a full load. When you load ATITool, it will reset your clocks and fan speed, just repeat the AMD OC/CCC speed profile and it should work. Now you can move on to the Crysis mod once you found your limit.....mwahahahaha

Crysis Mod - DX10 settings in DX9 or enabling "very high" settings in XP

I thought this was all BS but I tried it and there is a huge difference after you do this mod. I will never play on default settings again now. You will notice that this mod will create the light beams that scatter through the trees, better shadows, much more realistic fog and water...ect..ect... With the above OC, you should be able to get some really impressive visuals with some good FPS. What better way to use your superclocked 4870? This turns out to be a pretty simple copy and paste job and if you want to really get into it, you can change the numbers as well.

First find your CvarGroups folder in this path
....Crysis\Game\Config\CVarGroups

You will see CFG files for every setting...physics, textures, shading...ect...ect. Before you begin, make a new folder and call it backups. Copy and paste each CFG file into that folder before modifying it.

Lets get started. In the CvarGroups folder open up the setting you wish to modify. I will do water as an example. The file is calld "sys_spec_Water" Copy and paste it into the backup folder and then open the original version and you will see this:

[default]
; default of this CVarGroup
= 4

r_WaterRefractions=1
r_WaterReflections=1
r_WaterUpdateFactor=0.05
e_water_tesselation_amount=10
e_water_tesselation_swath_width=10
r_WaterUpdateDistance=0.2
r_WaterCaustics=1
r_WaterReflectionsQuality=4
e_water_ocean_fft=1
q_ShaderWater=2
r_WaterReflectionsMinVisiblePixelsUpdate = 0.05

[1]
r_WaterRefractions=0
r_WaterUpdateFactor=0.5
e_water_tesselation_amount=1
e_water_tesselation_swath_width=5
r_WaterUpdateDistance=0.2
r_WaterCaustics=0
r_WaterReflectionsQuality=0
e_water_ocean_fft=0
q_ShaderWater=0
r_WaterReflectionsMinVisiblePixelsUpdate = 0.05

[2]
r_WaterRefractions=0
r_WaterUpdateFactor=0.1
e_water_tesselation_amount=6
r_WaterUpdateDistance=1
r_WaterReflectionsQuality=1
e_water_ocean_fft=0
q_ShaderWater=1
r_WaterReflectionsMinVisiblePixelsUpdate = 0.05

[3]
e_water_tesselation_amount=7
r_WaterUpdateFactor=0.05
r_WaterUpdateDistance=1
r_WaterReflectionsQuality=2
e_water_ocean_fft=0
q_ShaderWater=2
r_WaterReflectionsMinVisiblePixelsUpdate = 0.05


The trick is delete everything under [3] (which defines the high settings) and then paste in all of the text that is between "=4" and [1] (I highlighted it in red) which is actually the very high settings. Save it in the CvarGroups folder. Do this for every setting that you want tweaked. When you start up Crysis, just select high settings and it will actually be very high since you pasted the settings under high or [3]. Enjoy your superclocked 4870 and top notch Crysis graphics in XP! Keep an eye on the temps though!!!

 

[IoWn3rU]

Nice superclocking guide, however the entire other part is unneccassary (SP) for me as I have Vista

I only wish I could use the superclocking guide, too bad my 4870 is probably gonna get an RMA unless I can fix it.