So my 4870 is dead....

Hmm... I don't think the 4870 is dead.... I'm thinkin is more of a driver issue. Or perhaps the video wasn't seated properly.

Im actually about to open the side and see if its in correctly, I did remove it earlier. Im also doing a repeatitive driver flush, also uninstalled/removed the device completely from Windows Management screen. Windows knows its a 4800, but the driver just wont stick on it.

Ok, removed the card and reinstered it back in the slot after the above mentioned steps. The driver installed and im up and running good. However I am deathly afraid to run a game right now....the stress is too much tonight, I might wait till morning. If this card is toast...A. I cant afford a replacement for the time it will take to ship it to VisionTek, and B. I dont have onboard VGA.

Buy a cheapy to get by on

If you go to a local Bestbuy, you can pick up a cheap video card for the time being. Then refund it for full price after you get your card back.

Just a suggestion.

Not cool at all.

Well, I think i found the problem....


memory is at 127c....idle. Its these Enzotech sinks I Just put on here today, they are touching the GPU cooler, arctic coolign twin turbo. All 8 sinks are firmly touching the aluminum fins on the cooler.

Ummm, you didnt mention that. Be careful, itll fry really easy at those temps

Stupidass move I know, I should know better than this. I didnt really think it though, I even made a post about it in the coolers forum....Im taking the card out to fix this ASAP, I should be able to sand them down about 2mm or so

leave enough room so theres no heat transference, so a little ait gets in between

Removed them and put the aluminum ones back on that came with the AC Twin Turbo, I couldnt sand the copper ones down, 15 minutes with some 220 grit and I didnt even take off 1/3rd of a mm. Memory is now at 94c and shader core is 68c.

Good to hear! Maybe you can take a lil off the fins? Its aluminum and itd be easier?

The way the heatsink is designed, it would be extremely difficult, I would need a dremel and a very fine bit. I can always just buy the low profile sinks from Enzotech, I bought the regular ones because they fit within specs off the Arctic Cooling website. I should email them telling them they almost cost me a $300 video card....

I did just run Bioshock for about 5 minutes with some action blasting the shotgun against 6 mobs, no artifacts at all. Before there were green and yellow popping artifacts on the screen AS SOON as the game loaded in.

So if anybody was wondering....120c+ on the memory is the danger zone.

I was thinking the hard way, maybe a small file and even a knife, itd take some time, but anyways, glad to hear youre still in bidness

Just ran Vantage, kept rivatuner open to monitor temps, the memory peaked at 132c with no artifacting....so apparently earlier it was obviously peaking that by far. Any idea on what the thermal limit is on these gddr5 chips?

On a few different notes, mine is a VisionTek so lifetime warranty, I would just have to slap the stock cooler back on heh. And the 4870 is down to $240.

Well, another update here. Just played Crysis for about 15-20 minutes and was gonna go watch some tv. Well upon exiting Crysis, the game closes but the screen stays black. Alt tabbing does nothing, ctrl+alt+del does nothing, so I hit the power.

On reboot windows loads, then goes black after the green loading bar, and the monitor loses signal, 1 long beep then 3 short beeps from the motherboard let me know that "No VGA Detected". Just great. I retry, same thing. The 3rd time I try safe mode and it works, im in right now.

At this point I have no option than to RMA this card. Too bad I dont have $280, as this would be a good excuse to get a 9800GX2

No wonder Best Buy is going broke....

Gee, next time all my underwear is dirty I'm gonna hit Walmart and rent some boxers... just return them when my wash is done, eh?

Seriously, this is why stuff costs what it does. Now Best Buy has to restock the item, and discount it because it was "Open Box". Then some poor kid will grab it thinking it's an awesome deal, get home, and find out someone beat the card down and it may not work anymore due to poor handling, etc.

Then that poor kid will return it, and they'll tell him he'll have to pay more for a new card since he bought a "used" one.

In the end, you and I will pay more for anything we buy from Best Buy to recoup their lost profits.

johnyeah wrote :

If you go to a local Bestbuy, you can pick up a cheap video card for the time being. Then refund it for full price after you get your card back.

Just a suggestion.

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Simple people don't understand simple economics^^^^

This is very odd. 132C is way too much for the mem. I do not see the point to replace the stock cooler which is good anyway. My PCS+ cooler on HD4870 is keeping mem temp lower than 80 C, and GPU lower than 70C at 850/1100. I'm sure that your stock mem cooling was way better before you change it, it may be the termal paste not applied correctly or the heatsink not firmly sticked to the chips. It is way too high temp for GDDR5 chips. I've read somewhere that temp shouldn't exceed 110C

A. Its not the paste
B. I replaced the stock cooler because it was too loud, it wasnt a temperature issue.
C. When I first did the cooling swap temperatures were fine on the GPU and Memory with the cheap-o aluminum memsinks that came with the AC Twin Turbo, they were in the 60s with a 1095mhz OC. I replaced them because I was being greedy and the aluminum ones were falling off due to crappy "tape".
D. The memory temps got so high because the sinks were touching the GPU cooler itself. The "thermals" on the memory were burned/destroyed after that because they now idle at mid 90s with the aluminum ones back on.

Anyways, gotta wait till monday to call VisionTek for an RMA, closed on weekends. Im gonna snag a 8500GT for $50 to use until I get this one back from VisionTek.

Went ahead and bought this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... . Obviously not the best, but under $50 is what I was looking to spend. GDDR3 models were over $65, and I would have rather gone with EVGA for warranty issues alone, but once again too expensive. Zotac is fine though, this is just a backup and not ment for serious gaming.

At least with this ill be able to run my native res and play games, which I cant do with my driver-less 4870.

that sucks man. I hope my 4870 doesn't do the same thing.

Well unless you took the stock cooler off and replaced it then you wont have that problem.

IDK if that is really something that visiontek should cover under service as it was a fault of removing the stock cooling system.

Im not worried about that. Its taken care of.

"Seriously, this is why stuff costs what it does."

Seriously, you have no clue. Every company charges as much as they can get away with and still get people to buy their product. Competition/Supply vs demand is the only thing that keeps pricing in check. If you think otherwise you are kidding yourself and should at the least keep quiet rather than spread disinformation.

"Im gonna snag a 8500GT for $50 to use until I get this one back from VisionTek."

Why waste $50 on something that's almost worthless for gaming anyway? Any local computer shop will probably have some old used card they will give you for $10 or something that will at least get your computer functional for non-gaming purposes.

You should seriously look at "HIS" gfx cards with their dual slot cooling solutions (ICEQ series) are very good coolers. Better than trying/botching aftermarket coolers IMO.  

Have you even read anything in this thread? I said the card dosent need to be good at anything other than being able to display my native res and at least just LOAD a game, two things I cant do with my current broken, memory-less, driver-less card. I said nothing about needing to be able to run crysis at 2560 x 1600. The 2 local shops that I know of dont sell graphics cards, only BS.