Replacing 4870 Stock Cooler - Be Careful!

[sushi_fiesta_57]

It seems like a lot of people are having problems with 3rd party coolers on the 4870. I'm not going to pretend to understand this totally, but the problem is not with cooling the GPU itself but with the VRM part of the card.

I think the basic message is put a heatsink on absolutely everything you can see!

Links:
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8500&Itemid=1
http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=302323

 

[Metalface Mark]

Found it a waste of time with the akasa vortex, stock cooler is better and quieter.

 

[HighlandeR]

Man we need a whole lotto 3rd party coolers for these ATI Cards ! good working ones and silent too !

 

[sanofi]

I'd considered the Vortexx Neo but after hearing the mix bag of reactions to it on the 4870, I'm sticking with the stock cooler at 32% fan speed for now.

 

[The_Abyss]

Don't you find anything over 30% loud? I set mine at 28%, and it is just audible over the case fans.

 

[ken1307]

The S1 will work with HD4870 no problems. All you need to do is remove the fan,the core heatsink and the plastic surrounder and keep the red ramsink at its place to cool the ram and the voltage regulators and use the S1 for the core

 

[sanofi]

Don't you find anything over 30% loud? I set mine at 28%, and it is just audible over the case fans.

I can handle anything under 35%, with 32 being a particularly good sweet spot as it is barely audible over the ambient noise and cools to 55C idle.

 

[The_Abyss]

I'm not convinced the the fan actually adjusts for each % point. The increase in noise is too much, and also, the huge decrease in temperature too.

 

[MikeHunt79]

The S1 will work with HD4870 no problems. All you need to do is remove the fan,the core heatsink and the plastic surrounder and keep the red ramsink at its place to cool the ram and the voltage regulators and use the S1 for the core

Can't go wrong with the S1, awesome cooler.

 

[sanofi]

I'm not convinced the the fan actually adjusts for each % point. The increase in noise is too much, and also, the huge decrease in temperature too.

I've found that often its not possible to increment from say 30 to 32% and in order to do that, you have to go up to about 40 and then down to 32, almost as if small increments are not possible. Whether this means that the fan only spins at given percentage chunks I'm not sure but I have noticed the noise and cooling ability between 30, 32 and 35 is different enough to be noticeable.

 

[psychas]

jsut take the cooler and replace thermal paste with ac5 or mx2

 

[Rob43]

It's not the core temps you need to worrying about guys...it's the VRMs. Mine are hitting the high 80s with a 120mm fan blowing on them.

Got my core temps down to 30C & low 50C under load(water)



Rob

 

[AWPC]

Mine is totally silent @ stock apart from 2 x 2 sec bursts of 100% on bios post & windows startup. Rest of the time cannot hear it at all.

 

[sanofi]

Mine is totally silent @ stock apart from 2 x 2 sec bursts of 100% on bios post & windows startup. Rest of the time cannot hear it at all.

If you haven't fiddled with the fan speeds then its silent because at idle the fan is going very slow, somewhere around 15%, your idle temps would be quite high assuming this is true.

 

[krisboats]

If you haven't fiddled with the fan speeds then its silent because at idle the fan is going very slow, somewhere around 15%, your idle temps would be quite high assuming this is true.

Surely the temps would be at the standard if he hasn't fiddled with it as the ATI software should check the temp of the card and adjust the fan accordingly?

Different people have different perceptions of what's acceptably audible as well.

 

[sanofi]

Surely the temps would be at the standard if he hasn't fiddled with it as the ATI software should check the temp of the card and adjust the fan accordingly?

Different people have different perceptions of what's acceptably audible as well.

If set to automatic, when the gpu is at load, CCC will up the fan, but when at idle, the fan stays at about 15% and idle temps are in the 70-80s.

 

[Credo]

If set to automatic, when the gpu is at load, CCC will up the fan, but when at idle, the fan stays at about 15% and idle temps are in the 70-80s.

If the 4870's cooler exhausts hot air out the back of the case - and 80 degrees is deemed OK for this GPU it seems - why are folks seemingly worrying about idle temps? As I understand it, when the card is loaded the fan is prevented from spinning up if you're hacked the .XML file, which is surely a bad thing?

 

[AWPC]

If you haven't fiddled with the fan speeds then its silent because at idle the fan is going very slow, somewhere around 15%, your idle temps would be quite high assuming this is true.

Why play around with it if at stock still rock solid stable even when gaming for hours.

Think I will trust ATI to have done the right design to begin with. Sure cooler is always better but its silent & stable for me so cannot see the point in fiddling.

 

[Deleted member 2277]

Why play around with it if at stock still rock solid stable even when gaming for hours.

Think I will trust ATI to have done the right design to begin with. Sure cooler is always better but its silent & stable for me so cannot see the point in fiddling.

I totally agree, why risk invalidating the warranty when the card runs perfectly stable with the stock cooler.

 

[sanofi]

At no point did I say that altering the xml file was necessary. I just wanted to post what I personally found to be a sweet spot in terms of noise:cooling ratio at 32% fan speed.