Sapphire HD 4890 Fan Speed

[xbonez]

I have my HD 4890's fan speed set at a constant 95%. I was wondering if this is fine. I don't want to severely affect the lifetime of the card or the fan. Can it run at a constant 95%, or should I decrease it?

 

[jay2tall]

Why in the world would you want to run it at 95%?

Yes you will decrease the life of the fan. But, most likely you won't have any issues. Just noise.

 

[JofaMang]

If you require 95% fan speed to keep your temps under check, you may want to consider improving your case flow, or moving out of the center of a volcano, heh.

 

[xbonez]

Well, i needed 95% because of the amount I had OC'ed the card. I guess I'll reduce the fan speed a little and decrease the OC on the card.

PS - with fan speed set at 92%, I OC'ed the core clock to 1000Mhz (up from 850Mhz) and mem clock to 1110 Mhz (up from 975Mhz), all the while not crossing 70 degrees on a 3d Mark Vantage video stress test.

 

[JofaMang]

That makes sense. The temp thresholds are much higher than that, but I enjoy getting my temps down low low low, so i can understand that.

 

[xbonez]

What would you say are the temp thresholds for the 4890? Do i have more room to OC, or should i stop at this?

 

[JofaMang]

For the 48xx line, 100c is a huge warning sign. I believe the meltdown temp is approx 110c, but don't quote me on that. I don't have any personal experience with OCing a 4890, but your clocks are so far beyond what I have been able to see on my 4870, that I can't really give an informed opinion, hah.

Your temps look good. Your OC is high, but if stable and artifact free, awesome. Its up to you to decide how close you want to get to melting down the card, but currently your temps are pretty confidence inspiring.

 

[xbonez]

my core clock is set at the max that CCC allows, and memory clock is close to the max (1200 being the max). I think i'll leave it at this, though I plan to add a PCI slot fan under the gfx card to dissipate a little more heat.

something like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000233ZMU/ref=s9_simz_gw_s0_p23_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1E5RQR2XXRDG2PDX916N&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

 

[JofaMang]

Yeah, that is a pretty heavy OC, and remember that not all OC limitations are heat based.

 

[jay2tall]

70C is a really low load temp, even for that heavy of an OC. 110C is the max for these cards, but I like to keep them under 90C if at all possible. You are totally in the green if you keep it under 80-85C. No need to crank that fan up to keep it under 70C. Unless the OC is just not stable.

 

[xbonez]

I guess i'll pull down the fan to 80%...that coupled with the PCI cooler i'm buying should keep temps at the same level.

I'll scan for artifacts and stability heavily using furmark, and if I can still maintain same temp., i might try to push the clocks a little more.

 

[jay2tall]

What happens if you leave the card use the factory fan profit? I had a 4870 and used ATI Tray tools to set a different fan profile, so at idle the fan wasn't spinning like a Texas Tornado.

 

[xbonez]

I haven't tried it...definitely worth a shot when i get back home. I think at factory profile, the fan idles at 30%, and on full load goes upto 80%

 

[jay2tall]

The card uses a 2D clock profile anyways when not in game. So there is no need to run the fans full bore at that time.

 

[JofaMang]

My 4870 putters along at a steady state 40% fan speed all the time, heh. That speed puts the noise level of the GPU just below the sound of my case fans, and I never see anything more than 80-85c at the worst of times. With that OC, though, I probably would be looking at keeping the airflow a bit more brisk.

 

[xbonez]

15 min Furmark GPU Stress test, max temp 71 deg cel.

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/7436/furmark000000.jpg

I think I can push the clocks a little more

 

[JofaMang]

Temps are not the only limits to OC, but in this case, yeah, I am sure your temps will be fine.

 

[xbonez]

Pushed the core to 1Ghz, and memory clock to 1130 mhz. Furmark test was stable @ 74 degrees. I'm gonna leave it at this now.

 

[drkailinium]

I know this is slightly off topic but in certain games if i overclock my graphics card (5870) slightly or turn up my GPU fans the PC will crash not a blue screen just stuck on a black or odd coloured screen. What is going on?

 

[xbonez]

after OC'ing, do you stress thoroughly stress test your GPU? its possible you OC and think its stable, but it really is not and so when u play a game it crashes