ATI 4850 TEMPERATURE discussion

[Delerious]

I ended up reapplying the thermal grease and pulling the blue wire out of the fan connector. The result is the fan runs at 100%, idle gpu temp is 45c at 650/11000. (Previously 81c)

The downside is that it's very noisy. I'm going to see how I adjust to the noise before I put on a zalman or a duoorb.

Theres a prog called Rivatuner that will let you adjust the fan speed, v 2.10 is not available until mid July though so can't use that yet. When I get that i'll mess with the fan speeds.

 

[MyLeftNut]

Originally posted by: 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.

I did the same for my galaxy 8800gt a while back with a 120mm fan tied to that zalman look-alike cooler and it dropped temps by quite a bit also. No need buying a new heatsink if just a spare fan lying around works well enough, right?

 

[mancunian]

Originally posted by: MyLeftNut

Originally posted by: 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.

I did the same for my galaxy 8800gt a while back with a 120mm fan tied to that zalman look-alike cooler and it dropped temps by quite a bit also. No need buying a new heatsink if just a spare fan lying around works well enough, right?

Right, totally.

I've just fitted an 80mm case fan to a bracket and fitted the bracket just below the card. The fan is mounted so that it can suck air from under, otherwise it has little effect.

It was idling at 79-80c before I did this ghetto mod. It's now at 56-57c. Takes a few minutes to cool back down to this temperature.

But a 23-24c reduction is outstanding for such a simple bit of work. Think I'm just gonna leave this in, but change the 80mm fan for a 120mm one. That'll cool it even better.

I feel better about this card's temps now.




Edit: This works so well, you don't even hear the card's fan anymore, it doesn't get hot enough to use it. Cooler AND quieter.

 

[Kana007]

mancunian,
Could you post a pic of your bracket? I'm trying to picture how you have your
fan set up.

 

[mancunian]

I'm gaming on DoD source right now, but perhaps later I'll pull it all out again and open up the case and take a photo with my phone.

 

[Hauk]

Originally posted by: Delerious
I ended up reapplying the thermal grease and pulling the blue wire out of the fan connector. The result is the fan runs at 100%, idle gpu temp is 45c at 650/11000. (Previously 81c)

The downside is that it's very noisy. I'm going to see how I adjust to the noise before I put on a zalman or a duoorb.

Theres a prog called Rivatuner that will let you adjust the fan speed, v 2.10 is not available until mid July though so can't use that yet. When I get that i'll mess with the fan speeds.

Thanks, was curious what temps would look like with stock fan at 100%. I'll be slapping Zalman VF900's on my CF 4850's tomorrow.

Time for 700mhz core goodness.. :evil:

 

[mancunian]

Originally posted by: Kana007
mancunian,
Could you post a pic of your bracket? I'm trying to picture how you have your
fan set up.

Just for you Kana, a couple of pics that show my ghetto mod, plus a screenshot of the idle temperature with the case closed. The fan is basically hooked onto the bracket.

inside view of case

the ghetto mod itself

Temperature at idle now as follows:

25c cooler

I just used Blu Tack, paid 2 quid for a strip of it and moulded it around the clamp. Gonna attach a 120mm fan tomorrow and see how it does.

And depending on how good that Blu Tack stays in place, I might not even bother getting a new VGA cooler. It's going nowhere where it is now.

:beer:

 

[Kana007]

Thanks mancunian,
I could'nt figure out how to mount it. Blu tack, very clever. Much better than my
ghetto mod

 

[mancunian]

Originally posted by: Kana007
Thanks mancunian,
I could'nt figure out how to mount it. Blu tack, very clever. Much better than my
ghetto mod

Yes, the good thing about the Blu Tack is that it tends to stay where it is, even in a computer case, I've used it in the past.

With the tape you've used there, I'd worry about the adhesive on it heating up and melting onto the circuitry of the card possibly causing a short, although I'm unsure about whether my fear would have any grounds.

But I'm extremely happy with the 10 minutes work it took to reduce the temps on this thing.

 

[s44]

Very cute. Might try that on my 8800GT.

 

[flashbacck]

Instead of suspending by tape, you could try that stretch-magic nylon cord. I'm using it to suspend a harddrive and it seems to absorb vibrations pretty well.

 

[Kana007]

I am thinking about getting an acelero S1. Will the S2 model also fit?

 

[Delerious]

Originally posted by: SteelSix

Originally posted by: Delerious
I ended up reapplying the thermal grease and pulling the blue wire out of the fan connector. The result is the fan runs at 100%, idle gpu temp is 45c at 650/11000. (Previously 81c)

The downside is that it's very noisy. I'm going to see how I adjust to the noise before I put on a zalman or a duoorb.

Theres a prog called Rivatuner that will let you adjust the fan speed, v 2.10 is not available until mid July though so can't use that yet. When I get that i'll mess with the fan speeds.

Thanks, was curious what temps would look like with stock fan at 100%. I'll be slapping Zalman VF900's on my CF 4850's tomorrow.

Time for 700mhz core goodness.. :evil:

Let us know how that goes. I have a zalman sitting here along with a duorb, not sure what i'm going to do as both are equally priced..

 

[QuixoticOne]

Here's my contribution so far --

Before I did this I had 83C IDLE, untested LOAD temperature.
After I did this, I had 57C IDLE, 84C LOAD temperature according to CCC when GPU 99% active in Oblivion.

Very simple, you just need
one or two 80mm PC fans
one metal PC expansion slot cover
one short machine screw and a couple of nuts for it if you want the "over the top" fan.
two nine inch long zip-ties (tie them together for extra length) to form one loop to hold the front or rear fan to
the bracket.
one simple drill press and something like a 9/64" bit if needed to put two or three holes into the expansion slot cover; some will already have holes along the face in convenient places.

I made about four of them in 15 minutes.

http://img165.imageshack.us/im...29/outcrw4637crqm0.jpg
http://img105.imageshack.us/im...75/outcrw4638crvp7.jpg
http://img212.imageshack.us/im...45/outcrw4639crvn3.jpg


EDIT Action shot:
http://img410.imageshack.us/im...6649/outimg4640tj7.jpg

PS as you can see I drilled holes on the left and right sides of the slot cover so you could choose to offset the fan more to the left of the slot or more to the right depending on your situation. You can also adjust where the zip tie grips the fan to slide it a little more to the left or right that way. In case it's not clear from the initial pictures, the whole assembly just screws into an empty slot next to the GPU in the usual way you'd screw the slot cover in, so it is easy to take out or put in, and it more or less fits in the space of one slot (albeit very tightly).

 

[bgeh]

It looks like the temperature problem (and possibly, power) at idle may have been fixed with the new BIOSes

http://gathering.tweakers.net/.../view_message/30312532
http://www.techpowerup.com/vga...HD4850.512.080605.html

Sourced from http://forum.beyond3d.com/show...=1181935&postcount=108

 

[Rhino2]

Originally posted by: bgeh
It looks like the temperature problem (and possibly, power) at idle may have been fixed with the new BIOSes

http://gathering.tweakers.net/.../view_message/30312532
http://www.techpowerup.com/vga...HD4850.512.080605.html

Sourced from http://forum.beyond3d.com/show...=1181935&postcount=108

Will the bios released for the MSI card work for the other manufacturers as well? Seeing as how they are all reference design at the moment.

 

[PG]

Originally posted by: bgeh
It looks like the temperature problem (and possibly, power) at idle may have been fixed with the new BIOSes

http://gathering.tweakers.net/.../view_message/30312532
http://www.techpowerup.com/vga...HD4850.512.080605.html

Sourced from http://forum.beyond3d.com/show...=1181935&postcount=108

This is great news, but I just hope other card makers release bios updates too.

Rhino2, yes, the bios updates should work for cards other than from MSI, but it's a risk.
I have a Visiontek and will be waiting for an update from them directly. I don't want to screw up and void that nice lifetime warranty.

 

[Rhino2]

Originally posted by: PG

Originally posted by: bgeh
It looks like the temperature problem (and possibly, power) at idle may have been fixed with the new BIOSes

http://gathering.tweakers.net/.../view_message/30312532
http://www.techpowerup.com/vga...HD4850.512.080605.html

Sourced from http://forum.beyond3d.com/show...=1181935&postcount=108

This is great news, but I just hope other card makers release bios updates too.

Rhino2, yes, the bios updates should work for cards other than from MSI, but it's a risk.
I have a Visiontek and will be waiting for an update from them directly. I don't want to screw up and void that nice lifetime warranty.

Ah ok, I have a Visiontek on the way as well, should be here tomorrow

Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to cool it down a little bit, can't decide. Leaning towards the S1 because the amazingly impressive performance from a passive cooler, just have to make sure I have the case real estate for it.

 

[Hauk]

Originally posted by: Delerious

Originally posted by: SteelSix

Thanks, was curious what temps would look like with stock fan at 100%. I'll be slapping Zalman VF900's on my CF 4850's tomorrow.

Time for 700mhz core goodness.. :evil:

Let us know how that goes. I have a zalman sitting here along with a duorb, not sure what i'm going to do as both are equally priced..

Will do. Plan to do a quik review tonight... :thumbsup:

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: bgeh
It looks like the temperature problem (and possibly, power) at idle may have been fixed with the new BIOSes

http://gathering.tweakers.net/.../view_message/30312532
http://www.techpowerup.com/vga...HD4850.512.080605.html

Sourced from http://forum.beyond3d.com/show...=1181935&postcount=108

Thats great news! I hope VisionTek releases one soon too.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: PG

Originally posted by: bgeh
It looks like the temperature problem (and possibly, power) at idle may have been fixed with the new BIOSes

http://gathering.tweakers.net/.../view_message/30312532
http://www.techpowerup.com/vga...HD4850.512.080605.html

Sourced from http://forum.beyond3d.com/show...=1181935&postcount=108

This is great news, but I just hope other card makers release bios updates too.

Rhino2, yes, the bios updates should work for cards other than from MSI, but it's a risk.
I have a Visiontek and will be waiting for an update from them directly. I don't want to screw up and void that nice lifetime warranty.

I flashed my 3870 bios to an asus bios about 4 mos ago to fix the cooling fan speed issue and max oc issue and it worked fine. the only diff was that gpu-z showed it as an asus card instead of his after that. It ended up not being stable at previously stable clocks, however, so I flashed it back to the origninal bios and just used rivatuner for fan speed adjustment.

re the new bioses that are out: I wouldn't be surprised if that was one of the things holding amd back from releasing 4850, nvidia (and their board partners) just got tired of waiting.


re the modded bios settings at techreport: I wonder if it would be possible to simply write a new bios to increase the voltage instead of having to do a voltmod? hmmm...

 

[ChronoReverse]

A lot of the bios's are actually identical.

For instance, a quick MD5sum check of the HIS and MSI original bios's reveal that they are identical. Which makes sense since they're both reference.

 

[ApBp]

A quick question. Where did they find that update MSI bios?

I have an MSI 4850 as well but I cant find the updated bios on their website. I tried using their Live Update program but it just crashes on me when it starts searching.

 

[krameriffic]

Originally posted by: PG

Originally posted by: bgeh
It looks like the temperature problem (and possibly, power) at idle may have been fixed with the new BIOSes

http://gathering.tweakers.net/.../view_message/30312532
http://www.techpowerup.com/vga...HD4850.512.080605.html

Sourced from http://forum.beyond3d.com/show...=1181935&postcount=108

This is great news, but I just hope other card makers release bios updates too.

Rhino2, yes, the bios updates should work for cards other than from MSI, but it's a risk.
I have a Visiontek and will be waiting for an update from them directly. I don't want to screw up and void that nice lifetime warranty.

Well if you bought it from Bestbuy (like many people have thanks to that 25% off deal) you can simply exchange it at the store if it's within 30 days of the purchase. They won't vigorously check any of that kind of stuff; they'll take your word for it if you brick the card.

 

[bryanW1995]

OR you could NOT recommend that members of the AT forums perpetrate fraud against legitimate businesses. besides, it is possible to blind flash a card, you just have to know what you're doing. If you're NOT comfortable doing a blind flash or otherwise fixing a bad flash, then DO NOT flash your bios under any circumstances.