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4870x2 Extremely high idle temps

K

Knuit

Gawd
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Sep 16, 2008
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So..I just got a 6 pin -> 8 pin adapter today so I could try a 4870x2 my friend gave me, and I'm getting some really really hot idle temps, so I'm thinking something is wrong?. I'm getting around 95C with 0% activity. As such, the fan is at 100%. Is there some sort of configuration that may not be set? I uninstalled the ATI drivers, reset, and installed the new ones for the card, but maybe something else is wrong? Any input/suggestions?

*As a side thought...I'm sure under load it wouldn't be receiving enough power, but at idle it would technically be fine right? Right now I have a 500W in there...I was just testing to see if the card was in fact working, and am getting an 850W tomorrow. but that wouldn't cause the high idle temps at 100% fan speed would it?

Also, I had tested my little brother's 4850 in my machine a few weeks ago, and I believe it was running about the same temps (around 95C) at 45% fan speed and dropped to high 80s when at 100%. Is there something wrong with the cards? Maybe a defect of some kind and they should be RMA'd?
 
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Are you positive that the fan is running at 100%? You know because it sounds like the apocalypse is drawing near. Needless to say, the fan at 100% is INCREDIBLY loud.


If the fan in indeed working properly, there's no way that the card should be that hot. At 100% my card idles at something like 40 degrees (of course there's no way I would ever keep it at 100% since I would end up going Van Gogh on my ears).

Yeah, it definitely sounds like there is a problem somewhere.
 
Well, it was most definitely incredibly loud. That, and the CCC was saying that the fan speed was at 100%, but, it wasn't changing if I tried to manually set the fan speed. I know if I turn the fan on my 4870 to 100%...it was about as loud as that.
 
Knuit said:
Well, it was most definitely incredibly loud. That, and the CCC was saying that the fan speed was at 100%, but, it wasn't changing if I tried to manually set the fan speed. I know if I turn the fan on my 4870 to 100%...it was about as loud as that.
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I thought I posted, dunno where it went. Right now my X2 is idle at 83. I have an antec spotcool blowing on the back of it, and it's in an antec 900 with a lot of airflow.

My ambient in my house is 62.
 
yeah mine is running rather hot too but not that hot. strangely enough I'm getting desktop green artifacts at a temp of 32c some times. I'm pondering a RMA.
 
I think it's enough of a hassle that I'm going to go ahead and RMA it, there really is no reason not to, and I do have a 4870 while it's gone :p

I'm hoping it won't be too painful of a process as I heard MSI RMAing can be.
 
Knuit said:
Well, it was most definitely incredibly loud. That, and the CCC was saying that the fan speed was at 100%, but, it wasn't changing if I tried to manually set the fan speed. I know if I turn the fan on my 4870 to 100%...it was about as loud as that.
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The thing is so hot it has triggered overheat protection (fan locked to 100%). If it were up to me I would remount the cooler.
 
I would agree that there is something amiss, or the X2 is inhaling hot air.

At stock install of CCC, using the "auto fan" option (what...20%?) my cards will idle over 70, and game in the low 90c's.

I personally crank my fan speed to 50%, which is clearly noticeable in fan noise and air exhaust in the back. She likes hers at 40% due to noise, but her case faces her so we hear hers more directly. I now idle low 50's and game in the 70c's

If I set the fan to 100...its loud. While not deafening, it is annoying, but there is noticeable change in airflow and temp changes.

If your case has poor airflow, I'd have to ask what else is in the case heating up? I know my HDD's get cooled by the fans in the front of the case, which causes the heat to push into the video card. In my case, I mounted a side panel fan to intake air from the side of the PC onto the X2. This helped lower average temps a couple of C, and showed me that I was intaking less warmer air from the HDD's.

Ultimately, given the expense of such a card, I could agree that the cooler could be loose, or not touching the GPU's effectively to allow proper cooling, but I wouldnt want to risk "repairing" it to void the warranty.
 
jesus man, idle temps in the 70s??? I had no idea the ATI cards were so goddamn hot. Even my old 9800gx2 idled around 50, low 80's at load. and that thing was a piece of SHIT in terms of cooling.


Anyway, I'd say re-seat the cooler, replace TIM, and if it doesn't help, RMA or seek aftermarket cooling. those temps are definitely not normal.
 
I decided to just send in for an RMA instead of messing with it since it is still under warranty and could very well have some other issues. The previous owner did mention some artifacts on desktop, so I really don't know. As far as airflow, this is with the side panel off, and in the open, so I doubt airflow is really an issue in this case since it really does it AT bootup and thereon. I'll probably get it sent out tomorrow, so I'll keep you guys updated when I get it back to see if the problem is fixed by the new card, (which I'm sure it will).
 
I'd say that was a good choice. Better to just have it RMA'd and over with than fuss with it and really hose it.
 
MurderCityDevil said:
jesus man, idle temps in the 70s??? I had no idea the ATI cards were so goddamn hot. Even my old 9800gx2 idled around 50, low 80's at load. and that thing was a piece of SHIT in terms of cooling.


Anyway, I'd say re-seat the cooler, replace TIM, and if it doesn't help, RMA or seek aftermarket cooling. those temps are definitely not normal.
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Well, you can under clock and under volt to save power and heat. My 2 cores idle at low 60s and 40s with very poor case air intake (<25CFM) and stock fan speed. It's just that most people don't bother with it.
 
My X2 idles at 45/40 C in my Antec 1200 case. Load is normally up around 85/75. But I have the tri-cool fan version.
 
FYI the powerplay bug is back in cat 9.2 and your core will run in 3d clocks on 2d. This is why I have my default profile set to 300/300 and I get 45c idle and 41c idle with 29% fan speed with stock reference cooler (until I get the accelero hd4870x2 which will be out soon).
 
Another thing to add:

Turns out my little brother's 4850 has been overheating on idle too. But his will start at 60C~ and slowly rise and eventually the computer will shutdown, for protection I'm sure. I know his case generally isn't the cleanest thing, but with my experiences with the card, it seemed like it was working a LOT harder then it should have as far as fan speeds/temps, and he may end up just RMAing that as well more for piece of mind since we really don't have that many cards to test and would prefer to just send in to preserve the warranty then put aftermarket cooling on it.
 
Even with powerplay bug with his fan at 100% and ambient at 62 something is still fishy. I'm betting that adapter and flaky psu are the culprits.
 
tokey43074 said:
I am impatiently waiting on this bad boy to come out

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=244

should be out by the end of the month.

I am not having overheating issues BUT i am tired of running my fan at 60% just to get 49c

my pc sounds like a jet engine is running it
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What's so great about 49C through forced fan speed? You should work towards actual idle power reduction by undervolting etc. That way the card will truly produce less heat.
 
Hypernova said:
What's so great about 49C through forced fan speed? You should work towards actual idle power reduction by undervolting etc. That way the card will truly produce less heat.
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nothings great about 49c through foced fan speed, and undervolting is too much work for me :p

the cooling solution on this card is horrible.

as soon as that heatsink is available I am going to get it and put it on.

saves me the effort of undervolting the card.
 
My room temp is about 50f right now, my card is underclocked to the lowest CCC will go. Fan is set to 45%, and my idle temp is still 62c.
 
My GTX260 was idling at 40c the other day. I couldn't imagine 70-80c idle temps for any card, that's outrageous.
 
My gtx 285 is overclocked at 37 idle and quiet......I keep thinking I would like to try a 4870x2, but the more I read, the less interested I become.
 
Even for dual GPU's under one heat sink that temp seems high. I doubt it's the actual gpu temps because that would mean easily over 100c for gaming and I just don't think that's going to happen.
 
What does this mean:

".. the Accelero XTREME 4870X2 operates almost in silent with only 0.5 Sone of sound, creating a much quieter gaming environment beyond anyone’s imagination."

What is a "Sone" and why would they use that instead of DB?
 
idle temps =/= core temp. i don't get why people get so agitated if the video card is idling at 80 degrees. I doubt a company would purposefully let video cards overheat and have to spend replacements because it was too hot.
 
risqu3 said:
idle temps =/= core temp. i don't get why people get so agitated if the video card is idling at 80 degrees. I doubt a company would purposefully let video cards overheat and have to spend replacements because it was too hot.
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artifacts on my desktop when the card idling is a good sign of an inadequate cooling solution.
 
What drivers are being used here? The Catalyst 9.2 have a bug that runs one of the cores at full 3d speed on boot. It idles back down after running a 3d app. I loaded them when I got my card and wondered why the thing was running at 75 on bootup. Seemed hot to me. I am currently running the 9.1 and it idles about 53.
 
The 4870x2 was running on 9.2...but it's already boxed up, so I don't really feel like unpacking and trying under another version :p The 4850 is running on something old like...8.5 or something I believe.
 
Knuit said:
The 4870x2 was running on 9.2...but it's already boxed up, so I don't really feel like unpacking and trying under another version :p The 4850 is running on something old like...8.5 or something I believe.
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Some of the 8.x line had the powerplay bug as well resulting high temps.
 
So after reading and posting here yesterday, I was saying to myself how lucky I was not to have these strange issues with my X2's that everyone else posts about.

Karma is a mofo...

Just last night while playing EVE, all of a sudden my machine sounded like it was getting ready for a vertical take off!! I keep CCC running in the background for the quick Alt-Tab checks once in a while, or to change a 3D AA setting for testing, and I was at 95c, and even though I have the fan an manual 50%, it shot to 100% on its own.

*sigh*

It cooled off while I remained on the desktop, and I pushed the fan to manual 60%. Ran fine for the rest of the night.

3rd party cooling solutions are definitely of interest now.
 
With RivaTuner fan control, my 4870x2 idle is at 52 celsius (fan at 26%) and under max load, I never go over 67-68 celsius, with fan at 34-36% fan speed.

Case is the HAF932.
 
my idles were in the 50's with 9.1

as of 9.2. the temps have climbed to 70-80;s

<-- Running an Antec 900 two.
 
Hey guys, an update for you.

I sent the 4870x2 out for an RMA and they received it on March 25th. I just got an email today stating,
"Dear Customer,
May we replace your R4870X2-T2D2G-OC to the R4870-MD1G VGA card? Please advise."

I am just amazed. Sure, they may have the reasoning that they don't produce the 4870x2...but to downgrade it? To that extent? The card was purchased shortly after it came out so it cost around if not more then $500-600, and they want to replace it with a card that retails for $180? I've already sent out an email that they must be joking and I would need 2-3 of the cards they proposed as an replacement for the one I sent in...any thoughts?
 
Knuit said:
Hey guys, an update for you.

I sent the 4870x2 out for an RMA and they received it on March 25th. I just got an email today stating,
"Dear Customer,
May we replace your R4870X2-T2D2G-OC to the R4870-MD1G VGA card? Please advise."

I am just amazed. Sure, they may have the reasoning that they don't produce the 4870x2...but to downgrade it? To that extent? The card was purchased shortly after it came out so it cost around if not more then $500-600, and they want to replace it with a card that retails for $180? I've already sent out an email that they must be joking and I would need 2-3 of the cards they proposed as an replacement for the one I sent in...any thoughts?
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Wow, I would be FURIOUS. I hope you ripped that guy to shreds in the follow-up email. That is unbelievable.
 
nite0 said:
Wow, I would be FURIOUS. I hope you ripped that guy to shreds in the follow-up email. That is unbelievable.
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Oh yeah, sent them an email and gave them a call and left a very pissed off message on their machine. I'll probably call them tomorrow if they don't get back to me right away.

**Just thought about it, and if they say they can't give me multiple 4870's as a replacement, or can't get a hold of a 4870x2 for me, I'll threaten to report them to the BBB for making such a proposal to replace a $600 videocard with a $180 one...you have to wonder how many people have been ripped off because they didnt' know any better.
 
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