Radeon X1900XT - Running damn hot!

[Frostyr0d]

Hey all,

So i noticed this while i installed Oblivion yesterday, after 5 minutes of playing, ATI Catalyst Center showed the temperature 97C degrees!!! I have been playing WoW before, and it went up to about 85c.. which also is much.

I have not overclocked my card or anything.

I have 3 case fans (2 in the back and 1 in the front @ 1000RPM).

And i dont think that sensor is wrong, i touched the card and i burnt my finger!

Please help me!

 

[KingCody]

I googled a little and from what I read, the max temp for the x1900 is 120c. which is way more than enough to burn your finger. reguardless that max temp, it still seems way to high to me. personally i would want to cool that thing down alot!!

you have 3 fans, but they won't do any good if your case isn't neat inside it. what I mean by that is, are your power and data cables hanging all over the place?

1. any unused power cables should be stuffed in an un-used optical drive bay or other out of the way location that doesn't block airflow.
2. replace flat ribbon IDE and floppy cables with rounded cables
3. all remaining power and data cables that are used should be routed along the case perimeter and not just hanging freely

the above steps will greatly increase the airflow inside your case, but reguardless of cable organization, there is still another problem common to most systems... the video cards heatsink is on the bottom of the card, and there is not entrance or exit for air in the area under the video card, so much of the heat generated by the card will just sit in that poorly ventilated space.

there are a few simple ways to help with that issue.
1. if you don't use need all the PCI/PCI-e x1 or x4 slots on your mobo, then in many cases (such as mine) you can remove the unused PCI slot cover plates and install an 80mm fan there, make it an exhaust fan to suck out the hot air from the video card.
2. if you dont have room for that, then consider a PCI slot fan (they sit horizontally and only use up 1 PCI slot)
3. if you still want more cooling, then consider an aftermarket air cooler, or for even better cooling consider water cooling it (you can buy cheap standalone video card watercooling units that would do a decent job cooling, alot quieter too )

 

[CMH]

any temp above 80C will burn your finger. The higher it is, the faster it'll burn

Your 3 case fans are 80mms I presume? You might need a bigger case. Bigger cases usually help with the heat, and they come with bigger fan slots too. Bigger fans = more air for the same noise.

Aftermarket coolers are the way to go, just make sure you chose the right one. I've read enough reviews on the Accelero to say its not what I want cooling my comp.

 

[Frostyr0d]

Hmm yea, I have lots of cables inside my case. So I will try to do some "cable management"

I have a quite big case, ~52cm high. 3 120mm fans.

I installed a 80mm fan there, 2400rpm one, and the temps went down a little.. But the problem is that my new PCI Soundcard will come on Friday, so i wont be able to use the 80mm fan.

Well ill do some cable management.

 

[CMH]

cable management helps alot.

Like KingCody said, stuff unused wires into an unused 3.5" or 5.25" slot. Cable ties are great for making them stay there. If you don't want to spend money to get rounded ribbon cables, just roll them up like you'd roll a cigarette, and cable tie them like that. Some guys go to the extreme and actually cut the ribbon and tie them, but there's no real need to.

I went to the extreme of making my own wires, so I get exact length and number of power cables. Same goes for the ribbon cables, and I rounded them like I said earlier. I can do nothing about the SATA cables tho.... Too bad I spoilt the whole thing by making my own cable sheaths, now it just looks terrible, but in terms of neatness, don't think you can get any neater.

 

[KingCody]

lol... you made you own IDE cables??

that seems like a lot of work. why do you say they look terrible?

(rounded cables only cost $5 USD)

 

[CMH]

I made them... You can get those conenctors in hardware shops. It would've been much less trouble if I'd just bought one thats of exact length tho.....

It looks terrible because I used those shrink tubes to cover all the wires. I can't get it to terminate properly, so it looks terrible. I should've stuck with the black nylon.....

 

[CRGS05]

Ya...i also have a x1900 and i think i might have overheating problems as well. I also have oblivion installed on my computer. It runs fine for like the first 20-30min then...my entire computer freezes. After i reboot, it gives me a message saying it was a kind of "stop error". I send the error report and it says that it had something to do with my vid card. It also said something about " it StUCk in a loop". Tried their sloution of downloading the latest drivers but the problem still persists. Other than that other applications and lower graphpic quality games work fine. So im not sure if it is a overheating issue or is it a software issue. Any help would be really great!

 

[eazy_duz_em]

buy a proffesional cooling gadget..try watercooling.

 

[CMH]

Watercooling is not for everyone. In fact, I think that unless the person asks about watercooling, its safe to assume that the person isn't ready for it.

In fact, I also think that it should be made a rule that watercooling should NOT be suggested, unless the poster asks.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

The X1900 does run that hot usually. I have two of those monsters in Crossfire and their combined output is around 81-87C with w/cooling under full load. I do think u should get a good cooler for it though. Try the GPU cooler roundup on the TechSpot main page. That should help u out in case u don't want a watercooling solution.

 

[KingCody]

there is nothing wrong with suggesting water cooling, and you should never assume that you know what somebody else wants or doesn't want.

the title of this thread is "Radeon X1900XT - Running damn hot!"... frosty asked for help on how to cool down his hot video card. the whole point of this thread is to suggest different ways to cool it down.

making it a rule to not suggest something unless the original poster asks would defeat the purpose of the forum itself, and is a completely rediculous idea.

anyways, back to the original topic itself. Frosty, it's been a while since you said you were going to neaten up your cables. did that improve things for you??