HiS HD4850 getting very hot

[makoblue]

Hi,

I have an ATI HD4850 graphics card, which seems to be getting too hot and noisy too often. I bought Civilization 5 the other day and when playing it in Direct X 10 mode my computer gets very noisy. I looked at the ATI driver information and it shows that the fan is running at 100% and the GPU is at 107 degrees C - that's without even playing the game, just loading it up to the main menu. When I try playing it on Direct X 9 mode, it seems fine. Obviously Direct X 10 is going to make the card work harder, but from what I can see it is too much.

I'm not sure, but I don't think it's a cooling issue of the entire computer as I have a fan in the front, one in the side, one in the top and one at the back and the general ambient temperature inside the machine seems fine - and the CPU isn't overheating, only the GPU seems to be getting very hot.

Is there something wrong with the graphics card? Is there anything that I can do to help this?

Thanks.

[Iron Sights]

If your confident in cracking open the Gpu and clearing out any dust in the fans etc, that might help tbh

[makoblue]

I'm not against it. Is it a terribly dangerous thing to do? Could I easily break it?

[Golden Dragoon]

If it is happening in the main menu, and everything else is fine it could be a situation similar to the starcraft 2 bug that caused the game to try and render as many frames as possible on the menu.

Saying which until I replaced my 4850's heatsink with a akasa vortexx neo, my temps were very high 75-80+C in games and folding (90-100+ in furmark) getting that dropped them to a more reasonable 55-60C (75-80ish in furmark) as the vortexx only cost circa £15 and is very easy to fit I would recommend getting one.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Is it the stock cooler? They were never meant to be very good.

if you are cleaning it you'll need some paste to replace the stuff already there and no, its not easy to break anything.

Could be a bug if your DX9 temps are fine.

[mac124]

Saying which until I replaced my 4850's heatsink with a akasa vortexx neo, my temps were very high 75-80+C in games and folding (90-100+ in furmark) getting that dropped them to a more reasonable 55-60C (75-80ish in furmark) as the vortexx only cost circa £15 and is very easy to fit I would recommend getting one.

I bought a 2nd hand 4850 some time ago and it ran very hot, i too replaced it with a vortexx and had similarly good results, i would recommend replacing the stock cooler with one if cleaning it out doesn't improve things significantly.

[makoblue]

Thanks for the replies.

When the game is running in DX10 it is not just the menu that works the graphics card hard, it goes on throughout playing until I close it down - I just thought it was weird that the GPU would be worked so hard even when all it's doing is showing the menu screen.

DX9 does also work the graphics card a lot on high settings, but it behaves normally, i.e. is fine when loading the game up and only spins the fan hard when having to display lots on screen.

It seems there may be some kind of bug with DX10 either within the game, the card or my system somewhere, but being as DX9 also causes the card to heat up a lot, I'm guessing that investing in that cooling thing would be a good idea.

When you say stock cooler, do you mean the one that's already on the card or the one that ATI puts on by default. I haven't changed the cooler, but it is a HiS branded card, so I'm guessing that the cooler on it is different to other branded cards. Would this be OK to replace still?

Also, that cooler seems to be out of stock almost everywhere! Is it a new thing so hasn't arrived yet in most places, or an old thing so stock is actually running out?

Thanks.

[Domestic_Ginger]

ATi stock cooler for a 4850.

[Behemoth]

I can also contribute on this, the stock cooler on the 4850 is next to useless. I replaced mine with an Akasa Vortex Neo and my problems disappeared. Temps sit in at 38 idle and 48 on load and thats with some very minor overclocking on the card.

For the £15 it cost for that cooler it was money well spent

[Golden Dragoon]

Also, that cooler seems to be out of stock almost everywhere! Is it a new thing so hasn't arrived yet in most places, or an old thing so stock is actually running out?

Thanks.

The Vortexx isn't exactly a new release so there should be plenty out there, but your right, scan and others have no stock in, perhaps akasa are replacing it with a vortex2 model or something and have let things wind down on it?

I have noticed that you can get the thermalright V2 on scan for about the same price: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Therm...A-(Without-Fan) you would have to get your own 80mm fan with this, and is also not as user friendly or easy to install but will likely end up a better heatsink when combined with a decent fan.

I can also contribute on this, the stock cooler on the 4850 is next to useless. I replaced mine with an Akasa Vortex Neo and my problems disappeared. Temps sit in at 38 idle and 48 on load and thats with some very minor overclocking on the card.

For the £15 it cost for that cooler it was money well spent

Should note that my temps are on a heavily overclocked card, not stock settings, hence why they are a fair bit higher.

[makoblue]

This is the one that I have: http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-31.shtml

Does that mean I won't be able to change the cooler as it isn't an ATI stock card?

[mrt9888]

That is the stock card so it would better to change it.

[makoblue]

Oh yeah, of course it is.

So I've ordered a Vortexx Neo, hopefully that'll sort me out. Thanks guys.

[Golden Dragoon]

Just remember not to use too much thermal compound when fitting it, remember "less is more" the smallest amount you can get away with whilst still having full contact the better. I used different compound but the principals are the same so this is what I do whenever installing a heatsink on anything:

Put a rice sized blob on the gpu die, and using a clean credit card spread it out evenly on the surface trying not to scrape it off, then use the small amount that will be left on the card to smear over the heatsinks mating surface and use your finger in a clean plastic bag to rub it in (you want to be able to see the copper through the compound on it, immagine the look of a frosted glass window, this insures all microscopic imperfections are filled).
Then pop the heatsink on the card place a small amount of pressure on it (not too much, just 1 finger will do), and remove it to make sure the gpu makes proper contact with the base (you will see an impression of the gpu if it is making proper contact), if it doesn't used a little more compound, if it does then re-attach the heatsink and fasten the screws in alternating corners a little at a time until they are tight, the screws on the back are a nice design that stops you from over tightening them so no worries there

[makoblue]

Well, the Vortexx arrived today - installed and all. There is one problem; the fan connector on the cooler is a 3-pin thingy that won't fit in the 4-pin port on the card, so at the moment I've just got the fan going straight into the mobo instead of the fan on the side of my case, which I don't mind, except the fan seems to be running at 100% as I guess it has no control through the mobo.

Can I get an adapter anywhere that would allow me to plug the fan into the graphics card or is there any way I can control the fan speed through the motherboard?

Thanks!

[Golden Dragoon]

You can control the fan speed if your motherboard supports it (either in the bios or through a windows program), however, I have a very quiet system and at the 2000ish rpm the fan spins at at default it is barely any louder than anything else in my pc so I just leave it at that.