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In terms of cooling initially I'm getting these kinds of stats.

Idle gpu = 44degC there abouts (think that's where it tends to settle after inital start up).

When running uFolding at Home (which puts the gpu under full load) = ~56degC.

When running L4D under max settings = It's peaked at 72degC.

What is a bit odd is that my temps have gone up overall. I have though moved my pc from below the window to the other side of the table which is just under 2m so that might explain it. Still the temps seem perfectly fine - better than before anyway.

CPU was 29 - now ~33.
MCH (must be northbridge) was 42 - now still ~42 I think maybe up to 45.
System temperature - was 37 now ~42 I think max.

It's a bit hard to remember the stats at work but I'll do a screenie later.


I did wonder if you could try putting the old stock back on but having taken it off and saw that the old thermal pads were partly on cooler and partly on card....it's worth a go but I'd wonder if they have ways of knowing if you'd tampered with it. For me it might not be so much the pads but that the screws holding down the X plates have been clearly damaged as if a screwdriver was trying to get them off (so much force was needed). I don't have Crysis but that's my view on the warranty side of things. How old is it and is there any sign of you taking the stock cooler off? You might be lucky. I'm still new to assembling pc's (in terms of thermal pastes etc where it's important you get it right) so I went for testing it under idle load first before increasing the load. Think you were in too much of a hurry :non: lol. Hope you get it all sorted.

I got the 2 connections you are meant to get. Well the card has an 8 pin connector and 6 pin connector. Since the cables going to the card can be both 6 and 8 it doesn't really matter I'd have thought whether the extention was to 6 or to 8 from the card as long as one was a 6 and one was an 8 to go in to the card.

Reply to Leonhart
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Leonhart wrote :

I did wonder if you could try putting the old stock back on but having taken it off and saw that the old thermal pads were partly on cooler and partly on card....it's worth a go but I'd wonder if they have ways of knowing if you'd tampered with it. For me it might not be so much the pads but that the screws holding down the X plates have been clearly damaged as if a screwdriver was trying to get them off (so much force was needed).

The only screw that has been visibly damaged is one of the X plate screws, but only one of them, the rest of the screws seems to be in almost perfect condition, i was very careful when unscrewing them all. In terms of the thermal pads they all came of without a problem, they were all stuck to the heatsink.

Leonhart wrote :

I don't have Crysis but that's my view on the warranty side of things. How old is it and is there any sign of you taking the stock cooler off? You might be lucky. I'm still new to assembling pc's (in terms of thermal pastes etc where it's important you get it right) so I went for testing it under idle load first before increasing the load. Think you were in too much of a hurry :non: lol. Hope you get it all sorted.

I had the cooler installed for around a week and been playing COD 4 and 5 for that time. So moving to Crysis was my way of testing the new cooler, maybe my problem was that i did not increase the fan speed on the cooler to match the demand Crysis would place on the card and its components.

Leonhart wrote :

I got the 2 connections you are meant to get. Well the card has an 8 pin connector and 6 pin connector. Since the cables going to the card can be both 6 and 8 it doesn't really matter I'd have thought whether the extention was to 6 or to 8 from the card as long as one was a 6 and one was an 8 to go in to the card.

The thing with the cooler is that converts the 8 pin into a 6 pin, so im wondering why they made the reference card take an 8 pin when it could just take a 6 pin without any problems.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by Mordhel on 07-06-2009 at 03:08:17 PM
Reply to Mordhel

Mordhel wrote :

The only screw that has been visibly damaged is one of the X plate screws, but only one of them, the rest of the screws seems to be in almost perfect condition, i was very careful when unscrewing them all. In terms of the thermal pads they all came of without a problem, they were all stuck to the heatsink.I had the cooler installed for around a week and been playing COD 4 and 5 for that time. So moving to Crysis was my way of testing the new cooler, maybe my problem was that i did not increase the fan speed on the cooler to match the demand Crysis would place on the card and its components.The thing with the cooler is that converts the 8 pin into a 6 pin, so im wondering why they made the reference card take an 8 pin when it could just take a 6 pin without any problems.




I'd try and claim it on the warranty then :ange: . I don't know how to change the fan speed - it's stuck at 40% the whole time. I see what you mean about the adapter...who knows why they did it :pt1cable: .

Reply to Leonhart

System temperatures a few minutes after startup (degC)
System - 38
CPU - 31/32
MCH (northbridge) - 43


GPU Idle
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/4407/idlep.gif

GPU after having played l4d on max settings
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/1335/l4dw.gif

Reply to Leonhart

Those are good temps Leon, that's about what I get. And for anyone else wondering, I also get slightly increased mobo, nb, and cpu temps because this cooler doesn't dump the heat out the back like the stock cooler. Then again, I've got 9 X120mm fans in my case so it gets rid of the heat quickly.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by annisman on 07-06-2009 at 08:40:15 PM
------------------------------ Core i7 920 @ 4.0Ghz - Gigabyte UD5 - 12GB Corsair XMS 3 - 2X ATI 58701GB Crossfire- Zalman 850W - Xigmatek Thor's Hammer - Raptor X 150 - WD Black 1TB - OCZ Vertex Turbo 120 GB SSD - Cosmos S Case w/side window + 8X 120mm fans
Reply to annisman

annisman wrote :

Those are good temps Leon, that's about what I get. And for anyone else wondering, I also get slightly increased mobo, nb, and cpu temps because this cooler doesn't dump the heat out the back like the stock cooler. Then again, I've got 9 X120mm fans in my case so it gets rid of the heat quickly.




Well my slightly lower temps were with the new cooler so I can only say it's either being away from the window or the thermal paste bits easing in........which should mean lower temps :P.

Cooling wise I've got;

CPU cooler - Coolmaster V8
front fan (not sure size but probably 120mm)
2 base fans (120mm but only use 1 because for some silly reason when I plug the 2nd in to sys_fan2 the fan is much more noisey)
1 side fan (not sure size but it's big - maybe 240mm but leave off because it's the noisest of the lot)
My accelero gpu cooler
...and of course the aft fan (120mm I guess)

Ram has some kind of heatsink as well built in.

I won't go in to water cooling - last I checked water and electricity don't mix :P. Can't see what other cooling I can put in besides a northbridge cooler. I'm not sure what temps are bad really. I got the impression 70 up was going too high for comfort but I've no actual specific number - lower the better :).

Reply to Leonhart

Installed those boys on my crossfired hd4870x2, drivers 9.6, nice temperatures, but I have problems with GPU VRMs (GPU1 and GPU2 especially), idling at 70ish°C, I can play Prototype, L4D and that stuff no probs at full throttle, but when I try Call of Juarez Bound in Blood, all at max, furnace starts. The moment it finishes loading, the graphic cards start buzzing and GPU1/2 VRM temperatures jump quickly, up to 122°C then it shuts down the PC (on the other hand, the reference cooler couldn't stand more than 1-2mins after loading finished and PC shut down).
I've manually pumped up the coolers to max speed, even added little noisy devil (it has cca 80CFM, but it's like hornet) pointing straight at the VRM heatsinks and I managed to play for like 30 mins before it overheated. Funny thing is if I alt-tabbed from game to OS and watched the temperature (got it logged also, so I knew at what temperature it crashed), it dropped by cca 30°C in 15sec or so.
Any ideas how to cool those VRMs more? (a pic with location would be appreciated :P are those those little thingies above GPU?) I tought about buying AS5 and fiddling it on VRM - thermal pad - AS5 - heatsink, would that help? Otherwise I'm out of ideas apart from making tunnel from one of front fans right to the heatsink's fins.
I have Lian-Li Armorsuit PC80, it's pretty big and full of fans (3x 120mm intake front, 1x 120mm exhaust top, 1x 120mm exhaust rear, PSU has 120mm fan exhaust too)

Reply to destabilizator

Well, look at some of the earlier posts in this thread (more specifically mine). I had the same problem as well. To answer your question the VRMS are located under the heatsink on the far right of your card. There were 2 heatsinks that you had to install before your mounted the accelero, they are under the right most one.

My advice to you is to reseat everything.

yes I know it will be a pain in the butt, but this helped me out. Take it all apart, and reseat everything, specifically make sure that those two heatsinks are screwed into the PCB very hard. Also, make sure that you did not install the heatsinks with the blue plastic still on the thermal pads, I know it's probably not that, but you never know. Also, the X brackets go in much easier the second time around!

------------------------------ Core i7 920 @ 4.0Ghz - Gigabyte UD5 - 12GB Corsair XMS 3 - 2X ATI 58701GB Crossfire- Zalman 850W - Xigmatek Thor's Hammer - Raptor X 150 - WD Black 1TB - OCZ Vertex Turbo 120 GB SSD - Cosmos S Case w/side window + 8X 120mm fans
Reply to annisman

annisman wrote :

To answer your question the VRMS are located under the heatsink on the far right of your card. There were 2 heatsinks that you had to install before your mounted the accelero, they are under the right most one.

 

My advice to you is to reseat everything.


http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/5657/p7086323.jpg those in red square, right? Why da heck do they make them so small when they heat so much, they should have put them into some kind of heatspreader :/
Anyway yea, seems like I'm gonna demount the cards (maybe switch them and see if the other one is heating so much too) and maybe drill the hole in heatsink a bit further so I could tighten it up more.


Message edited by destabilizator on 07-09-2009 at 10:00:34 AM
------------------------------ Wear heavy plates and big twohander or wear pyjamas and pop magic outta your ass? Be a man or be a ghey? Not very hard decision.
Reply to destabilizator

yes, that's them. And btw with the stock cooler, those vrms are placed right under the fan, so they get decent cooling from the stock setup. I think that's why alot of people get high vrm temps with the accelero cooler.

------------------------------ Core i7 920 @ 4.0Ghz - Gigabyte UD5 - 12GB Corsair XMS 3 - 2X ATI 58701GB Crossfire- Zalman 850W - Xigmatek Thor's Hammer - Raptor X 150 - WD Black 1TB - OCZ Vertex Turbo 120 GB SSD - Cosmos S Case w/side window + 8X 120mm fans
Reply to annisman

annisman wrote :

yes, that's them. And btw with the stock cooler, those vrms are placed right under the fan, so they get decent cooling from the stock setup. I think that's why alot of people get high vrm temps with the accelero cooler.


Yea, I was looking where those are under stock cooler, but then the stock fan has almost no fins (I'm not native English speaker, but I hope you know what I mean), and those he has are definitely not blowing downwards and the black base of the cooler is some painted shiz, interesting how it can cool better than aluminium :<

------------------------------ Wear heavy plates and big twohander or wear pyjamas and pop magic outta your ass? Be a man or be a ghey? Not very hard decision.
Reply to destabilizator

I found specification of VRM modules used on 4870X2 cards. These are 59PR9853, and 125C is bound to "operating environmental temp".
Here is the link. http://www.viteccorp.com/data/af4268.pdf

Matbe all our concerns about running it at 150C are just ridiculous? Look at te charts, when temps were at 260C ...
Cards were crashing in Furmark according to other cause, not VRM overheating, i think.

Reply to khaos0

Hm, how would one explain PC shutting down then? Mine only jumps down immediately when VRM temp reaches 120°C

------------------------------ Wear heavy plates and big twohander or wear pyjamas and pop magic outta your ass? Be a man or be a ghey? Not very hard decision.
Reply to destabilizator

Hmm, maybe the trick is for those "environmental" temperatures... I think AMD put thermal diodes close to VRMs, as they cannot probably report their own temps, so diodes shows "environmental" temperature. If it's true, i wonder how high goes VRMs itself... But remember - all of this is only my guess..

Reply to khaos0

Hi friends.

In this spanish forum: http://foro.noticias3d.com/vbullet [...] p?t=291530

the most expert users, as much as 70% of them, are reported dead 4870 x2 due to the Artic cooling accelero xtreme...

:(

Reply to rojasts

I know zip Spanish but that does not sound good. Mine seems to be doing just fine though but 70%???? I really hope mine doesn't go bust it's taken ages and a lot of money to get a healthy working pc.

Reply to Leonhart

When you install this cooler, make sure to run some software to measure and log temperatures of GPUs/VRMs/Memory, if it's getting to high, think about other way of cooling the overheating part or don't run that app which burns the parts.

I had to make wind tunnel with turbopropeller (always wanted to try that :D) fan pointing at the GPU VRM1 heatsink and I can cool it to 36°C idle / 76°C load, crossfire cards, both with those coolers. It's noisy solution, but works for now, while I'm waiting for better fan to blow on the heatsink

------------------------------ Wear heavy plates and big twohander or wear pyjamas and pop magic outta your ass? Be a man or be a ghey? Not very hard decision.
Reply to destabilizator

Yea I have heard of high failure rates for cards after the install, however it seems like most people here on Tom's haven't been very unlucky, maybe they are n00bs ?

------------------------------ Core i7 920 @ 4.0Ghz - Gigabyte UD5 - 12GB Corsair XMS 3 - 2X ATI 58701GB Crossfire- Zalman 850W - Xigmatek Thor's Hammer - Raptor X 150 - WD Black 1TB - OCZ Vertex Turbo 120 GB SSD - Cosmos S Case w/side window + 8X 120mm fans
Reply to annisman

annisman wrote :

yes, that's them. And btw with the stock cooler, those vrms are placed right under the fan, so they get decent cooling from the stock setup. I think that's why alot of people get high vrm temps with the accelero cooler.




Bit confusing that last line. Do you mean people on Tom are very lucky and are noobs?

All of ours seem to have worked so far (but I'll not forget my PSU which died after 3 months so now I'll be keeping tabs on my gpy). I've got my stock cooler and it wasn't like it didn't work so if I saw the accelero was failing I could switch it off before any damage was done and change over. Failing that I have a 8800gtx I can fall back on but I definitely can't afford to replace a card for a third time in as many years when really there wasn't anything wrong with the 8800 (reason being it came from a pc dogged with problems as already stated and l4d at the time had problems running off it too - now fixed).

Temps are running just fine for me - 40-44 idle and 69-73max full load (still at 40% fan which I don't know how to adjust but don't see the need to). All fans are working as well. I'd say 70% failure rate should mean a recall but I guess it could be people trying to overclock their systems beyond what they can manage (hence why I stay within default settings) and it's resulted in failed systems and also once you get one person saying it failed it attracts others too.

Reply to Leonhart

no, i mean people elsewhere maybe have no idea what they are doing, and should just stick with the stock cooler.

------------------------------ Core i7 920 @ 4.0Ghz - Gigabyte UD5 - 12GB Corsair XMS 3 - 2X ATI 58701GB Crossfire- Zalman 850W - Xigmatek Thor's Hammer - Raptor X 150 - WD Black 1TB - OCZ Vertex Turbo 120 GB SSD - Cosmos S Case w/side window + 8X 120mm fans
Reply to annisman

I installed this cooler 2 nights ago without any issues besides clearance in my case. I used the old screws from the stock fan and everything went in smoothly. Idle temps dropped to high 30's and VRM temps were in the high 40's. Add about 10 degrees to GPU 2 and VRM2. After a few benchmarks, running the fan at about 55%, CPU temps were high 40's and VRM was at 98+C. GPU 2 at high 50's with a VRM temp of 105 C!!. I even have a side fan blowing air onto the card.

I believe some of the dead cards can come from the pressure utilized to attached the X plates, but I believe some that have them working for a few days then dieing could be attributed to the VRM's cooking themselves. I've been doing research and even 4870 with an aftermarket cooler, whether from factory or not, are seeing high VRM's. I've also read on AMD's forum that 105C is the max temp for VRM's, and that came from AMD engineers. Though others have sited 125C being the max spec.

When I set 100% fan, my cpu temps drop about 10C and VRM1 will see high 70's but VRM2 will get up to 100C. Either the aluminum plates are not doing the job, the thermal pads are not up to snuff, or its not seating correctly. The stock sink had both VRM's in the 80's.

I'm looking at other options of cooling the VRM's. Possibly Thermalrights VRM coolers, though they look a bit too long. I'll also look at different thermal pads and re-seating the sinks over the weekend. I'll let you guys know what I find.

BTW I used the extension cable for the 6 Pin, but I went with the 8 Pin off my PSU as there was enough clearance for it. I also do not OC the card.

Reply to Unspoken Thought

khaos0 wrote :

I found specification of VRM modules used on 4870X2 cards. These are 59PR9853, and 125C is bound to "operating environmental temp".
Here is the link. http://www.viteccorp.com/data/af4268.pdf

Matbe all our concerns about running it at 150C are just ridiculous? Look at te charts, when temps were at 260C ...
Cards were crashing in Furmark according to other cause, not VRM overheating, i think.



This is actually a spec sheet on the Multi-Phase SMD Coupled Inductor, not the VRM's that are used. A spec sheet on Volterra VRM's would be helpful though to find temp tolerances.

Reply to Unspoken Thought

Unspoken Thought wrote :

I installed this cooler 2 nights ago without any issues besides clearance in my case. I used the old screws from the stock fan and everything went in smoothly. Idle temps dropped to high 30's and VRM temps were in the high 40's. Add about 10 degrees to GPU 2 and VRM2. After a few benchmarks, running the fan at about 55%, CPU temps were high 40's and VRM was at 98+C. GPU 2 at high 50's with a VRM temp of 105 C!!. I even have a side fan blowing air onto the card.

I believe some of the dead cards can come from the pressure utilized to attached the X plates, but I believe some that have them working for a few days then dieing could be attributed to the VRM's cooking themselves. I've been doing research and even 4870 with an aftermarket cooler, whether from factory or not, are seeing high VRM's. I've also read on AMD's forum that 105C is the max temp for VRM's, and that came from AMD engineers. Though others have sited 125C being the max spec.

When I set 100% fan, my cpu temps drop about 10C and VRM1 will see high 70's but VRM2 will get up to 100C. Either the aluminum plates are not doing the job, the thermal pads are not up to snuff, or its not seating correctly. The stock sink had both VRM's in the 80's.

I'm looking at other options of cooling the VRM's. Possibly Thermalrights VRM coolers, though they look a bit too long. I'll also look at different thermal pads and re-seating the sinks over the weekend. I'll let you guys know what I find.

BTW I used the extension cable for the 6 Pin, but I went with the 8 Pin off my PSU as there was enough clearance for it. I also do not OC the card.




Hi, Although this is a thread from a while ago, I am experiencing the same with the AC Cooler, my idle temps are around 36c after being 44c with the stock which is good, though when I am in WaW the temps reach 109c (I am at work so dont have much to go on) It hangs around 100c with the fan on 100% but from reading all the threads it seems that applying AC5 has assisted.. Would be grateful if anyone as gone further to reducing temps with this cooler or if the poster of this comment above can let us know of his findings.

The only thing I can think of is I didnt tightly screw in the x-plates, another half twist and they would be super tight if you know what i mean..

I have a HAF 932 case, ton of air flowing, alaska 850w psu etc etc..

Reply to perikli

perikli wrote :

Hi, Although this is a thread from a while ago, I am experiencing the same with the AC Cooler, my idle temps are around 36c after being 44c with the stock which is good, though when I am in WaW the temps reach 109c (I am at work so dont have much to go on) It hangs around 100c with the fan on 100% but from reading all the threads it seems that applying AC5 has assisted.. Would be grateful if anyone as gone further to reducing temps with this cooler or if the poster of this comment above can let us know of his findings.

The only thing I can think of is I didnt tightly screw in the x-plates, another half twist and they would be super tight if you know what i mean..

I have a HAF 932 case, ton of air flowing, alaska 850w psu etc etc..




OK, an update .. this is strange! I gave the AC cooler another chance last night, BUT this time I dont get any high temps. In fact no-where near it! As mentioned above it was peaking around 109c I have tried last night and this morning, and it peaks no more than 62c, but mostly around 58c, and that is playing WaW on max, the idle temps are the same around 36-37c.. So my theories are;

1. The pre-thermal compound has "kicked in" for the lack of a technical term
2. The only change I have done (in ATI overdrive), though planning on changing it back is dropping the memory clock to 800mhz, though during the 109c episode this was set to 800mhz with no luck.
3. I had upgraded to Win7_64, though this was done before the card was installed, I seeked any out of date drivers, including sound, mobo, you name it and ran it, now I don't think it had anything to do with it, but its a possibility, so I am just adding it in there.

Oh and I am getting 58c to 62c with the fan at 27% Incredible!! I am totally bamboozled!

Reply to perikli

Well a bit late to the party but I got mine today and installed it. I'm very pleased with it, the temperatures and the quietness. Boy, was that stock fan loud.

I don't think it's perfect however and I'm glad I read as many reviews and comments on this before I installed mine.

The high temperature of the VRM's and other chips reported by more than one person is due to the poor machining of the small heatsinks especially. I did a test fitting of both of these and holding them up to light I could see a clear gap between the top of the pad and the sink more than once!

In these cases I reused some of the TIM's from the original cooler and doubled up to achieve enough height to reach the heatsink.

Some of the blue backing wouldn't come off some the pads either, I destroyed at least pad trying to remove it, and again had to reuse some of the original pads.

I spent about 2 hours in all fitting it some parts were incredibly fiddly especially fitting the springs to screws in the x-braces.

It was worth it though, the GPU cores idle in the mid to late 30's and the VRM's in the mid 40's. No 100+ temperatures here! :bounce:

Reply to Blackjack Davy
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By frozenlead, 7 hours ago:

Ahha. You mean this: http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 521-8.html

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