Cooling the Super HOT X1900XTX!!

Hey guys! I just got done messing around with the X1900XTX to see what I could do about cooling. I know alot of people are not very extreme about cooling. so I thought that I would post about what I did to lower the temps of this card. I was running the card before at 100% fan speed, and full load temps were reaching into the 70-80C, I think is pretty hot.. I noticed by tossing some AS5 on this Cooling at full load with 50% fan, dropped temps to 51C. I also took some pictures of the heat sink. I noticed it is pretty rough.. Im going to lap it a bit and see if temps get any better. I will keep ya posted on this thread.

I will post more pictures when I get back from dinner.

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/5...05162du.th.jpg
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/3...05209ae.th.jpg
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/3...05135yg.th.jpg


~Mike

Hmm you know what? I was wondering why everyone was always complaining of high temps and I never found my temps to go very high.. The first thing I did upon getting mine is I removed the HSF to check if it had BJ11 (which it did) then I applied a nice blob of as5.

yeah. I ran it stock, then I removed the HSF, and applied AS5... huge drop in temps.... Im running 40c right now, Fan is at 5%, its not even spinning. This is defently nice for people that run stock HSF. So I thought I would post about my Experience. I should be getting the Zalman VF900 tomorrow, I will post more results tomorrow.

~Mike

Unbelievable.

I would expect the average ES-user to apply proper TIM before taking any video card for its first spin...

Thats elementary?

Looking forward to see your further work, arisythila :toast:

Wow, that's an incredible drop from AS5. Considering how few aftermarket solutions can keep up with stock (when it has stock TIM), I guess that means that stock is the most powerful (not best--it's loud and some don't like that) air cooler for these?

I wonder how and if the temps would be improved if you used AS5 on a X1900XTX with Accelero X2 (removing the stock thermal tape)?

Honestly, I bet all of you that any of the results from other users with aftermarket coolers is with as5. This is XS and hardly anyone uses stock TIM, especially when using aftermarket coolers.

It's a PITA having to clean an aftermarket HSF for stock TIM and thermal tapes first thing when you open it. Why couldn't Arctic Cooling just not pre-apply it?

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Originally Posted by Vapor

Wow, that's an incredible drop from AS5. Considering how few aftermarket solutions can keep up with stock (when it has stock TIM), I guess that means that stock is the most powerful (not best--it's loud and some don't like that) air cooler for these?

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I think if you are looking for air cooling, it probably is. Although the base could use some lapping, its really what anyone would ask for: copper core, RAM sinks and exhaust fan cooling. Also, it pulls air over the the PWM ICs... you can consider it a 4 in 1.

At least for those who run 24/7 closed. If you run open, obviously its much better to get something thats got a really huge fan rather than this puny thing.

The stock heatsink is very large, and as I thought with AS5 better than VF-700!
I really want to know how the VF-900 performs :)

The stock heat sink pumps some air, and the design is actually pretty nice. But It really needs some refining... Im not exactly sure if ATI decided to leave it so rough to create more surface area, or if they was just drunk. Im not sure, but I think with a simple lap, you could also increase cooling capacity. I should be recieving my VF900 today, I will post some results with it.

~Mike

The vf900 drops the heat to by 10-20c

Putting AS5 on the stock cooler dropped your temps 20C, even with the fan cranked down to 50%? Wow.

I will be most interested in seeing your VF900 at 12V compares to the stock cooler at 100% (with the AS5).

Okay, I got the VF-900 hooked up... all I can say is WOW... they did a pretty good job on this. PICS!

Memory sinks on... I wouldnt really classify these as HIGH quality sinks... Nothing like the OCZ BGA's. But they seem pretty decent.
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/5...05348we.th.jpg

Mirrior finish! NICE!
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/3...05229ub.th.jpg

Sexiness!
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/8...05368xq.th.jpg

Seats well.
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/2...05384vu.th.jpg

Not too sure about this..
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/1...05419am.th.jpg

Running in the computer!
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/1...05422di.th.jpg

I gotta say, if you had weigh restrictions, this would be what you want for your card, this little guy weighs maybe 6 oz's compared to the 16-20 oz, on the stock cooler.

Stock cooler
Idle Temps: 50-55c
Load Temps: 80-90c

Stock Cooler w/ AS5 on the core
Idle Temps: 40-45c
Load Temps: 60-70c

Zalman VF-900
Idle Temps: 35-36c
Load Temps: 48-52c

I give it an A+

~Mike

So the VF900-Cu IS good for the X1900XT cards. Maybe other people just suck at mounting coolers?

I don't know but that makes me feel much more re-assured about my VF900-Cu, which is arriving tomorrow, for my X1800XT.

Thanks dude,

Nick

I really like this card... I have the fan on 100% I believe, and temps stay at about 35c idle... and you cannot even really hear the fan at all. Defently a plus!

~Mike

those temps are insane!!! keeping a 1900 below 60c @load on air. wow and more wow!!!! sign me up for one:D

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Originally Posted by arisythila

I really like this card... I have the fan on 100% I believe, and temps stay at about 35c idle... and you cannot even really hear the fan at all. Defently a plus!

~Mike

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what size fan is it? any chance of a mod

Those stock temps are at 100% fan I presume?

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Originally Posted by arisythila

Not too sure about this..
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/1...05419am.th.jpg

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Not too sure about what? :slap:
Nice job though, I'd like to see these coolers compared to a ghetto-modded VGA Silencer, yes, the old one :D

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Originally Posted by NoDamage

Those stock temps are at 100% fan I presume?

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All Temps are 100% fan

~Mike

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Originally Posted by PL4YD34D

what size fan is it? any chance of a mod

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It looks like an 80mm fan. I think you maybe able to work something up, but with those temps, I mean... wow.

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Originally Posted by Pisu87

Not too sure about what? :slap:
Nice job though, I'd like to see these coolers compared to a ghetto-modded VGA Silencer, yes, the old one :D

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I dont really like the gap, Especially if you go to lan parties and stuff, may have a problem if you take a nice impact. I defently wouldnt ship with this HSF also... but very nice.

Anybody tested an Accelero X2 with AS5 ?

hey arisythila, what exactly are your testing methods on loading the card?

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Originally Posted by arisythila

I dont really like the gap, Especially if you go to lan parties and stuff, may have a problem if you take a nice impact. I defently wouldnt ship with this HSF also... but very nice.

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Perhaps you should get more washers to fill the gaps.

If you take off the stock cooler, wouldn't you have to replace the thermal tapes on the memory? Where do I get new thermal tapes?

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Originally Posted by chinkgai

hey arisythila, what exactly are your testing methods on loading the card?

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I've been using ATItools, "scan for artifacts" It tends to put the card under a large amount of calculations. I've also mapped the temps with Rivatuner. It seems to run a quite a bit cooler with this new HSF.

~Mike

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Originally Posted by Pisu87

Perhaps you should get more washers to fill the gaps.

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Yeah, Im just talking about the kit as a whole.. I think its pretty nice. but could use alittle extra washers or keep the hsf from moving in transport. but If you dont transport your card very much, no problems.

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Originally Posted by shimq1

If you take off the stock cooler, wouldn't you have to replace the thermal tapes on the memory? Where do I get new thermal tapes?

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The stock cooler doesnt use thermal tape, its more like a thermal pad. I defently dont think it would cool as well as the heat sinks included in the VF-900 kit.

~Mike

Did you have to replace the thermal pads? The reason I'm asking is because I have an ATi Silencer on my X800GTO2 and I want to use some AS5 on the core.

jeah i would also be interested in this because the thermal pads are higher as if you use some AS5 ... so if i put the Ati Silencer on my x1900xtx with the thermal pads still on the GDDR and AS5 only on the core.. does it fit correct than?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arisythila

I've been using ATItools, "scan for artifacts" It tends to put the card under a large amount of calculations. I've also mapped the temps with Rivatuner. It seems to run a quite a bit cooler with this new HSF.

~Mike

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oh okay, so how much voltage are you giving via atitool for those temps you mentioned?

jes to confirm, you disabled the two services then raised the voltage manually?

what clock speeds? stock speed?

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Originally Posted by shimq1

Did you have to replace the thermal pads? The reason I'm asking is because I have an ATi Silencer on my X800GTO2 and I want to use some AS5 on the core.

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I kept the thermal pads on there, keep them attached to the heat sink, only thing to worry about is the part that touches the core. Let me take a picture of it for ya.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/4...05475lz.th.jpg

Now, when you pull the heat sink off of the card, it should basically look like that. Just leave the pads alone, toss some AS5 on the copper core, wipe it off the copper core, then toss some AS5 on the core on the graphics card, nice evenly spread. You should then beable to toss the heat sink back on the card, with lower temps.

~Mike

you guys must be in really hot rooms or something, as5 stock cooler i idle at 38 and load at 62, overclocked of course

Just applied AS5 to my X800GTO2 with ATi Silencer; the temps were about the same, so I guess the stock thermal grease was good enough.

First - tested the Arctic Cooling X2 Accelero. Temps are ok, load was in the 60s with AS5 but the design is just dumb. It dumped all the hot air right into my chipset on the DFI Ultra-D and my temps on my chipset jumped about 15 deg C when the card was under load for awhile. Case temps rose too. The Accelero is just not well designed - do not bother with this cooler. This is the WORST design to come from Arctic Cooling in awhile. Give us the old design that dumped hot air outside of the Case.

Secondly - I have an X1900XTX and I changed the stock TIM from the ATI crap to AS5 and my temps dropped about 5 deg. arisythila if you are seeing 20 deg drop from the stock TIM to AS5, it's not just AS5 - the stock mounting must've been hosed man. There is no way, and I mean absolutely no way that just changing the TIM would drop temps 20 deg C. Even the company claims are a few degrees cooler than other TIMs. It's just thermal compound - my bet is that the stock cooler wasn't making good contact or than the TIM was just dried up muck, like it usually is.

Third - I gave up on air cooling the X1900XTX my load temps with VNF700 and a 120 blowing over it were still low 60's high 50's. I finally broke down and water cooled my whole rig. I have a Maze4 on my X1900XTX now, using max CCC overclock of 690 / 800 and my idle temps are 28c and load is 37 deg c. Unfortunately with todays video cards - thats how you cool them!! :p:

I got my HIS X1900XTX last week and have been pretty happy with the stock cooler. Using ATI Tool to adjust fan speeds, I'm at 43c w/ fan running at 55% at idle and 63c w/ fan running at 100% at load. These temps have been w/out taking off the hsf to apply AS5. The fan at 100% isn't too terrible plus I wear headphones when gaming, so I don't even notice it.

I haven thought about going w/ water coolinng but so far, I can't justify the upgrade.

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Originally Posted by dnottis

First - tested the Arctic Cooling X2 Accelero. Temps are ok, load was in the 60s with AS5 but the design is just dumb. It dumped all the hot air right into my chipset on the DFI Ultra-D and my temps on my chipset jumped about 15 deg C when the card was under load for awhile. Case temps rose too. The Accelero is just not well designed - do not bother with this cooler. This is the WORST design to come from Arctic Cooling in awhile. Give us the old design that dumped hot air outside of the Case.

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Agreed. Not tried the Accelero, but the change from a 7800GT (pumping hot air to the DFI chipset etc) to a stock cooler X1900XT ended in around -15c on chipset and PWMIC.

Is there any mod to change the stock cooler fan for a silent one? I think it will be hard to find a substitute since the fins are curved to make the air flow outside the case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dnottis

First - tested the Arctic Cooling X2 Accelero. Temps are ok, load was in the 60s with AS5 but the design is just dumb. It dumped all the hot air right into my chipset on the DFI Ultra-D and my temps on my chipset jumped about 15 deg C when the card was under load for awhile. Case temps rose too. The Accelero is just not well designed - do not bother with this cooler. This is the WORST design to come from Arctic Cooling in awhile. Give us the old design that dumped hot air outside of the Case.

Secondly - I have an X1900XTX and I changed the stock TIM from the ATI crap to AS5 and my temps dropped about 5 deg. arisythila if you are seeing 20 deg drop from the stock TIM to AS5, it's not just AS5 - the stock mounting must've been hosed man. There is no way, and I mean absolutely no way that just changing the TIM would drop temps 20 deg C. Even the company claims are a few degrees cooler than other TIMs. It's just thermal compound - my bet is that the stock cooler wasn't making good contact or than the TIM was just dried up muck, like it usually is.

Third - I gave up on air cooling the X1900XTX my load temps with VNF700 and a 120 blowing over it were still low 60's high 50's. I finally broke down and water cooled my whole rig. I have a Maze4 on my X1900XTX now, using max CCC overclock of 690 / 800 and my idle temps are 28c and load is 37 deg c. Unfortunately with todays video cards - thats how you cool them!! :p:

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I was just talking about my experiences with the X1900XTX. It was running pretty hot running stock @ 1.5v 680 / 827. Took the stock HSF off, cleaned everything up, applied a little AS5 on the core, put everything back together. Temps were surprizingly lower than before I messed around with everything. I've heard alot of people complain about temps, so I thought I would post about what I did to lower temps.I bet the stock cooler could do some good if it was lapped a bit, but I am pretty unsure why ATI did that. Im thinking that it creates more surface area for the cooling compound to make contact or something.

~Mike

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Originally Posted by mursaat

Agreed. Not tried the Accelero, but the change from a 7800GT (pumping hot air to the DFI chipset etc) to a stock cooler X1900XT ended in around -15c on chipset and PWMIC.

Is there any mod to change the stock cooler fan for a silent one? I think it will be hard to find a substitute since the fins are curved to make the air flow outside the case.

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the Zalman VF-900 is a pretty nice HSF. Relitivly in expencive aswell.

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556026433.html

~Mike

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Originally Posted by Capt_Caveman

I got my HIS X1900XTX last week and have been pretty happy with the stock cooler. Using ATI Tool to adjust fan speeds, I'm at 43c w/ fan running at 55% at idle and 63c w/ fan running at 100% at load. These temps have been w/out taking off the hsf to apply AS5. The fan at 100% isn't too terrible plus I wear headphones when gaming, so I don't even notice it.

I haven thought about going w/ water coolinng but so far, I can't justify the upgrade.

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Ahhh, thats why you can run the fan at 100% you wear head phones.. I cant justify the use of head phones while gaming. the stock HSF is REAL loud... drives me insane. thats one of the reasons I updated the HSF to the VF-900. Got a nice temp drop, and I can run that fan at 100% without hearing it hardly. All I need :-)

~Mike

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Originally Posted by arisythila

I was just talking about my experiences with the X1900XTX. It was running pretty hot running stock @ 1.5v 680 / 827. Took the stock HSF off, cleaned everything up, applied a little AS5 on the core, put everything back together. Temps were surprizingly lower than before I messed around with everything. I've heard alot of people complain about temps, so I thought I would post about what I did to lower temps.I bet the stock cooler could do some good if it was lapped a bit, but I am pretty unsure why ATI did that. Im thinking that it creates more surface area for the cooling compound to make contact or something.

~Mike

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Understood - I think alot of people earlier in the thread were given a false sense of hope though. Thinking that changing the TIM alone would drop temps 15 - 20 deg C just isn't going to happen. I think your stock coolers mounting was screwed up and just the fact that you removed it and reinstalled it was what dropped your temps significantly, changing the TIM probably only accounted for a handful of degrees. Before everyone runs out for a tube of AS5 expecting a 20 deg drop - I just wanted to bring that fact to light. I did the same with my stock cooler and the AS5 didnt drop my temps more than 2 deg C - in fact I found the stock TIM to be decent.

Dean

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arisythila

I was just talking about my experiences with the X1900XTX. It was running pretty hot running stock @ 1.5v 680 / 827. Took the stock HSF off, cleaned everything up, applied a little AS5 on the core, put everything back together. Temps were surprizingly lower than before I messed around with everything. I've heard alot of people complain about temps, so I thought I would post about what I did to lower temps.I bet the stock cooler could do some good if it was lapped a bit, but I am pretty unsure why ATI did that. Im thinking that it creates more surface area for the cooling compound to make contact or something.

~Mike

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They machine these grooves on purpose to avoid forming air bubbles between the core and the heatsink, which can cause a huge deficit in performance of cooling solution. Having baby-ass smooth HS bottom is only good if you applied the paste carefully and you know what you are doing.

IIRC in articsilver.com they told AS5 was designed so it fills the valleys of the HS, hence having much more contact surface which ended in better cooling than with lapped HSs.

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Originally Posted by arisythila

the Zalman VF-900 is a pretty nice HSF. Relitivly in expencive aswell.

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556026433.html

~Mike

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As I said, I will stay with the stock cooler because it's an exhaust. It helps to keep my PWMIC and DFI Chipset much cooler, 10-15c than with a 7800GT w/ stock cooler. Any ideas on how to change the fan to the ATI stock cooler? I read somewhere in XS someone did it, I've searched but the search option doesn't work for me :confused: it hangs in "Waiting for xtremesystems.org" (FireFox 1.5.0.1)

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Originally Posted by mursaat

Any ideas on how to change the fan to the ATI stock cooler? I read somewhere in XS someone did it, I've searched but the search option doesn't work for me :confused: it hangs in "Waiting for xtremesystems.org" (FireFox 1.5.0.1)

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I'd be interested in this as well. No luck for me either with the search - just got a white blank screen. Edit: I guess it didn't like my pick of words to search for, no more white screen.... back to searching.

Yeah stock cooler is pretty good. I think if you were to take off the white plastic piece, you could expose the copper heat sink within the cooler, and probably toss an 80mm fan on it.

~Mike

Here's a review on the VF900-Cu... by me.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.p...3&id=39&page=1

Got me 700/800 stable stock V in an Antec Super Lanboy, I'm not complaining! :)

Nick

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Originally Posted by NickS

Here's a review on the VF900-Cu... by me.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.p...3&id=39&page=1

Got me 700/800 stable stock V in an Antec Super Lanboy, I'm not complaining! :)

Nick

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Nice review:slobber:

Ty. The temp's are kinda toasty, but if I set my comp up on my desk and took the side panel off, they'd go much lower.

I don't feel like doing that though. I might have to when summer rolls in.. meh.

Then I'd get spiders and the like in my PC and I'd go crazy.

Nick

Spiders bad... hehe

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Originally Posted by arisythila

Spiders bad... hehe

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And scary. :eek:

lol,

Nick

Got my card running a few days ago. My stock cooler load temps were ~90C. Now using custon water cooling 47C max. That is more than 40C less!

But I don't get this strange way of oc of x1900 series, why 4 voltages and why the hell does it freeze when I up frequency using latest ati tool :slapass: I am sick of this freezing. Maybe I should not use artifact scanner. I've oc so many cards but here I am feeling like complete noob :D

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Originally Posted by kiwi

Got my card running a few days ago. My stock cooler load temps were ~90C. Now using custon water cooling 47C max. That is more than 40C less!

But I don't get this strange way of oc of x1900 series, why 4 voltages and why the hell does it freeze when I up frequency using latest ati tool :slapass: I am sick of this freezing. Maybe I should not use artifact scanner. I've oc so many cards but here I am feeling like complete noob :D

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I just maxed CCC at 690/800, stock volts and on water I dont break 37c.
A few more fps aint gonna matter. I would love to see a max CCC oC'd X1900XTX face off against a stock 7900GTX though.

I'm finding it hard to believe the 900 worked that well for you after reading all the other horror stories about them on other 1900's. I have two new 900's just sitting in a box waiting to be returned because of how badly it performed compared to the stock cooler at 100%....

there is no way in hell just by changing the TIM would drop 20'C!! I'd replaced mine with AS5 as soon as I got the card, only dropped about ~4'C, remounted the heatsink no less than 5 times with same result, even tried to mount the X2 heatsink on this sucker with not much improvement, loading temperature (ATITOOL Artifact scanner) always in the 80'C~90'C depends on ambient, like dnottis I'd also broke down and went water cooling for the entire system, now the X1900XTX is running 740/860 1.55/2.20/2.20/1.56 it idle at 35'C and underload around 41'C.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arisythila

I've been using ATItools, "scan for artifacts" It tends to put the card under a large amount of calculations. I've also mapped the temps with Rivatuner. It seems to run a quite a bit cooler with this new HSF.

~Mike

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WHAT? You are using Rivaturner? Is there a new version for the x190xt/xtx because mine will not show temps...