Cooler for ATI HD4850

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Kazappin

Gawd
Joined
Nov 13, 2008
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Just got a new HD 4850 1 GB from a fellow [H] member today, and I just plugged it into my rig. I already have one HD4850 (512MB) but that one might be going soon. I sort of over-spent this month :X

They're in crossfire for now, with the new card at the top. Although it's a dual-slot card, it's still running hot. Ridiculously hot. 70C at idle hot. Is this just because it's in crossfire, or could it be an underpowered cooler?

If I were to keep the card or resell it, I wouldn't want myself or the new owner fretting about the temperatures. That said, what is a good aftermarket cooler for the HD 4850?I don't have a water loop yet, so that's not an option. I'm also looking to hit the card in the $30 area, if possible.

Thank you very much!
 
Is the fan (on the dual slot cooler) being choked by the 2nd 4850 below it?
 
I'd say the Accelero S1 rev 2 would be the best option for after market cooling in that price range. I'm looking into getting a VF1000 but it's still 40+ dollars which is more than I want to pay for a cooler.

Turning up the cooler does work, though I'm constantly running it at 45% and the idle temps are still in the mid 50's and load depends on the game. Most of the time the firmware will have to take over and up the speed to 100% so my guess is high ninties.
 
I turned the fan up to 100%, but in xfire it was still idling at 64c.

I rebooted and now I'm single slotting it, and it's idling at 49c with the fan at 50% (still inaudible). I'm thinking it would still be worth it to upgrade the cooler though. Is the AC accelero S1 rev 2 truly the best cooler for this card?
 
Even with just one card, those are some hot temps. At idle, you shouldnt need the fan running above 20% to get 40c.

What is your case fan config like? Seems like youre not blowing enough hot air out of the case.
Your cards are just cycling the hot air round and round.

A new cooler is not the solution to your current issue.
 
deltronik said:
Even with just one card, those are some hot temps. At idle, you shouldnt need the fan running above 20% to get 40c.

What is your case fan config like? Seems like youre not blowing enough hot air out of the case.
Your cards are just cycling the hot air round and round.

A new cooler is not the solution to your current issue.
Click to expand...

+1 on this line of thinking. What's your inflow/outflow looking like?

My 4850 1gig (powercolor) idles at 40c and during games + streaming video only gets up to high 50s. I run 4 case fans and live in Phoenix, so it's not exactly frigid room temp. =p
 
Do these coolers breath cold air from outside the case, or the back of the card? Or do they breath from immediately below the card?

I could not run my 4850s in Xfire because they breathed from below and the top card sucked all the hot air off the first one. I was hitting 100*C+ in games. So I RMA'd one for a refund, gave the other to my brother and bought a GTX280.

Some of the coolers just have a stupid design, if they breath from below they will work poorly in Crossfire.
 
Rizen said:
Do these coolers breath cold air from outside the case, or the back of the card? Or do they breath from immediately below the card?

I could not run my 4850s in Xfire because they breathed from below and the top card sucked all the hot air off the first one. I was hitting 100*C+ in games. So I RMA'd one for a refund, gave the other to my brother and bought a GTX280.

Some of the coolers just have a stupid design, if they breath from below they will work poorly in Crossfire.
Click to expand...

It is also way too hot with only one in his system as he stated before.
He needs to get some good airflow through his case before entertaining any idea of a problem with the gpu cooler.

Moving to something like an Accelero s1 rev2 without proper airflow will be worse than what he's got now.
 
+1 on the Accelero S1 Rev. 2 for the $30 price range.

In the $50 price range, I'd highly recommend the Thermalright HR-03 GT.
 
PC_User said:
+1 on the Accelero S1 Rev. 2 for the $30 price range.

In the $50 price range, I'd highly recommend the Thermalright HR-03 GT.
Click to expand...

Once again, great coolers, but they are not going to help him.

Kazappin, you should be seeing temps around 40c-45c at idle with fan speeds <=20%.
There is definitely a problem with your airflow through the case if you need 50% to keep the card at 50c idle, as the stock coolers on these cards are more than adequate even when overclocked.

The Accelero or hr-03 are really only necessary if you want to quiet your system down.
Both of these coolers will perform very very poorly if your case does not have proper aiflow.

Please do not spend your money on any cooler until your are sure that airflow is not an issue. Otherwise you may be sorely disappointed.
Even in that case (if airflow is not the issue) you should really be RMAing these cards as that would make me believe the cards are defective, you should not have to purchase aftermarket coolers to get these cards to operate at a normal temp.
 
Does those side vents on some cases help, or is it best to pull all the air in from the front of the case? Generally speaking of course. I am also seeing similiar temps with my HD4850 crossfire setup.
 
bigsnyder said:
Does those side vents on some cases help, or is it best to pull all the air in from the front of the case? Generally speaking of course. I am also seeing similiar temps with my HD4850 crossfire setup.
Click to expand...

With a crossfire setup, I wouldnt want to see a max temp of much more than 80c.

Not sure if vents generally help or hurt, but I have stuck with the assumption that a negative pressure system is best. e.g. more air being pulled out the back of the case.
some say you want the same being pushed in the front as is pulled out the back.

FWIW Back in the pII/k6-2 days i used to tape all of the vents closed and run two exhaust fans and one front intake. Definitely gave me lower temps than two intake fans.
you will probably need to experiment with your setup.

/edit

crossfire raised temps by about 11c over a single card for these guys
your increase in temp when going from one card to two is in line with what they saw.
this review: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1471/12/sapphire_radeon_hd_4850_in_crossfire/index.html

They had the dual slot 4850s in crossfire at 79.2 in the open air.
I'd figure with a good case setup you would probably never see 90c unless you were trying to kill your card with furmark.
and probably not more than 50 at idle with a low fan speed.
 
deltronik said:
Once again, great coolers, but they are not going to help him.

The Accelero or hr-03 are really only necessary if you want to quiet your system down.
Both of these coolers will perform very very poorly if your case does not have proper aiflow.
Click to expand...

Not entirely true. They do reduce noise but you will get much better cooling with an aftermarket cooler. Not to mention that you can achieve the same temps without having to run the stock fan speed at 70%+. You are going to have a 92mm fan on the aftermarket cooler anyway so it can suck air and blow onto the video card. Yes, proper airflow throughout the case will help and I was assuming that the OP has sufficient airflow.
 
PC_User said:
Not entirely true. They do reduce noise but you will get much better cooling with an aftermarket cooler. Not to mention that you can achieve the same temps without having to run the stock fan speed at 70%+. You are going to have a 92mm fan on the aftermarket cooler anyway so it can suck air and blow onto the video card. Yes, proper airflow throughout the case will help and I was assuming that the OP has sufficient airflow.
Click to expand...

That's why the statement I made about the coolers above is entirely true.

You cannot assume OP has appropriate airflow as he would not have made this post in the first place, since his cards would not be idling at 70c.

I am just trying to help op fix his issue without spending money only to be disappointed with piss poor performance.

Those two coolers have proven not to be very effective without lots of airflow. And that does not mean slapping a 92mm fan on them(they do just fine even without a fan.) No, this means air flowing through the case, or even an open air setup.

If op wants cooler temps, check airflow first. Once op has airflow, if the temps are still not cool enough (which they almost certainly will be unless he is voltmodding and cranking up the core to 850+mhz, and even then heat isn't so much the issue as is luck of the draw with the chip on these cards) and/or he wants less noise, I, then, could fully recommend one of those coolers.
 
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