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3870 Ultimate (yeah, the passive one) temps

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caius112

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Hey everyone,

Please don't flame me to death if this has been discussed before, I *did* search, and haven't found anything.

So... I've just bought this Sapphire HD3870 Ultimate, with the gigantic passive cooler. Yep, I realize there aren't many O/Cing possibilities here, but that's beside the point, since it's perfect for me for not having to buy and install a 3rd party cooler, and it's really cheap and powerful.

It comes at stock speeds, needless to say... I haven't even tried to o/c it. But, what worries me, that it usually operates at 100 C under load (55 C when idle). Isn't that a bit too much, even for a passive card? Is the cooler faulty? Should I return it?

Thanks for the insight.
 
the card might be ok, but you should create at least some kind of airflow in your system...

the heat has to go somewhere and if all the air in your case is heaten up then the passive cooler has nothing to cool the card with. especially for passive coolers the temperature gradient between the gpu (hot) and the surrounding air (cool) should be signifikant.

besides that, 100C is safe for the gpu and as long as it not climb above 110 or maybe 115C the card should not throttle down.
 
Okay guys, this time round, its getting serious :(

I've spent the better half of this day figuring out why is there a kind of micro-stuttering in my otherwise smooth games after 15-20 mins of gameplay... Eventually, it turns out that its because my card goes up to the 115-120 C range! My comp case is fully open on both sides (meaning the sides are removed), and theres even a nice big cpu fan, right next to the vid card... And its not even particularly warm over here, its 24 C in this room.

What do you guys say, is there a way of cooling the card a bit, or should I just swap it tomorrow for a Toxic?

Thanks in advance
 
strap on a 120 mm fan and whirr away.
 
I would recommend the Toxic and it comes with a nice bundle! I have one and it dosn't go above 60c on load if i remeber correctly!

Edit: By the way how is the cooling in your pc and what type of case? Most likely the hot air from the cpu is getting to your card and causing it to go high.
 
[I.R.A]_FBi said:
strap on a 120 mm fan and whirr away.
Click to expand...

Yup, this and I would take off the Passive cooler, and replace the TIM with MX-2. The fan and better TIM should keep your temps 20-30c cooler.
 
Paulieg said:
Yup, this and I would take off the Passive cooler, and replace the TIM with MX-2. The fan and better TIM should keep your temps 20-30c cooler.
Click to expand...


+1 there.. It has been seen with the 3870's that some cards are just better with the stock cooler still on there... Mine ran about the same with stock or a VF900, but RM's ran cooler still with stock on.
 
Thanks for the quick replies

FBi's reply made me remember that my cpu cooler came with this RPM-control-knob-thingy... I found that with the RPM turned up, I get around 90 C (GPU, that is) in Crysis after 30 mins, and no stuttering.

This is perfect for me, since when I'm not gaming, I just turn down the CPU fan's RPM, and I still got myself a silent rig. With the fan turned up, the amount of noise is ca. the same with an active gpu cooler, but that doesn't really matter in-game, the game is louder anyways.

Thanks again guys :)
 
caius112 said:
Okay guys, this time round, its getting serious :(

I've spent the better half of this day figuring out why is there a kind of micro-stuttering in my otherwise smooth games after 15-20 mins of gameplay... Eventually, it turns out that its because my card goes up to the 115-120 C range! My comp case is fully open on both sides (meaning the sides are removed), and theres even a nice big cpu fan, right next to the vid card... And its not even particularly warm over here, its 24 C in this room.

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

I must clarify something here.

Micro-stuttering can only be found in Crossfire systems (as well as the 3870X2) because of inconsistencies between the frame outputs caused by the crappy AFR system that ATI employs. The reason why you experience stuttering (and I would imagine it's pretty bad) is because your card throttles back to 2D clocks at those high temperatures.

Before strapping a 120mm fan to the back, I would re-TIM the heatsinks with MX-2 or that AS-5 stuff. Who knows what Sapphire might be using under those heatsinks, maybe thermal pads? :p
 
That's a passive cooler for ya. If it doesn't have a fan or a waterblock I'm not using it. BTW I'm using 2 3870x2s right now & I don't experience any micro-stuttering at all. I think ppl are just over analyzing the AFR mess. But I guess that's why its called micro-stuttering :rolleyes:
 
I'll bring the card over to my friend tomorrow who's more experienced with this stuff. I'll report back on how it went. Thanks again :)
 
I have a http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=276 cooler on my 3850.

Look, its not smaller than YOUR "Ultimate" cooler. The difference is that on the ultimate, the heatpipes take the heat over to the REVERSE side of the GPU so that is it close to the CPU cooler. The air off the CPU cooler therefore helps the GPU radiator to cool.

So, in fact, the "Ultimate" DOES REQUIRE ACTIVE COOLING, but from the CPU cooler. If you have a low power CPU and FAT heatsink so that you have no, or low, fan on the CPU, there isnt enough incidental airflow to keep the GPU cool. If you have a Xeon mainboard where the CPUs are far from the PCIex16 slot... there will be NO cooling. Likewise, if you crossfire the Ultimate, or if you stick it in the SECOND PCIex16 slot... there is no incidental wind from the CPU cooler.

Look again at http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=276. It's active. I suggest you put a small fan onto your GPU cooler. If there is no room to do that, get one of the Zalmans.
 
150 degrees? :eek:

Personally, im using a passive cooling system on my GT in an antec 900, so a good airy case from the start, and idling at 36 degrees celcius. Something deffinately not right there, i suggest like the rest of these guys are you buy a new one, a better one should i say or slap a fan on it. Or improve airflow in your case. Scary temps!
 
tofu said:
Before strapping a 120mm fan to the back, I would re-TIM the heatsinks with MX-2 or that AS-5 stuff.
Click to expand...

If you are going to use Arctic Silver 5, please take VERY good care of not getting it ANYWHERE other than directly over the GPU die. AS5 is electrically conductive, and if you put a little too much on, you could damage or kill your card.

MX-2 does not have that problem :cool:
 
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