HD 4670 Temp Issues

[Allen]

A few weeks ago during a move, my PC got knocked about a bit (was my own fault for not securing it properly) and the fan on my graphics card started making an grinding sound. It progressively got worse to the point where a few days ago I think it stopped completely and my PC shutdown whilst gaming due to the overheating.

Today I took delivery of an Arctic Cooling Accelero L2 Pro which is supposed to work with my graphics card, and was a nice snug fit, however when putting the card back into the case the bottom of the cooler hits the PCI socket next to it and won't allow me to insert the card fully. I have it back up and running now, but the card is slightly warped due to the cooler problem.

So, I thought I'd give FurMark a go to see if the cooler was at least working and instantly the temps shot up to 107 °C and seemed to stay around that temp before I got a bit worried and turned it off. It's now sitting idle at about 40 °C.

I've had a little look around Google, but I cannot seem to find anywhere stating what is the maximum safe operating temperature for the HD 4670, but I did see somewhere that it automatically shuts down "around 100-110 °C". Anyone know for sure, or can advise if running at such high temps will kill the card? And if it does, why put the automatic shutdown at such a high temp?

P.S. I only bought the cooler because I really can't afford to buy a new graphics card right now, but if I have to I will try, although my budget, and other crap hardware (E2180 for example), will really limit what card I can get.

[sadbuttrue]

Generally 105c is the max temp for 55nm graphics cards, although I doubt anything over 100c would be considered safe.

There must be an installation problem, as the L2 Pro has more than enough cooling capacity for the 4670. It should be maxing at well under 60c. Maybe bending the card has caused it to peel away slightly from the core.

Here is a full guide for installation on a 4770, which may be helpful:
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1742

[Allen]

Nice installation guide, I was missing the risers, didn't think I would need them.

Fitted them, put the card back in, the heatsink was still hitting the other PCI slots and warping when being pushed in far enough to actually work (i.e. not secured in place by the screw on the backplate and PC lying on it's side to avoid the weight of the heatsink pulling the card out of the socket). However, it's now running at ~80 °C instead of 107 °C, so there must be a contact issue due to the warping of the card.

I may just look for another to be honest, kind of due an upgrade, although really need a new CPU to benefit from it. New post incoming.

[Allen]

So, note to self, learn to RTFM!

As probably any other guy, I just put it together how I see'd fit and therefore it wasn't fitting well, but when I put it together properly it now fits in the slot properly. Running FurMark, same settings as yesterday and it's barely going over 55 °C.

[sadbuttrue]

Good to know as I don't usually read manuals either Planning to get the same cooler for my 4770 when it gets relegated to multi-monitor output mode.