Looking to cool down a HD4870

the_syco

Hava a "1GB HD4870 [Factory Overclocked]" by Club3d (I think), and it keeps heating up. After a certain amount of time, my games becomes unstable, and crash. At first, I thought it was just drivers, but as similair crashing has happened on other games (such as Crimecraft) as well as Bad Company 2, and some games just randomly crash (Company of Heroes), I'm begining to think it's the GFX card. Apart from the crashes, I'm happy with the card, so I'm thinking of getting a new fan or cooler of some type.

Would anyone have any recommendations?

Also, the room I'm in is a converted garage, so poor ventelation. Because of this, I'm thinking of going the water cooling route, and wondering how expensive this would be? If I do go this route, I'll probably water cool the CPU as well (ah, sure why not).

cherryghost

have you adjusted the GPU fan speed?

the_syco

cherryghost wrote: »

have you adjusted the GPU fan speed?

Can't seem to It's a "factory overclocked" card, and thus any attempt to change the fan setting has had no real luck - option is grayed out in the CCC, and 3rd party tools (ATT) did have some success in XP (duel boot), but no such luck in Windows7

It seems ATI Tray Tools doesn't work in Windows 7, as the ATI Tray tools cannot connect to a "low level driver". Have read the ATT unofficial forum a while back with no luck, and skimming over it now to see has anyone been able to get it working in Windows 7, but no luck so far.

Aith ATT in XP, i was able to put the fan at 100%. Loud (could hear it hum away), but meh, the games ran okay. Need to get this sorted sooner rather than later, as i don't want random crashes during Midlans.

/edit
I can disable driver signing via F8 upon boot for a session, but doing it everytime I boot is bloody annoying.

/edit2
Info for myself - must check out "test mode" later - http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=3520626&postcount=6 and http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=313629

PogMoThoin

Here's a driver signature overrider, sign the driver Youyrself

Try Afterburner if that don't work

the_syco

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Here's a driver signature overrider, sign the driver Youyrself

Try Afterburner if that don't work

Didn't want to go down the route of running Windows in Test Mode, so I tried Afterburner. Seemed to allow me pop the fan up to 100, from 71. Will try this for a while.

cherryghost

What temperatures are you getting by the way? Before and after adjustments.

It just occured that if it was only Bad Company 2 that it's happening, the game has been broken since the last patch. My BC2 constantly crashes after about 20mins/half an hour

the_syco

cherryghost wrote: »

What temperatures are you getting by the way? Before and after adjustments.

It just occured that if it was only Bad Company 2 that it's happening, the game has been broken since the last patch. My BC2 constantly crashes after about 20mins/half an hour

Temps? Well, just played BC2 just there, and when the game crashed (after Fraps told me there was no more space to record games), it was 67 to 70 Celsius with the fan speed at 69%.

Random crashes also happened in CoH, and weird objects would appear in Crimecraft, after it heated up.

marco_polo

Hmm not sure heat is your problem, 70 degrees isn't excessively hot for a HD4870 and well short of what should be causing overheating crashes, fairly normal temperatures for a period under load in fact.

PogMoThoin

Try replacing thermal compound?

the_syco

marco_polo wrote: »

Hmm not sure heat is your problem, 70 degrees isn't excessively hot for a HD4870 and well short of what should be causing overheating crashes, fairly normal temperatures for a period under load in fact.

70 degrees when I have the fan on high. Also, today, the room was cool. Other days, the room gets a lot hotter, and that's when the crashes will usually happen more frequent.

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Try replacing thermal compound?

Of the GPU? Hrm. Have to say I haven't done that yet. Will get around to it shortly.

marco_polo

Ah sorry the fan speed didn't register when I was reading it .

Tails142

I have a HD4870 and it often runs at over 90 degrees C with no issues. I try to keep it lower generally but the fans on the standard model are so loud at full blast =P

the_syco

Tails142 wrote: »

I have a HD4870 and it often runs at over 90 degrees C with no issues. I try to keep it lower generally but the fans on the standard model are so loud at full blast =P

Using a factory overclocked version. Cos it's a bit warm outside, the temp is a steady 55 Celsius, with the fan on 71% - just browsing the net.

marco_polo

the_syco wrote: »

Using a factory overclocked version. Cos it's a bit warm outside, the temp is a steady 55 Celsius, with the fan on 71% - just browsing the net.

Sh*t that is not so normal alright :eek:, My Saphire 4870 holds that temperature with the fan @ about 25%-30% (it has a better fan than the reference version) which does seems to run a bit hotter (Unlike Tails142 I never see tempratures north of 80-81 degrees).

A FO version like yours with prpbably an even better fan again should certainly be in the same fan speed / temperature ballpark.

As PogMoThoin suggests I would definately pop that sucker off and reapply it.

Cuddlesworth

Have you cleaned the dust out of the heatsink?

PogMoThoin

the_syco wrote: »

Didn't want to go down the route of running Windows in Test Mode, so I tried Afterburner. Seemed to allow me pop the fan up to 100, from 71. Will try this for a while.

You didn't do it right With this app You digitally sign the ATT driver so You don't need to enable test mode

the_syco

PogMoThoin wrote: »

You didn't do it right With this app You digitally sign the ATT driver so You don't need to enable test mode

Probably not, but no time to f**k around with it atm.

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Have you cleaned the dust out of the heatsink?

I did so a while back. Will probably do it soonish, and see how much dust is in it.

Cuddlesworth

the_syco wrote: »

I did so a while back. Will probably do it soonish, and see how much dust is in it.

I'd do that first. Blow down through the exhaust towards the fan. You might just have a matted lump of dust blocking the heat sinks channels at the start.

the_syco

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

I'd do that first. Blow down through the exhaust towards the fan. You might just have a matted lump of dust blocking the heat sinks channels at the start.

Last time I cleaned it, I had to take it apart to clean it (hover + blow air through the heatsinks).

Cuddlesworth

the_syco wrote: »

Last time I cleaned it, I had to take it apart to clean it (hover + blow air through the heatsinks).

good set of lungs will do it. To get it perfect you need compressed air or the above, but a quick blow down the exhaust will tell you how bad it is.

the_syco

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

good set of lungs will do it. To get it perfect you need compressed air or the above, but a quick blow down the exhaust will tell you how bad it is.

Aye. Compressed air is what I used.

Overheal

How dusty is it? I've since learned that my first PC caked dust because I had the fans set up wrong so it was negative-pressure: Dust particles came in, they never went out.

Is there any way this is a CPU or RAM issue?

the_syco

Overheal wrote: »

How dusty is it? I've since learned that my first PC caked dust because I had the fans set up wrong so it was negative-pressure: Dust particles came in, they never went out.

Is there any way this is a CPU or RAM issue?

Still failing. Fails every 20 seconds if playing the Crysis2 demo :eek:

Going to put it into another machine over the weekend, and if I still get the same problem, I get put through to ATI's 2nd level people ^.^

Cuddlesworth

I have the same card I think and it started crapping out on me too recently. It came pre-overclocked so I put the clocks down to normal and it seems fine now.

Overheal

now i have to ask who the hell are Club3D

the_syco

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

I have the same card I think and it started crapping out on me too recently. It came pre-overclocked so I put the clocks down to normal and it seems fine now.

What program did you use, or did you do it through BIOS somehow, or what?

the_syco

Overheal wrote: »

now i have to ask who the hell are Club3D

This is my card: http://www.club-3d.com/index.php/products/reader.en/product/hd4870-overclocked-edition.html. Seems it needs "600Watt High Quality Power Supply"... and I think I have an 800Watt PSU...

Overheal

not exactly a big player in the GPU industry. /shrug

http://www.club-3d.com/index.php/support/warranty.en.html

my next step of advice before you go voiding the warranty or anything.

Solitaire

They're not huge but still a popular vendor for nVidia cards in Europe. A bit like how a lot of people over here won't even have heard of Rosewill

Overheal

Doesnt mean I buy Rosewill either :pac:

Hellrazer

Syco-check yer pms.Have a spare card here you can borrow if youre stuck.Or even if you just want to use it to test the rest of the system.