How To: ATi 4000 Series Fan Control

A lot of us are experiencing temperatures that we're not comfortable with on our new ATi cards, and while ATi says that these temps are acceptable, some of us disagree.

There are a couple different ways to control the heat...let's explore them:


Replace the Thermal Compound
Removing the reference cooler isn't for the lighthearted...one slip-up and you've destroyed the most powerful piece of equipment you own, as well as negated your warranty. Removing the reference cooler isn't recommended, but can be done if you go slowly and thoroughly.
I personally found a ~12*C drop in idle and load temps by replacing the thermal compound on the 2 GPUs with Arctic Silver 5. I also removed the thermal pads on the memory ICs and the VDDC chips (the long, narrow ones) and used AS5 there as well...only one problem - the heatplate on back-side of the card doesn't have risers for the memory chips underneath, so removing the thermal pads on the back of the card isn't going to help, in fact, it would make the temps on those chips higher, unless you have some little heatsinks that you can put on them.

Here, you can see some of the thermal pads material on the underside of the reference cooler. (I removed those and used a thin layer of AS5 instead on almost everything there) I didn't happen to take an angle shot, but on the bottom of the reference cooler, there are little 'risers' for the memory ICs - these will make good contact with the memory ICs themselves, so removing the thermal pads shouldn't lead to any problems, although if those little risers aren't quite tall enough on yours, they may not make good enough contact and not dissipate the heat as well as the pads do - you all getting that I've got something against Thermal Pads?

By Psychlone


For those a little less adventurous, you can control the fan speeds and core/memory speeds through Profiles made in CCC and tweaked in Notepad.

Creating Profiles in CCC
Open up Catalyst Control Center
Click on Profiles at the top of the screen and then select Profiles Manager
..

Create as many profiles as you wish, but at least 2 - I have 1 for surfing (little to no graphic need), 1 for gaming, and 1 for benchmarking and 1 that just the standard settings.
As you create your profiles, ensure that ATI Overdrive is selected in the Composition window (it's the only thing we're going to do in here is just create - we'll tweak the settings in later)


Tweaking your new Profiles
Once you've created your Profiles, navigate to
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles
Where %username% is YOUR username.
You will probably have to ENABLE 'SHOW Hidden Files and Folders' through Folder Options.
Inside there, you're going to see the names of the Profiles you created in CCC.


Right-click on a Profile and choose Open With NOTEPAD


This is what you're going to see:

By Psychlone

The specific lines for fan speeds are:

Code:

        <Feature name="FanSpeedProtocol_0">
          <Property name="FanSpeedProtocolProperty" value="Percent" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_0">
          <Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want" value="1421" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want" value="27" />
        </Feature>

If you want to set your fan speed to a specific speed all the time instead of dynamic, first change the <Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" /> to "Manual"
...And then change the value of "27" in the line <Property name="Want" value="27" /> to whatever value you want (1 - 100) - obviously being the percentage of fan speed you want to run.

There's a bit more that we can do in the Profiles .XML files. We can also change the core clocks and the memory clocks.

For this guide, I'm using the Sapphire HD4870X2 card - so the core and memory values will be different for cards that are not the 4870X2.

To change the Core and Memory Speeds

The specific lines for changing the core and memory speeds are:

Code:

        <Feature name="CoreClockTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="75000" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="75000" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="75000" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="90000" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="90000" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="90000" />
        </Feature>

The Want_0 through 2 in each of the "ClockTarget" fields can be changed to whatever value you've determined is safe for your specific card.
75000 is the stock core clock of 750MHz, 90000 is the stock memory clock of 900MHz for the 4870X2 (other cards will differ)
Changing these values can be dangerous - DO NOT SET VALUES HIGHER THAN YOU HAVE DETERMINED SAFE!!!
If you decide to change these values, put it in like this:

Code:

        <Feature name="CoreClockTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="80000" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="80000" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="80000" />
        </Feature>
        <Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_0">
          <Property name="Want_0" value="99900" />
          <Property name="Want_1" value="99900" />
          <Property name="Want_2" value="99900" />
        </Feature>

This would obviously give a core clock of 800MHz and a memory clock of 999MHz.

This may or may not be stable for your card, so last warning, don't just copy these settings into a profile and set it - you can damage your card for good!​

Here, you can also UNDERCLOCK your card to help lower temps while doing mundane things like surfing that don't take hardly any graphical power.

In one of your Profiles, change the core to 250MHz and memory to 450MHz. This is obviously going to use less GPU and Memory power, thus lowering your heat considerably below the stock 500/500 for 2D mode.

Running the 250/450 clocks along with a 33% fan speed on my 4870X2 has shown that idle speeds have dropped from 80*C to 62*C
[img=http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2997/atigpuzck7.jpg]
By Psychlone

You may select any Profile that you wish 'On The Fly' - meaning that you can switch between profiles whenever you wish. With Profiles, it's also possible to set your 3D driver settings for specific games...just set the 3D settings you want in CCC and when you save the Profile, ensure that 3D is also checked...this will save your entire driver 3D profile along with your overclock.

For those that don't dare or want to play in .XML files
You can also control fan speeds in EXPERTOOL ATi

By Psychlone

The only drawback here, is that if you set it to Fixed Speed, you only have adjustments from 50% to 100%, nothing lower...might be a bit loud and a bit overkill for surfing the net!
The program can also adjust your core and memory speeds as well (among other things, but no driver tweaks are included)

This guide was really written for fan speeds, but adding the lines of code for adjusting core and memory temps was only 1 extra step in the same .XML file, so I decided to add it here.
In no way is this supposed to be a complete guide on overclocking ATi cards - it's not what I intended to do and why I haven't referenced RivaTuner, ATT, ATITool, or any other programs that are capable of forcing driver settings/overclocking.

Remember that no one but yourself is responsible for creating a profile that has unstable settings...I will not be held responsible for what you do with this information.

Hope that this guide helps you all out!

Psychlone

EDIT: It's several days later now, and I can report that using a Profile with 450c/450m that automagically ramps up to 800c/1000m is idling at 32*C and full-load never goes higher than 54*C with the fan speed at 45% (no need to have to actually HEAR the thing spinning, 45% is just noticeable, but not overbearing like 50% and above.)

 

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=270911

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=269778

 

Great guide i think it should be a sticky

 

good deal phyc...its almost a must do with the 48x2 cards

 

i haven't receive my 4870x2 yet, so don't know anything about the profiler or drivers. but a quick question, does the profiler change automatically according to your needs, or if you are able to play a game, you have to go to the profiler menu and select "game profiler", etc.

 

You need to simply change the Profile before you play the game, but you can set all your 3D settings for each game individually, including core and memory speeds, fan speeds, etc. for each game you play - just select the proper profile.

Same thing in ATT...if you prefer.

Psychlone

 

There is also one more option!.

Flashing card with fixed BIOS - With Powerplay working or just better fan algoritm!

 

Thanks for the guide!

Is there any downside to running my 4870 X2 fan at a high speed, other than noise and power use? I mean, do I risk "wearing out" my fan? It sure sounds like it's working its ass off when I crank it up to 80 or 90 percent!

 

Very nice and well structured post.

 

creating a profiler doesn't let you underclock the core less than 507mhz, how do you get it at 250mhz. even i input (250000) the mininum overclock still 507mhz.

 

You need 8.8 Drivers.

 

good guide what would be the xml code to make sure 2 of these cards in crossfire were having the fan speed increased rather than the one as in noticed in xpert tool it only increases fan speed on the one card even though i've 2 installed

thanks

 

i did this on my Club3d 4870 http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1020578.html Works well . Nice guide with pictures and use the latest Winflash.

 

HD4850 Bios By Bret

Alternative easy way and forget the HD4850 Temp forever

 

@Glenboy: I believe, since CCC polls the XML files for the parameters, that if you were to save a profile with ALL 4 Overdrive options ticked in the Profiles Manager screen (1 Overdrive for each GPU) - then it should be the same lines, there should just be 12 of each instead of 3 of each - that's how it should work in theory...I don't have 2 4870X2 cards, so I can't check for you, but if you'd like to pm me a saved profile, I can look for you...even if I could figure out the calls and returns in the XML, I'd have no way to test it to see if it worked, so it's really up to you.

@ Fez and blackedition: Not too sure if you guys noticed, but everyone in here has the 4870X2 cards. Even though the guide can be used the same for any 4K series card, it really was intended for the X2 series cards because of the high heat that none of us are used to seeing.

I have my own issues with BIOS flashing - I've bricked more cards than some members here have been alive in years, and most of the time it was due to a bad BIOS flash, or a BIOS variable that didn't 'sit well'.

In any case, XML Profile editing is much safer than BIOS flashing - no one needs to remove their reference cooler for it either, so the possibility of messing something up is close to nil.

Anyway, good luck to all!

Psychlone

 

The new ATI Tray Tools Beta is also working well for most and much better than Xpertool ....

Discussion Thread:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=270486

Download:
http://cid-a50350ea7a969f0c.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/attsetup.exe


The new Rivatuner 2.10 has also enter closed beta stage. Alex estimates 1-2 weeks for final version.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=271073

 

Even though this Fan-Hack is almost a thing of the past, I just discovered something interesting today regarding TechPowerup's RBE Radeon BIOS Editor. It actually has a built-in CCC XML Profile Editor. See pic below. Very handy for those who still wish to control their fan speeds in this way .....



RBE Radeon BIOS Editor:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1177/.html

If this old news, my apologies. It was new to me.

 

i see lowering my memory really improve idle temp but not the core, is it safe to underclock the memory to around 250mhz, 200, 150. i set it at 250mh at the momemt with fan at 35% and is idleling at 42c.

 

@honestjohn: I've known about the RBE's ability to alter Profiles for quite some time, but didn't try it with my new 4870X2 card - till now. Created a new Profile in CCC, opened it in RBE using "Profile Editor" and set the fan speed to 100% only - so I could hear it if it's working, and no go. I've tried setting all the options (including the voltage) but the only one that seemed to stick was the voltage - the core speed, the memory speed, and the fan speed/percentage didn't work at all for some reason...

@Eduardmc: The memory (to my knowledge and experience) won't even accept a value less than 450 - I tried the same thing several times in several different ways.

Psychlone

 

i guess i'm lucky cause it works for me, also in this guide, it says that experttool only allows 50% or 100%. experttool give me the option 50% and above. (50%,51,52,60, 65, 70, etc u get the idea) and all those setting works cause i do see the fan spinning faster and faster. but i don't even use it cause at 50% is already loud for me. i have set profiler fan speed for gaming.

check the pic below (little small) but can clearly see the memory at 250mhz