XFX HD4890 over heating problems

[gumshoe]

Hello, Recently I’ve been having really bad heat problems with my XFX HD4890 card, that has caused performance problems as well as crashing due to overheating.

This just started happening about two weeks ago. I can only play a game for about 10-15 minutes before the video card starts to overheat to the point where it needs to throttle it self. My card is not overclocked and I have not changed any settings at all. I have had this card since January and this is the first time that these issues have been cropping up.

The stock clocks on The Video card are: Gpu Clock 850Mhz ; Gpu Memory 975Mhz. At Idle the card sits at 80C with the fan running at 60%, when using MSI after Burner I can get the card to idle at 60C when the fan is running at 100%. I have cleaned out the video card using compressed air and it has not made a difference with temperatures.

Video card: XFX4890 XFX HD-489X-ZSFC Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 ... Driver version 10.7
Psu: Corsair VX550W
Motherboard: Gigabyte P55A-UD3
CPU: Core i5 760
Ram: G.Skill 4GB
OS: Windows 7 64bit Home Premium.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thank you.

 

[AsRock]

Any chance of a GPU-Z screenshots showing the high and low temps ?. Other wise is the fan running correctly ?.

I avioded that model as i believe it's not reference meaning getting 3rd party cooling can be tricky even more so when it comes to the VRMs.

If i did have that card what id do is to carefully take the plastic part of with the fan and add some of my own fans to it using some zip ties.

 

[gumshoe]

Here are the screenshots showing it at low and high temps. The fan is running correctly, except when the temperatures reach around 98C when the fan turns off for around 30 seconds and then turns on for another 30s, this happens until the temperatures lower and then fan runs at a steady speed.

The high temperatures are from playing l4d2 for about 10 minutes, the temperatures have gotten higher but i closed the game down at that point and took the screenshot before it could crash due to over heating.

 

[b82rez]

I noticed in the GPU-Z screen shots the RPM of the fan seems marked out..
Are you 100 percent sure the fan is running right? If not I say RMA it, XFX life time warranty!

 

[gumshoe]

Yes, the fan is working correctly I can see it spinning and hear it when its at 100%. I don't know why the rpms are blanked out in GPU-Z.

 

[b82rez]

I say RMA it if you can. XFX will give you a brand new card I reckon!

 

[christian27]

Yes, the fan is working correctly I can see it spinning and hear it when its at 100%. I don't know why the rpms are blanked out in GPU-Z.

Since you fan has only 2 wires coming out it, it hasnt a PWM sensor wich reports Rmp's on GPU-Z, so its ok if that field looks blanked out in GPU-Z, as for the high temps, you should try changing the factory thermal compound before RMA it, I did it on my vga card and got a drop in average temperature of 10 degrees.

 

[Widjaja]

XFX don't complain about people removing the heatsinks on their cards fortunately so green light for the thermal compound.

But yeah that core is running very hot!

Maybe the heat pipes have gone bad?

 

[proton_chain]

See if you have a 3 pin power connector of the GPU cooler's fan. If yes, then it might not be running properly and the RPMs are blank. If you have only 2 pin connector, then its OK and you have to check if the cooler is placed tightly over the GPU. Something is not right. That high temp is impossible unless you happen to be in an ambient of 45C. Even then, load temp must not exceed 90C. Heatsink and/or fan is not working properly.

 

[overclocking101]

yeah something i not making correct contact. take the heatsink off and take a pic of the part that conacts the core and post it.

 

[gumshoe]

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna take off the heatsink and apply from thermal paste tomorrow and see if that brings the temps down.

 

[Widjaja]

Good luck.

When I purchased my first XFX card it came with a faulty heat sink.
It was making contact but it still overheated which is why I came up with the possibility of the heat pipes gone bad.

My card had a Zalman VF830 though.

 

[j.col70]

XFX don't complain about people removing the heatsinks on their cards fortunately so green light for the thermal compound.

But yeah that core is running very hot!

Maybe the heat pipes have gone bad?

sorry to jump in with this but i seen the above reply

i was thinking of changing the thermal compound on my xfx card.
i contacted them, and they said if i removed the cooler, it will void my warranty
here is a copy of the message

ps. then they had the cheek to say i was out of warranty in a later message,
but the card is only 6 months old. LOL

so are they messing me around?

 

[phanbuey]

sorry to jump in with this but i seen the above reply

i was thinking of changing the thermal compound on my xfx card.
i contacted them, and they said if i removed the cooler, it will void my warranty
here is a copy of the message

http://a.imageshack.us/img830/6439/xfx.png

ps. then they had the cheek to say i was out of warranty in a later message,
but the card is only 6 months old. LOL

so are they messing me around?

Yes they are. They're idiots. One should never tell them or ask them anything like that. You're just giving them an excuse not to support you. Tell them you dont know whats wrong with it and that it is crashing. Tell them you paid for it and that you are an unhappy customer who feels like he has been lied to.

You will get a replacement or a 5770 or better in the mail in no time.

 

[Bo$$]

with those temps you should send it back and then they will send you a new one

 

[gumshoe]

Well, I took off the heat sink and noticed that it had some little pieces of copper missing and the heat pipes had some white material on them. I placed some new thermal paste on it, but it didn't really bring down the temperatures that much. Under load it still manages to reach over 100C in about 25 minutes, instead of the 15 minutes it took before before. At idle with the fan 100% it reaches 52C. I guess I'll RMA it and hope they don't notice that I took off the fan.

Thank you all for your help. I'll keep you informed on the RMA process if you'd like.

 

[proton_chain]

Good luck.. but I am not so sure whether they are gonna accept it, they might say you broke the heatpipe or added the "white material" or bla bla bla. But lets hope that doesn't happen. Its the best idea not to touch it and RMA it right away so that they don't have any excuse to show you. If they do, just remind them you are unhappy with their product and you know something about laws and they will be on the run

 

[Widjaja]

@j.col70
Wow they changed their tune for you huh?

When I had major heat issues like the OP they did not complain about me removing the heatsink.
It was their suggestion!

And whats worse is at the time I was REAL scared of taking GPUs apart.

There is a very old link here where I had dramas with my XFX 8800GT overheating.
Somewhere in there it should comment about how I was asked to remove the heatsink.

 

[phanbuey]

@j.col70
Wow they changed their tune for you huh?

When I had major heat issues like the OP they did not complain about me removing the heatsink.
It was their suggestion!

And whats worse is at the time I was REAL scared of taking GPUs apart.

There is a very old link here where I had dramas with my XFX 8800GT overheating.
Somewhere in there it should comment about how I was asked to remove the heatsink.

Companies like this noticed that they do lose alot of money through RMA's and returns. They do really try to avoid RMA at all costs. The easiest way is usually through the retailer as the stores RMA cards in huge droves. Especially with high heat, high power cards.