ATI 4850 TEMPERATURE discussion

[Lorne]

Why keep blaming ATI for the heat problem when there not the ones making the GFX cards or putting on the insaficiant HSF, This also go along with Nvidia.
Its the actual card MFGs that takes the GPU among the other components and creat the layout, Its there choice to ether push for better cooling at a higher cost or one that just runs in spec with more bling to sell.

Ive done alot of HSF/cooler replacement and lapping myself, I at times wondered why with just a moment to to confirm a simple flatness/lapping test to make sure its actually flat.

 

[deepinya]

Originally posted by: Mucker
Well, I managed to fit an Accelero S1 (Revision 1) onto one of my 4850's. The bolt holes are a perfect match. Result is a 40C drop in idle temp; beauty of it is......it's FANLESS. 78C before and 38C after in 80F ambient air. I expect to see only a 14 degree delta between idle and load, as I did with my 3870, so max temp load should be around 53-55C, again, without a fan! :Q I need a good 3rd party tool such as RivaTuner to get a good trendable graph of load temp (not available for 4850 yet). The S1 is a great piece of cooling gear, arguably one of the most efficient air cooling devices ever made for the PC.

The mod I am going to show is for my personal satisfaction. I don't encourage anyone to try this unless they are completely comfortable with doing so. I accept no responsibilty for any mishaps that may occur. I am providing this as information only.

I did have to hack up the stock heat so the PWM area would be covered. A nice little hack saw job did the trick. Cuts through painted aluminum nicely. There are 2 bolts holding it down so plenty of pressure.

Mod 1

Next, I used the existing thermal pads to attach the ram sinks.

Mod 2

Here is a shot of the S1 Revision 1 base (perfectly aligns with holes on card).

S1 Base

The S1 is mounted now with a thin layer of AS5 on the gpu. The PWM area sink has plenty of clearance.

Mod 3

Finished mount with Crossfire bridge poking through. I did need to spread the fins to get the bridge through.

Mounted

Finally installed. Now i need another one to finish the job!

Installed

Here's an old thread of mine that shows just how good the S1 is: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...ey=y&keyword1=accelero

Nice job on the S1! I may do something similar or wait a few weeks to see if any Manuf comes out with a dual slot design..

 

[Elfear]

Thanks for the S1 results Mucker. I've got an S1 laying around I plan on using for my 4850 but I really don't want to hack up my stock hsf or buy additional sinks for the PWM area. Do you guys think that 2 120mm fans mounted on the S1 will be sufficient to cool the ram and PWM area without ramsinks of any sort?

 

[IQJUMPuw]

My only worry about getting an after market cooler is that it voids the lifetime warranty. What's also puzzling to me is that the fact that the stock fan that came with the card is not sufficient enough to cool the card properly. My room is fairly cool and yet I get see artifacts playing games...

 

[imported_Un4given]

Originally posted by: IQJUMPuw
I have a question about the ATi Catalyst Control Center.

When it says "Enable ATI Overdrive," does that mean my 4850 is running at that speed even though my "Current Clock Settings" shows otherwise?

I enabled ATI overdrive and the GPU Clock says 625MHz and Memory Clock says 993MHz but Current Clock Settings says 500MHz/750MHz for some reason... I tested the custom clocks and they were fine but the Current Clock Settings never change. That does mean my 4850 is running at 625MHz/993MHz or at 500MHz/750MHz? I'm so confused.

Oh my GPU temperature is at 81C.

When you are in 2D mode the RAM and GPU downclock to use less power and create less heat. When you go to 3D mode the clocks go back up to their rated speed.

Doh! I'm blind too. Didn't realize that post was a couple of days old and there were more pages.

 

[roguerower]

I'm running at a nice and cool 52 degrees at idle


















Of course I have a box fan blowing at full blast into my system...what size fan is that?

 

[Mgz]

temp is a bit high because some tard at AMD prefer the stock fan to spin at a conservative value (25% max speed instead of 50% or 60% max fan speed to please the average Joe crow, most people don't give a damn about whether their vid is running at 86 C or 65 C, but they would RMA/return right away if their card is too noisy since it is much easier to notice)

for 3870/3850 you could use RivaTurner to speed the fan to 50%... anything above 60% = a bit noisy.

before

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/309/38501ix7.jpg

after

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/517/38502xl6.jpg

for 4850 you could wait for RivaTurner 2.10 or if you have an ASUS 4850 you could use program such as Smart Doctor

nVidia doesn't have this problem because the "nVidia system tools" can automatically change the fan speed.

 

[oval53]

Hi,
I put a zalman vf900 on my card and it dropped my temps from 79-80 to 47-48 with a ambient of 26-27.
Using CCC auto tune I am running at 690 - 1150 . That speed thing up quite a bit.
Running DiRT 1680*1050 everything on/high and getting about 50-60 fps.
A competant cooler is a must if you want the eek out a little more performance.

Josh

 

[Hauk]

Originally posted by: oval53
Hi,
I put a zalman vf900 on my card and it dropped my temps from 79-80 to 47-48 with a ambient of 26-27.
Using CCC auto tune I am running at 690 - 1150 . That speed thing up quite a bit.
Running DiRT 1680*1050 everything on/high and getting about 50-60 fps.
A competant cooler is a must if you want the eek out a little more performance.

Josh

Good to know. I'm considering the VF900. The S1 does a good job but is too whacked in size relation to the card for me. The VF900 offers a clean fit and doesn't interfere with Crossfire bridges. I had one before and connected it to mobo 3-pin header which if bios equipped, offers fan speed control. Quiet even at 100%. Costs a bit more but it's a perfect choice for this card...

 

[Modular]

Will the VF-700 fit on this card?

 

[oval53]

Modular: yes the 700 shoud fit just fine. I just took my 900 off my 3870 and put it on my 4850. Then put a 700 on the 3870. The holes are identacle.

 

[nova2]

apparently various people have had success using that to change fan speed on non-asus video cards. you need to flash your video cards bios to an asus version.

Originally posted by: Mgz
temp is a bit high because some tard at AMD prefer the stock fan to spin at a conservative value (25% max speed instead of 50% or 60% max fan speed to please the average Joe crow, most people don't give a damn about whether their vid is running at 86 C or 65 C, but they would RMA/return right away if their card is too noisy since it is much easier to notice)

for 3870/3850 you could use RivaTurner to speed the fan to 50%... anything above 60% = a bit noisy.

before

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/309/38501ix7.jpg

after

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/517/38502xl6.jpg

for 4850 you could wait for RivaTurner 2.10 or if you have an ASUS 4850 you could use program such as Smart Doctor

nVidia doesn't have this problem because the "nVidia system tools" can automatically change the fan speed.

 

[Delerious]

How about a Thermaltake DuOrb?

http://www.microcenter.com/sin...tml?product_id=0275937

 

[dajini92]

Hmmm... so for the people who are running two 4850's in crossfire set up, what (if any) after market cooling fits?

 

[Hauk]

Originally posted by: Delerious
How about a Thermaltake DuOrb?

http://www.microcenter.com/sin...tml?product_id=0275937

I believe it would but damn that thing's too big for the card. I'm not knocking it, I like their products but a Zalman is much better suited to card size and will yield good enough results. Friendly 2 cents..

 

[Mucker]

I've finally had some time to do my S1 mod the correct way and found an issue that I missed earlier. The ram sink nearest to the bottom of the card was interfering with a heatpipe, therefore, I had to mod it (cut a couple of the fins off) so that it would not interfere with the heatpipe of the S1:

Ram Sink mod

The next pic shows the modified ram sink installed. I had some good double-sided thermal tape and did away with those gooey original pads. Much cleaner and should transfer heat much better:

Mod sink install

All sinks in place now:

Sinks installed

S1 mounted with no ram sink interference:

Plenty clear now

Sorry I didn't see this earlier but hope it helps out.....I have added this section to my original thread.

m

 

[AmberClad]

I don't understand why the QA tester has to go and mark every single capacitor on the card with a permanent marker. What is the purpose of that?

 

[Mucker]

Good question Amber, maybe I got an extra special card...hehe...except they mounted the gpu upside down too

 

[fliguy84]

You know what Amber, I notice this trend too with my old 9500 Pro. Maybe it's just a way to mark capacitors that have passed testing.

 

[T2k]

Seems replacing the crappy default thermal compound with some better one already brings down the numbers by ~10C, doesn' it?

 

[EvilBob]

Given the conversation about aftermarket cooling video cards, here's a question for you: Do aftermarket coolers that only contact the GPU cheat in delivering "low" temps?

I have a 3850 agp - stock, idle was usually high50-low60C, load high60s or so. I replace the stock cooler with the accelero S1, new thermal paste, and the matching accelero dual fans on the heatsink. Idle dropped to low-30sC, load high30s-low40s - awesome results! But here's the nub - the accelero only contacts the GPU. The memory chips now have their individual heatsinks, and my power converter gets nothing (some cards fit the heat spreader, but not mine).

Now, the massive copper plate that is the stock sink contacts the GPU, memory, and power converter. So the GPU thermal sensor, which is reporting all of these temp numbers, could see thermal bleed across the sink from the memory and power converter. With the aftermarket cooler, all of these heat loads are now disconnected, so the GPU sensor only sees GPU heat. There's the root of my question - in getting excited with a 20-30C GPU temp drop with the aftermarket cooler, is my head in the sand to the fact that the memory and power converter heat load is still there, but just isn't observable?

TY! --EB

 

[T2k]

Originally posted by: EvilBob
Given the conversation about aftermarket cooling video cards, here's a question for you: Do aftermarket coolers that only contact the GPU cheat in delivering "low" temps?

I have a 3850 agp - stock, idle was usually high50-low60C, load high60s or so. I replace the stock cooler with the accelero S1, new thermal paste, and the matching accelero dual fans on the heatsink. Idle dropped to low-30sC, load high30s-low40s - awesome results! But here's the nub - the accelero only contacts the GPU. The memory chips now have their individual heatsinks, and my power converter gets nothing (some cards fit the heat spreader, but not mine).

Now, the massive copper plate that is the stock sink contacts the GPU, memory, and power converter. So the GPU thermal sensor, which is reporting all of these temp numbers, could see thermal bleed across the sink from the memory and power converter. With the aftermarket cooler, all of these heat loads are now disconnected, so the GPU sensor only sees GPU heat. There's the root of my question - in getting excited with a 20-30C GPU temp drop with the aftermarket cooler, is my head in the sand to the fact that the memory and power converter heat load is still there, but just isn't observable?

TY! --EB

I was thinking about the same: memory tends to run very hot as well, it or rather lack of it could be a contributing factor these 'great' temp reductions...

 

[krameriffic]

Originally posted by: T2k
Seems replacing the crappy default thermal compound with some better one already brings down the numbers by ~10C, doesn' it?

I tried this. I cleaned the default stuff off with 91% isopropyl alcohol and replaced it with a rice grain sized drop of AS5 which I thin smoothed over the whole core and I found no difference in my temperatures. I still idle at 78C and hit around 87C under full load at stock clocks. Either I fail at applying AS5, or the failing is a result of something else: the heatsink and fan, not the thermal interface. I don't know if you've felt the heatsink shortly after running this thing, but it is literally too hot to touch. I just don't think the heatsink can effectively ditch off the heat from everything with the fan at 14%, regardless of whether the heat can transfer effectively from the GPU core to the heatsink.

 

[sem1966]

Do anybody try Arctic Cooling Accelero S2 VGA Cooler yet?. Will it fit on ati 4850?

 

[Kana007]

Here is a cheap solution. I reduced my idle temp from 82c to 64c just by tying a
80mm case fan to the card. The fan hangs about 1/4 inch below the card and
blows air directly into the card's intake port. This made the biggest change.
Applying AS5 did'nt do much. The stock fan is spinning to slow. My ati auto tune
numbers are 690/1133. A temporary solution until rivatuner gets updated.

Ghetto fan