Curse

LuckyGiant · Jul 07, 2011, 03:37 PM // 15:37

UPDATE: no need to read thru entire thread, just below.

AMD PII X4 810 @ 2.6GHz
XFX 4870 1Gb (dual slot cooler)
6Gb Ram
Antec 300 Case

Initial problem: the default gpu drivers generally had the fan on my 4870 at only 12-18% occassionally going up to 22% - never above. This default profile caused the card temp to regularly stay in the upper 80s even early 90s degrees and I crashed a couple of times.

Solution: I found a program called ATi Tray Tools. I've made a custom fan profile which is loaded on computer startup and allows me to achieve what I wanted to do - put a temperature ceiling on the card.

Temp Fan Speed
60-70 24%
71-75 30%
74-80 35%
81-83 45%
84-86 60%
87-89 75%
90-92 90%
93+ 100%

Typical card stats under my custom profile
Idle: 62-65 @ 24% fan
Load: 70 @ 24% & 30% fan (playing GW)
Heavy load: unknown, but the profile has an agressive upper end to attempt to cap the temp at 83 degrees.

Help needed!
Q1: I'm not tech saavy anything I should be wary of with regard to the changes I've made?
Q2: ATi tray tools scares me a little, any default options I should change?

.

Quaker · Jul 07, 2011, 03:51 PM // 15:51

Those temperatures sound like Fahrenheit, which wouldn't be bad. If they're Celsius, they are high.
At least you've determined that the fan is running. Next what you need to do is to make sure the cooling path of the card is not packed with dust.

A common cause of these problems is driver conflicts. Sometimes these conflicts only arise after Windows (or something else) has done some auto-update. Make sure all your drivers - video, audio, chipset, etc. - are up-to-date.

P.S. I have an HD4870 and I spent some time dicking with the fan speed (for reasons I forget). In the end I set it back to Auto and since upgrading to Win 7, I've never even opened the CCC.

LuckyGiant · Jul 07, 2011, 04:03 PM // 16:03

Its celcius *gulp* ;p

I'm quite sure its not the drivers. It had locked up twice or so before, lately I think the ambient temp in the room is a lot higher which is probably triggering it.

It could probably use a good clean, hasn't had one in ages. Will get onto that shortly.

Regarding the auto fan setting: I've done some testing and the automatic setting on the fan appears to obey an 80 degrees celcius ceiling adjusting the fan % speed accordingly to keep the card at 80 degrees. Only about 23% fan speed is needed to maintain this even when gaming.

Obviously this is whats considered safe by manufacturers, but its not currently working for me.

Is there anyway to lower the ceiling of 80 degrees on the card and make the fan work a little harder to keep the card at say 65 degrees C?

noda · Jul 07, 2011, 05:49 PM // 17:49

Your problem are vrms (voltage regulator modules). Pretty common problem with HD48x0 series, I would know becuase I had both the 4870 and 4850.

You should check those temps with GPU-Z (look at VDDC phase 1,2,3 in 'sensor' tab) while gaming to see how far are the going. They shouldn't be above 70-80°C.
btw, 80°C for the vpu is nothing (especially in load), so don't worry about that, your main problem are vrms.

LuckyGiant · Jul 08, 2011, 08:13 AM // 08:13

Fan set on auto [tab out 30min into GW]

Ambient room temperature is pretty cool today. I suspect the below values are normal. I'll have to wait for a crash and post the values then to see if the voltage regulators are hot.

Side note: my GPU core clock appears to alternate between 600 and 750MHz every 1 second or so when not in game. When in game it stays at 750.

Fan on auto, then after tab out of GW manually set at 35% to see values drop

noda · Jul 08, 2011, 08:50 AM // 08:50

Hmm, those are pretty normal temperatures for stock dual slot cooling. I would guess that the freezing isn't cause of the graphic card malfunctioning, but rather something else.
But to be sure, you could stress your card with some programs like OCCT and FurMark (be very careful with this one, if the temperatures go very high, i.e. over 100°C, close it immediately).
Also you could try to test your cpu and memory with appropriate tools, prime95 for cpu and memtest+ for RAM.

PS. video card BIOS is switching clock speeds when you are alternating from 2D to 3D environment and vice versa, so no problem there

LuckyGiant · Jul 08, 2011, 10:52 AM // 10:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by noda

Hmm, those are pretty normal temperatures for stock dual slot cooling.

Okie, as I mentioned the ambient temperature today is quite low so I suspect whatever normally goes wrong isn't an issue today unfortunately :/

Quote:

Originally Posted by noda

But to be sure, you could stress your card with some programs like OCCT and FurMark (be very careful with this one, if the temperatures go very high, i.e. over 100°C, close it immediately).

Updated directX and ran OCCT, results below appear fine.

CPU temps on any core never went about 40 degrees C

Quote:

Originally Posted by noda

rather something else. memtest+ for RAM.

Ran this test today, 1 pass - No errors.

Quote:

Originally Posted by noda

Also you could try to test your cpu. prime95 for cpu

Will give this a go tomorrow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by noda

PS. video card BIOS is switching clock speeds when you are alternating from 2D to 3D environment and vice versa, so no problem there

Haha ok, thanks

LuckyGiant · Jul 25, 2011, 12:10 PM // 12:10

AMD PII X4 810 @ 2.6GHz
XFX 4870 1Gb (dual slot cooler)
6Gb Ram
Antec 300 Case

Initial problem: the default gpu drivers generally had the fan on my 4870 at only 12-18% occassionally going up to 22%, but not above. This default profile caused the card to regularly stay in the upper 80 and early 90s degrees and I crashed a couple of times.

Solution: I found a program called ATi Tray Tools. I've made a custom fan profile which is loaded on computer startup and allows me to achieve what I wanted to do - put a temperature ceiling on the card.

Temp Fan Speed
60-70 24%
71-75 30%
74-80 35%
81-83 45%
84-86 60%
87-89 75%
90-92 90%
93+ 100%

Typical card stats under my custom profile
Idle: 62-65 @ 24% fan
Load: 70 @ 24% & 30% fan (playing GW)
Heavy load: unknown, but the profile has an agressive upper end to attempt to cap the temp at 83 degrees.

Help needed!
Q1: I'm not tech saavy anything I should be wary of with regard to the changes I've made?
Q2: ATi tray tools scares me a little, any default options I should change?