I set 3D voltage to 1.00625V. Well, actually, I initially set it to 1.006, but if you reopen the BIOS after editing, you'll see that the actual value may be a little different. MSI Afterburner reports 1.000V in actual use - which is a little lower than the safe limit I got after software-based unde...

What is the speed of the fan at idle without software adjustments? I'm getting the same minimum speed - 1070 RPM - but only barely, as it's at 27% now. Fortunately, the card is whisper-quiet up to 36%, so I'm not worried about idle fan speed even in summer. I'm aware of micro-stuttering having prev...

(1) After flashing your card, please confirm that the voltage downclocks while in 2d mode (.945) and then switches to 1.006 for 3d mode. Yes, it does. (2) Fan control no longer works after flashing the bios? Your previous posts indicate you had no issues with fan control prior to the flashing. Soft...

Whoa I thought this thread was dead since nobody replied for a while. I haven't done much testing yet since I was waiting for a way to edit the bios itself. Since that seems like an option more, I'm going to see if I can make adjustments as well. My card is pretty quiet in general, but it could cer...

Here it is:

Das neue Element? NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 TI

It's a different website, so the results aren't directly comparable, but the Sapphire HD 6850 is the quietest at idle among many cards.

So I've RMA'd it back to Newegg for a replacement, should be here sometime next week. Even if it would be ~1500RPM like SPCR review, I would be happy since dBA measurements at those speeds were nice. Will update once I receive it. Hopefully its just a bad sample or bad batch, and it won't be a gamb...

According to that article, the Asus card idled at 1560 RPM (and that's at 38C, so it may be the actual hard limit).

allwinner wrote:The card will not lower the fan below 1000rpm (or 25%). This is the hard limit set in the bios.

Don't you think the Asus card could simply have a different hard limit?

The new version of the Radeon Bios Editor is out and it supports voltage modification on 6850's (Clock settings -> GPU registers).

I've tried overclocking/undervolting, and my card goes to 850MHz at 1.006V. Temperatures are also pretty nice: 67C at 1650rpm in Dirt 2 and 76C at 2000rpm in FurMark. Idle temperature is 45C at 1050 (only 1C higher than at 0.943 V).

I returned the card b/c it was too loud (the card also exhibited annoying coil whine consistent with a bunch of reviewers' experiences on Newegg - those reviews appear to have been deleted). My Sapphire HD6850 exhibits coil whine, too. It doesn't really bother me because it isn't that loud and only...

The MSI N460GTX HAWK appears to be significantly louder than the Sapphire Radeon HD 6850, especially at idle.

To the extent the purpose of the undervolt is to control heat & reduce the optimal rpm of the fans (which was also one of my reasons for undervolting), what are the differences in temps/optimal rpms while in actual gameplay as a result of the undervolt? You indicate the temps/rpms after the undervo...

Have you overclocked your card? No, I haven't. Well, I briefly ran it at 850 MHz and stock voltage to make sure it actually works, and I'm not going to push the card any further. What matters to me is cool and quiet operation, and this is what I'm getting: 775Mhz at 0.943V, and from 62C/1300 rpm to...

Interesting. I figured that such an undervolt in 3d was unlikely... I was a little more optimistic from the start because I knew that the reference card's stock voltage is 1.094V, not 1.148V: AMD Radeon HD 6850 Overclocking Roundup It looks like all cards on the market are overvolted for AMD Overdr...

^^ I went further than that with my Sapphire HD 6850. :D It turned out that my card can work at 0.945 V even in 3D mode! :!: Games, 3DMark 11, even FurMark(!) - everything works fine. So I left voltage at 0.945 (actually, at 0.943) in MSI Afterburner. I haven't tried going any lower, because, frankl...