Vrm
Hi Everybody! I registered because I suffered from the same problem with Furmark the furry donut, and I made some further research and testing. So, I have a Sapphire 4870 full, and until Furmark, everything was OK. Games at high detail with wonderful FPSs.
Some testing, and I came to the conclussion that the VRM is the badguy here. The temp was 126 C, exactly the same as dnottis. I used Everest Ultimate.
Some more testing, and i realized that the VRM amperage is too high. If i use 1280 fullscreen with noAA, or windowed 1024x768 noAA, the amperage is 82-84 A!!! I said WTF...If AA is 8x, the amperage is between 50 and 60. The crashes continued, and I was sure about an RMA.
After that, the whaddayasay SURPRISE came by the way
I changed forced vsync settings... Since then, FurMark runs just fine even in 1280 with noAA. And have a guess, the amperage fell to -60+ A - Everytime! So its absolutely nonsense. With 1x/2x/4x/8x/noAA I get amperage of 64 A or so. At the res. of 1280, I have the same 60-61-62 FPS with vsync and with no-vsync (the monitor is a 17"CRT - I know I know - next week -new 22" LCD
- So it has 70Hz refresh). Thus I think its just a software fault in FurMark, but not sure of it. All of you having the same exact problem should try this vsync thingy.
In addition I realy would like to see some Catalyst updates for better temps and better fan speed adjustments, because the stock 23%... though its silent, it is just a fly's fart... Change it to 30%, it is bearly audible, and its just enough, the card itself does 30% at 80C...SO WHAT?