HEAT and the
Sapphire X1950 Pro AGP Card
After power the biggest problem with these cards seems to be heat. First of all consider your power. Make sure you have PLENTY of power for this card before you start worrying about heat. Fact of the matter is that my card runs a little hot at full load but not beyond what I read is fairly normal. Mine out of the box at full load runs around 71c. Personally I thought that was a little high and was the entire reason I started doing research. Oh and for the record I am running version 6.11 of the ATI catalyst device driver only. I had the Catalyst Control Center loaded for a while but have since removed it. I now have ATI Tray Tools installed. The reason I mention this here in the heat section is that ATI Tray Tools is the only program I have found that controls the fan. That's what I was looking for, a way to turn the fans up and to monitor the temperature of the GPU. I will talk more of this in the driver section. Since getting control of the fans I have now dropped the temperature to between 59 to 64c by running the fans at 90%.
To me this is too much and my next project is to pull the card and take a good long look at the heatsinks. I think I can improve on the cooling of this card.
WARNING! I just got an email (3-10-07) from a gentleman in the UK named Gary. He took a look at his card and found that half the memory pads were not touching the thermal tape. He had to modify the stock heat sink by filing to get it to seat properly. Also the thermal grease applied to the GPU was applied too thick and sloppy. Mine was ok but since so many have had temp problems I am now suggesting everyone who buys one should remove the stock heatsink and check and replace the stock GPU grease, and make sure the memory pads are in full contact with the tape.
UPDATE 2/8/07
Well today I did some more reading. Everyone seems to like the ARCTIC COOLING Accelero X2 and the reviews I read sound pretty good. As its only about $20 from NewEgg I am probably going to go that route. Its not worth the time for me to build something when I can purchase a much better cooler for 20 bucks. I will still probably play with trying to make it more efficient. Heat is the killer in electronic equipment. So I do everything I can to reduce temps.
UPDATE 2/10/07
I ordered the Accelero from NewEgg trouble is it needs an extra heat spreader to do the voltage regulator modules (VRM's) and I can't figure out if it is included. NewEgg tells me to look at the pictures and I don't see it OR contact the manufacturer. Well I emailed Artic Cooling but haven't heard from them. My guess at this point is that its not included it only costs about a buck from Artic but the shipping is $5 and it looks like it has to come out of overseas. In fact I just went and checked and can't find it listed in their parts list. Sheesh. Well I will email them again AND go to some local distributors this weekend and try and find one. I might have to make my own...
I also read reviews of the Zalman VF900-Cu and although it gets good marks. I don't want to spend the $50 or so it costs. I will stick with the Accelero for the time being.
Oh and just got my UPS shipping info. It will be here Wednesday... now to find that heatspreader...
I went to the local MicroCenter store today as they are a dealer for the Arctic Cooling products. However they didn't have the Accelero X2 nor the heatspreader. Oh well. Now I did stumble across another item. An Antec Cyclone Blower which mounts in a slot just below my video card and sucks air out of the card (er case) to the outside of the case. I am watching temps now and see I am getting a 1 to 2c lowering at this point. That helps but was hoping for a bit more. Oh well every little bit helps.
More and more I am worrying about the temps. I did a little digging tonight and found what looks to be the ultimate cooler for this thing the Zalman Fatal1ty FC-ZV9 and although it is 44 bucks from NewEgg it sure is looking good. Construction etc is great from what I read and performance is superb. I like the fact that they took the time to nickel plate the unit and that it is an upgraded version of the VF900-CU which everyone thought was so great. Because of the price I may skip it but if you want the best I am thinking this might be it. I emailed Zalman trying to see if they would send me one for this review. They never responded. Oh well.
UPDATE 2/12/07
Things are not going well here. I sent two emails last week to Arctic Cooling for that heatspreader and no anwer yet. I have been in contact with the guy that runs their parts department on Ebay. They had sold out the part hence why I couldn't find it listed, and now have it back in stock. Thats the good news. Bad news is it will take a couple of weeks for me to get one. SO I said no. I will just have to make my own spreader. Oh well I am pretty handy I can handle that. It will slow my install and testing down some but I will keep you posted.
UPDATE 2/13/07 er 14 since its 2am... lol
WOW great news. When I told the guy in parts not to bother I would make my own he got in touch with someone at Arctic and a young lady emailed me, said if I still need that spreader for my review that she would get me one right away! Also she was quite upset that no one had answered my email and asked me what address etc did I send it to, presumably so she could make sure nothing like this happens again. WOW now that is customer service. SO... I should have all the parts to put this thing together by the weekend. I hope. lol. Arctic sure went up several notches in my opinion.
UPDATE 2/16/07
Well I have the Accelero X2 here but not the heat spreader yet. It is in transit as the tracking says. I am a bit anxious drumming my fingers on the desk here waiting to get started testing etc. I did take the X2 all apart and the construction is pretty good. I hooked power to the fan and felt for airflow. I know not very scientific.. hehe... and I couldn't feel a whole lot. Trouble is the exit for air is huge.. this thing would pass a LOT of air over the sinks. I am considering mounting another fan on top this one to move even more air. That would probably be overkill though. Oh and with full power hooked up to this fan I could not hear a thing. Absolutely silent so that is a good sign for you worried about noise. For me I have a ton of fans in this box already and the noise is pretty high so it will not be an issue with my machine. Weekend is here so I don't expect to get started till next week.
UPDATE 2/17/07
Interesting situation. This card has been running stock for about 10 days now and my temps have steadily dropped. Originally it pretty much stayed around 64C at full load. Then I added the Antec Cyclone Blower, a slot blower that sucks air from below the card and exits it out the case, and my temps dropped a degree or two. Each day I look at the temps they have steadily dropped down. They used to vary a bit going from 59 to 62C but now have sat pretty steady at 55C! This is quite a drop. My guess is the thermal pads have melted and now make better contact that when I originally installed the card. That's the only logical thing I can think of. If any one else has seen this let me know. I am pretty happy but will install the Accelero X2 and hope for even cooler temps. NOTE... the 55C temp could never be duplicated. Found that ATI Tray Tools temp reading in the taskbar would sometimes "stick" at some temperature not update like it should. I noted it later in the testing.
UPDATE 2/18/07
Great news... heatspreader left Hong Kong on 2/15 and arrived here in Michigan this morning. So Monday I should get delivery!!!!! I will start dismantling the old sink and taking a good long look at it. Then installing the new Accelero X2. Stay tuned folks.
UPDATE 2/19/07
Heatspreader is here.. now lets get to work. A reader emailed me and asked for step by step directions on installing the Accelero X2 so I will include pictures and arrows etc.
MORE TO COME