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A lot of us are experiencing temperatures that we're not comfortable with on our new ATi cards, and while ATi says that these temps are acceptable, some of us disagree.
There are a couple different ways to control the heat...let's explore them:
Replace the Thermal Compound
Removing the reference cooler isn't for the lighthearted...one slip-up and you've destroyed the most powerful piece of equipment you own, as well as negated your warranty. Removing the reference cooler isn't recommended, but can be done if you go slowly and thoroughly.
I personally found a ~12*C drop in idle and load temps by replacing the thermal compound on the 2 GPUs with Arctic Silver 5. I also removed the thermal pads on the memory ICs and the VDDC chips (the long, narrow ones) and used AS5 there as well...only one problem - the heatplate on back-side of the card doesn't have risers for the memory chips underneath, so removing the thermal pads on the back of the card isn't going to help, in fact, it would make the temps on those chips higher, unless you have some little heatsinks that you can put on them.
Here, you can see some of the thermal pads material on the underside of the reference cooler. (I removed those and used a thin layer of AS5 instead on almost everything there) I didn't happen to take an angle shot, but on the bottom of the reference cooler, there are little 'risers' for the memory ICs - these will make good contact with the memory ICs themselves, so removing the thermal pads shouldn't lead to any problems, although if those little risers aren't quite tall enough on yours, they may not make good enough contact and not dissipate the heat as well as the pads do - you all getting that I've got something against Thermal Pads?
By Psychlone
For those a little less adventurous, you can control the fan speeds and core/memory speeds through Profiles made in CCC and tweaked in Notepad.
Creating Profiles in CCC
Open up Catalyst Control Center
Click on Profiles at the top of the screen and then select Profiles Manager
.. 
Create as many profiles as you wish, but at least 2 - I have 1 for surfing (little to no graphic need), 1 for gaming, and 1 for benchmarking and 1 that just the standard settings.
As you create your profiles, ensure that ATI Overdrive is selected in the Composition window (it's the only thing we're going to do in here is just create - we'll tweak the settings in later)
Tweaking your new Profiles
Once you've created your Profiles, navigate to
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles
Where %username% is YOUR username.
You will probably have to ENABLE 'SHOW Hidden Files and Folders' through Folder Options.
Inside there, you're going to see the names of the Profiles you created in CCC.
Right-click on a Profile and choose Open With NOTEPAD
This is what you're going to see:
By Psychlone
The specific lines for fan speeds are:
If you want to set your fan speed to a specific speed all the time instead of dynamic, first change the <Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" /> to "Manual"
...And then change the value of "27" in the line <Property name="Want" value="27" /> to whatever value you want (1 - 100) - obviously being the percentage of fan speed you want to run.
There's a bit more that we can do in the Profiles .XML files. We can also change the core clocks and the memory clocks.
For this guide, I'm using the Sapphire HD4870X2 card - so the core and memory values will be different for cards that are not the 4870X2.
To change the Core and Memory Speeds
The specific lines for changing the core and memory speeds are:
The Want_0 through 2 in each of the "ClockTarget" fields can be changed to whatever value you've determined is safe for your specific card.
75000 is the stock core clock of 750MHz, 90000 is the stock memory clock of 900MHz for the 4870X2 (other cards will differ)
Changing these values can be dangerous - DO NOT SET VALUES HIGHER THAN YOU HAVE DETERMINED SAFE!!!
If you decide to change these values, put it in like this:
This would obviously give a core clock of 800MHz and a memory clock of 999MHz.
Here, you can also UNDERCLOCK your card to help lower temps while doing mundane things like surfing that don't take hardly any graphical power.
In one of your Profiles, change the core to 250MHz and memory to 450MHz. This is obviously going to use less GPU and Memory power, thus lowering your heat considerably below the stock 500/500 for 2D mode.
Running the 250/450 clocks along with a 33% fan speed on my 4870X2 has shown that idle speeds have dropped from 80*C to 62*C
[img=http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2997/atigpuzck7.jpg]
By Psychlone
You may select any Profile that you wish 'On The Fly' - meaning that you can switch between profiles whenever you wish. With Profiles, it's also possible to set your 3D driver settings for specific games...just set the 3D settings you want in CCC and when you save the Profile, ensure that 3D is also checked...this will save your entire driver 3D profile along with your overclock.
For those that don't dare or want to play in .XML files
You can also control fan speeds in EXPERTOOL ATi
By Psychlone
The only drawback here, is that if you set it to Fixed Speed, you only have adjustments from 50% to 100%, nothing lower...might be a bit loud and a bit overkill for surfing the net!
The program can also adjust your core and memory speeds as well (among other things, but no driver tweaks are included)
This guide was really written for fan speeds, but adding the lines of code for adjusting core and memory temps was only 1 extra step in the same .XML file, so I decided to add it here.
In no way is this supposed to be a complete guide on overclocking ATi cards - it's not what I intended to do and why I haven't referenced RivaTuner, ATT, ATITool, or any other programs that are capable of forcing driver settings/overclocking.
Remember that no one but yourself is responsible for creating a profile that has unstable settings...I will not be held responsible for what you do with this information.
Hope that this guide helps you all out!
Psychlone
There are a couple different ways to control the heat...let's explore them:
Replace the Thermal Compound
Removing the reference cooler isn't for the lighthearted...one slip-up and you've destroyed the most powerful piece of equipment you own, as well as negated your warranty. Removing the reference cooler isn't recommended, but can be done if you go slowly and thoroughly.
I personally found a ~12*C drop in idle and load temps by replacing the thermal compound on the 2 GPUs with Arctic Silver 5. I also removed the thermal pads on the memory ICs and the VDDC chips (the long, narrow ones) and used AS5 there as well...only one problem - the heatplate on back-side of the card doesn't have risers for the memory chips underneath, so removing the thermal pads on the back of the card isn't going to help, in fact, it would make the temps on those chips higher, unless you have some little heatsinks that you can put on them.
Here, you can see some of the thermal pads material on the underside of the reference cooler. (I removed those and used a thin layer of AS5 instead on almost everything there) I didn't happen to take an angle shot, but on the bottom of the reference cooler, there are little 'risers' for the memory ICs - these will make good contact with the memory ICs themselves, so removing the thermal pads shouldn't lead to any problems, although if those little risers aren't quite tall enough on yours, they may not make good enough contact and not dissipate the heat as well as the pads do - you all getting that I've got something against Thermal Pads?
By Psychlone
For those a little less adventurous, you can control the fan speeds and core/memory speeds through Profiles made in CCC and tweaked in Notepad.
Creating Profiles in CCC
Open up Catalyst Control Center
Click on Profiles at the top of the screen and then select Profiles Manager
.. 
Create as many profiles as you wish, but at least 2 - I have 1 for surfing (little to no graphic need), 1 for gaming, and 1 for benchmarking and 1 that just the standard settings.
As you create your profiles, ensure that ATI Overdrive is selected in the Composition window (it's the only thing we're going to do in here is just create - we'll tweak the settings in later)
Tweaking your new Profiles
Once you've created your Profiles, navigate to
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles
Where %username% is YOUR username.
You will probably have to ENABLE 'SHOW Hidden Files and Folders' through Folder Options.
Inside there, you're going to see the names of the Profiles you created in CCC.
Right-click on a Profile and choose Open With NOTEPAD
This is what you're going to see:
By Psychlone
The specific lines for fan speeds are:
Code:
<Feature name="FanSpeedProtocol_0">
<Property name="FanSpeedProtocolProperty" value="Percent" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_0">
<Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="1421" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="27" />
</Feature>If you want to set your fan speed to a specific speed all the time instead of dynamic, first change the <Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" /> to "Manual"
...And then change the value of "27" in the line <Property name="Want" value="27" /> to whatever value you want (1 - 100) - obviously being the percentage of fan speed you want to run.
There's a bit more that we can do in the Profiles .XML files. We can also change the core clocks and the memory clocks.
For this guide, I'm using the Sapphire HD4870X2 card - so the core and memory values will be different for cards that are not the 4870X2.
To change the Core and Memory Speeds
The specific lines for changing the core and memory speeds are:
Code:
<Feature name="CoreClockTarget_0">
<Property name="Want_0" value="75000" />
<Property name="Want_1" value="75000" />
<Property name="Want_2" value="75000" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_0">
<Property name="Want_0" value="90000" />
<Property name="Want_1" value="90000" />
<Property name="Want_2" value="90000" />
</Feature>The Want_0 through 2 in each of the "ClockTarget" fields can be changed to whatever value you've determined is safe for your specific card.
75000 is the stock core clock of 750MHz, 90000 is the stock memory clock of 900MHz for the 4870X2 (other cards will differ)
Changing these values can be dangerous - DO NOT SET VALUES HIGHER THAN YOU HAVE DETERMINED SAFE!!!
If you decide to change these values, put it in like this:
Code:
<Feature name="CoreClockTarget_0">
<Property name="Want_0" value="80000" />
<Property name="Want_1" value="80000" />
<Property name="Want_2" value="80000" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_0">
<Property name="Want_0" value="99900" />
<Property name="Want_1" value="99900" />
<Property name="Want_2" value="99900" />
</Feature>This may or may not be stable for your card, so last warning, don't just copy these settings into a profile and set it - you can damage your card for good!
Here, you can also UNDERCLOCK your card to help lower temps while doing mundane things like surfing that don't take hardly any graphical power.
In one of your Profiles, change the core to 250MHz and memory to 450MHz. This is obviously going to use less GPU and Memory power, thus lowering your heat considerably below the stock 500/500 for 2D mode.
Running the 250/450 clocks along with a 33% fan speed on my 4870X2 has shown that idle speeds have dropped from 80*C to 62*C
[img=http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2997/atigpuzck7.jpg]
By Psychlone
You may select any Profile that you wish 'On The Fly' - meaning that you can switch between profiles whenever you wish. With Profiles, it's also possible to set your 3D driver settings for specific games...just set the 3D settings you want in CCC and when you save the Profile, ensure that 3D is also checked...this will save your entire driver 3D profile along with your overclock.
For those that don't dare or want to play in .XML files
You can also control fan speeds in EXPERTOOL ATi
By Psychlone
The only drawback here, is that if you set it to Fixed Speed, you only have adjustments from 50% to 100%, nothing lower...might be a bit loud and a bit overkill for surfing the net!
The program can also adjust your core and memory speeds as well (among other things, but no driver tweaks are included)
This guide was really written for fan speeds, but adding the lines of code for adjusting core and memory temps was only 1 extra step in the same .XML file, so I decided to add it here.
In no way is this supposed to be a complete guide on overclocking ATi cards - it's not what I intended to do and why I haven't referenced RivaTuner, ATT, ATITool, or any other programs that are capable of forcing driver settings/overclocking.
Remember that no one but yourself is responsible for creating a profile that has unstable settings...I will not be held responsible for what you do with this information.
Hope that this guide helps you all out!
Psychlone
