Radeon 4870x2 Temperature

Elem

My new radeon card is idling at 68 degrees but when im playing games it reaches 89 degrees.

Is that normal? Will my card burn out?

Overheal

It should be within tolerance for a Desktop card, especially a dualcore card. If you want to run it colder try adding more case fans and reworking your airflow to eliminate any pockets of still air.

A full cover watercooling block has become available for the card now as well

http://www.petrastechshop.com/dadenddfucow1.html

uberpixie

Elem wrote: »

My new radeon card is idling at 68 degrees but when im playing games it reaches 89 degrees.

Is that normal? Will my card burn out?

Normal: would only get worried if the card starts to hit 100 degress or higher.

What case do you have?

Overheal

realistically, 89 degrees is pushing 100. Good to look into it now before it becomes a problem.

Elem

My case is a Dell XPS 420 case, but it has two fans nearly aiming vent at the card.
I've been reading threw ATI forums, some people have said that the card is made to work at that heat, which I find hard to believe because i could cook my dinner on it.

And to be honest, it's just out of the box! So I'm not interested in spending another 140 euro on a watercooler for it when i just spent 370 on the card. I don't even know how i would install it in the case.

uberpixie

Elem wrote: »

My case is a Dell XPS 420 case, but it has two fans nearly aiming vent at the card.
I've been reading threw ATI forums, some people have said that the card is made to work at that heat, which I find hard to believe because i could cook my dinner on it.

And to be honest, it's just out of the box! So I'm not interested in spending another 140 euro on a watercooler for it when i just spent 370 on the card. I don't even know how i would install it in the case.

The x2 is a hot card.

My radeon 4870 with stock cooler regularly hit 80+ underload and ran quite happily. (I since replaced it for an artic cooling heatsink + fan as the stock cooler's fan was just annoying me). It really will work fine at that temp.

It's a hot running card, there are no aftermarket air coolers available for it and you would have to go water cooling atm if you wished to change the cooler.

All you can really do is try to impove the overall airflow in the case if you can and see if adding in better case fans/more will do the trick.

TerrorFirmer

The Club3D card comes with a good cooler, I had my 1GB OC'd model crammed into an matx case and it never hit even 80c at load, idled around 55-60c. In a normal sized case or even a small one with better airflow (I don't have any fans), it would be pretty damn fantastic.

Overheal

high performance top line cards beget high performance top line heat. try underclocking it.

uglyjohn

why not just turn up the fan settings? i'll edit this post later to put in the exact temp but i think my 3850 was hitting over 70 degrees pretty often. The stock fan settings were really low.
i turned up the fan in riva tuner and now the card is never over 50 even after i overclocked it........pretty noisey though!

Wonda-Boy

Them temps are perfectly normal for that card, what you have to remember is people who buy high end GPU cards usually have high end cases or cases with optimal airflow......

You can get ANTEC SPOT FANS and play them pointing at the GPU but really you need to get a new case....and something with a side panel blowing directly onto the GPU.

I have a Thermaltake Kandalf case with the 250mm side fan and it does wonders for keeping my GTX295 cool. That idles at late 40's and never goes about late 60's when gaming for hours, and the recommended temps for that card are late 80's also.....

extra-ordinary_

Yeh, those cards get seriously hot - and noisy! I changed to nvidia for this reason, although I could heat the room up in no time!

Wonda-Boy

Overheal wrote: »

high performance top line cards beget high performance top line heat. try underclocking it.

No offense mate but that is an absolutely ridiculous statement, who in their right mind is gonna pay absolute top dollar for a high end card and then "UNDERCLOCK" it....and all because in this case its running PERFECTLY NORMAL.

Seriously peeps would wanna stop throwing out ill advice.....;)

There are a number of things you can do....if you download riva tuner you can turn up the fan setting to hit 100% constantly but that will be noisey, or invest in better airflow.

As I said before if you invest in high end GPU's you should really have a case and setup to maximise the benefits.