4870 vrm cooling

i just installed a trad2 on my visontek 4870 recently. the gpu and ram temps are fine but the vrm temps are high during idle and go 100+ during load. i am currently using the vrm sinks that came with the trad but i don't believe they are fitting on the vrms. any suggestions of finding a way to cool the vrms? i was thinking about sticking a fan around somewhere to blow air across the card but i know the stock cooler had thermal pads going right across that area. i don't want to take them off the stock cooler but if i could make some of my own and just put a metal brace ontop of it so i can bolt it down then it should work fine.

Edit: i see that the thermal pads for the ram on my old 3870 cooler come off pretty easy and i might take one of those off and fold it in half and bolt it on. think it would work?

thermal pads suck. the only reason they're used on the stock cooler is so the cooler can be flat and still make contact with the VRM's. what you'll want is a bigger heatsink on your VRM's (optional) and constant airflow blowing over them (mandatory).

125C is spec temp for the VRMs FYI

I already posted elsewhere on these forums so sorry if this is the wrong place (new here). i can not find my VRM temps with any program for my 4870. does GPU-Z 0.2.8 not display them? I also downloaded Everest Ult to check and it also does not give me anything.

those 2 proggies show all my temps perfectly for 4870

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Originally Posted by xMrBunglex

thermal pads suck. the only reason they're used on the stock cooler is so the cooler can be flat and still make contact with the VRM's. what you'll want is a bigger heatsink on your VRM's (optional) and constant airflow blowing over them (mandatory).

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have you seent he trad? there is no room besides if you read the post you will see that the sinks are not fitting the vrms because there are chips on each side of them. so the sinks would need to be exactly as wide as the chips. and thermal pads are small and can be fit to any size.

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Originally Posted by SNiiPE_DoGG

125C is spec temp for the VRMs FYI

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yea i know they are rated for 125 but i was getting 115 in about 1 minute in lost planet and i bet after playing for long periods of time it would get even higher. and still i ahev seen people kill their cards by running the vrms between 100 and 125 on load. if i can find some way to make it so the vrms don't exceed 100 in max load after a long period of time then i will be satisfied.

anyone have any idea then why my 4870 is not showing any VRM temps in the 2 programs everyone here is using? its an Asus EAH4870.

the only way to fly with a tRAD2 is to use two 92mm fans. don't use a single 120mm fan on it. dualie fans will cool the whole card effectively.

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Originally Posted by Overvolt_25

anyone have any idea then why my 4870 is not showing any VRM temps in the 2 programs everyone here is using? its an Asus EAH4870.

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you might be crazy. if you're running the latest GPU-Z on the Sensors tab, SCROLL DOWN, you will see your VRM temps. if you don't see it, i'm at a loss.

crazy? maybe but not for this. You must be crazy for thinking all 4870's read VRM temps ;) Anyone else care to have any input on what might be happening?

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...o56/4870-1.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xMrBunglex

the only way to fly with a tRAD2 is to use two 92mm fans. don't use a single 120mm fan on it. dualie fans will cool the whole card effectively.

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i am using 2 92mm 2000 rpm kama flex fans.

kinda undersize but maybe
http://www.shoppts.com/cuhdcokitbyi.html

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Originally Posted by Levish

kinda undersize but maybe
http://www.shoppts.com/cuhdcokitbyi.html

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actually i did want some of those. but i didn't want to spend $40 on them especially because all i really needed was the vrm cooler.

so has anyone tried just using the stock plate from the stock cooler?

I use the stock plate on both my cards with mcw 60's I let the fan spin at 40% and they are VERY MUCH QUIETER WITHOUT THE SHROUD ON for some reason, anyway my vrms, seldom hit 60c with 850 core.

have you tried it with the fan off before? because i can't fit the stock fan under my trad2.

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Originally Posted by SNiiPE_DoGG

125C is spec temp for the VRMs FYI

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And RV770 GPU is rated 126ºC. Many Core 2s are 105ºC.
:shrug:

Btw, "VRM" is a terribly vague term. It doesn't mean any specific component exactly. What you appear to refer to is the Vitec/Pulse inductor-pack that has a maximum operating temperature of 125ºC. They wont break immediately above 125ºC - their performance simply goes down the drain. The actual voltage converters the temperature readings in GPU-Z come from are the little dark grey rectangular chips and their max operating temp is NDA protected data so one would be well advised to keep them way below 100ºC...

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Originally Posted by roofsniper

have you tried it with the fan off before? because i can't fit the stock fan under my trad2.

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high 70's with fan off

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Originally Posted by Rattle

high 70's with fan off

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wow, what are you using for load?

that was load

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Originally Posted by Rattle

that was load

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i mean to test load.

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Originally Posted by Overvolt_25

crazy? maybe but not for this. You must be crazy for thinking all 4870's read VRM temps ;) Anyone else care to have any input on what might be happening?

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Try this, download and install Rivatuner 2.11. Go to Rivatuner's temp/voltage monitor and then open GPUZ and check if all sensors show up.

checked using rivatuner and the same holds true there as well. All i get is GPU core, display IO, Memory IO, and shader temp but not the VRM temp. I am hoping someone else with a EAH4870 can chime in to see if I am the only one with this issue/difference.

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Originally Posted by roofsniper

i mean to test load.

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when i had my first card under water with mcw60 using stock plate i didnt have the fan plugged in, gpu was hitting 37c in cod4 and vrm was low 70's

with asus top bios and 815/925-850/1000clocks I leave the fans at about 30-45% depending on room temps I have never seen more than low 60's on vrms and usually in mid 50's, the fans are way quieter without the shrouds on the cards for whatever reason.

Everest shows the VRM Temp use Everest.....

Attachment 86516

See VRM temp probably the new everest has all the goodies I haven't used it lately...

Hey Rattle I just picked up this 4870 and I was wondering if you could provide a link on how to OC the card and change the bios I am not feeling very research oriented I have always had a goose hunt for ATI info on how to flash OC etc. their cards...

Thanks for any help....

there's a couple guides around here in the ati section



I dont recommend to anyone to flash in windows, i never flash anything in windows and i flash everything
use a usb flash drive and run the hp USb utility
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...ting_Tool.html

use atiflash, put the exe on the usb drive also
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...lash_3.60.html
atiflash -f -p 0 newbios.bin (can also be .rom)
is the command


use this bios database
http://www.mvktech.net/


make sure your card will do these clocks first though, amd gpu tool let you go over 790 so you can test.

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Originally Posted by Rattle

when i had my first card under water with mcw60 using stock plate i didnt have the fan plugged in, gpu was hitting 37c in cod4 and vrm was low 70's

with asus top bios and 815/925-850/1000clocks I leave the fans at about 30-45% depending on room temps I have never seen more than low 60's on vrms and usually in mid 50's, the fans are way quieter without the shrouds on the cards for whatever reason.

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seems like you are getting really good results. i am going to remove all my ram sinks most likely this weekend and install the stock plate. just need to find an easy way to remove the sinks from the card. i have heard about putting it in the freezer for an hour then taking it out and either twisting the sinks or try to remove them with a razor blade and then clean it with acetone.

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Originally Posted by roofsniper

seems like you are getting really good results. i am going to remove all my ram sinks most likely this weekend and install the stock plate. just need to find an easy way to remove the sinks from the card. i have heard about putting it in the freezer for an hour then taking it out and either twisting the sinks or try to remove them with a razor blade and then clean it with acetone.

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yep there's a few peeps around here that had already done it with great results, and it works awesome.

You are awesome thank you..:up::up::up:

so has anyone found out any new ways to cool the vrms on the 4870? im still having issues. kinda wishing i never got an aftermarket cooler.

I've just installed a Scythe Musashi and I'm using stick on copper heat sinks on the VRM's and memory. I'm getting around 35 – 37C idle on the GPU and the VRM's, which I'm assuming are labelled as VDDC Slaves in GPU-Z, are idling at around 49C and have gone up to about 80C after an hour of Far Cry 2.

I added a copper sink to the little black chip just above and to the left of the fan connector as it was labelled VTT so I assumed this was also a VRM? The thing ids though, after taking the stock cooler off, I noticed that the plate wasn't making much contact with the VRM's.

The card is really flimsy without the stock cooler on it and I may end up adding the red bracket from the stock cooler just to improve the rigidity of the card, this would mean removing the stick on copper ram sinks though.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4392/pic293hg5.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/p...pg/1/w1280.png

Here's a shot of the fitted cooler.

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/4296/pic306mv1.jpg
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/p...pg/1/w1280.png

Would the Copper Ram sinks off the 3870 cards fit on the 4870, eg would the screw holes line up? I know the top left ram position is slighty different between the two cards but I'm temted to buy a faulty 3870 off ebay just to salvage the copper ram sink.

what card is that? i wanted to get that scythe cooler but it came out just after the t-rad got out and i preordered that so it was too late. and no i alrdy tried getting the copper vrm sink off of my 3870 and putting it on my 4870 and the holes don't line up. theres a greater space between the holes on the 4870 probably cause it has more vrms. im gonna put the stock plate on my 4870 once i find a good way to remove the ram sinks i put on there with thermal tape. razor blade + alcohol isn't sounding too friendly.

i been running x-fire for weeks overclocked without issues with the stock plate and mcw 60's and fans spinning 40%, its been nothing but smooth running still, vrm temps mid 60's highest usually

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Originally Posted by roofsniper

what card is that? i wanted to get that scythe cooler but it came out just after the t-rad got out and i preordered that so it was too late. and no i alrdy tried getting the copper vrm sink off of my 3870 and putting it on my 4870 and the holes don't line up. theres a greater space between the holes on the 4870 probably cause it has more vrms. im gonna put the stock plate on my 4870 once i find a good way to remove the ram sinks i put on there with thermal tape. razor blade + alcohol isn't sounding too friendly.

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It's a Sapphire 4870 512MB version. Have you tried heating up the ram sinks slightly with a hairdryer maybe?

The Scythe fitment is a piece of crap in my opinion unless I'm doing something wrong. I used the copper spacer and even then with everything tightened down, the cooler twists really freely. I had to put some extra plastic/foam layers under the rear mounting bracket to get the thing tight. The rear mounting bracket has a hard rubber bung in the centre and this pushes down onto the rear of the card, onto the little chips that are located right behind the main gpu chip. Wish I taken some pic's of it now to explain better. Almost makes me wish I'd gone for the Thermalright T-Rad.

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Originally Posted by Reckless187

It's a Sapphire 4870 512MB version. Have you tried heating up the ram sinks slightly with a hairdryer maybe?

The Scythe fitment is a piece of crap in my opinion unless I'm doing something wrong. I used the copper spacer and even then with everything tightened down, the cooler twists really freely. I had to put some extra plastic/foam layers under the rear mounting bracket to get the thing tight. The rear mounting bracket has a hard rubber bung in the centre and this pushes down onto the rear of the card, onto the little chips that are located right behind the main gpu chip. Wish I taken some pic's of it now to explain better. Almost makes me wish I'd gone for the Thermalright T-Rad.

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believe me the t-rad is no better. im very disapointed in it. with my t-rad it makes a loud vibrating noise heard above all my fans unless i put a spacer between the t-rad and the card(i used an eraser from a pencil lol). then like i have said i have had vrm troubles because the supplied sinks are horrible at cooling the vrms.

and wouldn't using a hair dryer make it harder to take off? doesn't thermal tape get more sticky with heat? i have heard that putting the card in the freezer for an hour then twisting is a good way to get them off. but i don't want to try that and then rip off the ram sinks because i believe the thermal tape on the supplied sinks is strong.

so i don't feel like pulling them off or cutting them off. lol i doubt theres any other choices for me so im gonna have to most likely pick one.

I thought that the hairdryer might have softened up the sticky pads on the sinks, the freezer trick sounds a bit scary though! Hope you get it sorted, just give em a bit of twist, clockwise and anti clockwise til they start loosening up, that might work although it may take some time.

First thing I done was order the copper sinks off ebay and they seem to be doing the job for me, I dont like the look of the aluminium sinks tbh.

I like the eraser idea, I may try that with the erasers scewered through the 4 locating screws (similar to the VF900 fitment) and remove the central one as I think all the pressure being situated at one point is a stupid idea. I have a Zalman VF900 on my 3870 and that is a way better fit.

at first i put an eraser between one of the vrm sinks and the t-rad because the vrm sinks weren't sticking. so i was gonna put them on and then load the card up so they heat and stick. then after i did that i took them off a week later and o noticed that it started making sounds and the only way to stop the sounds were to put the eraser back or turn the fans off........ i don't think im ever gonna get an aftermarket video card cooling solution again. my vf-900 on my 3870 worked out alright but barely. im most likely gonna razor blade the sinks off and put the stock plate back on someday. that seems to work fine but taking the sinks off is gonna be a pain in the ass so thats what is keeping me from doing it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reckless187

I've just installed a Scythe Musashi and I'm using stick on copper heat sinks on the VRM's and memory. I'm getting around 35 – 37C idle on the GPU and the VRM's, which I'm assuming are labelled as VDDC Slaves in GPU-Z, are idling at around 49C and have gone up to about 80C after an hour of Far Cry 2.

I added a copper sink to the little black chip just above and to the left of the fan connector as it was labelled VTT so I assumed this was also a VRM? The thing ids though, after taking the stock cooler off, I noticed that the plate wasn't making much contact with the VRM's.

The card is really flimsy without the stock cooler on it and I may end up adding the red bracket from the stock cooler just to improve the rigidity of the card, this would mean removing the stick on copper ram sinks though.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4392/pic293hg5.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/p...pg/1/w1280.png

Here's a shot of the fitted cooler.

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/4296/pic306mv1.jpg
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/p...pg/1/w1280.png

Would the Copper Ram sinks off the 3870 cards fit on the 4870, eg would the screw holes line up? I know the top left ram position is slighty different between the two cards but I'm temted to buy a faulty 3870 off ebay just to salvage the copper ram sink.

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it look like you can unscrew off those things on the heat pipes ?

Not sure where Roof is at now -- did you solve your problems? If so, how?

BTW I installed the T-Rad2 on my Asus EAHD 4870 today. Used the little alum heat sinks they provided, and 2x92MM Nexus Real Silent Case fans.

The whole thing seems to be working just fine. Temps on the GPU are down 15C or so (to about 50c), and temps on the VRMs are up a bit (to mid 70s) but just fine. All numbers under load. I'm a little sad the VRM temps are as high as they are, but they are not a problem.

System details below:

cpu - intel q9550 @3.4GHz, 1.14375 volts (yes really)
motherboard - asus p5q deluxe, 1201 BIOS
memory - corsair dominator pc8500 (2x2gb)
cooler - thermalright ultra 120 extreme - not yet lapped :(
fans - scythe slipstream 120mm
graphics - asus radeon 4870 512MB w/ ThermalRight T-Rad2 cooler, 2x92MM Nexus Real Silent fans
power - corsair CMPSU-650TX
case - antec p182 with Kaze Master fan controller
hdd - Western Digital SE16 500GB
os - Win XP Pro SP2

i haven't done anything to my card yet but im getting around 60C idle on vrms and it gets worse on load. lost planet knocks it up to around 115C while grid only hits it up to around 105C. im pretty sure i got a perfect fit on my sinks but idk how ur vrms are getting much lower than me as i am getting 40C on gpu idle and 50C on gpu load. once i feel like ripping off the heatsinks ill put the stock plate on. right now im kinda annoyed with the fact that my card is making a loud vibrating noise that can be heard over all the fans unless i put a spacer to make it so the t-rad can't move.

Just watercool the sucker :p:

Seriously though, I'm not sure what your clearance is like but have you thought about using some of these for VRM cooling? As for the rattling, have you thought about grabbing the stock tension backmount and using that to help secure the cooler? You might have to re-thread it, but it should prove a much more secure hold.

These are my temps after half an hour of net browsing, I've slightly clocked the card as well now.

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2802/gpuztg9.jpg

The VRM temps shoot up to about 80C after an hour of Far Cry.

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Originally Posted by demonkevy666

it look like you can unscrew off those things on the heat pipes ?

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lol, yeah it looks like it does. I wonder if I can replace the internal liquid in the heatpipes with Vodka, would that do a better job of dissipating heat? :p

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Originally Posted by SoulsCollective

Just watercool the sucker :p:

Seriously though, I'm not sure what your clearance is like but have you thought about using some of these for VRM cooling? As for the rattling, have you thought about grabbing the stock tension backmount and using that to help secure the cooler? You might have to re-thread it, but it should prove a much more secure hold.

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Swiftech do a set like those, I was going to buy a set as I think the tall stem things would slot in-between the fins of the cooler nicely.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SoulsCollective

Just watercool the sucker :p:

Seriously though, I'm not sure what your clearance is like but have you thought about using some of these for VRM cooling? As for the rattling, have you thought about grabbing the stock tension backmount and using that to help secure the cooler? You might have to re-thread it, but it should prove a much more secure hold.

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if the stock plate doesn't work i might look into getting some of the ram sinks. and as far as the vibrating goes im not 100% sure wats causing it but i know that once i removed the eraser the vibrating started happening. heres a picture of it with the eraser under the vrm sink.

Lapped my TRUE yesterday as I'm getting cack temps and still am after lapping, thought I'd refit the GPU cooler at the same time and I noticed that the VRM sinks were a bit loose, basically, the glue stuff had started to melt off the VRM so stick on heatsinks are basically a waste of time in the long run, I'm gonna order some bolt on ones I seen somewhere on this forum. I also modded the retention bracket of the cooler with chunks of eraser to create a tighter fit as the normal fitting system is crap as the cooler slides around. Here's a pic.

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5623/pic317wg6.jpg

Fits alot tighter now without any play!!!

*EDIT* The erasers disintegrated so I've put some nuts in there instead with a bit of electricions tape for insulation.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/cuhdcokitbyi.html you mean these? you might want to try the stock plate for something else first. i personally wouldn't shell out $40 for some sinks that would most likely require direct airflow.

Good point, I was thinking the same thing after posting, thing is though, with the stock plate, the VRM's were idling at 79C and with the stick on copper sinks they VRM's are at about 50-55C. Not sure what to do, bit skint so may just use the stock plate, maybe the new cooler will do a better job of colling the VR's with the stock plate. I'll give it a go on Monday and post back the results

with the stock plate on mine the temperatures were the exact same as with the t-rad. thats what makes me believe something is not working correctly or i guess its just a fluke. but because the t-rad provides airflow across the entire card and the stock plate is a heat spreader i think it should work but its not gonna give you any crazy good temperatures. but that doesn't matter to me because right now i really can't play any games or do anything that takes a high gpu load.

Did you get the ram sinks off? What problems are you having at the moment? Just the high VRM temps?

My VRM temps have gone all the way up to 109C playing Stalker at 1680 x 1050 res with max settings, AA and AF at about 2x or 4x. Gonna give the stock plate a go anyway.

i have ram sinks on it right now but someday ill put the stock plate back on. i don't think my ram sinks have a good fit or something. because idle at 60C is pathetic. in lost planet i have had it gone up to 115C then i quit it and in GRID it goes up around 105C. was going up to around 115C there too until i turned v sync on. only game i don't have overheating problems on is warcraft 3 but in that game i get 0% cpu usage with occasional 1% usage so its not like that can count. and yea vrm temps are my only issue. ram idles at 50 gpu idles at 40. ram loads at 60 and gpu loads at 50. vrms idle at 60 and load at 100+.

Playing Crysis Warhead on Gamer setting at 1920 x 1200 resolution and my VRM's shoot up to 115C and I get artifacting and graphical corruption, on Enthusiast settting, the game locks up after about 5 minutes!!!!! Far Cry 2 crashes as soon as the game loads. Gonna fit the stock plate tomorrow'

Here's a shot of the temps without the stock plate, with the copper ram sinks on and the GPU at stock speed. VRM temps are 55C and up but when I first fitted the cooler and copper sinks, the temps were in the mid 40C range.

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/6...amsinksso4.jpg

Below are the temps with the stock plate on and the GPU slightly oc'd. VRM temps are back to the mid 40C's again

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/8...cketocdqs0.jpg

Yesterday, when I tried out Crysis at 1920 x 1200 resolution, the VRM's would hit about 115C in a few minutes and then crash, with the stock plate on the VRM temps got to about 67V and the game crashed so I think it may be something other than the VRM temps causing the crash.

*Edit* Everest shows a lower VRM temp than GPU-Z. Everest shows the temps at 83C whereas GPU-Z shows temps hitting 115C so no difference there. Looks like Iandh's sinks may be the only answer here.

I have mine rigged with some cheapo sinks and my temps never get over 74c under full load. Idle at about 50c. I will post pics later on when I get home. I have a thermalright gt on mine and it is the 1gb version so it deffinately puts out more heat then the 512 that I had the cooler on orginally. I have noticed how ever that my memory must be getting alot hotter because I could push easy 1160 with my 512 for the memory speeds and with this 1gb version I can only get 961~ after that it starts artifacting and I have to back it down real quick. The core on the other hand is alot stronger with this card because where as I used to only get 855 most from 512 version, I can get 871 with this one.. Again I will post pics tonight for eveyone. The one thing I noticed every one doing here that I am not is that you guys are sticking these heat sinks right on top of the voltage regulators where as I didn't. I have my heatsinks stuck on the things that are located right behind the voltage regulators and that is it. I also rigged a fan right on top of the voltage regulators and the sinks covering the things right behind them.

if you water cool you cannot beat the stock plate unless you use a full cover block and I wouldnt do that unless the block was freeeee
these are normal room temps probably about 70F, idle state of all hardware.

lol i think i have the worst vrm temps ever with mine at 62C idle. at first i forgot to put sinks on the vrms and they are the same as they are now. i don;t think they are getting good enough airflow enough tho the t-rad is right over it. thats why i think the stock plate might work for me. i think the stock plate should do about just as good as i and h's sinks. his sinks look cool tho and are a lot smaller than the stock plate.

you still need airflow, anyone thats tried the fan without the shroud can tell you like i can that its hardly audible at 40%, and I have 2 of them going at 40%, for some reason the shroud makes them SCREAAAM, if my room is WARM i see mid 60's vrms, usually though 55c loaded in a 68-72 room temp ambient with moderate oc's

well i have a side case fan that blows directly onto the card but the vrms are just outside of the fan so im pretty sure its getting nothing there. i have a fan in a sideways hdd rack as well that is running at 1200 rpm. so its getting some but not much from that but having that on does lower the temps by 2-3C. really theres nothing else i can do besides get another fan and put it inbetween the side of the case and the card but im not sure if that will fit and i really don't want to do that. and because i have the t-rad i can't use the stock plate with the fan still on.

time to sell some stuff and swap up man !

I'm tempted to cut up some of the fins on my cooler just so I can fit the stock ATi fan onto the stock plate and then, when I want to game without the card overheating I could just knock the fan speed upto about 50%, who cares if it's noisy, I game with headphones on anyway. Infact, I'm gonna see if I can rotate the Musashi cooler 90 degrees to give me clearance to fit the stock fan on the plate!!!!!!!! Actually, I think the cooler would bottom out on the motherboard. May just cut the fins and remove the second fan on the cooler to accomodate the fitment of the Ati fan. Time to get the Dremel out. I post up some pics if I do the mod.

I also have 8 120mm fans in my case and 3 of them blow across the width of the mobo and one of em is only about 2 or 3 inch away from my gpu.

I think next time a new GPU comes out I'm gonna wait and see how good the card is at keeping itself cool before buying, may even have to buy my first nvidia card if this keeps up with Ati.

Ok I can't get the vrm temps to show up in GPU-Z now. I had to get rid of the hotfix drivers because they were not letting me get my overclock any more because they screwed up amd gpu clock tool or whatever it is called....... Now my damn vrm temps are not showing up in GPU-Z...... I looked in my everest and I don't see the vrm temp guys, do I have to add that sensor some how or what?? Thank guys. I will take a picture of my card and the cooler and heat sinks and what not and maybe by then some one will have come up with a quick solution for me to be able to see my vrm temps again..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reckless187

I'm tempted to cut up some of the fins on my cooler just so I can fit the stock ATi fan onto the stock plate and then, when I want to game without the card overheating I could just knock the fan speed upto about 50%, who cares if it's noisy, I game with headphones on anyway. Infact, I'm gonna see if I can rotate the Musashi cooler 90 degrees to give me clearance to fit the stock fan on the plate!!!!!!!! Actually, I think the cooler would bottom out on the motherboard. May just cut the fins and remove the second fan on the cooler to accomodate the fitment of the Ati fan. Time to get the Dremel out. I post up some pics if I do the mod.

I also have 8 120mm fans in my case and 3 of them blow across the width of the mobo and one of em is only about 2 or 3 inch away from my gpu.

I think next time a new GPU comes out I'm gonna wait and see how good the card is at keeping itself cool before buying, may even have to buy my first nvidia card if this keeps up with Ati.

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you would be better off buying a different cooler that can fit the stock plate with the fan on instead of modding the heatsink. also i have heard issues on the nvidia side as well but its not that big of a deal since many people with nvidia cards don't do aftermarket cooling. if only stock cooling was actually good instead of just being usable.

Ok no answer yet with my vrm gpu-z glitch but, here are my PICs,

Top View,

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/7991/1001271bz6.jpg

Another View "clearer picture",

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/7708/1001273lz5.jpg

Side View,

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/5083/1001269re6.jpg

Best View I think,

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/3566/1001270cz4.jpg

Her in her home,

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/3055/1001274dm0.jpg

Picture of my temps "it started working again"?

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/6655/tempscd2.jpg

There you go that is what my setup landed me. Oh and I am using Artic Silver Thermal Adhesive for the sinks to stick "good stuff".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by roofsniper

you would be better off buying a different cooler that can fit the stock plate with the fan on instead of modding the heatsink. also i have heard issues on the nvidia side as well but its not that big of a deal since many people with nvidia cards don't do aftermarket cooling. if only stock cooling was actually good instead of just being usable.

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I tested out the manual fan control in the 8.10 drivers at 100% and the gpu temp dropped to about 25C I think. That stock little fan at 50% may do a pretty decent job of cooling VRM's. I'm gonna test out the stock cooler without the shroud and with fan speed at about 40-50% to see if it does a better job than the aftermarket one. If it does then I'm selling the aftermarket cooler. If not, I'm gonna butcher the aftermarket cooler as I'm currently out of work with no cash left and what I did have left, I spen on a 24" monitor. I'll post up some results tommorow.

@Truehighroller - Love the ghetto fan mod, wish I could squeese a fan under my cooler.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reckless187

I tested out the manual fan control in the 8.10 drivers at 100% and the gpu temp dropped to about 25C I think. That stock little fan at 50% may do a pretty decent job of cooling VRM's. I'm gonna test out the stock cooler without the shroud and with fan speed at about 40-50% to see if it does a better job than the aftermarket one. If it does then I'm selling the aftermarket cooler. If not, I'm gonna butcher the aftermarket cooler as I'm currently out of work with no cash left and what I did have left, I spen on a 24" monitor. I'll post up some results tommorow.

@Truehighroller - Love the ghetto fan mod, wish I could squeese a fan under my cooler.

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yea of course the stock plate with fan does better. it does better even when it is cooling the gpu as well and when all the hot air is trapped under the plastic shroud. but i was getting 80C idle on my 4870 and i hate how the stock fan is loud on post and everything after i startup it kicks up in windows for a second for some reason. i was gonna recommend you the heatsink that high roller has and just cut the stock plate and put the fan there instead of cutting the cooler but really i think there can be a way to solve this issue without using extreme modding and spending a lot of money. i just haven't found it yet LOL. at least with atis next card it isn't a whole new architecture and is making the sps more powerful without adding new ones. i bet the new card will be cooler than the 4870 while being more powerful.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by largon

And RV770 GPU is rated 126ºC. Many Core 2s are 105ºC.
:shrug:

Btw, "VRM" is a terribly vague term. It doesn't mean any specific component exactly. What you appear to refer to is the Vitec/Pulse inductor-pack that has a maximum operating temperature of 125ºC. They wont break immediately above 125ºC - their performance simply goes down the drain. The actual voltage converters the temperature readings in GPU-Z come from are the little dark grey rectangular chips and their max operating temp is NDA protected data so one would be well advised to keep them way below 100ºC...

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Largon (or anyone else) I'd love to see some documentation on all the chips on the 4870 - which chip does what, which get hot (and therefore need cooling), etc. Anyone?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sf rich

Largon (or anyone else) I'd love to see some documentation on all the chips on the 4870 - which chip does what, which get hot (and therefore need cooling), etc. Anyone?

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i don't think there is any documentation but on some german forum someone used a heat camera and looked at the temperatures of the card during load. pretty much the vrms and gpu are the only issues. i know some people have tried cooling the back of the vrms on the back of the card but really i don't know how you would do that as theres no really anything there and really all you would be doing is cooling the pcb on the back of the card which shouldn't do too helpful.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by roofsniper

yea of course the stock plate with fan does better. it does better even when it is cooling the gpu as well and when all the hot air is trapped under the plastic shroud. but i was getting 80C idle on my 4870 and i hate how the stock fan is loud on post and everything after i startup it kicks up in windows for a second for some reason. i was gonna recommend you the heatsink that high roller has and just cut the stock plate and put the fan there instead of cutting the cooler but really i think there can be a way to solve this issue without using extreme modding and spending a lot of money. i just haven't found it yet LOL. at least with atis next card it isn't a whole new architecture and is making the sps more powerful without adding new ones. i bet the new card will be cooler than the 4870 while being more powerful.

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A few people who are using the stock plate with the stock fan have found it to be a lot quieter with the shroud off, gonna have to give it a go and see how much quieter it is.

My card used to spin up the stock fan randomly as well once windows was loaded up or if I started up GPU-Z etc, sounds software or driver related. I also get a 2 second black screen sometimes once Windows has loaded into the desktop. I've had that with all the Ati drivers.

@truehighroller - Have you got Crysis Warhead? If so, could you try it out at 1680 or 1920 resolution on Gamer or Enthusiast settings and use GPU-Z to log temps and then post back what VRM temps you are getting in game? If you have Far CRy 2 could you test that out at similar resolutions and settings? My VRM's hit 115C in 5 minutes.

i might be quieter with the shroud off but i don't think it would be a good idea. the point of the shroud is to make it so the air gets channeled from the fan across the card and without the shroud the fan will only be cooling the vrms and the heatsink on the gpu would not be getting direct airflow.

Yeah true, think I'll just leave things how they are and knock the settings down on the games instead. I tried out Crysis on Mainstream settings and the VRM's didn't overheat. I'm sick of constantly taking the card out the case and redoing the cooler!

I've said this before, but; you people use way too small heatsinks on those hot Volterra chips.
No wonder things overheat if there's only a tiny RAM-sink on a chip that exhales ~10-20W.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by largon

I've said this before, but; you people use way too small heatsinks on those hot Volterra chips.
No wonder things overheat if there's only a tiny RAM-sink on a chip that exhales ~10-20W.

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Yeah, shame on us for trying to save the HUGE heatsinks that the heatsink makers are putting in the packages for us to use on these chips. :rolleyes:

Yep. Shame on you.
Keywords are heatsink makers and [heatsink] packages.
There are tons of old CPU/GPU/whatever heatsinks out there just lying around that people could hacksaw into pieces and use them instead of the tiny, pathetic <10mm high RAMsinks. But no, for some reason people like actually to pay money for inferior stuff when they could get better stuff for paying ~nothing.

:rolleyes:

lol, definatey need bigger heatsinks on the VRM's, but even the stock 'HUGE' heatsinks the the heatsink makers are putting in the packages for us to use on these chips are crap at cooling, I was getting 115C temps on my VRM's with the stock cooler at which point the card would crash and I have about EIGHT 120mm fans in my case not including the 2 100mm fans on my aftermarker graphics cooler. Shame on us AND shame on the stock heatsink maker as well? :P

I get 30 - 60fps in Cysis Warhead at 1920 x 1200 on Enthusiast setting, great huh? The GPU can handle it but the VRM's can't. This was WITH the stock cooler mind. I used the same ram sinks that I used on the 3870 so I thought the 4870 might have been able to handle it as well but that was kinda stupid seeing as this is a more powerful card.

i am using the heatsinks that came with the t-rad. and the problem is that i really can't use any that are bigger because there is no room between the t-rad and the card. i could get wider heatsinks but not taller ones and the stock plate is a wide heatsink so it shows promise. just the connection between the plate and the vrms is a thermalpad.

I'm using the stock plate and it's made a slight difference but still not enough to totally cure the overheating VRMs. I wish I could get hold of a think enough copper plate from some where, then I could get my mate to knock up a copy onfthe stock plate as he as access to CNC, lathes and milling machines.

Or maybe just a copper shim between the plate and VRM's in place of the thermal pad might help?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reckless187

Or maybe just a copper shim between the plate and VRM's in place of the thermal pad might help?

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i was just about to say that before i saw u said it. the stock plate makes for one hell of a heatsink but it can't remove much heat from the vrms. maybe if you put some copper in there it might work. just get a small piece of copper and shave it down to size and put some tim on it and i bet the performance will be way better. but what i wanted to do from the start was make my own bolt on heatsink like i and h did but make it be much cheaper. what is the stock plate made out of anyway? steel?

I would have thought the stock plate is made out of aluminium. You can buy sheets of copper off ebay, cut a piece to size maybe a 1 or 2mm think peice and bung it in there. I could send the stock plate to my mate who could measure it up using this funky 3-D mapping tool, it's like a pen on the end of a robotic arm thingy (getting technical now) where you set a datum point and touch the pen around the object you want to map 3 dimensionally and it gives you all the correct dimesions for the item, then you load that into a CNC or milling machine and knock up a perfect copy! Anyone wanna donate a thick enough copper plate to make a copy out of? :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reckless187

I would have thought the stock plate is made out of aluminium. You can buy sheets of copper off ebay, cut a piece to size maybe a 1 or 2mm think peice and bung it in there. I could send the stock plate to my mate who could measure it up using this funky 3-D mapping tool, it's like a pen on the end of a robotic arm thingy (getting technical now) where you set a datum point and touch the pen around the object you want to map 3 dimensionally and it gives you all the correct dimesions for the item, then you load that into a CNC or milling machine and knock up a perfect copy! Anyone wanna donate a thick enough copper plate to make a copy out of? :p

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well i looked at the non red part of the stock plate and its a pretty dark grey and it feels really firm. i thought it would be aluminum as well but it doesn't seem like it. i haven't taken it off the cooler yet tho to see how much it weighs. but making a copper version of the stock plate would be amazing. especially if it would think that the thermal pads are part of the card. they would probably be too thick tho because they at least compress with pressure. but i would go for it if i was you. you could even simplify it and take off parts of it to reduce costs if you needed to. then while you are at it you might as well add some fins and heatpipes that lead out to fans. EXTREME VRAM/VRM COOLER.

The plate did feel a bit heavy to be Aluminium anow that you mention it, and as you say, it wasn't shiney like Alu but a darker colour. A full copper plate would be crazy. I'd need to get hold of some copper though and talk mate into doing it. I got him to knock up some brackets for the OCZ XTC cooler so that it would fit on the taller Corsair Dominator RAM but I'd have to do some sweet talking to get him to do this as well, he'd have to do it in his own time.

would be nice and look really cool but i bet it will be expensive. and performance wise it sounds like it might work but who knows. there really isn't anything removing the heat. its just being spread across the plate without even heatpipes. it would need decent airflow to work.

i just wanted to chime in on me experience with my 4870.

like most everyone else i yanked off my stock cooling. replaced it with a hr03-gt with ramsinks on the ram. then i started getting black screen crashes.

i started having trouble right away while running full load in furmark and some games. so i dug through my junk box and found some more sinks. put them on and it helped some, but didn't completely eliminate the problem.

my solution was to sink everything i could get a sink to stick to. i forgot to take pics once i had fans mounted so i painted them in.

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/6749/097paintwy5.jpg
By rangerone7669, shot with Photosmart M415 at 2008-11-12

these little things i outlined here seemed to be the culprits on my card. once i sinked them my vrm temps dropped and i stopped getting black screen crashes. i dont know what they are, but on my card they got very hot.

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/729/pic293hg5jx8.jpg
By rangerone7669, shot with N95 8GB at 2008-11-12

this screen cap is running F@H and the game silkroad online. the game is not the most demanding, but it's a 3d game none the less.

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/892/vrm2sc9.jpg
By rangerone7669 at 2008-11-12

Rangerone -
- what sinks are you using in that pic?
- how did you get your sinks to stick to those little thingies you outlined in red?

some of the sinks are the ones that came with my hr03, some zalmans, the long straight finned ones i got at compusa. they(stright finned) were supposed to be for desktop ram, but i've been reusing them over and over.

most of the sinks are just using the sticky tape that comes on them originally. some i just put a bit of mx-2 on them and a tiny dot of super glue near the corner to get them to stick.

zalman blue's are the sinks i used on the outlined chips that were giving my troubles.

rangerone -- thanks for the info

how do you get the sinks off after you use the super glue?

Cheers rangerone, will give it a try once I can be arsed to take the GPU out the case again. I'm well impressed with this card and the framerates I'm getting with this card but the overheating, which was occuring even before I took off the stock cooler, is a PITA.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sf rich

rangerone -- thanks for the info

how do you get the sinks off after you use the super glue?

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i just use a tiny bit of super glue. usually a very light tap pops them free. other times i have to use my circiut freeze spay to freeze them to pop free.

keep in mind super glue sticks to the parts afterwards, makes getting good contact with heatsinks. so if you pull it off and need to reattach you may need to sand down some superglue residue.

1 more thing. super glue is not the ideal thing to use here. i've used it before in a pinch and it worked ok. but it can bite back if your not carefull. the best thing would be to just use thermal tape or epoxy.

so it seems like using a hairdryer with a razor blade and 91% isopropyl alcohol is the best way in removing the ram sinks on the card right?

SUCCESS! :)

so i have finally went back and put the stock plate onto the card. first thing i recognized was on startup the vrms were at 40C instead of their usual 60C. my ram was at 63C instead of its usual 50C tho. i used lost planet to test on load and typically before i was getting 115C on the vrms then i just quit the program. now the vrms hit around 70C on load which is nice. the ram went up to 90C tho but im sure that is still within a reasonable temperature although it is high. i also recognized my shader core was 5C higher than the gpu temperature but that should be unrelated to this stock plate change.

one problem i ran into tho was the fact that my t-rad wouldn't work with the stock plate. i had to cut a section out of the stock plate around where the heatpipes on the t-rad are. so now that i finally got it to work i am happy but the ram and shadercore issues arent great. i most likely am never going to get a custom cooler for a video card again after my past two experiences.

I took the plunge and bought a full cover water block by Aquacomputer. The Aquagratix 4870. VRM temperatures are always cool, no problems there, but the actual gpu temperatures i'm seeing are terrible, i had better with air coolers!!

I want to go back to a gpu only waterblock (Swiftech MCW60) so i'll be in the same boat now, how to cool those damn vrms!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rangerone7669

i just use a tiny bit of super glue. usually a very light tap pops them free. other times i have to use my circiut freeze spay to freeze them to pop free.

keep in mind super glue sticks to the parts afterwards, makes getting good contact with heatsinks. so if you pull it off and need to reattach you may need to sand down some superglue residue.

1 more thing. super glue is not the ideal thing to use here. i've used it before in a pinch and it worked ok. but it can bite back if your not carefull. the best thing would be to just use thermal tape or epoxy.

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Epoxy and Superglue are about 10x better than thermal tape.