4870X2 Temp Readings w/ 9.12 hotfix

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon Drivers Section' started by crash317, Jan 8, 2010.

  1. crash317

    crash317 New Member

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    GPU:
    VisionTek 4870X2
    Hi all. Just completed a brand new build. All parts are brand new except for the ATI branded 4870X2 I purchased used locally. Here's my system specs:

    ATI branded 4870X2
    Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4P
    AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE (stock, no oc)
    2x2GB G.Skill DDR3 1600
    OCZ Stealth Xstream Pro Modular 700W PSU
    Antec 900 Case (two front intake fans, one rear exhaust, one giant top fan)

    The system booted up and installed Win7 64bit with absolutely no problems whatsoever. Immediately installed chipset drivers and CCC 9.12 + hotfix.

    Prior to the hotfix on 9.12, my GPU temp readings in CCC were 65C and 85C at idle. After the hotfix, my GPU temps are now 0C (that's right, zero... I assume from the power saving shutting down the other core in 2d mode) and 85C. Have yet to run any games as I'm afraid of melting the card. I did run 3DMark Vantage and scored roughly 14500 which is normal from what I can determine. I wasn't able to check the temps during full load and didn't want to re-run the test after I realized temps were so high.

    I've put in hours of reading and am seeing causes all over the board...a bug in the Catalyst drivers that requires starting a game and exiting, manually setting fan speeds with hotkey profiles, etc.

    I plan on trying switching to 9.8 drivers this evening as I've read on the ATI forums from users that this seems to run well and keep temps under control.

    My question is this... what is the latest info on this problem and what is the agreed upon solution? Is there any hope for 10.1 drivers to address the issue? Is manually setting fan speed profiles the only solution?

    Thanks in advance for your time.
     
  2. ZebMacahan

    ZebMacahan Master Guru

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    GPU:
    MSI 4090 Liquid X
    Wow! That was mighty high temperatures at idle. My card, also a 4870X2 never runs over 85 C under load. At idle it varies from 50-52 degrees, depending on room temperature. I have also used 9.12 hotfix for a while now, and no such problems with my card.

    What is your fan speed? I'm running mine at 33 % idle. Either your card is broken, or you have some bad cooling in your Antec Case..?

    I doubt that this is a driver issue.:)
     
  3. crash317

    crash317 New Member

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    GPU:
    VisionTek 4870X2
    Thanks for your info!

    According to ATI Overdrive and GPU-Z, my fan speed was on auto at 27%. I enabled manual fan control and set the fan to 40%. My temps immediately dropped from 86C to 65C at idle.

    I'm confused about this fan speed setting. Will that lock it in at 40% even under load or does that setting only affect idle?

    About to track temps under load. I'll report back later on this evening.

    I highly doubt it's a case issue but I could be wrong. The Antec 900 it's in has two fans blowing across it from the hard drive cage, one in the rear and one huge fan on top. Not sure what my ambient temp is in the case but it's ice cold to the touch.
     
  4. ZebMacahan

    ZebMacahan Master Guru

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    GPU:
    MSI 4090 Liquid X
    I'm not sure about the manual fan control, I think it will lock it to whatever value you set it. I have only used auto fan control in CCC panel. I also use Rivatuner to set my auto fan speed, and this will also show in CCC panel.

    I still think your temps at idle are a bit high, compared to mine and others I have read about having the same card. Hard to tell what the reason is, but it could be bad airflow inside your case. I have 4 fans( 120 mm) blowing in my case. One is blowing out hot air in the back, I have one at the bottom, and two at the top, also blowing out hot air. It could also be that your GPU fan is not working as it should.

    Hope you manage to solve the problem:)
     

  5. Atel

    Atel Member

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    GPU:
    PowercolorHD4870x2 2048MB
    I run my fan at 46% all the time.
    Idle temperatures are 39c on the primary GPU, 36 on the secondary.

    Under load, these temperatures climb dramatically, up to approximately 76c on both GPUs. My 4870x2 is 16 months old now and probably furred up quite heavily too, but have yet to hit 80c. (Though the VRAM temperatures reach 85)

    So yeah, somethings wrong with your temperatures there by the look of things.
     
  6. Black_ice_Spain

    Black_ice_Spain Guest

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    GPU:
    5700XT
    use MSI afterburner, there you will probably be able to configure the fan (graphical mode, its easy) speed for each temperature.

    At least on my 4770 you can, and since 4770 theorically has lower quality... 4870 shud be able to do to.


    If you set 43% manually, that will be at any temp (unless hardware has preference, and i think that it doesnt).
     
  7. crash317

    crash317 New Member

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    GPU:
    VisionTek 4870X2
    Interesting. Thanks for your temps!

    If I set my fan to 43%, my GPU temps are 45C and 50C in the Antec 900 with all fans on and the side off. Not sure what they'd be at full load. That's over 10 degrees higher than your at idle. What brand is your card? Perhaps it has a different cooler.
     
  8. DualCORE1

    DualCORE1 Guest

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    GPU:
    XFX 295x2
    my temp are 57c at idle is that too high for saphire ati hd 4890 2gb vapor x my system temps are 56 at idle on all 4 cores
     
  9. Black_ice_Spain

    Black_ice_Spain Guest

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    GPU:
    5700XT
    they are powercolor, at least his "sig" says so :E
     
  10. shimyns

    shimyns Guest

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    GPU:
    SAPPHIRE r9 290x Tri-X OC
    To turn of Ultra low power saving function Go to registry and disable Ulps:

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Cl ass\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]

    and change "EnableUlps" to 0 under the 0000 and 0001 or 0003 keys.

    This will restore GPU2 clocks to normal @2d mode.

    As for temps, setting it at any manual % will lock it there no matter what temp. 40-50% is usually enough so at load it doesn't go beyond ~80c.
    You can use rivatuner to set up an automatic (dynamic) fan speed that will get faster as the core gets hotter.
    Use this guide:
    http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1345181
    It seems confusing but once set, it works like a charm. I used this before getting an aftermarket cooler.
     

  11. shimyns

    shimyns Guest

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    GPU:
    SAPPHIRE r9 290x Tri-X OC
    BTW, 85c is fine as a max temp at load.
     
  12. Xzibit

    Xzibit Banned

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    GPU:
    7970 Windforce
    85C is normal gpu temp for 4870x2.There are 956 mil transistors(in one gpu) on this card,so everything is OK.switch the fan mode to auto.as you see i have also a 4870x2,since december 2008.works great.
     
  13. shimyns

    shimyns Guest

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    GPU:
    SAPPHIRE r9 290x Tri-X OC
    You can further lower idle temps by underclocking your GPUs in 2d mode.

    Create a profile in CCC. Select All Catalyst applications or whatever.
    Go to C>Users>"you">Appdata>Local>ATI>ACE>Profiles
    Open the profile's XML file in note pad and change the 2d speeds for both GPUs so it looks like this :
    <Feature name="CoreClockTarget_0">
    <Feature name="CoreClockTarget_0">
    <Property name="Want_0" value="30000" />
    <Property name="Want_1" value="75000" />
    </Feature>
    <Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_0">
    <Property name="Want_0" value="30000" />
    <Property name="Want_1" value="90000" />
    ********************************************
    <Feature name="CoreClockTarget_1">
    <Property name="Want_0" value="30000" />
    <Property name="Want_1" value="75000" />
    </Feature>
    <Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_1">
    <Property name="Want_0" value="30000" />
    <Property name="Want_1" value="90000" />


    This will lower temps and power consumption a few degrees because core and memory will be running at 300 instead of 500Mhz.
     
  14. Sneakers

    Sneakers Guest

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    GPU:
    Gigabyte 980Ti Windforce
    Idle at 39-42 degrees here, fan at 33% on load I often see temps of 90-95 degrees when playing like batman AA with 8x aa @ 1920x1200 and mirrors edge..fan ramps up to 80%+ and cools it down then it goes back to the forced 46%.

    4870x2s run extremly hot and they are noisy, thats the biggest issue with them imo, and thats the reason I will sell it and get something else when the 300 series release ( either a 5970 or a 380gtx ). I can't stand fan noise anymore :)

    I would buy an accelero if they were cheaper though, that thing should have been stock.
     
  15. IM0001

    IM0001 Guest

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    GPU:
    PNY 780 GTX
    Ya the 4870X2 does run a bit warm. I am discovering that it seams to run warmer that I have past realized. Fire up Furmark and run the stability test while checking the box to log GPU temps. You can watch the temp on the main core rise. Even at 100% Fan (which is loud but my speakers are louder) the GPU still hits around 93-94C on Core 0 (core 1 which is closer to the fan remains in the 80's I believe). This is normal for the X2 but I didnt realize i was getting that hot during certain gaming instances and may have finally found the problem with my crashes. (which were random enough to make me look elsewhere. Maybe its fixed, maybe not). I know Furmark pushes the cards a bit harder than most benchmarks, but it is a valid test in this area. Also unless you log your temps with GPUz to a file or something, just looking at the temps right after exiting a 3D app is useless since right after the load goes to 0 the core drops about 10C instantly.
     

  16. shimyns

    shimyns Guest

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    GPU:
    SAPPHIRE r9 290x Tri-X OC
    Furmark is pointless and a 4870x2 killer. VRM temps reach unbareably high temps and many card have been ruined by this. Beware.
     
  17. Scoop

    Scoop Active Member

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    GPU:
    R2900 X2
    I lost my whole settings for core two with the hotfix. Always said 000 core and 000 memory
     
  18. IM0001

    IM0001 Guest

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    GPU:
    PNY 780 GTX
    Didnt know it was a killer. But I did find it pushed the temps up while I was able to watch nicely. Was wondering why my Card was crashing last night playing MWLL after only a few minutes. Turns out the ASUS TOP Mod Bios doesn't allow the fan on my visiontek to run higher than 65% (Any forced fan setting above 65% did nothing. Below 65% worked as normal) and the card was overheating ingame. Flashed back to my stock bios and forced full 100% fan and all is cool (if abit noisy) now.
     
  19. IM0001

    IM0001 Guest

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    GPU:
    PNY 780 GTX
    Just curious. (I do not have this problem but I have not used the 9.12's I went right from the drivers with the 8.66 RC6 core (9.10 betas I believe) to the newer 8.70 (10.1 betas?). Though in both drivers, if you right click the ati tray icon, go to the first 4870X2, down to 3D Settings, and at the botton you have Force maximum performance clocks. See if that does anything for ya.
     
  20. shimyns

    shimyns Guest

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    GPU:
    SAPPHIRE r9 290x Tri-X OC
    Guys, haven't you read the posts in this thread? It's a power saving function. Disable it if you don't want it, according to my instructions above.
     

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