Noisy, hot 4890

[dyckah]

hey, i just got myself a new xfx 4890, and this thing runs really quite warm(idles at 60C with fan speed @ 55%, while gaming, hits 85+ at anything under 90% fan speed, and 90% already sounds like a jet engine taking off!), and when i crank up the fan speed to combat that, its actually louder than the Two 133cfm scythe fans i have on my fan controller cranked up to max.
i find this quite annoying, as unless i then crank up the speaker volume, i have trouble hearing what is said during cut scenes while im gaming.
im looking for a good aftermarket cooler for this card, that, most importantly, is quiet.
watercooling the card is an option, as my current loop may be good enough to handle adding in the gfx card(right now cpu only loop on a 120.3 radiator)
the card is the XFX Radeon HD 4890 HD489XZSFC
http://img.ncix.com/images/42996_l.jpg

[CharlieCS]

Well your loop has enough rad to handle the card another thing you can try is to re-tim the card , might solve your problem because the cooler seems to sufficient otherwise.

[Neuromancer]

Yah I fixed my stock cooler up with some AS5 and a couple of remounts and temps are great. I have the shroud style blower model that exhausts out the back though not out both ends

Cheaper to try that out before spending money on a 3rd party cooler. However if silnce is your goal than absolutely go water or 3rd party cooler :)

[dyckah]

Well your loop has enough rad to handle the card another thing you can try is to re-tim the card , might solve your problem because the cooler seems to sufficient otherwise.

redoing the tim would only solve half my problem.
the other half of my problem is the noise factor.
thing is like a friggin jet engine in my bedroom.
also, somewhat undecided about putting it under water, not quite sure if i wanna be spending like $100 more to keep this card cool and quiet, what are some good aftermarket aircoolers that would fit?

[Neuromancer]

Well retimming reduces the noise alot.. mine idles on auto at 50C.. gets up to about 70C gaming when the fan kicks up to about 40-45% speed. At idle its dead silent at 20%

[hank123]

look what water block i have cooling my cards in sig. cheap and work well. it would work good for you if something is cooling your vram and such.

check it out!
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=620998

[dyckah]

well, tomorrow i shall try retimming it, and see how that helps out my temps.
if that is a good enough improvement, and i dont need to crank it up to jet engine speeds, then i shall call it good, and leave it at that.
if not, i guess i shall have to look into some aftermarket cooling
removing the cooler is just basically taking the four screws out of the backplate, and then it should almost fall apart?
or is there something else im not seeing?

[Neuromancer]

I dont have that type of cooler so I cant help you with how to remove it.. Mine is 4 screws for hte heatinsk and another 12 for hte metal platat that the shroud attaches too (that you have to remove to get the heatsink out of the shroud. Was very annoying LOL

That design SHOULD cool the core better and be quieter than mine though. However I think mine handles cooling the VDDCs better which is important when I am pushing towards 1100 MHZ core speed in bench sessions :)

[dyckah]

kk.
and one last quick question here before i head to bed for the night, what is under each of the circles i have drawn on the card?
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/5029/4890x.jpg
the red circle, while the computer sits at the desktop, is hot enough to nearly burn myself on the plastic cover, while the blue circle is almost cold to the touch

[mxthunder]

Thats probably because the VRM's are under the red circle. They are actually the hottest part of these cards.

[dyckah]

so i go and take off the cooler this morning, and revealed a mountain of thermal paste!
cleaned it all up, and applied some AS5
heres a look at the insides of the card, and the underside of the cooler. should there not be some sinks on anything other than the core of the card?
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5662/kevin00324045971.jpg
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/9604/kevin00314040212.jpg
and update for temps, it still idles at 50C with the fan at 50%, and with the fan at 75% (loudest i deem acceptable to my ears), it still reaches temps of 90C while playing some Dragons Age

[Nebulous]

No ramsinks either?

[dyckah]

no sinks of any kind on the board, other than the one big main one on the core

[Nebulous]

Dayum. No wonder that sucker warms up. You might have to invest in some low profile ramsinks and get some sinks on the VRM's as well.

[dyckah]

so basically i wanna do something like this to my card?
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/3743/sinked6231542.jpg

[hank123]

Is it your Vregs that are getting that warm or your GPU?

[dyckah]

it wherever that CCC, and HWMoniter take the temps for the GPU from

[Nebulous]

so basically i wanna do something like this to my card?
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/3743/sinked6231542.jpg


Exactly! However bear in mind the height of those sinks and the stock cooler you have. There could be a clearance issue so be sure to get measurements.

[dyckah]

and doing that should help lower the temp read in CCC?

[Neuromancer]

Dont even bother with it.

You were right you need a 3rd party cooler.

For the price of enough ramsinks you should be able to pickup a decent cooler that includes all the sinks you need.

Sinking hte RAM and VRMs will not lower the temp that CCC reports, it is just good practice


However.. before you order..

Clean off that mountain of TIM, and apply a very thing coating then remount the stock one. And test temps.. if the still suck try remounting the heatsink again. Sometimes the mounting can be off less than a 1/16th of an inch and skew the capabilities of the cooler.


I am totally shocked though that there are no VRM sinks. The 4890 is a real juice pig (mine LOVES the volts, up to 1080 core at 1.4325v in 3d01 stock cooler :) )

[dyckah]

i did clean off the TIM, and reapplied a very thing layer as AS5, and the temps still suck, but i shall try to remount it a little later this afternoon

[hank123]

Just as a note my Vregs when im folding run up around 90c. nice in hot.

[mxthunder]

what i did:
http://p1.bikepics.com/pics/2009%5C12%5C09%5Cbikepics-1850391-full.jpg

silent cooling, and my vrm's stay under 60C

[dyckah]

i dont think my board is of reference design, so i think that limits my choices for aftermarket coolers somewhat, does it not?

[CharlieCS]

XFX has a great warranty but they do cheap out on non-reference designs .Before you get another cooler , which like you sad might not be fully compatible , another thing you can try is to remove to shroud from the card and if your case has a mounting for side panel fan , use it .Thermalright HR-03 should has enought clearance to mount .

[dyckah]

my case is the HAF 932, i have 4 medium yate loons on the side panel for intake, and one on the bottom, also as intake, blowing up onto my card.
there should be plenty of air flowing over the card, afaik

[dyckah]

well, i cooled down my 4890!
got myself the MCW60 Rev. 2, and a bunch of ramsinks, and now my card is much happier, with 32 degreee idles, and like 45 degree load temps!