had enough of 1950pro

[The Deuce]

had my x1950 pro(PCI-e) (sapphire) card for about 8 months now, and in all that time all i have had is heat issues. on std fan idle was 49 degrees and under load would reach the mighty 85 degree mark. I changed my PSU to a OCZ GameXstream 600w, more than capable of running the card and have also changed the std fan to an Accelero-x2. Idle temps are now 36 degrees and under load 49 degrees, BUT and here is the big kisser! i get constant black screens and crashes now after about 5 mins of gameplay. surely this cant be a temperature issue, the fan has been on and off more times than a cheap call girls knickers! i can surf all day without any issues but once the card is under load..crash! this happens in both XP and Vista so i know it isn't a driver issue and is surely hardware.

I've had it with ATi..i think it's time for Nvidia again!

 

[The Deuce]

who told you to get the x1950pro in the first place? you would have been warned that they run a bit on the warm side without aftermarket cooling.

a bit on the "warm" side, state the obvious why dont you..lol i believe i made the decision to buy the card, nobody else..lol

 

[The Deuce]

its odd with aftermarket cooling like the accelero cooler it should run very cool.
now that i recall the main issue with cooling on the x1950pro is the voltage regulators. have you cooled them sufficiently?

the AcceleroX2 came with a VRm heat spreader, that does get very hot, i'd say in the range of 50+ degrees as an estimate. The card is sitting idle now @ 37 degrees, surfing and WMP playing "toons", but i can guarantee if i was to play a game, be it any game within 5 minutes it would black screen...No signal to monitor error then i would have to cold reboot. The thing i cant understand is why all of a sudden with a lot cooler temps has it suddenly started to crash, this never happend on the stock fan, i would just get artifacts then reboot and give it a few mins to cool down. On an artifact scan on ATI Tools, i let it run for over 5 mins and it didn't get over 50 degrees, then once i quit the scan about 30 secs later the card crashed to Black.

 

[The Deuce]

i've gone and put the stock fan back on, and guess what...no more crashes or black screen freezes...hmmmm

 

[The Deuce]

Sounds like the stock cooler is in contact with something that the Accelero isn't. On the AC site there's something about a new version of the X2 which now supports the X1950 Pro. I guess you have the orginal which doesn't.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=90

Not ATIs fault here.

I have the LATEST AcceleroX2 which came with the VRM, i really am at a loss as to why it isn't working under load as my temps are excellent compared to the std fan.

And yes it isn't ATi's fault, it's mine for buying ATi and their sub standard overheating piece of junk

 

[The Deuce]

all sorted now guys, thanks for the links and advice. took it out and snapped into a million pieces..lol, honestly though, just bought a BFG 8800 GTS never looked back