ATi 4850 Overheat Problem

[AiM]

Over the summer I bought a HIS 4850 card and everything's been fine until the past month or so. Basically, the card will reach an excess of 100C while playing any recent game and eventually the comp will shut down. My card's fan speed are set at a constant 100% and even at idle, the temps are at 71C. My case has three small fans and one large 120mm fan set at 3xxx RPM. But still, the temps are exceedingly high, I'm thinking I should probably ask HIS to see if it's a problem / faulty card. I've had Crysis running for 5-6 hours straight before and the card never had an overheat problem, but now, I can't even have R6: Vegas 2 running for more than 20 mins before the card overheats...

Any ideas?

 

[Top Secret]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmyp_UqQnQM&feature=related

Do that. This is a common problem on the 4850 cards.

Doing that dropped my cards temperature by 20+ Celsius.

 

[AiM]

I have the 8.12 Catalyst drivers which enable you to change the fan speed without going through all those steps I think. But I did follow those steps prior to the 8.12 patch and the temps were alright. Right now though, even when it's set at 100% fan speed, it idles at 71C which isn't right...

 

[Asus]

What temp is your room or house at? The PC isn't pushed against a wall with less than 8 inches from the back is it? I might talk with their tech support and request a replacement under warranty. Those temps are not alarming but the PC does shut down which isn't good if it's a crash. Make sure you don't have it set to shut down after 100C. Also make sure your CPU temp isn't what is causing your PC to restart. (My Nvidia card's set by default to shut down at 115c)

Open up the case then and make sure the fan is spinning fast.
I would think if it isn't spinning fast then either new drivers made the fan speed not 100% anymore. Maybe it's reading the fan speed incorrectly. Try old drivers? Anyone on forums with those drivers complaining about fan speed change?
Or your fan is dirty or it's wearing odd. Or the temp probe is failing so it isn't kicking the Fan into gear. Which you would need a card replacement to fix.

I have a GPU that used to crash a lot and noticed the fan would either not spin or would spin but very slowly. Took it out and put some WD40 in the fans motor under the sticker and then got the excess off. Fan spun perfectly fine after that.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

Glad i got the Sapphire version with a massive fan on it. Fully overclocked it never goes above 85c on full load. And even then the fan speed never goes above 67%

 

[Krynn72]

I was having similar problems with my 4850. I ended up just getting a new cooler and its so much better. It now never goes above 50C and I cant hear it at all.

So if you're handy with a screw driver, I recommend buying this cooler.

 

[-Psy-]

Glad i got the Sapphire version with a massive fan on it. Fully overclocked it never goes above 85c on full load. And even then the fan speed never goes above 67%

I got a Sapphire 4870 which has a similar cooler which keeps everything below 55 all the time and the fan speed never exceeds 15%. \o/

 

[PimpinPenguin]

I got a Sapphire 4870 which has a similar cooler which keeps everything below 55 all the time and the fan speed never exceeds 15%. \o/

Nice, i sure my would aswell except over 3/4 of the fan is blocked by my sound card. The fans rests right against it, only a tiny bit at the top can get air.

 

[AiM]

What temp is your room or house at? The PC isn't pushed against a wall with less than 8 inches from the back is it? I might talk with their tech support and request a replacement under warranty. Those temps are not alarming but the PC does shut down which isn't good if it's a crash. Make sure you don't have it set to shut down after 100C. Also make sure your CPU temp isn't what is causing your PC to restart. (My Nvidia card's set by default to shut down at 115c)

Open up the case then and make sure the fan is spinning fast.
I would think if it isn't spinning fast then either new drivers made the fan speed not 100% anymore. Maybe it's reading the fan speed incorrectly. Try old drivers? Anyone on forums with those drivers complaining about fan speed change?
Or your fan is dirty or it's wearing odd. Or the temp probe is failing so it isn't kicking the Fan into gear. Which you would need a card replacement to fix.

I have a GPU that used to crash a lot and noticed the fan would either not spin or would spin but very slowly. Took it out and put some WD40 in the fans motor under the sticker and then got the excess off. Fan spun perfectly fine after that.

The room temp. is usually quite high unfortunately somewhere around 25C or so. The PC is located under the desk but it's not pushed against the wall or have anything restricting the airflow. I'm just worried the high temps and the frequent sudden shutdowns / crashes will shorten the lifespan. I'll double check the CPU temps but I'm fairly certain it's the card doing an auto-shutdown after reaching somewhere around 105-110C. Anyone know how to check the setting on Catalyst?

I've opened the case and there's a real noticeable difference in decibels as the card sounds really loud when I set it fro 70% --> 100%. I can also feel the difference in airflow so I think the fan is functioning. I looked at the forums and it seems the default temps of 4850 cards aren't quite as high as the one I have. The fan's are too dusty as I just wiped out most of the dust.

I was having similar problems with my 4850. I ended up just getting a new cooler and its so much better. It now never goes above 50C and I cant hear it at all.

So if you're handy with a screw driver, I recommend buying this cooler.

Actually this is exactly the issue I'm concerned with, I'm not sure whether this is a problem due to a faulty card or are other HIS 4850's also experience this kind of temperature. If it's the latter, then I don't mind shelling out the cash to get a decent set of VGA coolers, I just don't want it to be a problem with the card and then regret buying something I don't need.

The S1 Rev 2 I also read good reviews about it but unfortunately, they don't sell that model here in Hong Kong. So instead, I'm thinking of going with one of these instead:

ThermalRight T-rad 2

Zalman GV1000

ThermalTake DuOrb

If I were to get a cooler, I think I'd go with the Trad2 and stick two 92mm fans on it. Zalman being my second choice and the DuOrb a distant third.