I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave
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Unlock your Radeon HD3870
THANKS TO A reader, we learned that the modified video BIOS for Radeon HD 3870 has been posted on a website in Finland and later, on TechPowerUp!.
This latest ATI baby has a clock-lock at 862MHz for the GPU, 85MHz faster than default frequency. The RV670 GPU has multiple power phases internally, and PowerPlay is activated all the time. When you overclock the GPU, the PLL VCO divider goes bananas, which will overvolt the card just enough to cause a lockdown.
One solution to the problem is a rather elegant video BIOS upgrade. This upgrade changes the dividers in the GPU, so you're free to go crazy and unlock the full potential of the card. You could tinker with the card to clock the RV670 chip all the way to 900MHz, massive 123MHz faster than the default clock. If you want more, you have to splash out on a waterblock, but it seems that both Nvidia and AMD have manufactured extremely OC-friendly chips.
At the time of writing, the enthusiast community is waiting for appropriate BIOS flashing tool, but the link below is where the flashing utility should appear first. It is still not available through official channels, but that is just the matter of time. µ
L'INQ
Download
the BIOS
Mirror
1
TechPowerUp page where BIOS flashers are located (RV670 one is coming)
Tags: Amd
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i overclocked the card *HD3870* and and stopped at 852 or around there, i went into COD4 played it for about a minute or two and then my system show down on me. i went to reboot my system and all i got was an on off response. it turned on for about a half second and then back off. is my video card in lock out mode? even if i unplug the power cable from the car is still does the same thing, i have not yet re-flashed the bios as stated in the article, any help would be appreciated
Lockups in 3d games now...stable at 862mhz before, now not even at 777mhz.

It's sad that I can walk into a Fry's electronics store, which stocks just about everything, and find plenty of 2400 and 2600 ATI cards. But never have I seen a 2900. We're now into the 3000 series and it's equally as frustrating. There are empty shelves for the new 8800GTs. I have to wonder if the employees aren't snapping them up for resale on ebay.
An interesting read, but please try not to appear as a hardware fetishist every time you talk about video accelerators!! It's not even amusing.
I wonder if an extra 38MHz is worth the hassle and risks of a bios flash. And if you're gonna get an expensive water-cooling kit, you might as well pay the extra towards a 8800GT or 8800GTX.