Changing fan speed on HD4800 series, no bios flashing nor hard mods

[Farinorco]

I've just found a post from a guy at Beyond3D quoting another person at other forum on how to change the fan speed on 4800 series (maybe it works for other ATi cards as well, but I think the current trend is to have problems with temps on the new ATi cards ). No bios flashing, no hard mods required, only editing an XML file. I've not tested it by myself cause I don't have a card to do it, but other people at B3D has said it works. Here is the quote:

I'd love to take credit for this, but someone else came up with it. I wouldn't be surprised if the person worked for ATI either as it was his first post. Anyway, I'll cut to the chase. All you need to do is change just two values in the XML which is attached to an ATI Profile you created. I tried this and it worked perfectly, other than the noise generated by 65% fan speed as suggested. I'll experiment later. But it works and easy as anything. I edited his instruction just a hair. See below ....

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.ph...69&postcount=8 [NOTE from Farinorco: The link is broken in the quote I found, so I can't fix it. Anyway I don't think is needed]

Make a profile in catalyst after turning on Overdrive and make sure clock and memory settings are correct.

For Vista

Then go to the following location and open the following file for editing "C:\Users\Your Windows ID\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Your CCC Profile.XML. The xml file will have the same name as the Catalyst Profile you saved. right click and hit edit.

For XP

Then go to the following location and open the following file for editing "C:\Documents and Settings\Your Windows ID\Local Settings\Application Data\ATI\ACE\Your CCC Profile.XML. The xml file will have the same name as the Catalyst Profile you saved. right click and hit edit.

Now go down the page until you see the following lines in the XML file ...

<Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_0">
<Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="0" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_0">
<Property name="Want" value="23" />

Change the "Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value=" from "Automatic" to "Manual"

Then change "Property name="Want" value=" from "23" to your desired fan speed.
Save the file then reload the Profile you just edited in the CCC.

You will have to select the profile everytime you re-start the computer.

Edit:

After experimenting with my HIS HD4870 I found a fan-speed of 40% works best for me. My temps went from 79C at idle to 49C, and now 47C.

Backed off Fan to 35% like Runeman and still at only 48C. I'll take it.

I hope all of you having high temps on your brand new videocards can fix that problem with that

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

It does work. The fan is clearly audible at 47%, though. It sounds like sifting sand. I imagine it's quite annoying at 100%. That means hello Accelero, hello Turbo Modules, I guess. After a while it turns into a distant vacuum cleaner kind of sound, so it's bearable. It's just loud, but bearable. I imagine if I were to close the box, it would be more tolerable. Still, the fan on the 2600XT was practically the same and much quieter. I don't get as good temps as you do, by the way. 50-51 degrees Celsius for me with 47% fan speed.

 

[Freezer7Pro]

It does work. The fan is clearly audible at 47%, though. It sounds like sifting sand. I imagine it's quite annoying at 100%. That means hello Accelero, hello Turbo Modules, I guess. After a while it turns into a distant vacuum cleaner kind of sound, so it's bearable. It's just loud, but bearable. I imagine if I were to close the box, it would be more tolerable. Still, the fan on the 2600XT was practically the same and much quieter. I don't get as good temps as you do, by the way. 50-51 degrees Celsius for me with 47% fan speed.

Don't get the turbo module. It's overrated. A 40CFM 120mm will do better.

 

[Farinorco]

I don't get as good temps as you do, by the way. 50-51 degrees Celsius for me with 47% fan speed.

I don't want you to be mistaken about my role in this: I'm not the guy quoted in my post, I've not done nothing myself aside from Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V all this from other forum in order to you (users of 4800 series here at OCForums) being able to try this. I don't even have the card myself, so I don't get good or bad temps on it by doing this

Anyway, I'm glad to see that it works, even if the fan is becoming more audible, it's a free try, and maybe some people don't mind it if it can cool a little better their cards...

I also suggest to try to apply new TIM as well, there are reports of other people by here having improvements up to 10-20ºC only by doing that.

 

[jason4207]

Thanks for this!

I'm sure it'll come in handy.

As to the difference in anyone's temps at any particular fan speed...remember that ambients play a huge role, and as mentioned the reapplication of TIM can also help.

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

Yeah, I'm sure the original guy had more fans in the case and a better CPU cooler.

Speaking of fans, do I put a 12 cm on an Accelero without any problems? Are there holes or do I need to play around? Hah, I had a case fan hanging on cords in the 5.25'' bay once...

 

[Janus67]

I upped mine to 41%, barely audible, going to see what difference in temps it runs.