Radeon X1900XTX - Bake sale !!

[nocrapman]

Hi everyone,
Finally bit the bullet and got the 1900xtx. Its a monster... huge and heavy. Basicall covers my MOBO from end to end. But what really shocked me was the temp readings... even after having read the the high temp issue in advance... i did not expect the temp to soar in a few seconds of 3D rendering from 40 to 65. Must say here that I am using the stock HSF, since performance benefits of the available AC and Zalman cooler were not very evident or consistent. Just fiddled with the fan settings etc on ATI tool - which is by the way an awesome program - to make the fan run harder. Not OCing yet.... so lets see.

So I am getting scores of about 4500 or so in 3Dmark06 and almost same on 05 also. I am not Ocing either my CPU or GPU yet. Would you guys say these are average scores. Seems like ppl who are Ocing their cards and/or have dual cores are easily getting double this number.

On a different note - ASrock MB has has given me no trouble. This was my first build - and I have used both 9800 pro AGP and now this monster on PCIe ... of course help on this forum and anandtech has been very valuable. Thanks all. I will be posting pics soon of my new rig. Any comments are welcome....

 

[MZ3692]

I don't think that score is the best a standard clocked X1900XTX can give you, unless you have a slow cpu. I have an X1900XT overclocked to above XTX speeds on stock fan. Ive seen temps of up to 83 degrees celsius so I don't think u have a temperature problem. Also, I say the score is not right because even without overclocking, I get over 5000.

 

[nocrapman]

might be cause of the X2

The dual core I have heard makes a score diff of a 1000 right away. Are you OCing ur CPU -- how much?

 

[MZ3692]

I have a decent overclock on my cpu... I got it from 2.2 to go to 2.55 Ghz.

 

[Ketxxx]

if your worried about temps remove the stock cooler and clean off the thermal crap they use and apply some AS Ceramique, should see temps fall 7-10c or so. you might also want to check the stock cooler for contact and pits, if the surface of the cooler has a bad machine finish get some course and fine grit sandpaper and sand to a smooth finish, that should also drop temps another 5-10c.

 

[MZ3692]

Can you use Artic Silver 5? Also, how much do you put and what should I use to spread it?

 

[Ketxxx]

no need to spread, even pressure is fine, use about 2 grains of rice worth. imo AS5 is crap, it conducts, pus has potential to mess with your card, unlike Ceramique, which has equal properties for cooling unless you consider 2c tops significant, and wont conduct.

 

[nocrapman]

1. Wonder why they rave about AS5 so much, or is it still good for the CPU set-up. Shud I plan to use ceramique on my CPU HSF which I am planning to replace soon?

2. How do I remove the stck HSF. Didn't see any standard screws - or did I over look. I was afraid I would break the damn thing.

3. Once I remove it and do my thing - does it go back easy?

4. If I do end up removing it - might as well order a AC accelero x2.... Any thoughts on that?

 

[MZ3692]

The ZALMAN Vf-700Cu cools better than the Accelero.

 

[uwackme]

hmmm

Viral marketing alert.

 

[Cybie1111]

The ZALMAN Vf-700Cu cools better than the Accelero.

And the Zalman VF-900 topples both of them. A bit pricey though.