ATI 4850graphics card temperature and drivers

[cactusjack]

Hello everyone,

Today my new Dell XPS Studio machine arrived - Intel i7 2.66GHz processor, 6GB RAM, ATI4850 card, Vista 64bit. This machine will be used for work and gaming. The only game I really play is World of Warcraft. Today I installed Warcraft and started playing - it works amazingly well. The machine as a whole is great.

I have two concerns however:


1) At idle, the 4850 card operates at 54-57 degrees. Under load, it operates at 80-83 degrees. I have read about this, but I am rather concerned. The XPS Studio has a smaller case than my other PCs at home. I am concerned that 80 degrees is a high temperature that will impact the life of the card and other components in the machine. My Nvidia 8800GT card in another machine runs at 49 degrees idle and 53 degrees under load. Is there any simple way for me to recuce the temperatures of the ATI card?


I would imagine that running Warcraft for a whole day (lets say 6-8 hours on end) is not safe for my ATI card? - Just getting a little worried here.



2) I am confused regarding drivers - the Dell installed drivers on my machine are version 8.522 - however on the ATI site they have justed released version 8.12. Why is the driver on my machine a higher version (presumably a special Dell driver??) and what would happen if I used drivers from ATI's website? - would this cause problems on my machine?


I would be most grateful for any replies and advice.


Thank you.

[this_is_gav]

1) Don't worry at all. It's been shown time after time that they're fine at temperatures much higher than that. And it's certainly not going to make any difference to the surrounding components - the temperature will be nearer 40-50c at the point it leaves the heatsink, and cool rapidly only milliseconds after that.

2) Try the ATI drivers. You can always download the ones from the Dell site if they have a special BIOS which limits you to their drivers (which would be rather pointless!). Dell, like most system builders, don't always give the latest drivers if the original ones don't have any major issues.

They're not that old - they're the August drivers. For reference, the first part of the Catalyst drivers refer to the year they were released in (8th year) and the 2nd numbers refer to the month (currently 12th), so you have Catalyst release 8.8, currently the latest is 8.12, then next month we'll get 9.1 and so on. The 8.522 you mention is the internal version number. The current 8.12 drivers are 8.561.

[cactusjack]

Thanks for that! Was reading all about people buying new coolers elsewhere on the Internet. - so was a bit worried. But you have put my mind at ease!!

[Webby]

While the temps are not an issue if you would like them to be a bit lower then follow these instructions

When you download the newer drivers go into the catalyst control centre and select advanced mode go to the section called ATI Overdrive, click the key or padlock to unlock the options you should now be able to control the fan speed of the card (a slider bar) put it higher and you will get lower temperatures but more noise have a play around with it to find where you are happy temperature/noise wise and leave it there. You can also set up profiles so that you can have it on auto control when on the desktop and then when your gaming it runs at a higher fan speed to keep everything cooler and noise will not be as much of an issue as you will have music etc from the game.

Hope that helps.

Oh Overdrive also allows you to overclock the card if you want to, you will not need to do this when playing WoW (or for that matter much else) but the option is there if the urge ever takes you You may also be able to underclock the card to save power and generate less heat but I am not sure been a while since I used catalyst's overdrive settings.

[Pob255]

Follow webby's advice if the temps are too worrying for you, but make sure you don't lower the fan below the stock settings.
Some people have had problems with 4850's but as you got a dell you should has a good fast support service if anything goes wrong with it.
If you have no issues after the first year it's doubtful you'll get any later on.

The main issues with the temps seem to be a relitively lager amount of heat being produced combined with a not very good heat sink that does not have the surface area and mass to absorbe, transfur and relaese the heat fast enough.

Don't bother with an aftermarket cooler untill after the warranty/service contract has run out, no point on risking the contract on the whole pc for a gpu cooler.

Today my new Dell XPS Studio machine arrived - Intel i7 2.66GHz processor, 6GB RAM, ATI4850 card, Vista 64bit. This machine will be used for work and gaming. The only game I really play is World of Warcraft.

Well you certainly know how to do overkill

[cactusjack]

Well you certainly know how to do overkill

It was for a good price :-)

[cactusjack]

It seems my version of the catalyst control centre doesn't have fan speed control. It looks like I have to install the 8.10 drivers for that. Going to take the plunge and see what happens.

Or should I go for 8.12? - I wonder if they are safe? - or is it safer to go for the 8.10 or 8.11 if they are 'tried and tested'?

[Webby]

Go for the 8.12 they have been well tested before release if the was any issues a fixed set would have been made available by now as they have been in the wild for a couple of weeks now.

[cactusjack]

This is what I have ended up doing:

1) I did not upgrade the drivers - didn't want to risk instability (the current drivers work ok with Warcraft).

2) I made 2 profiles to control fan speed using the ATI Catalyst Control Centre and edited the XML files (this older version does not have the fan speed control facility like version 1.10 does).

One profile called normal (for when I am not gaming): Hopefully this looks correct!

<Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_0">
<Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="1739" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="0" />

The value of 1739 was set automatically when I made the profile - not sure if thats ok or not...



Another profile called Gaming (for Warcraft):

<Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_0">
<Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Manual" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="0" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="35" />
</Feature>

This sets the fan speed to 35&#37; which seems ok - it keeps the card at 69-70 degrees under heavy load in Warcraft rather than 80-83 degrees.

[lostforever]

I have ordered this PC with the same spec as the OP and I will mainly be playing World of Warcraft on it as well!

1) How did people find out the temp of the ATI card? part of the drivers or 3rd party software?

2) anyone know the name/model of the Mother board used in the system please? All i know is it uses mATX form factor and X58 chipset.

[cactusjack]

I have ordered this PC with the same spec as the OP and I will mainly be playing World of Warcraft on it as well!

1) How did people find out the temp of the ATI card? part of the drivers or 3rd party software?

2) anyone know the name/model of the Mother board used in the system please? All i know is it uses mATX form factor and X58 chipset.

Not sure about the motherboard - I would imagine Dell Tech support would be able to answer that.

I use CPUID Hardware Monitor to monitor all of the temps on the machine (Graphics card, CPU, etc).
http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php (remember to select the 64 bit version if you have Vista 64!)

The ATI Catalyst Control Center (which comes installed) also helps you to monitor the temp of the card.

[Webby]

The motherboard is Dell's own so you will not find much out about it I'm afraid, suffice to say it will have a basic BIOS and will not allow overclocking.

As to temperature monitoring, you can use the catalyst control centre to check them or any number of third party applications like Everest, or HWMonitor to name but 2.

[Pob255]

Dells use custom motherboards built especially for them, older systems were custom layout that only worked in dell cases, current ones are standard mATX layout so should fit in any mATX case.
AFAIK they are made for dell by Foxconn

In fact I can confurm it

Just infront of the cpu cooler you can see the UL number e93839 (symbol looks like a backwards LR for some unknown reason)
http://database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/t.../gfilenbr.html
= Foxconn

[Pob255]

Loooking at it I have a question for you Cactusjack
Is the 2nd Hard drive slot blocked by the graphics card?
I cannot tell if the case is deep enough to alow clearence between the card and a 2nd vertical mounted hard drive.
http://www.desktopreview.com/assets/1458.jpg

I've seen this two vertical hd mounting in a few prebuilt system mATX cases now
http://www.desktopreview.com/assets/1452.jpg

[lostforever]

Thanks all for the info guys

I also have question for you Cactusjack about ATi card

Say you playing WoW for like 4 - 8 hours straight (i have been known to do this!) does card heats up and the system becomes unstable?

Thanks

[lostforever]

Anyone thinking of buying this,

Phone them and you will get &#163;50 off the web price