Hot hot video

I have a 9800pro that appears to be overheating badly. I had a Vantec Iceberg on it for a while. The solid copper model that only cost 10 bucks, came with some copper sincs and paste, that I believe runs around 3000rpm, or higher, nice little deal.. That has worked for 2 years, but stopped cutting it and when I got the same model fan to replace the old one my card continues to over heat. Works fine if I'm not running a large application, but if I enter a game, and unless it's on lowest specs, it won't last long before crashing. I don't understand why it's suddenly getting hotter than it used to.

Is this a problem I can fix with better cooling, or is it perhaps time to get a new card?

lazy Specs: 2.08gig AMD cpu with a hunky copper core cooler master
1.5 gigs kingston 3200
nvidia nforce 4 ultra mb
9800pro 256mb

 

may be an obvious question, but did u put some thermal paste on there when u re-replaced the heatsink?

also, a 9800pro should hold out for a little longer, and it will give the newer cards time to drop in price. maybe u meant that u may NEED to get a new card cause yours is overheating but w/e lol

 

I have an ATI 9800pro All-in-wonder that would overheat right out of the box. It was unusable till I put a Zalman (VF700, I think) cooler on it. I had to modify the heatsink to fit with the tuner. This cooler came with ram-chip heatsinks. I also cut out my own heat sink for the tuner/theater chip which would get so hot you couldn't touch it.
I used Artic Silver for thermal grease, and cut a hole in my case so an 80mm fan will blow right on the video card and the cpu. It has remained cool for over a year. Except for the overheating problem, I have been happy with the card - don't think I'll buy another radeon though
I know I am stating the obvious, but like the last reply you might want to check your thermal grease, and make sure the heatsink is properly placed. Might not hurt to check the max rpm of the replacement fan, and make sure it is blowing the right way (lol . . . I hate to admit this but I did this with a case fan once . . . ). Other then that, I dunno. More case fans might help.

 

Have to agree was the fan and old GPU heatsink cleaned and thermal grease applied/refreshed?!?

Look if your not to phased about how the inside of your system looks but just concerned about perfomance here is a "ghetto" Vid Card mod that can significantly assist with cooling. Often Vid Cards focus on cooling the GPU but overlook the cards RAM (basically the top of the card) well this link shows how to create a cooling solution for about $5:

http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=271

Have a read.

 

2 questions -

1) Are you overclocking the Video Card?

2) What is the case ventilation like?

Could partly be becuase of the airflow through your case. Blowing hot air onto the Vid card is less effective than blowing cool air onto it. Otherwise I agree, the heatsink and/or thermal paste is likely to be the problem.

Do you have any temps you can post?

 

Thanks for all the great replies.

Yes I've been very careful to replace the thermal paste every time I place the sincs/fans w/e.

the new fan has the same specs as the fan that USED to WORK on it says it gets 5000rpm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835110103 But it has a very small surface area, so maybe I'm just not getting enough heat dispersion...

For my case I have a 120 mm fan blowing air into the front, with another blowing out the back, and a 80mm on the side blowing in, however it's too high to hit the video directly and doesn't do much good for my cpu either =(

Unfortunately my setup is already pretty ghetto, so I have no temp readouts to display. My only temp gage is my hand, and I can say for certain the heating issue is definately coming from the gpu. I don't know the exact temp, but I bet you could cook an egg on it, like close to 70º C when loading.

Because I have to check heat with my hand so often I generally have my case wide open.

I'm pretty willing to blow however much cash I have to on a cooler to get this thing running. It would definately be cheaper than purchasing a new card of the same caliber.
Could anyone recommend an excellent cooler?

 

Sorry for double posting. my I've expired my limit on 5 post edits? w/e

Bold Eagle, awesome link, I'm just about at the point where I would try something like that. Don't know if I have all the right tools though. Plenty of fans though =D

ram sincs would be a good idea. I have 2 copper sincs on, but not all of them are covered. hopefully if I go for a new cooler it will include some.

Oribital57, no, I'm not an overclocker.

Thanks again guys!

 

That heasink youv put on is tiny,way too small IMHO

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=36

check restrictions drawing first

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/downloads/compatibility/height_restr_ati1_r2.pdf

 

Sweet, I never looked that closely at the arctic coolers. The only thing I question about it is the 1500 rpm. I'm not really looking for silence as much as cooling power. Is there something similar to this that might supply more airflow?

 

Its one of the best the best coolers you can get,its quietness is a nice side benifit my 6800gt it keeps it below 50 degrees under full load,the stock cooler let it run into the 70's,look at the size of the fan large fan if it were going any faster than 1500 rpm it'd sound like a banshee

 

Okay, you sold me with that. Most appreciated Rikky! You're a cooool cat.

Thanks again for all the input, everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I had a Ati 9800 Pro, I had bought it used (kinda got shafted on it)... anyway it was overheated by the previous owner. I installed it and it was displaying artifacts and huge triangles across the screen and it would get worse as I played for a while. Anyway, I tried overclocking (with Ati tool) and the higher I would go the worse the symptoms would get. I noticed that it would only happen when I overclocked the ram, so I tried underclocking the ram. Oddly enough, it worked got rid of the triangles and artifacts, no serious drop in frame rates (which is weird). Bought myself some time, used the 9800 pro for 2 years until I started getting the (the inevitable) blue screen of death. I just bought a Geforce 6800 GS 256 Mb and am very content with its performance.

 

Yeah, I've decided to go with a geforce model when I upgrade. Radeons just seem to run hot, and the driver installation can be a PIA. I actually just bought an FX5200 for my wife's pc (it's an older HP) thought I'd run a geforce through some paces . . .

 

HEY! Thank you Rikky! I got the Silencer and brother I'm back in business. I'd almost lost hope. The right cooling really makes a difference.

Major Geeks rocks! Word to your mothers!

 

what are your temps like

 

Sounds like you need a new GPU cooler, remember your ATI 9800 is considered a PRO version (which is has an enhanced GPU and is overclocked, by default). There are still stores that carry videocard coolers for this type of videocard so it shouldn't be a problem, finding one..good luck!