Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV - Fan speeds

Oriaz · 11 Jan 2015 at 13:18

Hi all,

Hoping someone can help me out here.

I installed an Accelero Xtreme IV on my Radeon R9 290 yesterday. A little bit fiddly, and I am not sure about the lack of VRAM heatsinks on this model, but it does seem to be doing the job.

My temps seem to have gone from about 55/85 (idle/load) to about 35/55 and it's certainly a lot quieter.

My question to anyone else with an Arctic GPU cooler is whether I should expect to hear a significant difference in fan noise from 25% to 100%? I am using Afterburner right now (PrecisionX won't recognise my card) and when I manually change the fan speed from 25% to 100%, I hear no difference at all. Even with the case open, and my head next to the card, there is no noticeable increase in speed or noise.

Is this normal? I am worried that the fans are just set at one speed, and they are not adjusting at all. With the stock cooler + Afterburner, the difference between 25% and 100% was like armageddon happening inside the PC!

The Accelero Xtreme IV only has one 4-pin power connector for the fans, which I just plugged into a spare power socket using the supplied molex converter. The only thing I was unsure about is that the supplied molex converter came with 2 connections (similar to THIS, when my Xtreme IV only requires 1 (unlike older Accelero coolers which use 2). I just plugged it into the 12V one.

Hopefully that makes sense.
Cheers, Ori

wazza300 · 11 Jan 2015 at 13:44

I keep mine at 70% on a 7970

shouldn't the fans plug into the graphic card pcb? cant remember now without looking

postmanfw · 11 Jan 2015 at 13:53

Fans should be plugged into the fan header on the card otherwise no fan control.
At 25% they are silent and at full speed still very quiet but can definitely hear them.

troops · 11 Jan 2015 at 13:56

Adjusting the fans in afterburner won't work if your using the molex, plug it into the gfx card.

Oriaz · 11 Jan 2015 at 15:17

Ahhh, jeez ... I'm dumb!

You guys are right, I was rushing towards the end of the install and I just saw the fan connector and the supplied adapter and went with that.

Just attached it to the PCB connector and that's got it working. I can hear the fans get louder when I adjust the power. Even at 100% it's much quieter than the stock fans were at about 25%.

Idling at 28 degrees now too

Thanks very much!

postmanfw · 11 Jan 2015 at 16:33

Nice one

Great coolers...reduced my load temps by 20c+ along with massive reducing in noise.

Mine came with heatsinks for vrm but did notice that even with them the temps are quite a bit higher than the standard blower version but still acceptable.

Use gpu-z to give you the vrm temps

Oriaz · 11 Jan 2015 at 17:15

I actually have an old 7970 version of the Accelero that I never actually used. I was going to pilfer the heatsinks off that, and put them on my R9 290. Most of them will be fine with the fan clearance, there's just one that I think will touch .. but that's what dremels are for

I did try it before, but I think the thermal adhesive that came with out was out of date or something (it was sitting about for about 2 years). It never actually got sticky at all, so I need to buy some third-party adhesive/pads for that.

What I do find strange right now is that a full 3D Mark (Demo) run only takes my temps to about 62 degrees, but if I am playing WoW which isn't that intense, it's going to 65!

postmanfw · 11 Jan 2015 at 18:01

If you want to see max temp then use furmark but be warned it really hammers the card so dont leave running for very long.

On the stock cooler my top card would hit 90+ within a minute or less....now it maxes out at 70c and 60c in games

Its the 7970 version of the accelero i have but used thermal glue from elsewhere.

One problem i did have was the fixing screws needing tightened up after a while as the foam must have compressed a bit more over time due to the heat/pressure.

Oriaz · 11 Jan 2015 at 21:53

Just gave that a go .. seems to be about the same, settled around 67 degrees or so.

However, a new problem appears to have surfaced. My headset now has some crazy feedback going on whenever the GPU is under load. Most noticeable in games (especially when running Furmark), but also just on the desktop when moving my mouse.

I never noticed this before installing the Accelero, so I can only assume that it's generating some extra electrical interference that's affecting my headset. It's an analog headset with a USB connection for power, using on-board 7.1 sound ... so I guess the motherboard isn't shielded so well.

I think I have one of those shielding clips lying around somewhere. Will try to chuck that on the USB cable now!

Cheers!

postmanfw · 11 Jan 2015 at 22:06

Post back with results as got a mate with similar problem but with just a standard 280x installed.

Nice temps btw for such a hot running card...so wanting to upgrade both mine but dont NEED it as only play cod...but want it lol

Oriaz · 11 Jan 2015 at 23:13

Doing some trouble-shooting now, I'll start a new thread in a more relevant location once I find (or don't find) anything

Oriaz · 12 Jan 2015 at 00:54

And here's that post ... get a coffee, it's a long read

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=27467234#post27467234