Safe temps on HD4890?

[MaZa]

So I installed Accelero S1 to my HD4870, with two 120mm fans. But I have bit uneven temperatues. GPU temps, GPU memio and dispio are low, and VRMs are relatively good (still hit 100C on furmark, but not much over) However, shadercore gets really high! In furmark it almost got to 110C before I shutted it down quickly. GPU, dispio and memio were still good.

I have reinstalled S1 couple of times already and I THINK I have a good seat (stock cooling plate was in a way bit, required bit bending), but I am hestitant to do it anymore as screws are getting bit bad, so I have to buy a new one if I would have to hassle with it anymore.

Perhaps the screws dont get tight enough? The spacers are quite tall and way harder material than on my old S1, where they collapsed a bit when I screwed it tightly, resulting in tighter seat. Here they just botch up the screws if I try to screw them tight, and still the springs barely even bend before the spacers touch the circuit board. What do you think?

 

[MaZa]

pictures

Idle

Load

 

[bigdogchris]

The safe temps were the ones that stock heat sink provided.

 

[MaZa]

Heh, I dont even remember what they were. But im sure Shadercore should ever get to 100C region. I wonder why and if its even healthy. I know Furmark is deadly test, in games and other stress tests it never gets that high, but it is still clearly indicating that something is wrong.

*edit* Changed a title. I really didnt mean to write "safe" at first. I meant uneven. Was thinking something else I guess.

*edit2* Cant change the title that visible in the thread list afterwards? What the heck? Mods, help.

 

[MaZa]

For kicks, I removed the sink again, and took the old collapsed spacers from my old HD4870, which were half shorter. Were very carefull in seating it and screwing the screws, only a little bit at the time per screw. Now my temps are even, but they get all high! GPU temp itself is still quite low on furmark, but dispio, memio and shadercore get quite high after a minute or two, even with fans full...

Screw this, I'll buy Scythe Musashi. It should atleast work fantastically with HD4890 I hear...

 

[bigdogchris]

After you remove your heat sink then try to put it back on your likely not going to be able to have the same cooling quality as the factory installation. AMD would never release a card that does not have the proper cooling. Someone might think 95c is to hot for a GPU and cause it to fail, but if it were really, the company would not ship that heat sink destined to kill the GPU.

Unless you OC, stock cooling is good enough. The temps within the range the manufacturer feels are safe for the card 99% of the time (regardless to what the user thinks because the company knows more).

I'm not really sure where the notion that "My temps are to high with stock cooling" comes from. I've said before about stock cooling, there are tens if not hundreds of millions of pc's with stock cooling out there. If it wasn't good enough, people would know about it.

 

[risqu3]

 

[MaZa]

Yes, but my went over and kept on climbing... Had to shut the furmark down, the failsafe shutdowns are not 100% reliable anyway. I wouldnt fret if they would be steady 90-100. It would be indication that cooling is doing something, despite the huge heat.

 

[MetalX]

Unless you OC, stock cooling is good enough.

Perhaps but stock cooling is too loud for most people's tastes. Also this is [H] forum dude, let the man upgrade his GPU cooling solution. It's what we do. You're still new so we forgive you.

 

[Mr. K6]

I could never get an Accelero S1 Rev. 2 to adequately cool my 4870 512MB. Maybe it was overclocked too high, but I would get the same results - temps kept climbing and I would shut it down at 95C. Technically the card is probably fine until 105C, but I like a cool running card and anything over 90C is too hot for me. I think I was just hitting the thermal limitations of the heatsink, as you might be as well.

 

[MaZa]

I am also going to overclock, so a lot of headroom at the *IOs is rather important. ALSO, I am a hifist/audiphile and use my computer as my music system, so silence when idle is mandatory. My computer, with all its case fans toned down by speefan, is virtually noiseless, and HD4890 with its stock fans stood out like a sore thumb. It was all but silent when idle. Load noise is a nonissue as long as it cannot penetrate closed headphones. If it would have been silent when idle, I would have never tried to upgrade the stock cooling. *edit* except perhaps for hobby reasons, I like to tinker with computer stuff...

 

[Mr. K6]

I am also going to overclock, so a lot of headroom at the *IOs is rather important. ALSO, I am a hifist and use my computer as my music system, so silence when idle is very important. My computer, with all its case fans toned down by speefan, is virtually noiseless, and HD4890 with its stock fans stood out like a sore thumb. It was all but silent when idle. Load noise is a nonissue as long as it cannot penetrate closed headphones. If it would have been silent when idle, I would have never tried to upgrade the stock cooling. *edit* except perhaps for hobby reasons, I like to tinker with computer stuff...

It should be quiet on idle. Edit the BIOS or use ATI Tray Tools to drop the voltage and clock speeds in 2D mode and adjust the fan to its lowest setting. It should be fine, just monitor your temps in the beginning to make sure.

 

[MaZa]

I could never get an Accelero S1 Rev. 2 to adequately cool my 4870 512MB. Maybe it was overclocked too high, but I would get the same results - temps kept climbing and I would shut it down at 95C. Technically the card is probably fine until 105C, but I like a cool running card and anything over 90C is too hot for me. I think I was just hitting the thermal limitations of the heatsink, as you might be as well.

Funny, I never had problems with HD4870 1Gb + S1 + 2x 120mm fans. It cooled that card fantastically (Dont ask. I dont remember the numbers) even when overclocked, except VRMs but thats furmark related issue because it disables dynamic regulation from VRMs (according to Scythe) so it doesnt reflect real life situations at all even in the worst case scenario imaginable. Stopped caring about VRMs after hearing that. Question is, why is my HD4890 so damn picky in the GPU I/Os?

 

[MaZa]

It should be quiet on idle. Edit the BIOS or use ATI Tray Tools to drop the voltage and clock speeds in 2D mode and adjust the fan to its lowest setting. It should be fine, just monitor your temps in the beginning to make sure.

Hmmm... I might try that. I ordered Scythe Musashi already (Im hasty person to the fault... ), but if that cooler fails, I'll revert back to stock cooler and do the BIOS editing. BIOS modding makes me bit nervous though. I did it with my HD4870 before getting Accelero for it, but still...