X1900XT - naturally hot or just poor cooling?

[Neeyik]

Finally got my hands on a X1900XT to play about with and I've been rather shocked at how hot this Sapphire sample gets - it's certainly the worse I've ever seen (and that's from testing at least 400 boards over the years) but I don't have enough reference data to ascertain as to whether the chips themselves are just naturally very hot or whether I need to muck about with the cooling on this board.

Could anyone offer their own experiences of this board (reference cooler designs only please) and how one resolved this issue?

[LuckyNV]

Naturally hot AFAIK, 2 mates have it with stock cooler

I burnt my finger tip touching the back.

1 is now using a Zalman fan bracket with a 120mm silent fan to blow down on his card, doesn't get quite so hot now.

edit - neither reseated their cooler that I know of.

[Shock_Hunter]

They just seem to run very hot, load temp for them can be anywhere between 80-95C for an XTX so I'd guess the XT is much the same..

Just pop zalman VF900-CU on there, should reduce temps about 10-15C and get rid of the noise.

[Radeon123]

Mine is about 55c idle and 80c at load normally, their hot little chips

[Ninja7]

Its not the cooling Neeyik, even the best air GFX coolers really struggle to keep them at "normal" temps.

Not sure how good its on water though.

[Ruzhyo]

Probobly close to my X1800XT, so I'd say they're just naturally hot.

The zalman VF700 works well for keeping it cooler and quieter at stock settings . Leave on the default cooler and crank the speed to 100% for overclocking. Stock just moves more air than the zalman, but sounds like a vacuum cleaner at those speeds.

I suppose the zalman could be better if you had a lot of airflow around it... maybe if you jimmie rigged some extra fans around it...

Oh, and if you're comfortable with it, you could turn down the voltage and see if she'll run that way. Mine does 600 core on only 1.2v, and there is a major temperature difference with that low of voltage.

[scott123]

Use ATI Tool and set your speed to dynamically ramp the fan up as the temp goes up. ATI's default fan speeds have been kept down to reduce noise. The only problem with this is the card almost catches on fire at default fan speeds. When I 1st got mine, I ran BF2 for about an hour in a 75 degree house. My GPU was near 90c . From day one I've used ATI Tool and now it never goes above 68c.

[Shock_Hunter]

Use ATI Tool and set your speed to dynamically ramp the fan up as the temp goes up. ATI's default fan speeds have been kept down to reduce noise. The only problem with this is the card almost catches on fire at default fan speeds. When I 1st got mine, I ran BF2 for about an hour in a 75 degree house. My GPU was near 90c . From day one I've used ATI Tool and now it never goes above 68c.

Good idea if you don't mind the sound of a mini tornado in your case. ..

[comjakun]

Good idea if you don't mind the sound of a mini tornado in your case. ..

I have a full fledged 92mm tornado in my case and I don't mind the noise.

[Shock_Hunter]

I have a full fledged 92mm tornado in my case and I don't mind the noise.

You is crazy.. [surrender]