Radeon HD 4870 1GB Fan Speed Control Problem

[newfireorange]

I installed a Zalman fan on my GPU. To control the fan speed, you have four power cables you can plug in. Each on a different speed. I have the highest speed plug, plugged in. My GPU temperature holds a 60 degree celcius with no load, and playing Dragon Age Origins at 1080p resolution with all max settings (including 8x AA) I hit 89 degrees celcius. The card performs great with no lag at all. I'm worried about the temps.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118117&cm_re=zalman_vga-_-35-118-117-_-Product

 

[aartie]

I installed a Zalman fan on my GPU.

is this fan is compatible with 4870 ?? how you manage install that fan ???

To control the fan speed,

why you want control fan speed ?? Original too loud ??? too hoot ???

My GPU temperature holds a 60 degree celcius with no load, and playing I hit 89

my opinion ...is too much ...i got Asus 4870 GB factory cooling system ,with only 25 % fan speed (1500 RPM )
51-53 C idle up to 75 load

 

[1st duke of marlborough]

Mine idles at 45 and with load, MW2 max settings no AA, peeks at 60. I would be concerned.

 

[newfireorange]

LOL the fan I put on is not compatible at all, I bent the metal on the Zalman fan and made it fit. I just put the stock fan back on and now have fan control. I set the fan at 70% and I idle at 58-59 celcius. Under load in Dragon Age Origins with max settings, 8x Anti-aliasing and 1080p on a 42 inch LCD tv I never go over 75 celcius. That is much better than the 89 celcius I was hitting on Dragon Age with the Zalman fan.

 

[newfireorange]

How is it that my fan has 8 fans, and my GPU, stock clock settings and stock i7 920 CPU settings idle at good temperatures but not as low as I expect? i7 all four cores idle at 45-50 celcius and the 4870 HD Radeon 1GB idles at 58-59 celcius? Two of the 8 fans are the big 240mm. Two suck in air, and two blow out air. Other fans are on my PSU, GPU, CPU etc. Could my room temperature of 76 degrees be too much? My wires are ran excellently and provide tons of ventilation. My hard drive runs very cool at 25 celcius. It's at the very bottom of my full tower case. Computer runs super fast. Just wondering why my temperatures are not low to my liking.

 

[aartie]

i7 920 CPU idle at 45-50 celcius.

i think this is not too bad

Could my room temperature of 76 degrees be too much?.

is fine

My hard drive runs very cool at 25 celcius.

what HD you have ?? that temp is cool

Can you make few snapshot and post here ....can you save bios of that card and send me ...i will compare with my


oh ...still i don't know how you install that Zalman thing

 

[Bluescreendeath]

^ My Samsung HDD runs at 23'C and my Seagate HDD runs at 28'C

 

[newfireorange]

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z39/liftedupdj/Temperatures.jpg

HDD: Samsung Spinpoint 7200 RPM 16MB cache from Newegg for under $60

 

[newfireorange]

If you check Newegg for this graphics card I posted about, idling temperatures are in the 60's Celcius. So mine idling at 57-60 is pretty cool. It's XFX so it has a lifetime warranty. My case has eight fans though. Side fan (sucks in), two front fans (suck in), top fan (blows air out), rear fan (blows fan out), CPU fan, graphics card fan, power supply fan.

 

[brewem]

@newfireorange there could be a couple of things with the temps.

1) The smoothness of the airflow inside the case can make a big difference. Make sure you've tidied all the cables as neat as possible, preferably tucked behind the cages and backplate if there's room.

2) The direction of airflow also helps: you want the air being blown onto/drawn past the hottest elements then vented upwards, or at least away from the rig's intake fans. Getting your rig into a cyclone effect and recycling the hot air can have a surprising difference - moved my rig from under to on top of my desk and it dropped about 3C all round instantly.

3) Make sure you have more fans blowing out of the case than sucking in. A low pressure case is much more efficient than a high pressure case (no eddys or swirls of hot air getting caught.

Hope that helps.

Brew

 

[PSUdude]

3) Make sure you have more fans blowing out of the case than sucking in. A low pressure case is much more efficient than a high pressure case (no eddys or swirls of hot air getting caught.

I don't know how air tight your case is but mine has holes all over it so i don't know how much a few fans will lower the pressure in the case but even if you could achieve a negative pressure environment, a low pressure case would just lower the efficiency of the exhaust fans. kind of like putting your hand behind a fan, it just blows less air. then your back to the same problem of low air flow in the case.

What you want to do is concentrate equal numbers of fans in the front and rear of the case creating a wind tunnel effect which will provide a constant flow of cool air. Make sure you have the stream of air blowing across your hottest components i.e your graphics card in this case.

Hope it helps

 

[brewem]

I don't know how air tight your case is but mine has holes all over it so i don't know how much a few fans will lower the pressure in the case but even if you could achieve a negative pressure environment, a low pressure case would just lower the efficiency of the exhaust fans. kind of like putting your hand behind a fan, it just blows less air. then your back to the same problem of low air flow in the case.

That's kind of what I meant. There's almost nil chance you'll manage to create any low pressure environment - it'll just pull fresh air through the intakes if anything so almost nil drop in performance. However, a high pressure case will not function very well at all as the air slows and may cause heat wells in certain areas. Just better to be safe than sorry IMHO if you can't completely balance the intake/exhaust flows.

What you want to do is concentrate equal numbers of fans in the front and rear of the case creating a wind tunnel effect which will provide a constant flow of cool air. Make sure you have the stream of air blowing across your hottest components i.e your graphics card in this case.

This is the ideal scenario, I agree.

 

[newfireorange]

Best answer selected by newfireorange.