Radeon HD 3870X2 has been greeted with arms wide open by the enthusiasts. ATI managed to reclaim the crown and now has the fastest graphics card on the market. Although the GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra is close and perhaps even faster in some scenarios they cost much more and has reached EOL. If you want to overclock Radeon HD 3870X2 you first of all have to get a hold of a card that doesn’t have the VCO PLL divider bug, otherwise you will get stuck at 860MHz, no matter what. Good news is that the memory behaves better and you should not be afraid to go beyond 1000MHz.
If you don’t have the bug there’s very little stopping you from climbing toward the 1GHz mark. Unfortunately Radeon HD 3870 and 3870X2 are similar in more ways than just the BIOS bug. The power circuitry isn’t exactly massive and the core voltage can’t be controlled with current applications. But when software fails, soldering saves. Overclocking legend Shamino has published a GPU voltage modification tutorial over at the Quantum Force website.
If you know how to solder and want some more juice, you should go find a 50khom variable resistor, heat up the station and take a look at the pictures posted at Quantum Force.net
