high temps with new zalman vga cooler

[The_Real_DeaL31]

i got a Zalman VCF VF900-CU VGA cooler for my sapphire hd 3850, everything went together nicely, considering the fact that zalman doesnt say if its supports the hd 3850 series or not, so i go to logged into windows to check my temps, its says 55c to 57c idle, lol my stock did a better job cooling even though it was a little noisy at 75% rpm. i live in canada, u would think being winter out, my temps show be alot lower like low 40's or something, they rest if my temps like cpu and mb are good cpu 28c idle mb 29c idle so i called up zalman support they told me to take the heatsink off then install it back on agian so i did using ac5 silicon, when i look at the temps agian, it showed only a few temps lower, wierd i've always heard good things about zalman products, im thinking i should just exchange it for something else like the arctic rev series

 

[MadCow]

Did you tighten everything down straight? Sounds like it's making bad contact with the core. How warm is the cooler when you touch it?

 

[Random Murderer]

you must have put a freakin TON of thermal paste on there!
my 3870 with a vf900 IDLES at 30°C.
could you possibly remove the cooler and take a pic of the mating surfaces BEFORE you clean them?

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

its feels kinda warm, i ran ati tool for 5 mins, it got up to 73c, its good that u asked, the bottom plate of the cooler was kinda close almost touching the solder points on the gpu core, so to be safe i put a few dabs of electrical tape, agian my temps are 55c idle to 73c load, i have the cooler set to full rpm with defaults clock, but it sure lots nice hears a pic of it

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

hd3850

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

sure thing, i'll send one tommorow, occhh come to think of it, i did put alot on, i've always assumed more silicon is better

 

[Random Murderer]

sure thing, i'll send one tommorow, occhh come to think of it, i did put alot on, i've always assumed more silicon is better

NO!
lol. just a dab in the center. it'll spread out and make a thin cover when you put the heatsink on.

 

[sneekypeet]

Just about the size of a 1/2 a grain of rice. Too much will deffinately kill the heat transfer!

 

[TonyStark]

Interesting. I made a thread here about this same cooler and my HD3870. I put more than a grain of rice worth of paste. I'll try with less paste and report back in about 10 minutes.

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

cool thanks for the heads up random, so after when i install everything once more, what kinda temps should i expect with a room temp of 60f

 

[sneekypeet]

Being it has a lower 2D clock your temps should be almost ambient...the both of you!!!!!!!

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

hey tony what temps are getting with your hd 3870........?????

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

i know its off topic, it doesnt show memory temps in riva tuner, and for ati tool its at 99c when i click on artifact scan, my old x1950pro shows both core and mem just fine, along with the previous cards i've owned

 

[Random Murderer]

that's not the memory temp, it's the temp of the temp chip itself. and this is a known error with the 38x0 cards, nothing can read that temperature data right now.

 

[TonyStark]

hey tony what temps are getting with your hd 3870........?????

Just reseated the cooler and let the fluffy cube rotate in ATI Tool for 5 minutes. Temperature flatlined at 72°C. I'm pretty disappointed. Last night it was hitting about 68°C. Oh and the heatsink was warm to the touch, while my CPU heatsink is quite cool.

Thermal paste used: ZM-STG1.

 

[Random Murderer]

Just reseated the cooler and let the fluffy cube rotate in ATI Tool for 5 minutes. Temperature flatlined at 72°C. I'm pretty disappointed. Last night it was hitting about 68°C. Oh and the heatsink was warm to the touch, while my CPU heatsink is quite cool.

Thermal paste used: ZM-STG1.

ouch. you guys must be doing something wrong. mine stops dead at 55°C.

 

[TonyStark]

ouch. you guys must be doing something wrong. mine stops dead at 55°C.

Here's a picture of a surveillance camera I installed:

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

its good to hear im not the only one having problems 3800 series cards, tony u should try like i am putting only a thin layer of paste just as (random) said

 

[Random Murderer]

Here's a picture of a surveillance camera I installed:

 

[TonyStark]

I did. My results were better last night when I used a whole bunch of thermal paste.

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

hehe very nice, im not sure wtf is going on, but i sure would like to find out, my temps should be killer, strange thing is my back up rig with the x1950pro and oced a little 40c core 35c mem rpm 54% with stock cooler for example,

 

[Random Murderer]

i know its off topic, it doesnt show memory temps in riva tuner, and for ati tool its at 99c when i click on artifact scan, my old x1950pro shows both core and mem just fine, along with the previous cards i've owned

actually, i've just been told that this is the % usage of your gpu core...

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

i've looked through tony's thread it states dont use the washers, so yeah i'll try the some things u listed i'll post back tommorow, btw thanks guys for the help

 

[TonyStark]

Reseated the heatsink with a thick layer of ZM-STG1. Temps down to 37/65 (idle/load). The AS5 comes in the mail on friday, hopefully it will improve temps a few degrees.

Ambient/room temp: 24°C.

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

ac5 is da bomb, u well see more like a 5 to 10 drop