Just curious if anyone has try lapping the Radeon 9700 Pro GPU? Updraging HS/Fan? Results? Advantages worth it???
Tks,
Stout
Tks,
Stout
Anyone try lapping the Rad 9700 Pro GPU?
- Thread starter Stout
- Start date
Because the R300 is a flip-chip design similar to an AthlonXP or Pentium3, lapping the Radeon 9700 Pro's GPU is about as effective as lapping a processor core - you can very easily turn it into a keychain. Lapping the HS/F wouldn't make any difference either, because the Radeon 9700 Pro's (and 9500, 9500 Pro, and 9700) core doesn't actually touch the heatsink. It has a shim around the core that's designed to leave a 0.05mm gap (that's roughly half the thickness of a piece of paper) between the heatsink and the GPU. The thermal interface material then bridges that gap.
FrostyTech did an article under the assumption that this was some sort of manufacturing flaw, but you can see in their conclusions that ATi really does know how to design graphics cards, because lapping and circumventing the shim showed only a 2.3C drop in temps and no ability to overclock further.
FrostyTech did an article under the assumption that this was some sort of manufacturing flaw, but you can see in their conclusions that ATi really does know how to design graphics cards, because lapping and circumventing the shim showed only a 2.3C drop in temps and no ability to overclock further.
Then how does a It should fit just fine. Just make sure instead of adding a very thin layer of thermal compound (like you would for two pieces that do touch), you add enough so that when you put the orb on the shim and remove it, it leaves some thermal compound on the heatsink (so you know the gap has been filled).
Like I said, we're only talking about 1/20th of one millimeter (FrostyTech measured it as 23/10,000ths of an inch).
Like I said, we're only talking about 1/20th of one millimeter (FrostyTech measured it as 23/10,000ths of an inch).
If you do decide to change the heatsink, read ATI R300 Package: Thermal Problems Caused by the Shim. Make note of this part of the article:
I removed my heatsink, sanded down the shim to get rid of the gap (which is substantial, took quite a bit of sanding), and installed a Cool Jag 1U CPU cooler. It will overclock 25mhz higher, not a whole lot (your milage may vary), but it does run alot cooler now. I now no longer worry about the TIM breaking down over time and cooking my GPU as has happened to some other people.
I strongly suggest you NOT use heat sink paste to fill an air gap between the GPU and HS.
I removed my heatsink, sanded down the shim to get rid of the gap (which is substantial, took quite a bit of sanding), and installed a Cool Jag 1U CPU cooler. It will overclock 25mhz higher, not a whole lot (your milage may vary), but it does run alot cooler now. I now no longer worry about the TIM breaking down over time and cooking my GPU as has happened to some other people.
I linked that FrostyTech article in my first post to this thread. As written in the conclusion to the article:
"Based on an ambient room temperature of 20.9 degrees Celsius we found that the unmodified stock heatsink with standard silicon thermal compound reached a temperature of 58.0 degrees Celsius. The modified stock heatsink with the same type of thermal compound reached an average temperature of 55.6 degrees Celsius, which is a difference of about 2.3 degrees Celsius. On this particular Radeon 9700 card there was no perceptible difference in the ability to overclock the core."
They used standard thermal compound (not ATi's TIM) to test the temperatures. Thermal compound will work fine in the gap, so long as you use enough to bridge the gap. If you feel you need the extra 5% of performance out of the heatsink and thermal interface, then go ahead and lap/remove the shim and lap the heatsink. If you don't need the extra 5%, then any thermal interface material will be fine so long as you use enough of it.
"Based on an ambient room temperature of 20.9 degrees Celsius we found that the unmodified stock heatsink with standard silicon thermal compound reached a temperature of 58.0 degrees Celsius. The modified stock heatsink with the same type of thermal compound reached an average temperature of 55.6 degrees Celsius, which is a difference of about 2.3 degrees Celsius. On this particular Radeon 9700 card there was no perceptible difference in the ability to overclock the core."
They used standard thermal compound (not ATi's TIM) to test the temperatures. Thermal compound will work fine in the gap, so long as you use enough to bridge the gap. If you feel you need the extra 5% of performance out of the heatsink and thermal interface, then go ahead and lap/remove the shim and lap the heatsink. If you don't need the extra 5%, then any thermal interface material will be fine so long as you use enough of it.
The Crystal Orb I installed on my 9700 Pro didn't have a completely flat surface. The base of the heatsink had a bit of a concave to it. I didn't bother to lap it this time because it didn't look so bad and I thought I could just fill in the space with ASIII. I removed the shim and mounted it on there as directed. It was then that I found out that the curvature from the concave caused extra pressure to be applied to the circumference of the VPU. This resulted in one crushed corner of the chip and a very dead 9700 Pro that I could not RMA back. The VPU is very fragile and brittle just like an socket A Athlon.
Just a little bit of food for thought before you remove shim. Inspect the surface of your replacement heatsink first.
Just a little bit of food for thought before you remove shim. Inspect the surface of your replacement heatsink first.
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