What is a good temperature for the 4870?

Basically, as long as it stays under 90 or so full load, it should be fine. For the paranoid, run at more like 60 or so full load. For load temp, try Rivatuner - it'll keep a log of the temps, so that when you alt-tab out of the game, you can see the peak (they cool down surprisingly fast when the load is removed).

Idle temps are perfectly fine - load temps are what matter. My 4870x2 idles at 75C.

A good temp is below 85C - full load. You don't have to play with fan speed as long as you are below 90C. That said, ATI will tell you you don't have to play with fan speed at all. There is a down side to modifying fan speed: high speed fans are noisy and a fan can wear out much like a whole house fan, a blower, or even like a water pump. That said, it is simple to replace a wore out GPU fan if the card otherwise survives.

how bout 30 or 35 fan speed?
I want to change the fan speed cause it seems to stay on low fan all the time.
Not that it overheats or anything, I just want it to stay cool

yea ok
but just as an fyi, when on idle, the fan speed is like at 5 and there is hardly any air coming out. At stock, idle is like in the mid 60s

thanks. But now I am kinda comfused. Should I or shouldn't I manually raise the fan speed.

Also, is there a way to use catalyst to record the temperature?


edit: im checking now, the fan speed is at 21, sometimes lower, and the temp is in the mid 60s

I have mine set at 37%. 48c at idle and around 60c at load. I oc'd the card (not by much, only about 20 or 30MHz) and ran FarCry 2 Bench. I got a fair amount of artifacts. Then I saw my temp around 90c, manual fan control was off. I swithced it back on, temp came down to about 55c load, and ran the bench again. Smooth as silk.

The reason I had mine at manual is
1: I want to keep the unit cool because its really really close to my CPU and northbridge (both of which run hotter then they should... probably)
2: I really can't hear the difference. I use my case as a footrest, so the fan is like 5 feet away from me.
3: I like keeping my hardware cool.
4: I bought the card a week after it came out, and the Catalyst 8.6 drivers were the only ones that were available. For some reason, 8.6 would not regulate the fan speed, and the cards would get super hot (many times way over 90ºC), so I needed to manually adjust the fanspeed.

Assuming you're using the most up-to-date drivers, you should be fine.