Sapphire HD 4850 with stock cooling - what can I do to lower temps?

E

EGM92

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 11, 2005
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Hey everyone,

I recently picked up a HD4850 Sapphire 512mb DDR3 video card from a forum member. The card is great and OC's VERY well on the stock cooler. I'd like to buy a Accelero S1 w/ fan sometime soon but don't really have the money for one (unless someone has one cheap?? PM me :D ) Is there anything I can do to make the card cooler/quieter with the stock cooler besides putting some Arctic Silver 5 on the GPU? I'm told that when I upgrade the HSF I'll need Ramsinks for the Voltage regulators? and the Ram chips.

Is it ok to put AS5 on those little black boxes and place the heatsink back on it? The part I'm talking about is boxed in white. I'd appreciate any advice/suggestions

http://xs233.xs.to/xs233/08451/j5589.jpg
 
AS5 is conductive and not a good thing to use on stuff like that because it can seep down and run onto the pcb, if you need to use thermal paste on something like that I would use something like Arctic Cooling MX-2

Looking at that picture again with that heatsink you may have to use a thermal pad to bridge the gap between the top of those components and the bottom of the heatsink.
 
The latest driver fixes the manual fan speed control so it is fairly simple to make profiles with inceased fan speed. If left on auto the thing will run hot as fire.

BTW the site below is mine so I can direct link the image as I am paying for it .

------------------ didnt feel like typing it all again ------------------

Catalyst 8.10 Are Out
http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

This driver fixes/allows manual fan speed control of the newer 48xx series of cards. If left on auto many models of ATI video cards run hot. Too hot in my opinion leading to crashes and other issues. One way to solve this issue is to create profiles with different fan speeds. A "normal" profile for web surfing, work and activities that do not use 3D (non-games) with a fan speed set around 25-30% for quiet operation. A second "game" profile with the fan speed set around 60% or with the fan speed set as high as you can with the noise still tolerable and activate this profile before every gaming session or tie it to the warpatch.exe which actually starts the game. And possibley a third "performance" profile with the fan set to 80% or higher for maximum cooling. The third profile is mainly for use if you experiment with overclocking your video card. The picture below shows you where the manual fan speed control is found and note the "Profile" tab at the top. An hour spent investigating and learning how to set this up is highly recommended because in my opinion the automatic fan speed control lets the graphics processor run too hot for stability and long term reliability. Note the little icon of a key in the picture below, if you see a lock in the same place you must click on it to "unlock" the advanced features of the ATI Overdrive panel to allow you to change the fan control. Hint, while there for the "game" profile, try a small increase in in both GPU clock and Memory clock for added performace, say 10MHz to start or try the Autotune button. Be sure to check "save all options" in the profile you create so that all of the settings are maintained in the profile. It would pay to check the other 3D settings and make sure they are set to balanced or performace or let the application decide.

ATI%20fan%20control.jpg
 
BillParrish said:
The latest driver fixes the manual fan speed control so it is fairly simple to make profiles with inceased fan speed. If left on auto the thing will run hot as fire.

BTW the site below is mine so I can direct link the image as I am paying for it .

------------------ didnt feel like typing it all again ------------------

Catalyst 8.10 Are Out
http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

This driver fixes/allows manual fan speed control of the newer 48xx series of cards. If left on auto many models of ATI video cards run hot. Too hot in my opinion leading to crashes and other issues. One way to solve this issue is to create profiles with different fan speeds. A "normal" profile for web surfing, work and activities that do not use 3D (non-games) with a fan speed set around 25-30% for quiet operation. A second "game" profile with the fan speed set around 60% or with the fan speed set as high as you can with the noise still tolerable and activate this profile before every gaming session or tie it to the warpatch.exe which actually starts the game. And possibley a third "performance" profile with the fan set to 80% or higher for maximum cooling. The third profile is mainly for use if you experiment with overclocking your video card. The picture below shows you where the manual fan speed control is found and note the "Profile" tab at the top. An hour spent investigating and learning how to set this up is highly recommended because in my opinion the automatic fan speed control lets the graphics processor run too hot for stability and long term reliability. Note the little icon of a key in the picture below, if you see a lock in the same place you must click on it to "unlock" the advanced features of the ATI Overdrive panel to allow you to change the fan control. Hint, while there for the "game" profile, try a small increase in in both GPU clock and Memory clock for added performace, say 10MHz to start or try the Autotune button. Be sure to check "save all options" in the profile you create so that all of the settings are maintained in the profile. It would pay to check the other 3D settings and make sure they are set to balanced or performace or let the application decide.

ATI%20fan%20control.jpg
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advise, I upgraded the drivers and have been controlling the fanspeeds, I ended up creating profiles like you suggested (Idling at 75C is crazy hot) now it idles at 42C and loads with OC at 58C. I broke down and bought this

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=32768&promoid=1019

seeing as the price normally is 44$ I guess 29$ isn't that bad of a deal. I hope it does a better job at cooling with less noise.

Thanks.
 
Wow! Nice price!
I bought my accelero on CL for 28 bucks without a fan.. Hope you have fun with it!
 
Drakan290 said:
Wow! Nice price!
I bought my accelero on CL for 28 bucks without a fan.. Hope you have fun with it!
Click to expand...

Do you know if I need to use RAM sinks on this card?? or will the cooler be enough? I've heard that Palit cards frying even with this cooler on it if they didn't have RAM sinks on the chips.
 
Well that cooler comes with ram sinks and a couple of VRM sinks, but from what I have read the 4850/70 cards will need to have one of the included ram sinks shaved down or have some fins bent to clear one of the heatpipes.

Also I would try to get some better cooling on the VRMs as the numbers I have seen (in pictures) are too high for my taste.

Hopefully somebody with the Twin Turbo or S1 rev2 will chime in and give you more hands on info.

I am ordering the Twin Turbo from NCIX soon, probably in the same order as the 24" I am planning on getting so I am interested in hearing back from you when you get it all running.

Mine will be replacing the awful stock cooler on my BFG 8800GT OC2 so I am looking forward to a lot less noise needed to cool my card, damn thing idles from 52-58C at 40% fan depending on ambient temp.
 
wow nice score on that cooler. I want very badly to say that the ramsinks are not needed with that full coverage of air washing over them will be more than enough, but will not, ---- oops.

IMO a LOT depends on how well the sinks are attached. I have serious doubts about the adhesive and/or tape used on ramsinks and I personally think the adhesive/tape negates a lot of the benifit of the sink and in some cases actually trap heat in the memory chip. This is just my personal nitpicking, hair splitting opinion. Here is what I do, first using alcohol I clean the ramsinks of all adhesive, I then lapp them, most I have seen/used are not very flat. I do not try to get them perfect but a few minutes with some 400 grit wet and dry usually helps a hella lot. then I put a tiny coating, super thin on the top of the memory chip. I put on the ramsink and press down and wiggle just a bit. I then pull it off and check the "footprint" to make sure at least a little paste is over the whole surface. Add a tiny bit more if needed or smooth back out what is there if ok, and replace the ramsink onto the memory chip. I firmly hold it down on the memory chip and put a little ball of silicone adhesive with a toothpick at each outside corner where the sink meets the chip and smear it down towads the board a little bit. Sometimes it is very tricky to get at all 4 corners and sometimes I can only do 3. I contiue to hold down the chip for 10 minutes till the silicone takes a set. Repeat for all sinks, This will kill a couple of hours to do a really good job. a stack of quarters taped together as a "hold down weight" would speed things up if you have room to work. Its worth the time IMO, I have never had a sink fall off and if you do ever want to remove them a twist pulls them right off and the silicone peels right off for a perfect and easy clean up.

Silicon RTV adhesive is what I use and any hardware store will have it.
 
If your in the uk,pm me,i have a S1 R2 you can have for a tenner+shipping if you want it.
 
Yeah, put on the ramsinks. If you turn the ramsink sideways, it will fit right into the fins :rolleyes:
 
I'll be getting the HSF tomorrow if everything goes well. It's been shipped out today express.

TI66ER said:
If your in the uk,pm me,i have a S1 R2 you can have for a tenner+shipping if you want it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer but I'm in Canada and I just bought a S1 Rev1

I'm looking at reviews for the HSF and it seems that the ramsinks are really short, since the base is raised up thanks to the heatpipes they fit under the hsf and are cooled directly by the fans.

I need some advice, it seems that there are people complaining about ramsink tape/ thermalpads not sticking to the voltage regulators. Are there any tricks to making them stick (without having to use silicon like BillParrish did on his card)?

I tried removing the stock HSF last night but I couldn't get the back bracked off the card. Does anyone know the proper size of screw driver needed? I don't want to strip the screws.

Thanks!
 
I just used a small headed pozidrive to get mine off,the screws are pretty small.I think its a #0 size.
 
EGM92 said:
I tried removing the stock HSF last night but I couldn't get the back bracked off the card. Does anyone know the proper size of screw driver needed? I don't want to strip the screws.
Click to expand...

Get a cheap set of jeweler screwdrivers at a dollar store and use whichever one fits the screws best.
 
I got the HSF right now. I'm inspecting the package and on the back it tells me the compatibility is only up to HD 3870 while on the website is says HD 4870, should I be worried?
 
Holy shit! After spending a good 30 minutes installing the HSF on the card I finally get it in my case and turn on my PC, next thing I know there's fucking SMOKE coming off of the HSF. the fan controller wire blew up in my case. NOT GOOD. I don't know whether or not the card is still functional.
 
I fixed it, I rewired the entire card, it seems whomever built the card screwed up the leads on the 7v/12v pins. I called them up and they told me to RMA it I would have to ship it, that would cost me 3/4 of what I paid for the card, but I have everything working now.

Fan is 100% speed, you can hardly hear that it's on and it's idling at a cool 35C over the stock cooler which was 52C. On load it goes all the way up to 49C with clocks of 695/1190mhz. I applied AS5 to the core and used heatstrip tape on the vram and such to keep the ramsinks on.
 
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