Overclocking
As we can read on Sapphire site, HD7870 GHz Ed. OC is working with TriXX software which is helping in overclocking. However I couldn’t find it on the included DVD so I had to download it from Sapphire’s web page.
This software also confirms the card’s specifications. Since we know where to start then we can move further.
Overclocking is really simple and all you have to do is to move slider to the right. There are three sliders for core clock, memory clock and VDDC which is core voltage. Sapphire limited maximum voltage to 1.30V so we will also use it as our maximum voltage.
Overclocking results
3DMark Vantage
Maximum clock that I was able to set without changing core voltage was 1165MHz for core and 1450MHz for memory ( 1450MHz is also maximum possible clock in TriXX software ).
31860 GPU and 31027 Total 3DMark score is really good result.
After setting core voltage at 1.30V I was able to reach 1225MHz core clock while memory stays without changes at 1450MHz.
The total score better by over 500 points and the GPU result by nearly 800 points. It clearly shows that Sapphire HD7870 could make higher score if we used faster CPU. Great result for a card in this price point.
Unigine Valley 1.0 – Extreme HD Preset
Also in this benchmark maximum clock achieved on Sapphire HD7870 was 1225MHz and 1165MHz without voltage adjustment.
1165MHz core, 1450MHz memory
1225MHz core, 1450MHz memory
Even though core clock is 60MHz higher, average FPS is nearly the same.
Overall overclocking looks good. The card was able to run stable overclocked by over 100MHz without any changes in voltage. With additional voltage, maximum core clock reached 1225MHz, 225MHz higher than AMD reference cards. Memory overclocking looks even better achieving a 200MHz higher clock speed than default settings, this was the maximum possible in TriXX software, it can probably run higher, and all that without any voltage modifications.
I have to mention that while overclocking I left graphics card cooler at auto settings. It’s really effective cooling as maximum temperature barely passed 60°C. It was also quiet what is great considering that card was overclocked.
