4850 Fan throttling

[NinkobEi]

Ok guys, while playing games my 4850's fan revs up and revs back down constantly. Using 8.10 drivers. I have the speed set manually to 70% and my idle temp is usually pretty high (mid 60s I think). in game temps reach over 95C or so and it takes the card a while to cool down. is it about to die on me? I havent really overclocked it much at all...

[erocker]

Are you sure that the fan is at 70%? Does it make noise like it's set that high? If so, there's deffinitely something wrong with the card, or the heatsink isn't making proper contact with the core. When the fan throttles up like that you are somehow losing your settings. It could come down to a bad driver install.

[NinkobEi]

after setting the fan to 20% and back to 70%, there is definitely a noise increase. guess I could try the 8.11 drivers..

[Pinchy]

You sure its not temperature controlled?

Mine does the same thing, but thats because (for example) when it hits a certain degree the fan speeds up to a certain speed.

So if I set it at 100% for 80 degrees or more, it will make loads of noise when it hits 80*C, but then it will go back down to 79*C making it silent again...then back up to 80 with noise and so forth.

[erocker]

Using manual fan control when you set the fan at say 70% it should stay at 70% and not deviate from it. What I think is happening is something isn't stable with the drivers, it's throwing an error and reseting the fan settings.

[NinkobEi]

Originally Posted by Pinchy

You sure its not temperature controlled?

Mine does the same thing, but thats because (for example) when it hits a certain degree the fan speeds up to a certain speed.

So if I set it at 100% for 80 degrees or more, it will make loads of noise when it hits 80*C, but then it will go back down to 79*C making it silent again...then back up to 80 with noise and so forth.

I'm just using ATI catalyst to control my fan settings...there may be a built-in temperature control that causes the throttling (fan goes faster, cools down a degree or two, returns to my manual 70% setting...repeat).. I did notice a bit of stuttering when the fan starts to throttle..and this has only happened to me once so far. But it made me nervous enough to quit the program.

[Pinchy]

Originally Posted by erocker

Using manual fan control when you set the fan at say 70% it should stay at 70% and not deviate from it. What I think is happening is something isn't stable with the drivers, it's throwing an error and reseting the fan settings.

Yeah but there may be program clashes.

I know smart doctor (for asus cards) automatically sets its own temperature based thing (not sure if it will override CCC or not, as I dont install CCC )

[James1991]

i dont know what the Sapphire 4850's do but my manual settings with my MSI 4850's get overridden when they reach 105 degrees. The Sapphire cards might be set to override it at lower temperatures

[NinkobEi]

yeah, you're completely right james..its getting over 105degrees. crap thats hot...ambient temps arent even high

[James1991]

i just re-read your first post......mid 60's IDLE at 70% fan speed.
there has to be something wrong with that card .

at 60% mine dont go over 84 degrees. and they are overclocked to 660/1050

im just curious but can you run GPU-Z and see how many RPM the fan is doing when it is set to 70%?

[NinkobEi]

sure thing...turned it to 81% ;/

updated picture

[erocker]

There is something wrong. If your fan is truly at that speed and have those temperatures, you either have poor contact with your gpu and/or vregs and the heatsink, or their is something defective with your card.

[James1991]

you fan is doing 8700RPM...damn thats fast. i put mine up to 81% to compare them and mine is only doing 7200RPM and it is down to 48 degrees and still dropping.

how old is the card?, does the rest of your computer get really dusty because it is possible that there might be built up dust/hair or something in the cooler blocking air flow, therefore making it stay hotter.

if there is i dont know how you would clean it without taking the cooler off and voiding the warranty

[NinkobEi]

my card is one of the first ones that came out...computer shouldnt be dusty because its a little over a month old... perhaps I should invest in an aftermarket cooler and see if that works? but then that screws up any RMA I may need to do..hrm??
temps are a little better this morning @ 56, but I'm pretty sure the ambient temp has dropped at least 3-5 degrees over night. Guess I will try one of the new Xigma coolers and see if it helps...

[James1991]

personally i would just leave the stock cooler on it and if it goes bang from it overheating then just send it back.

if it is actually a faulty card it will probably die anyway even if you do cool it better.