HD4850 DuOrb Results

[MoMeanMugs]

I have to say that I'm fairly impressed. I put the DuOrb on my 1950xt, but the card ended up running hotter. I believe the card was faulty and ended up dying a few days later (still need to send it in for RMA). I got my 4850 a few days ago, and as everyone knows, they run hot as the sun. Out of the box, it was idling at 77*C. At that point I didn't even bother to put it under load, as that is way too hot for my tastes. I modded the MSI BIOS and bumped the fan settings up to 50%. After that, it idled at 61*C, but was cooking the case under load. I didn't check the temperature, but from previous experiences, it was in the 90*C range. The RAM sinks that came with the DuOrb were covered in dust from sitting for several weeks as I had forgotten to stick them in a bag. After calling around and realizing nobody sells thermal tape locally, I decided to stick the DuOrb on w/o the RAM sinks. The thermal pads from the 4850 are actually sticky, so I ended up using them to stick the RAM sinks on (1950xt stock heatsink had rubbery pads). My idle is now 37*C, and the load doesn't go over 50*C. I'm sure everyone has read plenty of aftermarket heatsink reviews, but I figured I'd post up in case anyone was hesitating pulling the trigger on one. I think it's well worth it for the peace of mind, even if ATi says the stock sink keeps everything within specs.

 

[Raider1284]

I have teh DuOrb on my 8800gt and the temp drop was rediculous as well. With teh stock evga single slot cooler, at stock speeds, I was idling in the 60C range and hitting load temps over 100C. After installing the DuOrb, at 735/1825/1000 speeds, my idle dropped to the 40C range and load hits the low 60C range.

It's more expensive them some but it does cool well. And only takes up one slot, versus the leader, the accelero, that takes up 3+ slots.

 

[MoMeanMugs]

Now I seem to be getting strange results. I ran the Fur benchmark for stability, and the card got to 95*C before I shut it down. The temps were still rising. What's going on here? I tested it with my games afterwards, and it didn't overheat (CoH, BF 2142, CnC3 - all maxed with 8x AA). However, anytime I run the Fur benchmark, the DuOrb can't handle it. Are these games not truly stressing the card? I'm at a loss here.

 

[Krynj]

Those games could be distributing the workload between the CPU and GPU slightly more than Furmark would.

My 4870 is idling at 40c right now with fan speed at 40%. I think my Antec 1200 has that to its credit though.

 

[MoMeanMugs]

I've done some more tests. I got 2 sets of TT CL-0025 copper RAM sinks. I attached them on the RAM and VRM's. I also took the stock clip that goes on the back side of the card and attached that. The Duorb was attached as tightly as possible without snapping the thin screws (made that mistake before). With the clip on, the temperature of the GPU area rises much slower in FurMark. As for regular gaming, it didn't make much of a difference. At idle, the VRM's now stay about 2*C cooler than the GPU, and they no longer heat up as quickly under load. They still seem to get heat soaked, so I'd say upgrading to copper RAM sinks is a waste of money. They are nice to look at though.

 

[AzN]

Ram sinks don't really help. If anything it makes it worst if it's part of the GPU core heatsink.

 

[MoMeanMugs]

Yes, I know that. I was getting random GPU recovery messages during game sessions at stock speeds. I tracked this down to the RAM by underclocking it. I haven't had any recoveries yet after replacing the RAM sinks, but one day isn't conclusive enough for me.