Did Furmark kill my 4870x2?

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CruisD64

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So I recently bought an Accelero 4870x2 to cool my graphics card and it does a great job! Idle temps went from 52c to 36c and load doesn't go above 65c. Anyways, I decided to run a Furmark torture test just to see what my maximum temps would be since a few people on here were asking. So...I ran it and after about 4 minutes my screen went blank and my computer restarted. No problem I thought, since it booted right back up into windows and everything seemed ok. Movies and everything work fine, however, now when I try to run Furmark or play any game for that matter, as soon as it switches to 3D mode the screen goes black and the computer restarts. I haven't had that much time to play around with it, but I've reinstalled the drivers to avail. I plan to sit down at it again tonight.

I was wondering if my card may possibly be dead? My guess is that it is not, since everything but 3d mode works fine. Maybe something is screwed up with DX or some other software issue... Has anyone ever had a similar issue?

Another thing is, am I screwed with my warranty now because I changed graphics coolers? I kept the original cooler and can put it back on without a problem but I'm not sure if they will honor my warranty. It's a Visiontek btw. It would just be awful if my card is ruined and $500 (at the time) went down the toilet. Ughh.... Any and all advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
Running with furmark with ati is a bad idea honestly. While the core will stay nice and cool your VDCC temps (the voltage regulators) with furmark can go above 120c and cause failure. This happens even with stock cooling as the cooling for the vrm is just not sufficient due to design.

The thing you're speaking off I had with a stock cooler. Like as soon as I would go ingame the screen would blink quick and the pc would restart. I don't know what caused it but like you installing drivers didn't really help.

The first time it happened I just left my pc alone for a day and the next day the crashing stopped. 2nd time it happened 6 months later I did this:
Turn the pc off, flip the psu switch off and press the power button 3-4 times holding it down 10-15 seconds each time (to drain the capacitors of the motherboard/gpu). After that I took the gpu out of the motherboard, put it back in and switched the power cables out of the psu. Booted it up and reinstalling the drivers and since then no more crashes as soon as I go ingame.
 
Thanks! I will try that when I get home.

I forgot to mention, ATITool works just fine. I dunno if that means anything, but it makes me think that maybe windowed 3d mode is still ok. I will try a game in windowed mode as well and see what happens.
 
unrealsword said:
Nah they are fine once they cool down (I think that was another reason my pc worked again). He wouldn't be able to run any kind of 3d in window mode if they were bust.
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You can occasionally pop one and still be OK under fairly light load, 3D-wise. ATItool can be brutal so I doubt that's the case here... but don't do that anymore, OP! ;)
 
Cruz if you decide it's dead, PM me. I'll buy it off of you.
 
Did Furmark kill my 4870x2?
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Quite possibly.
It can harm a card that is fully working, any issues with the cards cooling and it will certainly age it faster at minimum.
I dont ever run it for this reason and that it serves no useful purpose as nothing else I will ever use can get the card that hot.
 
Nenu said:
Quite possibly.
It can harm a card that is fully working, any issues with the cards cooling and it will certainly age it faster at minimum.
I dont ever run it for this reason and that it serves no useful purpose as nothing else I will ever use can get the card that hot.
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amen. no game gets my 8800GTX with reapplied thermal paste over 75C after overclocked to speeds past an 8800Ultra. I run furmark, and it gets up to 93C. stupid, because even crysis won't run it that hot.

whatever. ha
 
You need to completely wipe the existing ATI drivers (manual uninstal, driver cleaner) then reinstall them again. If your card was dead or seriosly damaged you wouldnt be able to boot into windows and you would probably start seeing artifacts on the screen in 2D mode.


You could always try to bake it in the oven for 10 minutes if it still doesnt work.
 
It works!!! I removed all the old drivers and disconnected the card as well as the PSU, waited a little bit, put it back together and voila! I can play games. Whew! I almost crapped my pants....
 
how can such a program exist and do that to a video card? seems like it would be flagged as a killer and not used anymore...
 
You've flagged it :)
I agree it should be used with care, only if it has been established that the card is already stable under high load and doesnt reach near high temps.
I also recommend blowing a fan at the card to help cool extremities.
 
CruisD64 said:
It works!!! I removed all the old drivers and disconnected the card as well as the PSU, waited a little bit, put it back together and voila! I can play games. Whew! I almost crapped my pants....
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Yea. Something with capacitors and the extreme load did whatever it did to the card.. but only temporarily. XD
 
So the op running this program and his card suffering a temporary failure after it overheating arent related?
The hardware is hinting that its not wise to continue doing that.
Hints dont seem to be your thing though, I guess this isnt your field of expertise :)
 
It definitely was not the GPU's overheating, they never got past 65c. It had to have been something else which the Accelero 4870x2 failed to cool well. Anyways, Furmark is uninstalled for good. :) Now I just hope the card continues to work properly... If not, warranty time!
 
Not a fan of furmark, did a 5 minute or so stress test on my 3870x2 with it, caused permanent artifacting from the heat it generated. Same with my 9800GTX+ to a lesser extent. And what is furmark useful for? Absolutely nothing. Really. Nothing. What's the difference between a 12% OC on a card and a 15% OC on a card? Not enough to care. And really, furmark is only slightly useful for stress-testing when trying to maximize your overclock anyway. Like AmongTheChosenX said, even Crysis doesn't get the card as hot as furmark.

Glad your card turned out fine after pulling some plugs and whatnot. I'll keep that trick for future reference.
 
Nenu said:
Quite possibly.
It can harm a card that is fully working, any issues with the cards cooling and it will certainly age it faster at minimum.
I dont ever run it for this reason and that it serves no useful purpose as nothing else I will ever use can get the card that hot.
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Same reason I won't use it.
 
unrealsword said:
Worst case scenario put the old cooler back on and RMA. They won't know.
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No. Don't do this. It's dishonest and stealing from the company that makes the cards. If you break something, don't be a lying child and go crying to them to fix it, you deal with your mistake. This sort of behavior is illegal and reprehensible and I can't stand it when people recommend this. Don't do this.
 
dealmaster said:
No. Don't do this. It's dishonest and stealing from the company that makes the cards. If you break something, don't be a lying child and go crying to them to fix it, you deal with your mistake. This sort of behavior is illegal and reprehensible and I can't stand it when people recommend this. Don't do this.
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I've always been of the state of mind that if you break something YOU fix it or face the consequences, in this case the consequences would be shelling out some serious dough for a new card...

to each their own though, but personally, I wouldn't RMA it...
 
Fair enough. Apparently my opinion merits warning, so please close this thread...
 
Smiththers2 said:
how can such a program exist and do that to a video card? seems like it would be flagged as a killer and not used anymore...
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The question is, how can graphics card manufactures make cards that are killable via software? Cheap, cheap and nasty.
 
This is what Scythe said about Furmark when they replied a person who complained about VRM heat problems in their forum.


we knew about this "problem" with furmark and we are in contact with AMD about that. The point is that furmark disables the dynamic regulation from the VRMs, so its like you drive a car always in the first gear. In normal games you never reach such temperature levels and loads. We also test it in our lab and got something between 110-120°C (same heatsinks you choose), all run stable.
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MisterSparkle said:
The question is, how can graphics card manufactures make cards that are killable via software? Cheap, cheap and nasty.
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Umm, they could stop us overclocking period.
They would get less returns as well, so they have done us a great favour by allowing us to manually overclock.
Whats cheap and nasty about that?
Exhibit some control man!! :p
 
furmark will kill stock cards, thats why ATI did a driver trick to lower temps of furmark. rename the .exe and run it again and watch how high the VRM temps get.

dinky little stick on sinks dont cool them well enough. the stock coolin does better.
 
Nenu said:
Umm, they could stop us overclocking period.
They would get less returns as well, so they have done us a great favour by allowing us to manually overclock.
Whats cheap and nasty about that?
Exhibit some control man!! :p
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Well, if Furmark can kill cards with no overclocking, it's a little worrisome. Apart from that, overclocking ability should stay. :D
 
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