X1900XT 512MB Died. Poor cooling. Questions.

[rob[GL]]

So, customer today brought in a BBA RADEON X1900XT 512MB... Just purchased it 5 days ago. Apparently was playing FEAR for a few hours, the GPU temp was up over 90c for an extended period of time, customer closed the game, and went to take a shower... Came back and the card was toast... Computer was beeping away...

Bummer for the customer, but this raises the question, is 90c too hot for any card? Or did this card just fail prematurely? I know my X1800XT 512MB got to over 90c under heavy gaming, and it did not die... I thought it was very hot though, so I watercooled mine and now sit about half that.

But for your average user, who will probably not water cool, and just stick to the stock cooler... Is there a risk of any card dying? Or as I asked a second ago, was this just an odd case?


Also, I took some pictures... Can ANYONE tell me what the heck the 2 dip-switches on the bottom of the card do? Has anyone switch them to the "on" position? What do they do? I"M CURIOUS!!!!!!!!!11

[MuMiXaM]

I have a ati x1900xt 512 and i havent seen it get near 90c, but my old 9800pro with stock cooling run around 90c with no artifacts

[Dumo]

Welcome to XS MuMIXaM

@ rob, did you try to test that card on your rig?

[Daveb2012]

Thats not good, I hope mine never dies on me because I don't have any warranty on it, its OEM. I feel better now about spending 75.00 on a zalman cooler and ram sinks. A big part of me was thinking it was a waste.

[Doumz]

card is dead,so o doubt he tested it

we clearely see in the pics that the pcb is burned since it's black

[cantankerous]

That is my fear too. The card dying as it does get mighty hot. My x1800xt got to 92c once looping 3dmark01. I quicky stopped it. The card has been fine since. I have sold it for my X1900XTX and the new owner of the X1800XT has had no issues. Even with the fan speed at 82% on my X1900XTX I can still get close to 80c. These cards are very hot by nature. I hope the new Zalman VF900 does well or I am going to have to go the Accelero X2 route. I want to be able to keep my temps at 75c or under at all times and with much less noise. With the summer coming it is only going to get worse.

[rob[GL]]

Still nobody has answered about the dip-switched on the bottom of the card?

Will somebody with an X1900XT please try switching them on and off and tell me what they do? :P:

[Kriller]

I have allways thougt the dip-switch is a PAL/NTSC switch, I got the same on my old X850 and my X1800...

[menlatin]

Im gonna say it again. This card needs WC, or a big Cu Cpu Heatsink.

[cantankerous]

Unfortunately not everyone is game for wc me included. ATI should know this and not expect us all to jump to more exotic cooling just to enjoy their products.

[Dynasty]

90 C's is quite high for the R580/520 gpu's. My stock X1800 XT that i use to game the odd time
with stock hsf @ 95% & ceramique never saw anything over 65 C's on load.
This was same with my 1900 XTX on stock cooler, temps
never exceeded over 65 C's with stock hsf @ 95% fan with load.
My ambient/room temps were 17 C's.

[NickS]

Wow dude. Maybe ATiTool screwed up teh FAN?

I'd cry if my X1900 died... lol. (No, but seriously.)

[STEvil]

nobody makes good GPU heatsinks and the contact almost always sucks. The fans are unreliable..

Hear that ATi and nVidia? You guys suck at cooling your "high performance" hardware!

[Chr0n1c]

I thought the dipswitches were for CF?

Pretty scary to hear about an X19 burning up like that O_O.

[[XC] Lead Head]

I have those same switches on my x800 pro vivo, right under neath them it says

1. Off
-------- -NTSC
2. Off


1.On
-------- - PAL
2.On


Why is the burnt/discolored parts of the PCB not near the core? like around the edges of the card, i would imagine that the PCB under the core would be really burnt?

i dropped load temps of my x800 pro by 15*C by cleaning out the dust on the fins of the heatsink.

[Eastcoasthandle]

I didn't play with either of mine, I lapped the HS because all of them have the drill cuts in them. This reduce temps a lot for me. The major issue is how cool you keep your case. Most gamers don't even give it a second thought until they get owned by the heat. What suprised me is the number of gamers that have 1 exhaust or 1 intake fan with fans on the side (which are no good..even read an article about it). All you need is 2 120mm fans for 1 exhaust and 1 intake and you should be safe in most cases. 80mm fans are simply loud and don't do as well, IMO. In any case here are some pics of my setup if it can help you...

photos of lapping HS

[Eastcoasthandle]

I have those same switches on my x800 pro vivo, right under neath them it says

1. Off
-------- -NTSC
2. Off


1.On
-------- - PAL
2.On


Why is the burnt/discolored parts of the PCB not near the core? like around the edges of the card, i would imagine that the PCB under the core would be really burnt?

i dropped load temps of my x800 pro by 15*C by cleaning out the dust on the fins of the heatsink.

That looks like electrical arching of some kind. Why it's there who knows but that would be a result of some level of grounding??? Someone help me here...

[Kunaak]

its kinda ridiculous to have a piece of hardware at 90C for a few hours on end and expect it to live.
thats 194 F...
hell, at that kinda temp, you should just put it in your oven and cook it.

but... my friend pat, he still uses a 9700 pro AIW, that hes had for like 3 years now.
I swear that thing is like 200 degrees at idle.
its sooooooo damn hot, that it will seriously burn you if you touch it.
especially after playing a game.
his cards been fine for years, and that card is waaaaaaay hotter then anything I seen recently.

but still, I don't like how hot these X1900s run.
the stock cooling on them is just pure junk too.
when I took the heatsink off mine, the core looked like it was lapped with like 100 grit sand paper and thats it.
it was sooooooo incredibly bad, that I had to fix it that second.
there was just no way I could put that piece of junk back on there.

now, if only some company would release a good heatsink for these cards... so I have a option of cooling it, better....

[Eastcoasthandle]

its kinda ridiculous to have a piece of hardware at 90C for a few hours on end and expect it to live.
thats 194 F...
hell, at that kinda temp, you should just put it in your oven and cook it.

but... my friend pat, he still uses a 9700 pro AIW, that hes had for like 3 years now.
I swear that thing is like 200 degrees at idle.
its sooooooo damn hot, that it will seriously burn you if you touch it.
especially after playing a game.
his cards been fine for years, and that card is waaaaaaay hotter then anything I seen recently.

but still, I don't like how hot these X1900s run.
the stock cooling on them is just pure junk too.
when I took the heatsink off mine, the core looked like it was lapped with like 100 grit sand paper and thats it.
it was sooooooo incredibly bad, that I had to fix it that second.
there was just no way I could put that piece of junk back on there.

now, if only some company would release a good heatsink for these cards... so I have a option of cooling it, better....

I take it you no fan of Accelero X2 either...

[Kunaak]

I take it you no fan of Accelero X2 either...

of course I am... but they aren't coming out till march.
I need cooling today

[situman]

Doesn't thermalright make decent coolers for vidcard?

[Eastcoasthandle]

I have been thinking about this for sometime now. There is no indication that it would fit the x1000 series though....
tide water If it fits the core I don't see why this wouldn't reduce temps any better then other water solution and it's tidy...

[Chr0n1c]

I have been thinking about this for sometime now. There is no indication that it would fit the x1000 series though....
tide water If it fits the core I don't see why this wouldn't reduce temps any better then other water solution and it's tidy...

I always wondered about that thing. Haha, anyone here have one?

[cantankerous]

Wow, that thing looks cool. Never heard of it till now but it may work well. The fan looks like the stock ATI fan but the specs show it to be much cooler. IF anyone has experience with that please share. I would grab one in a second although two pci spaces gone is a lot when some of the newer boards only have 3 total.

[freecableguy]

DIP switches change VIVO output video type from PAL to NTSC.