9800 Heat Issues

[Toastedlightly]

My dilema: I have a 9800 AIW that is extremely hot. It has the stock tiny heatsink, and the heatsink is very hot to the touch. I was wondering if there is anyway I can remove the heatsink and put a new one on without voiding a warrenty I have from Circuit City? If I need to replace the card, is there anyway I could put the old HS on and have them not know the difference? Thanks in advance.

-Toastedlightly

 

[Nebor]

It will void the warranty. The stock heat sink is plenty sufficient for stock operation.

 

[Kobra]

Originally posted by: Toastedlightly
My dilema: I have a 9800 AIW that is extremely hot. It has the stock tiny heatsink, and the heatsink is very hot to the touch. I was wondering if there is anyway I can remove the heatsink and put a new one on without voiding a warrenty I have from Circuit City? If I need to replace the card, is there anyway I could put the old HS on and have them not know the difference? Thanks in advance.

-Toastedlightly

I had the same problem with my 9800Pros. If you research, you will find that there sometimes is a manufacturing flaw with the 9800's that prevents your stock sink/fan from seating tightly on the GPU, this is due to the border guard around the GPU not being level. - ATI tech support sometimes will confirm this with you over the phone..

The second problem, 9800's run hot. I never felt the really really cheap stock heatsink, made out of poor grade aluminum was sufficient myself. You can remove the stock one, strap on a VGACOOLER from Arctic Cooling and it will be way better.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/products/vga_silencer/

Google will yield some nice results on 9800 overheating issues. In the past, some ATI drivers have actually been responsible for blowing cards with overheating too. All I can say is, overheating has been a longtime issue with the 9800's, and it was another reason I left the ATI camp.

http://www.megagames.com/news/html/hardware/catalyst38maycauseoverheating.shtml

 

[Nebor]

Kobra, you should sell your own heatsink ideas to ATI, since you know what their chips can take better than they can. They probably just guessed at that stock heatsink, right? Go in there and school them w/ your doctorate in thermodynamics.

 

[Toastedlightly]

Another question... This is kinda a moral question, but anywho... Do you think that if I kept the old HS and bracket that if anything dies (like I loose RAM or the Tuner goes out) I could replace the old HS and bracket and stillbe able to turn it in for the replacement(this assumes that I get a VGA Silencer)?

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: Toastedlightly
Another question... This is kinda a moral question, but anywho... Do you think that if I kept the old HS and bracket that if anything dies (like I loose RAM or the Tuner goes out) I could replace the old HS and bracket and stillbe able to turn it in for the replacement(this assumes that I get a VGA Silencer)?

Nope, as soon as you remove your stock cooler, you've ended the warranty. As long as you're not overclocking, you have nothing to worry about. Your card is under warranty, ATI gaurantees it won't burn up with the stock heatsink. If you decide to take matters into your own hands, your warranty is gone.

 

[Kobra]

Don't listen to this guys BS... When I called ATI to RMA mine, I told them I replaced the stock sink/fan with a VGACooler, and the rep on the phone said "Just throw the OEM one back on and send it back".. I've RMA'd 2 9800's to ATI now, and both times, I just shoved the stock sink back on and sent em out. Big deal.

Is it really necessary to fear monger ffs....

 

[Toastedlightly]

Meh, Warranty is from Circuit City. If ATI takes it back, then Circuit city should.

 

[Kobra]

Originally posted by: Nebor
Kobra, you should sell your own heatsink ideas to ATI, since you know what their chips can take better than they can. They probably just guessed at that stock heatsink, right? Go in there and school them w/ your doctorate in thermodynamics.

As a matter of fact, I just found proof of my umm, 6 month old claims that ATI shipped the 9800 series with insufficient cooling... Its one of the reasons why ATI's aren't running very well on Doom3.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33773230&page=1&pp=30

Like I didn't see that coming...

- it seems to be heat related. underclocking / opening case and blowing a room fan into it seem to solve it for many people.
- it does not appear to be driver related. white spots are telltale signs of hardware issues (specifically, core temps).
- 9800pro's and 9800xt's are showing this behavior.
- overclocking helps expose the problem, however many users are not overclocking at all and experiencing the problem