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T-Rad2 installation Guide and Initial Thoughts

DrSteve said:
Just got mine installed. Hardest bit was getting out the power connection from the original cooler!! There's probably a simple way of doing this that I was totally missed. :rolleyes:

The temps seem good at idle.



Just ran ATITool to see what happened. This is after 2-3 minutes of the artifact scanner.



Are thoses VDDC temps kinda on the high side?
Click to expand...

Hmm, to me that seems high especially with such a short time running AtiTool, but apparently the VMR's are rated upto 120c. This is where the confusion comes in with the TRAD-2, if you look through the previous pages of this thread people have argued the supplied heatsinks are not good enough to keep the VMR's cooled.

I dont't know if im lucky, have good cooling or because i don't use a high res, but i've never seen my VRM Temps go above 60c. I am also using a power-play bios.
 
I'm a bit worried about the temps actually. That's only running at 1280x1024 and I have a 24" monitor on the way so it's going to be running at a much higher res soon.
I have the heatsinks on the same way as sharpygsxr in the previous post using the original adhesive. Any point in trying some akasa tape instead or moving the sinks round a bit?
 
sharpygsxr said:
im usin akasa tape mate only thing i changed just used a razor blade to remove the old tape and some TIM to clean them
Click to expand...

I have some of the akasa tape so I might try using that instead. How hard is it to remove the original t-rad heatsinks once they are stuck on? Just twist them off?

Your pic from the previous post has your VDDC temps at 50C idle. What are your temps on full load, say in ATITool?
 
Mine are the same mate, get to around 85-90 after a few minutes of ATiTool, but that does strees the gfx card to the max, and i doubt playing a game would be putting constant stress like ATITool does all the time!!??
 
anyone know what the vrm cooling is like on a 4870 1gb with a full cover waterblock?

im not sure if ive still got all my pads that came with the waterblock as i had to rma the card as it was doa. any idea if i can use as5?

edit: lettuce your sig is too big :p
 
lettuce said:
Mine are the same mate, get to around 85-90 after a few minutes of ATiTool, but that does strees the gfx card to the max, and i doubt playing a game would be putting constant stress like ATITool does all the time!!??
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking. I've been playing about with the fan position in the case to see if I can aim a bit more air in the right direction. After 15 minutes of ATI tool and the core clocked to 790 one of the temps hits 98C during the warm up phase while the other two are at about 95C. Like you said I doubt gaming would generate as much heat.

I don't get how the stock cooler does such a good job at cooling those chips. Just seems to be a bit of white 'putty' stuff between them and the base of the cooler.
 
Thats why i thinking about trying and changing the direction that i have the fans blowing on the T-Rad2, atm i have them blowing onto the card (much like everyone else) but i may change them to sucking!, as this was how the stock fan was setup above the VRM's. Also i was playing aorund with the fans on my Antec 1200 gaming case today...

The antec has 3 fans of the front which blow into the case, i usually have these on there lowest setting, and you cant hear them at all, i turned all 3 up to max, and monitor all temps using EVEREST in my vista toolbar paying extra attention to the GPU temps. Infact the GPU temps didnt change at all (funny seeings as 2 of the 3 fans would be blowing straight across my GPU) and the CPU temps actually went up 2c!!!

Next i turned the 3 front fan speeds down to there lowest setting again (now i can hear myself think) and moved onto the large (200+mm) fan on the top at the rear of the case, and the 2 rear fans, all sucking air out of the case. Did the same as before, all up to max speed, and now strangely the temps of the GPU actually went down, and more importantly the VRM temps dropped from their usual 49-50c idle temps to 45-46c, agreed not a great reduction, but when you think that my GPU is nowhere near any of the rear fans on my case, its quite impressive.

So thats my findings, and why im thinking of changing the fans on the T-Rad2 from blowing to sucking, as this seems to have a greater effect, even with fans that are nowhere near my GFX card let alone the VRM's!!
 
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im gonna try a mod with the stock cooler, what i plan to do is use a dremel to cut the back plate off and screw it in place over the board. The Trad should then fit as normal over the core with the stock backplate cooling the vrms. Hopefully then the stock plate plus the 2 92mm fans should have some great results.

:)

Ill post a log when i start the work
 
Clairvoyant's VDDC temps make me feel a bit happier. Mine are only about 15-20C hotter than that with the the t-rad and a bit of an overclock.

I went ahead and ordered the Iandh custom heatsinks just to see what would happen. Probably take a week or so for them to get here. I'll post the results back when I get them fitted.

Just out of curiosity. Is there an idiot's guide to modding the bios with RBE to allow a higher core value in CCC?
 
you can flash the bios much like updating your motherboard bios, provides any new updates etc that have came out in more recent models.

You can also update the bios to that of factory overclocked cards such as the Asus 4870 OC. Or to ones with different fan profiles etc.


For Clairvoyant
Sapphire released a new bios for the 4870 to fix crashing issues in some games.

Its only for the 512mb GDDR5 version get it here http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/support/drivers.php 2nd link from the top

direct link http://us.sapphiretech.com/driver/478.zip
 
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My Antec Spot Cooler fan turned up today, and have it setup in my case so its blowing down on the top side of the card where the VRM's are. Now under stress i have almost a 30c drop in temps, from 90c to 61c!!! Great stuff!
 
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