79c idle temp normal for a 4870?

A

Arcygenical

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Jun 10, 2005
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Well, I've tried downloading 3 utilities so far to check my 4870 temperatures, and they're all spouting (similar) high numbers.

When I first start the system up, I'm idling in the low 50s and such (normal) but after 30 minutes at the desktop (or 5m of a game, even if I exit out of it and let it sit at idle again) it rises between 66 and 79c!

GPUZ's second sensor is reading an astounding 91c at idle for most of the time.

The side of my case is off. My CPU is watercooled, etc...

What gives? The temps don't seem to change much during gaming load though... They go up to around 95c.
 
My HD 4870 is pretty much the same. It idles at around 79C, and under load, only goes up three or four degrees Celsius. I am curious as to what GPU-Z's second sensor is reading though, because mine is currently at 93.5 degrees Celsius under load from folding@home's GPU2 client. It makes me worry about overclocking, for fear that this high temperature may cause a problem, since I don't even know what it is.

Edit: And holy cow, 95 C at full load? That's going into the danger zone, if that's the core temperature of the GPU.
 
I used to idle at 83 and full load at 95. I changed my Tmin/Tmax to 50/100 using RBE. Now I'm idling at 63 and full load at 73. Fan noise at idle hardly changed but the fan is definitely louder now during full load. I wonder why ATI chose these extremely conservative fan settings....
 
Xeth said:
I used to idle at 83 and full load at 95. I changed my Tmin/Tmax to 50/100 using RBE. Now I'm idling at 63 and full load at 73. Fan noise at idle hardly changed but the fan is definitely louder now during full load. I wonder why ATI chose these extremely conservative fan settings....
Click to expand...

I just ordered my 4870...sorry but WTH is RBE?
 
ah, thanks. I did flash my bios with my 8800gt but I said I wasn't going to do that again. With these temps, I can see buying the duo orb just because it SEEMS insanely hot. Hope I don't regret this decision with higher room temps down the line....my 9600gt is sweet at 42 passive cooled!
 
How long does ATI expect these to last at these defaulted high temps? I guess if it can go three years without fail, then there's really no issue.. But for some reason, I don't think they will.....
 
It's not an issue because of lifetime warranties which visiontech has if I'm not mistaken...I mean I read that everywhere but I haven't verified it myself yet. I do have one on order though.
 
Ahh, well, if it's normal, then I see no reason to worry :)

I'm just starting to bring her above the CCC 790mhz cap using AMD overclock tool, and wanted to make sure I was in the green (or... Red? I should say).
 
Its much easier just to create the fan profile as was mentioned earlier instead of flashing the bios. Read the link above. Its easy, you just set your overdrive settings save the profile then manually edit the profile. Within that file is fan speed. My default was 12% fan speed and my temps were at 70c+ idle. Now I set my fan to 60% and I am at 37c idle. Big difference. I tried 100% but it was just too loud but if i ever overclock i might do 100% for games.
 
Agree on the fan profile hack. It's ultra easy. Just changing mine from 22% to 30% dropped it from 77 to 50 with no appreciable change in noise level. Going to 35% or 40% drops it even more, but the change in noise level becomes perceptible for me.
 
I just tried putting my 4870's fan at 100% for kicks, and I got the card down to about 45C. Wow! I tried overclocking it using the AMD GPU tool too, but I couldn't get very far at all without getting artifacts in ATITool, even at extremely low temperatures. What's the deal with that? Something else is holding my card back?
 
my fan is set to 35, idles at 49C.

I think 80C at idle for these cards are normal, when you look at the CCC temp gauge meter its not even close to the red area (hot), its only light orange area (warmish).
 
Hrm, I don't have the path to that XML file... :confused:

Eh, I'll have a waterblock for it in a month, the card will have to hold out till then.

I'm sitting at 820/1100 right now fully stable! And climbing :D
 
Arcygenical said:
Hrm, I don't have the path to that XML file... :confused:

Eh, I'll have a waterblock for it in a month, the card will have to hold out till then.

I'm sitting at 820/1100 right now fully stable! And climbing :D
Click to expand...

open up your hidden folders.
 
Hrm...

I don't like my cards running at 80 degrees, that might be perfectly safe for them, but it's not for my Asus Xonar soundcard which is sandwhiched between 2 of these cards.

Raising the fanspeed using the profile tweak does drop the temps nicely, but when overclocking it needs to be cooler as Im getting artifacts quite early on. I would like to leave automatic fanspeed adjustment on if possible but set the target closer to 50-60 degrees, is there any way to do that?

I dont want to have to set the fanspeed static to 50% or something and deal with the loud noise when just on the desktop.

Any ideas?
 
One of the Catalyst Crew guys post over at rage3d.com and he said that PowerPlay will be fixed in the next driver, so that should help quite a bit. In the interim the profile fix is the way to go.
 
Frostex said:
Hrm...

I don't like my cards running at 80 degrees, that might be perfectly safe for them, but it's not for my Asus Xonar soundcard which is sandwhiched between 2 of these cards.

Raising the fanspeed using the profile tweak does drop the temps nicely, but when overclocking it needs to be cooler as Im getting artifacts quite early on. I would like to leave automatic fanspeed adjustment on if possible but set the target closer to 50-60 degrees, is there any way to do that?

I dont want to have to set the fanspeed static to 50% or something and deal with the loud noise when just on the desktop.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
I'm with you. What we really need is proper adjustments from 20% ish to 60% ish depending on temps/load. I'm very interested to explore the BIOS mod Xeth mentioned:

Xeth said:
I used to idle at 83 and full load at 95. I changed my Tmin/Tmax to 50/100 using RBE. Now I'm idling at 63 and full load at 73. Fan noise at idle hardly changed but the fan is definitely louder now during full load. I wonder why ATI chose these extremely conservative fan settings....
Click to expand...
 
We need a target temp function.

Set target temp at say 60degrees and it changes fanspeed to make sure that temperature is always met. Currently it looks like it's doing something similar only the target temps are more like 80 degrees.
 
I set the fan speed to 40% on my 4870 and its Idling at 40c , at load it hits 55c, time for overclocks :D
 
I recommend if you want to overclock. Set a profile for game and one for idle . That way you can keep it really quite when your just on the desktop.
 
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