7900GS with Thermalright V1 Ultra?

[yhelothar]

I just spent 2 hours fiddling with this thing. The installation was a pain in the arse. Things don't fit together well, and it generally took a lot of force to get it on.
I'm afraid I might've damaged my 7900GS while installing it, or I just didn't install it properly.

I won't get video now with the V1 ultra installed.
I followed the instructions very closely, and I installed it with great care(2 hours of patience), thus I'm quite certain that I did install it properly.

I'm running an old matrox PCI card right now, and it boots up fine.

Any ideas?

I tried touching the back of the card, and it was scalding hot, while the heatsink was barely warm.
Is it getting poor contact?

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: astroidea
I tried touching the back of the card, and it was scalding hot, while the heatsink was barely warm.
Is it getting poor contact?

Yes, it sounds like you are on the right track.

Tell us what you did to make contact between the GPU and heatsink, i.e. how much and what kind of thermal paste did you use, how tight the screws were, whether you can see any air space looking at the card sideways, what's on the RAM chips (if anything), etc.

Pics and/or details would be a great help.

You might want to double check compatibility. If your card is not the reference design, then it might be using a custom cooler mounting design that's not compatible. What is your card manufacturer and/or model? An Internet search should be able to confirm/deny this.

 

[Daverino]

According to Thermalright's website, the 7900GS is not on the list of cards compatible with the V1 Ultra. The other 7900 cards (GTX and GT) are listed though, but that's no guarantee. I noticed that resellers like NewEgg also don't like the 7900GS as a compatible card, but googling around did find one hit on a guy who installed it on a GS without problems.

 

[yhelothar]

I tried really hard to make sure it's getting good contact. But then again, the whole design didn't seem to fit together very well.
I used arctic silver 2 thermal paste.

 

[f4phantom2500]

how old is that as2?

 

[Laminator]

Did you buy it because it was $13? I almost got that thing...pictures would really help in this case.

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500
how old is that as2?

A good 4-5 years old.

Do they wear out over time? I thought one of the main points of AS is that it doesn't change composition over time?

 

[regpfj]

Please describe the symptoms with some more detail, if you could.

If the 7900gs overheats because of poor core contact with the heat sink, you'd at least get something out of it from a cold boot before it overheats. Do you get any video at all?

Try the GS after it's had ample time to completely cool. Take the side off your case and point a big, strong AC desk fan set to high straight into the machine. If you get zero output, I doubt poor contact would be the culprit.

Check the motherboard for LEDs indicating an issue at POST. Usually, one code will indicate a VGA issue. Your motherboard manual should be available on the manufacturer's website and it will help figure out what POST problems (if any) are occuring.

 

[jhurst]

I installed a Zalman ZV900 on my 7900GS in about 10 min., and dropped my VGA temps 15C on load (8-10C idle). I was able to find mine for $35, you usually get what you pay for.

Can you just put the stock cooler back on (with some fresh AS5)???

 

[Laminator]

The V1 Ultra is actually supposed to have the same/better cooling performance than the VF900 (which I have on my 7900GT; it works great), according to a review by Tom's Hardware. I guess no one really buys it anymore, though, hence the price.

 

[Synomenon]

The 7900GS isn't listed as a compatible card with the V1 Ultra. That's probably why, "Things don't fit together well". Try putting the stock cooler back on the card to see if it still works that way.