ATI 3850...Heat Problems

[mralw]

Hello. Newbie here.

I have just installed a pci express Saphire HD 3850. Last night i couldn't get a single game to run and my PC kept randomly crashing. The idle temp of the card was 55 degrees and the cooling fan was running at only 30%. No matter how hot the card became the fan would never run above 30%.

Anyway, i have now installed rivatuner and have the fan running manually at 65% and everything seems to be running OK.

My question is this...is this normal? shouldn't the catalyst/driver software automatically adjust the fan speed settings? Or have i installed the thing wrong?

I have a 650Watt power supply and 3 case fans and arctic cooling on my CPU.

thanks Alan

 

[muon]

Yes it does adjust. The auto fan is set so that temps do not go above 90C. It should not artifact at temperatures at or below this.

Idle temperature of 55C suggest very poor case cooling. ATI powerplay reduces clocks to 300mhz and it should idle at 40-45C with an ambient temperature of 20C, inside an average case.

edit: What speed is the 3850 fan running at when idling?

 

[gt_junkie]

45c idle here.

gt

 

[mralw]

..well as for case cooling, i had the side of my case off whilst i was trying to sort the problem out. Maybe it was a driver problem or something.(?)


My card is now running at 27c idle and games play no problem.

I might disable Rivatuner again and see what happens.....

 

[muon]

reference fan duty cycle

 

[mralw]

..just done a 3DMark 06 test and this card blows my old 8600GTS big time. Old score with 8600GTS was 6006. New score with 3850 installed is 10,600. WOW.

...just the overheat issue bugs me a bit.