4850 Cooling

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pingjockey

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 14, 2006
Messages
177
As I wait for the price to drop on the 5850's to something more reasonable I am trying stretch the legs of my saphire 512MB 4850's.

These cards run freaking hot and I was hopping to add an after market cooling solution that may work better than the stock coolers.

I was looking at the following:

Thermaltake CL-G0102

ZEROtherm CoolMaxx 2000

ZEROtherm CoolMaxx 3000

I am running these cards in crossfire and I would like to overclock them a little bit as well. Any thoughts or help with this would be great.
 
How hot does yours run?

I have a Sapphire 4850 512 as well (not CrossFire, granted), and thanks to the 120mm front intake fan I added to my case, it idles at 70C and loads at 82C, with my house temperature around 68-70F. I consider this fairly decent for a video card with a single-slot stock cooler.

You may not need to add an exotic third-party cooler, if you can improve your airflow.

Also, FYI: I know you haven't had the cards two years yet, so you would be invalidating your warranty.
 
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Those are about the temps I am getting now in a antec 1200 case. I am running the stock coolers in manual right now at 40 to 45% of speed right now.

This has kept temps down around 50 or so at load. My concern is how bad is to keep those fans running at that speed all the time. So that is why I have been considering an alternative solution.
 
40% is pretty low, Honestly I would just turn up the speed on the stock cooler. Getting a aftermarket cooling solution when you plan to get a 5850 pretty soon is pointless and just money out the window. But if you are set on getting another cooler then look no further then the accelero S2 with a 120mm fan, it's pretty cheap too at about $25.
 
Man, is everyone on these forums nuts?

The automatic fan throttling ATI BUILT-IN to the 4850 targets 80C maximum at-idle, and 100C maximum at-load. You're overriding this throttling with a manual fan setting so you can have your load temperatures at 50C. I get the feeling you're worrying yourself sick about device reliability, and yet you don't sound like you're going to keep these very long, so why worry yourself to death?

And now, you're worried that you might be running the stock fan TOO FAST? There's no end to the drama with you, is there?

You are over-thinking things. A fan that is specced to run at 6000 RPM will run at 6000RPM for the normal lifetime of the fan. If you want to run the fan at 3000 RPM instead, it should have the same long life. ATI is simply throttling the fan to reduce noise. You most certainly can run the fan at whatever speed you like, so long as you don't mind the noise it produces.

That said, it sounds to me like you're looking for an excuse to tinker with your computer, and you've asked the forums for validation :D
 
defaultluser said:
Man, is everyone on these forums nuts?

The automatic fan throttling ATI BUILT-IN to the 4850 targets 80C maximum at-idle, and 100C maximum at-load. You're overriding this throttling with a manual fan setting so you can have your load temperatures at 50C. I get the feeling you're worrying yourself sick about device reliability, and yet you don't sound like you're going to keep these very long, so why worry yourself to death?

And now, you're worried that you might be running the stock fan TOO FAST? There's no end to the drama with you, is there?

You are over-thinking things. A fan that is specced to run at 6000 RPM will run at 6000RPM for the normal lifetime of the fan. If you want to run the fan at 3000 RPM instead, it should have the same long life. ATI is simply throttling the fan to reduce noise. You most certainly can run the fan at whatever speed you like, so long as you don't mind the noise it produces.

That said, it sounds to me like you're looking for an excuse to tinker with your computer, and you've asked the forums for validation :D
Click to expand...

Although what default has said may not be the most pc or eloquent he has some very valid points. The SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100282VXSR Radeon HD 5850 @ $329.99 would be a nice pick, here is a review. Keep in mind you should be able to sell the 4850's for say $75 each? dropping the upgrade cost.
 
@ Default Thank you for your points. Although I really have not been very active on the forums I have been into pc hardware for a long time (10 or so years, first rig was a p3 450 when they hit the streets) and just making sure I am not over thinking things with trying to keep things cool. Unlike a lot of people I have thicker skin and can handle criticism :D (14 yrs in the navy can do that).

@ hossdaddy I was looking at that card, looks really nice... I was trying to decide if a 5770 would be a better plan with another in cf latter on down the line. I mean is there much chance to see the 5800 series cards drop anytime soon???

Most importantly though thank you both for your insight.
 
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