Would an aftermarket cooler help my 4850?

xrosseyed

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(By the way this isn't the 'fan fix' issue. I did that when I originally bought the card and have updated drivers since)

So I just bought borderlands to play with a friend. Its the first taxing game I've put my 1.5 year old 4850 through. After 3-4 complete system shutdowns it brought to light just how hot my 4850 is running. *Just* sitting at the desktop I'm currently at 83c and 36%fan speed.

When I play the game I have to bring the settings back in order to keep it under 100. Last night I was able to play for ~6-8 hours with no crashes (besides my friend's horrible driving). However, these temps are with a 2 foot box fan blowing directly on the open case (cooler master centurion 5) instead of the regular case fan. Its obviously not an ideal setup.

Would something like http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=101&language=en help me out at all or is this something more directly related to the cards cpu/heatsink? In other words, if a huge, loud power sucking box fan doesn't help it... what will?

(I also opened up the card last night to apply some arctic-silver. It wasn't that dusty in the plastic case unlike some people have found in other reviews. I hope to get another 2-3 degrees cooler as the silver has its burn in time over the next week).

Any help would be appreciated. I don't play too many high end games (dota and diablo 2 for the win) but these temps at idle are a bit concerning.
 

belial2k

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Have you tried manually adjusting the fan speed in CCC? Is it a model that vents out the back? If not, remove the expansion slot spacer on the back of the case directly below the video card to let it vent the hot air out of the case. Set the fan to 100% and see what your results are.
 

belial2k

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yeah, those single slot cards are notorious for heat build up unless you have great case cooling....open up the back of your case as much as you can, and if you don't have a front intake fan on the case you might consider adding one. You want to create a wind tunnel where all the air is being sucked in the front and then blown out the back as fast as possible. That will keep a pocket of hot air building up around the card and causing the issue you are having. Most of the really good aftermarket video card cooling solutions will cost more than replacing the card and will have limited effectiveness if the hot air has no place to go, so probably not worth it.
 
It's pretty high temp.
Could u show us what model is your card? Brand?

Mine HIS HD4850 is 59'C when idle and not exceeding 67'C when gaming, all with AUTO fan speed (31%)...

U said you've done reapplying the thermal paste, right?
Well, how is it now?
 
@zipzoomflyhigh:
My HIS also blows air out the back case and has dual heatpipes also larger surface fins... Sigh, and i paid $145 for that. DO u think the stock thermal paste which came with the card is bad?
I really want to make my card just as cool as yours...

@apesoccer:
My card is still under warranty, i couldn't remove the HS, if i do that then the warranty is void... :(
 

isett

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I have 2 Asus 4850s in crossfire and run the same idle temps and fan speeds as the original poster -I think that’s the default settings for CCC (about 80 to 83 degrees). Manually increasing the fan speed can reduce temps significantly –but only to a point. Also, running a utility for fan speed will allow lower temps and higher fan speeds at idle (eg Asus Smart Doctor –which doesn’t seem to run on Windows 7 64). But if your cards are still hot at 100% fan speed you might need additional case cooling, as others have suggested.
 

isett

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Also, if you want to see how CCC manages fan speed and temp, run the PC performance test under Vista or 7 with the ATI Overdrive window open -you can see GPU load, Temp, and fan speed as the performance test evaluates the graphics card.