• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

4870x2 air coolers

Yes, 90+. It actually froze after a while of playing. (Although to be fair, I had just quickly overclocked my PC from 3.07Ghz to 3.2Ghz and I am not convinced it's stable on the cpu, so it could be a little misleading).

That's with a fresh install of the stock cooler with new thermal paste. Think I may go back to 'ghetto' look, which is a shame as my case is so neat now lol.

EDIT: Is 90C+ normal for Crysis with the Stock cooler? (Going hunting for answers now).
 
Last edited:
Real shame though as my case was looking a lot neater:
(NOTE: The fan above the 4870X2 was there in an attempt to help cool the heatsink on the top of the card and to help direct more air into the mouth of the intake - it didn't really work).

4870X2Pic4Small.jpg


However, no fear! I found there is something I can do to the stock cooler:
http://www.octeamdenmark.com/forums/extreme-mods/2774-ati-4870x2-full-vmod-cooler-guide.html

Haven't read it all yet but basically widens the intake hole, and removes bar's at the back. Hopefully if I do this it would be A LOT neater, as there effort is very sloppy. I can't do the trick on the back where they use a washer to make the heatsink mounting tighter though as I don't have X-Brackets d'oh. Asked in wanted section so crossing fingers.

Still wondering if there is any saving the stock cooler. It seems very hit and miss on temps, and I have also seen reference to drivers increasing temps by 20C for example (perhaps because a new driver implements features correctly).
 
Last edited:
Well remounted the gpu blocks, well unscrewed them used another washer and retightened them, strapped the 92mm to the intake fan,and temps are much better lol. Not sure if the 92mm is actually doing anything but will see.

Temps in Crysis are much much better (max 82C on GPU2), although had one crash, then declocked to 3.07Ghz and no crashes so far. Think I may be on the limit of my chip. Also.. GPU utilisation in Crysis is very poor, averaging 50% per core.
BTW.. is 'GPU2' the one closest to the back plate/back of case? (would explain 10C hotter if it is).
 
Hehe, love ghetto mods myself. Had some crazy packaging plastic windtunnels in my old PC with SLI 8800GTX's and 2 120mm fans. And a nice windtunnel from plastic on my current northbridge that has dropped temps by 12c
 
Well, i tried a 120mm fan directly on the heatsinks. Furmark was about the same if not slightly worse at 93c. Tried a 92mm to hit more of the copper fins reducing the dead spot, even worse. Even tried strapping a fan to rear of card to cool the pcb lol. Perhaps i need a better static pressure fan?

Going back to the cowling again for the moment.
 
Well, good news. My wanted ad has managed to source some brackets from the forum member I bought the card from. This is excellent news as it should hopefully help bring the temps into check. I will clean the GPU's for like the 10th time and reapply fresh TIM once I receive these. (Thanks Daniel!!!)

Also, I have the copper water cooler just sitting looking at me and taunting. (not gonna happen!)

Also, on another note, I'm still wondering whether increase the size of the intake hole would actually be beneficial or not? Has anybody actually done this, or perhaps cut the grills at the back and seen any definate decrease in temps?

EDIT: Jibber55> Those temps are with the fan at 90-100% !!!! So not good.
 
Was looking at some charts on Aandtech, and it was showing the 4870X2 as being 94C under load in Crysis. Maybe it's just normal temp then.

Still, looking forward to the X brackets turning up and trying a little more pressure on the core's and try some of the other tricks :-)

Mainly just looking to reduce temps and reduce noise... it's so bad lol.
 
Hummm, still not sounding quite right though. I got 90C+ with a reasonably low fan speed. When it was around 50-60ish% it wouldn't really go over 82C, your getting 90+ on 100% fan speed...... :eek:
Like I say, something's not quite right there. Maybe when you use the X brackets it will sort it out.
I know they cost a little (and have the VRM cooling issue) but the accelero makes such a massive difference mate. Now that you know it's a runner you should defo think about it.
Have you noticed your room getting a little warmer too!!!?? :D
 
LOL.. haven't really noticed the heat as such, as computer is situated in the 4th tiny box room of the house so get's quite warm quite quickly anyway.

Trying to not get the accelero as it's pretty darn pricey for an oldish card.
 
this has inspired me iam thinking off modiing my card into a 5 slot monster have you thought about getting two 90mm 90degree plumbing bends ? and puting one over each gpu with seprate fans on ducted out off the case for some extreme cooling ? :D oh btw what tim are you using for the GPU's ?
 
Lol i was considering some real cowboy things but on the cheap, otherwise may as well get the A/C unit. I was actually thinking either two small peltiers onto original heatsinks or somehow add extra sink material but that very custom and not worth it for an oldish card.

To be honest my TIM is some old Akasa stuff in a syringe. It hasnt gone dry and is still perfectly fine on cpus it seems.

I just like to make the best of what i have.
Any results from the quad swap with the 4870X2?
 
still waiting for it to turn up yet iam going to try draw a design off what i mean i think it would work great with some 70mm or 3" pipe i really do want to see how good you can get the cooling on these things :D the cards have real potential and can overclock very well its just keeping them cool lol



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

that is a very ruff idea but each gpu should be getting fresh cold air and a smooth air flow over all off it as it will be intaking more air :) ro you could do what the guy has done below

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=12835524

oh btw do you have possitve air preassure inside your case ?
 
Last edited:
Positive air pressure? Honestly doubt it. Why do you ask?

Only air intake is on the front (12cm), and one grill on the side that is without a fan. Out takes, are rear case fan (12cm) -matches the front), big fan inside the PSU, a CPU fan blowing onto the rear case fan, and the 4870X2 venting out that back.

Like the diagram lol. EDIT: I strapped a fan onto the intake of the card so it was going sort of halfway there lol. I am trying not to cut the shroud if possible unless there are real gains to be had from doing so.

EDIT2: Don't forget I already tried the shroud off 120mm fan thing, and it didn't work out for me, in fact temps were slightly worse where others have reported massive decreases. Once I get the rear brackets it may be a different situation :-)
 
Last edited:
that diagram is with the shroud on if you drill some hole's in it and put them 90's on it it would channel more air through the shroud if you know what i mean as you need the shroud to channel air over the heat sinks if you know what i mean and try and seal up all the little holes in your case so no air can escape and get more intake fans as all the air will be drawn out off the 4870 heat sink
 
Perhaps I just need a better main intake fan then (especially as it's filtered, so probably limiting the CFM of it). EDIT: Brackets have now been posted :D Definately looking forward to the results :D
 
Last edited:
Well, not sure if this is terminal yet but... received the brackets and went straight to work. Added some little rubber O-rings to increase the pressure on the chip as mentioned in another guide (not excessively tight), and installed the card again without the shroud and a 92mm fan. Temps on GPU2 were going upto 97C in furmark. Obviously this wasn't working as well as I wanted, and I had used the old paste again, but the card ran fine.

Decided to just try with the standard pressure so removed the rubber ring, cleaned the GPU's and intermidary chip, and used new paste etc (spread evenly). Went into windows, checked idle temps, and straight away I can see they are much reduced at idle. 35-38C GPU1 and 45-47C GPU2. So, of course thought I'd test it as per usual for temps. Ran furmark multi-GPU, as I have done for all the other checks to try and get a stable temp for short periods (pretty much emulates Crysis temps), and easier to terminate etc. Temps were much improved with GPU2 only going up about 64C. That's about a 30C decrease so far. Ok temps were still slowly going up, but not as rapidly as before, and the fan wasn't that noisy for a change :-)

Then I hit 65C. Furmark froze, a few coloured artifacts but the fan and everything still going in the background. Waited a short time until the HDD wasn't chugging then turned off the PC. Waited a moment or so, then booted up again, and it said a device not installed or something, then I looked at the MSI AB, and GPU, and it was only showing my 4870X2 as having one core available and crossfire disabled. OK, I admit it, a slight worry did creep in at that point. So ran furmark anyway.. all seemed ok bizarrely. I rebooted the PC anyway, and on the next go after a short moment, the screen went black. HDD still going in the background etc though.

So to cut it short, I have attempted several times now to reinstall the Blocks and new paste but still getting black screen. Sometimes it happens when I get into windows and the gfx driver has loaded (it actually is searching for it and say's it is installing (a generic driver?)... which makes me concerned, and other times it freezes at the windows bootup screen.

Annoyingly I can't remove Catalyst when in safe mode, and not quick enough to try and uninstall yet lol.

Obviously I'm concerned I'm doing something wrong with the bracket installation. Do the screw springs need some spring left in them, or am I meant to do the block right up? (I did it right up so each of the black pads on the X-bracket are contacting the pcb.)

It's either that, or it simply had an unfortunate crash and corrupted something (likely the drivers) :-(

Obviously hoping I haven't damaged anything!
 
Well, apart from the capacitor that was already missing lol (But card has been running fine without it), but I will check again. I will check the VRM's just in case.

EDIT: How do I save my (well... my wife's) favourites etc, so that if I have to reinstall windows I can put those back without making her have to set them up again?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom