Hi,

As some of you may remember, I built a new computer recently (I was posting a lot of blogs asking questions).

Anyway, me and my cousin built our computers together and have pretty much identical specs. The only difference is that I run Vista 64bit and she runs XP 32bit.

The odd thing is that our video cards (Sapphire Radeon 4870s) run at different temperatures...even when I'm not doing anything, mine seems to idle at around 55 celsius, while hers runs at 48-50.

Did I mess something up?

I can only guess that either my wire placement isn't allowing for good airflow to and from the GPU and/or that the 64bit thing is stressing out the card that much more.

Either that, or I just got a card that runs slightly hotter.

Shivaz

Canada1783 Posts

April 13 2009 20:47 GMT

Its the Vista 64bit, but its not too bad that it idles at 55.

T.O.P.

Hong Kong4685 Posts

April 13 2009 20:58 GMT

It's not odd to have two video cards run at different temperatures, even if they are both sapphire 4870s. Each video card is different. Some could overclock better, some generate more heat, etc.....

IzzyCraft

United States4487 Posts

April 13 2009 21:01 GMT

Vista off loads the gui to the gpu makes it easier on the cpu it's more balanced. Anyways from manufactures the use of cooler and thermal paste varies. I swap out stock coolers or at least redo the thermal paste with high quality ones when i buy a new card.

Also it can be your case ambient temperature your airflow can be stagnant under your card causes an whirlpool of hot air under your card. Alot of systems have that problem of not enough air flow easy to fix with a spot cooler or better/more fans

VorcePA

United States1102 Posts

April 13 2009 21:19 GMT

Also if you're running Aero on Vista. That uses the GPU, and any use of, will of course cause heat.

But yeah, no two pieces of hardware are the same,. especially if they came from two different manufacturers.

MamiyaOtaru

United States1687 Posts

April 13 2009 22:48 GMT

temperature is fine. Is your cousin hot?

bigsack

Korea (North)220 Posts

April 13 2009 23:19 GMT

On April 14 2009 07:48 MamiyaOtaru wrote:
temperature is fine. Is your cousin hot?

United States6173 Posts

April 13 2009 23:43 GMT

On April 14 2009 05:58 T.O.P. wrote:
It's not odd to have two video cards run at different temperatures, even if they are both sapphire 4870s. Each video card is different. Some could overclock better, some generate more heat, etc.....

Ah, I thought so. Thanks.

On April 14 2009 06:01 IzzyCraft wrote:
Vista off loads the gui to the gpu makes it easier on the cpu it's more balanced. Anyways from manufactures the use of cooler and thermal paste varies. I swap out stock coolers or at least redo the thermal paste with high quality ones when i buy a new card.

Also it can be your case ambient temperature your airflow can be stagnant under your card causes an whirlpool of hot air under your card. Alot of systems have that problem of not enough air flow easy to fix with a spot cooler or better/more fans

Could you point me to some aftermarket coolers/heat sinks and info on applying the thermal paste stuff?

On April 14 2009 06:19 VorcePA wrote:
Also if you're running Aero on Vista. That uses the GPU, and any use of, will of course cause heat.

But yeah, no two pieces of hardware are the same,. especially if they came from two different manufacturers.

What is Aero?

On April 14 2009 07:48 MamiyaOtaru wrote:
temperature is fine. Is your cousin hot?

On April 14 2009 08:19 bigsack wrote:

Show nested quote +

I leave that to your imagination.

IzzyCraft

United States4487 Posts

April 14 2009 00:36 GMT

For that card your temp is pretty fine.
Seriously some of those temps are crazy a few years back but your card is safe up to like 100c i believe lol although it really kills the life of your card but that life is for like 20 years anyways so it's easy to get 5 6 years even if your killing it
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835114024
A good varible spot cooler this is the easy solution should lower temp 5c at least if you have stagnant air flow

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=101
Arctic cooling is one of my favs for aftermarket cooling.
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=39_&mID=127
They also make a good thermal greese

http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=276
This is another one but i haven't used zalman for gpu cooler in awhile i suggest you look up temp benchmarks somewhere lol

The reason i use aftermarket coolers is so i can run them at 800-1400rpm for slient ish computing where all my fans are so i like my computer cool slighly overclocked and pretty quiet

Durak

Canada3685 Posts

April 14 2009 00:56 GMT

#10

Are the fans on your videocards running at the same speed?

VorcePA

United States1102 Posts

April 14 2009 01:34 GMT

#11

On April 14 2009 08:43 PH wrote:

Show nested quote +

What is Aero?

Aero is the graphical user interface set to default on computers running Windows Vista. It's different from all previous Windows interfaces in that it makes use of your video card to run certain aspects of it. It is comparatively more hardware demanding than the interfaces because of this.

You can disable Aero from start -> settings -> control panel -> Performance and Information Tools -> Adjust visual effects -> Visual Effects tab -> Adjust for best performance -> Apply