• 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 problem? urgent help

Associate
Joined
1 Dec 2007
Posts
1,471
OP..for your information i have just taken mine apart to reapply thermal paste to the gpu`s, i found no dust build up on either of the gpu heatsinks but there was quite a lot of thermal paste overkill so i have cleaned it off and reapplied a normal amount...i shall monitor the temps and post here later...hope this helps.


UPDATE...idle is 63 degrees now at 27% fan speed....it was 69 degrees last night but the ambient temp seems a bit cooler this morning.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
OP
Joined
22 Sep 2008
Posts
10,050
Location
Burscough
Situation worse now. Now hovers at 75 degrees with fan at 50%. Installed the latest drivers, have taken the card out to look for dust and it didnt look that bad from the outside and I really am not comfortable enough to take the back off. I think a phonecall to OCUK may be in order for some help.
 
Associate
Joined
1 Dec 2007
Posts
1,471
It really is pretty simple to get the cooler off...just a few small screws...just try it and thats the first step done!..i dont think its due to dust build up though but it might help if you re-apply the thermal paste.. if i lived closer i would do it for you.
 
Associate
Joined
20 Apr 2007
Posts
133
The OP's problem is EXACTLY what I've been experiencing recently!

The card was fine, in it's same case (armor jr) since purchase. Recently, it's idling very hot and the fan is considerably louder... I'm also convinced that performance has been hit due to the heat.

I've cleared all cables etc around it, blasted it so many times and cleaned it all up. I am not skilled enough to mess around with removing heatsinks etc.

I wonder if it's a driver problem... I hope it's not a hardware issue as I am selling the card on...
 
Soldato
Joined
31 Jan 2009
Posts
3,219
Location
Newcastle Upon Tyne
one solution...go water cooling...I did cos I got sick of the noise more than anything else...with the stock cooler the temps were ok when I had the fan turned up at 70%. ever since moving to watercooling I get idle temps of mid 30s and load temps of about 60-65C.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
22 Sep 2008
Posts
10,050
Location
Burscough
Right then, I can now happily report that I went to buy a can of compressed air and cleaned my graphics card fan and blew it into the back vent, a fair bit (but not a lot) of dust flew out and now its back down to 40 degrees on idle with fan speed at 40% which is fine! :D

Its all about the dust. Its amazing how only a little bit of dust can affect it by 35 degrees! Couldn't believe it when I opened up Catalyst again.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
18 Feb 2009
Posts
1,253
Location
PorthEmmet, Cornwall
Why not treat yourself to the Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme? I've just put one on mine and it's totally silent with idle temps at mid 30's and load of 60's.

A competitor site has it for £38 inc - gotta be the cheapest cooling solution for this beast.
 
Caporegime
Joined
8 Nov 2008
Posts
29,012
Its an Antec 900 case and all the fans are working and it seems fairly cool air coming out. Also why is one GPU considerably hotter than the other?

The one nearest the fan will be approx 10 degrees cooler:) One of my gpu's reads 51C, the other 37C.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
OP
Joined
22 Sep 2008
Posts
10,050
Location
Burscough
I suppose the lesson learnt really is that such a small amount of dust can make such a difference.

(It also helps when you plug the cables back in after cleaning and dont forget like I did).
 
Back
Top Bottom