Asus HD6870 + 120hz: high idle temps

xiphrex · 28 Dec 2010 at 00:56

No I use 1680x1050 res at 120Hz.

Would be helpful to see if anyone else with a 120Hz monitor and a HD6870 has the same issues. If there is truth in what you are saying (that a HD6850 has no issues with 120Hz) then something is wrong here.

Chevens · 28 Dec 2010 at 08:34

Ejizz said:
Well as my 470 'Good Edition' on auto idles at 43C on air @ 60hz 2560x1600, I think your either talking bs or you have it on water.

On water with a 140x420 rad mine still only idles 27c in a reasonably cool room.

why would I lie :confused:

Okay its now at 32 but that's down to my wifes attempt to ruin me by burning about half the middle east output of oil to keep our house roasting.

As you can see mine idles at 405 too, I had thought that was idle due to the low temp. Can anyone tell me what the card should idle at?

appletree · 28 Dec 2010 at 10:58

xiphrex said:
If there is truth in what you are saying (that a HD6850 has no issues with 120Hz) then something is wrong here.

This is how it looks. I am running Win7 x64 - not sure if OS could make the difference:

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/3861/desktop120hz.png

Idle temps are relatively high as I've changed fan from default 35% to 25% while idling.

An Exception · 28 Dec 2010 at 17:02

Chevens said:
why would I lie

Okay its now at 32 but that's down to my wifes attempt to ruin me by burning about half the middle east output of oil to keep our house roasting.

Maybe you have a miracle card with zero leakage or something, but from Fud's review and from my card as well as others, the card should idle somewhere in the 40's on auto fan speed.
At 405mhz the temps should be pretty HOT at idle.

LINK

Chevens said:
As you can see mine idles at 405 too, I had thought that was idle due to the low temp. Can anyone tell me what the card should idle at?

Your card is up-clocking to 405 which is normal as I previously stated.
On a single 60hz screen, it should idle at only 51mhz.

Chevens · 29 Dec 2010 at 09:21

Ejizz said:
Maybe you have a miracle card with zero leakage or something, but from Fud's review and from my card as well as others, the card should idle somewhere in the 40's on auto fan speed.
At 405mhz the temps should be pretty HOT at idle.

LINK

Your card is up-clocking to 405 which is normal as I previously stated.
On a single 60hz screen, it should idle at only 51mhz.

ouch 405 up from 51... that can't be good for the life of the card :S

I guess I should be very happy with my idle temps anyway. I think my load temps are normal enough - pretty much steady 76oC at stock, 750core hits 88 - 90 depending if my wife is home or not.

Chevens · 29 Dec 2010 at 09:41

I set refresh to 110Hz and the card downclocked to 51 Mhz.

After 10 mins of running afterburner reports the following

Setting back to 120Hz to see if the temps go back down

Chevens · 29 Dec 2010 at 09:53

Card is now back to 34/35oC and the core has not gone crazy as with 51Mhz 110Hz setting. Anyone else find this strange?

Skyrocket · 29 Dec 2010 at 10:13

I think people are struggling with the word
IDLE = ie that card is not doing anything / empty blank boot up screen.
Browsing website = cards most of the time will ramp up to 405mhz anyway if your using a 120hz monitor or not.

bee · 29 Dec 2010 at 13:46

Chevens said:
I set refresh to 110Hz and the card downclocked to 51 Mhz.

Setting back to 120Hz to see if the temps go back down

haha nice one for that, put mine at 1080p/110hz and it almost instantly clocked down to 51mhz, good stuff

Chevens · 29 Dec 2010 at 13:57

bee said:
haha nice one for that, put mine at 1080p/110hz and it almost instantly clocked down to 51mhz, good stuff

No probs - I'd be interested to know if your idle temps stay the same or drop compared to the 405Hz

bee · 29 Dec 2010 at 18:28

Chevens said:
No probs - I'd be interested to know if your idle temps stay the same or drop compared to the 405Hz

yeah it idles at 42 now rather than 49 with 405mhz, can't tell the difference as well on desktop and all games run at 120hz still, will be keeping these settings for good

xiphrex · 29 Dec 2010 at 20:08

Setting to 110Hz made no difference for me.

appletree · 29 Dec 2010 at 22:46

Could nvidia increased 2D clock have something to do with this ?
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=184589

What drivers do you use and does reverting drivers to 258.96 help ?

xiphrex · 29 Dec 2010 at 23:36

Well my card is ATI so doubt nvidia are the problem!

appletree · 30 Dec 2010 at 00:01

xiphrex said:
Well my card is ATI so doubt nvidia are the problem!

Yes, my question is unrelated to ATI cards (that's why I specifically asked about "nvidia increased 2D clock") I want to buy nvidia in near future and want to know if this problem can be fixed by downgrading to lower driver version.

bee · 30 Dec 2010 at 00:29

appletree said:
Yes, my question is unrelated to ATI cards (that's why I specifically asked about "nvidia increased 2D clock") I want to buy nvidia in near future and want to know if this problem can be fixed by downgrading to lower driver version.

no it cant if you run a screen with 1080p resolution or more, older drivers give the same results. the 110hz workaround works a treat though, can't notice the difference on the desktop and all games still run at 120hz, there is no problem with nvidia and this issue any more as far as i'm concerned

appletree · 30 Dec 2010 at 16:53

bee said:
no it cant if you run a screen with 1080p resolution or more, older drivers give the same results. the 110hz workaround works a treat though, can't notice the difference on the desktop and all games still run at 120hz, there is no problem with nvidia and this issue any more as far as i'm concerned

Thanks, but do you have to do anything special to use different refresh for games/desktop ? On my system (ATI) when I set 110Hz in desktop that's what games will use as well (unless the game explicitly allows to specify refresh rate). This is with installed monitor drivers.

appletree · 5 Jan 2011 at 09:14

Ok, let's revisit this thread. So I bought GTX 580 and it idles at 405MHz Core when in 1920x1080@120Hz. I set refrehs to 110Hz then the clocks are OK BUT the screen starts to flicker (obviously due to low core clock) - almost like a low refresh CRT. So this definitely doesn't solve it for me. As far as I am concerned the problem still exists. So any other workarounds ? Why 120 Hz and 2D work on HD 6850 without problems and do not work on GTX 580 ? (Or HD 6870)

Edit. this concerns me mainly due to increased power consumption

An Exception · 5 Jan 2011 at 09:43

appletree said:
Ok, let's revisit this thread. So I bought GTX 580 and it idles at 405MHz Core when in 1920x1080@120Hz. I set refrehs to 110Hz then the clocks are OK BUT the screen starts to flicker (obviously due to low core clock) - almost like a low refresh CRT. So this definitely doesn't solve it for me. As far as I am concerned the problem still exists. So any other workarounds ? Why 120 Hz and 2D work on HD 6850 without problems and do not work on GTX 580 ? (Or HD 6870)

Edit. this concerns me mainly due to increased power consumption

You could try upping the idle volts a bit but that will probably defeat the object of what your trying to achieve. The others worked because their card could operate at lower clocks and volts without flicker, but that's a lottery similar to overclocking.
As I previously said it is normal for cards to up-clock and the reason Nvidia and AMD do this is to avoid flickering.

Also maybe someone here knows a way of down-clocking your cards 120hz idle clocks enough that it reduces power consumption but doesn't cause flickering.
Maybe a bios mod or after burner or something...

Edit:
If your that worried about power consumption, you would have been much better off keeping the 6870 if it was fast enough?

Rroff · 5 Jan 2011 at 09:49

^^ I think it is just a lottery if it works without flicker or not at low clocks.