Are my gfx cards worthless? or am i misconfiging?

[lilbirdy2183]

OK!, I built this system back in 2009 I have dual"crossfired" Asus EAH4850 Radeon HD's I ve had constant problems with overheating, heres my build I know its outdated but I need suggestions on fixing the problem so I can sell or upgrade what I have..

Processor: Core 2 Duo 775 E8500 3.16x2
Motherboard: Asus Maximus Extreme
Ram: Gskill ddr3 1333 8gigs
Case: NZXT tempest Full tower 6 Case fans 1 door fan
Monitor 22' Asus VW222U
Graphics:2 Asus EAH4850 Radeon HD
Hard Drive: 500 GB Seagate Baracudda
DVD Rom Drive
DVD Burner Drive
7.1 Channel HD Soundcard via riser

In the bios are there any settings that could fix overheating? is there some settings i m missing in the catalyst control center? I bought a really extravagant MB at the time and It has so many settings I really don't know how to configure it.i run everything on auto, the manual basically says install the cards and hook up the crossfire cables, it seemed to work fine in the beginning I was giddy like a school girl playing bf2 unreal and counterstrike, but when i tryed it with crysis, it had a crysis lol,


My only real goal for the pc is to play a couple simple 2k10 sports games and Battlefeild 3,without overheating! please help,

I m looking at this Sapphire hd5670 est 70$
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Sapphire Radeon HD5670 512MB DDR5 VGA/DVI/HDMI PCI-Express Video Card

Price of Advertised Item: $67.95

Mfr Part Number: 100287VGAL
Chipset: Radeon HD5670
Core Clock: 775 MHz
Video Memory: 512MB DDR5
Memory Clock: 4 GHz
Memory Interface: 128-bit
Bus: PCI-Express 2.1 x16
RAMDAC: 400 MHz
Max. Resolution: 2560x1600
Connectors: VGA, DVI, HDMI
Thermal: Dual Slot Fan with automatic fan control
Support HDCP - High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection
Support ATI CrossFireX Technology
Support ATI Stream Technology
Support Microsoft Windows 7
Support Microsoft DirectX 11 and OpenGL 3.2
HDMI 1.3 Support Dolby TrueHD and DTSHD Master
400 Watt or greater power supply recommended (500 Watt for ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode)
Package: Retail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[lilbirdy2183]

what should my pci express bus speed be in the bios?

 

[purple stain]

What is the make/model of your PSU?

What makes you think they are overheating? What are your load temps?

Well the 5670 is about equal to a 4850 in performance so I would suggest going with at least a 6850 to make it a worthwhile upgrade.

 

[Badfinger]

Yeah the replace the paste with Arctic Silver 5 or better under the heat sinks on each card and clean the fans couldn't hurt.
Even replace with 3rd party fans, if those fans are really terrible.

I agree 68x0 would be what I would want now for a video card if Radeon at least, but if your budget can't tackle that one I linked (a 6790) at a fair price point, then I'd work on your current cards.

5 egg 6850: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150515

I havent been looking at cards lately, so not sure what's considered the best when worrying about HEAT concerns.
256bit cards run hotter (higher power requirements, hmmmm) than 128-bit cards, that's pretty much why I think 128s are still made/sold.

I would want a 700W power supply at least if I was running those two 4850s, you have to pay attn to so much when you build your own PCs, it's not for the squeamish.

 

[swifty_morgan]

the bios setting should be 100 but set on auto it's supposed to be 100........ those cards were always hot. the only thing to do is pull the heat sinks off and re-apply thermal paste and make sure the heat sink fins and fan are clear of dust. then check for adequate air movement.

 

[lilbirdy2183]

my psu is 550 watt roseweil

 

[Badfinger]

my psu is 550 watt roseweil

Yeah that 550 could be trouble....

Check this out....

http://www.matthewb.id.au/power/computer_power_consumption_calculator.html

 

[purple stain]

The FSB is 200mhz.The PCI-E bus runs at 100mhz.They are totally different things.

 

[purple stain]

Whats the model number for your Rosewill PSU?

 

[lilbirdy2183]

brb ill find out what it is forsure

 

[purple stain]

What are you load temps for each of the GPU's?

 

[lilbirdy2183]

lol, problems, apparnetly when i was installing the new drivers for the graphics cards,, somehow there was a surge, i heard a zoot and a sizzle, both of the cards are burned up now, looks like i have an excuse to upgrade, now the question is what should i upgrade too, i m looking at something in the 170 dollar range, the psu is 600 watts btw,

 

[purple stain]

If you still have warranty I would suggest trying to keep them alive as long as possible.Their are rumors that AMD will release a couple new cards next month.