How to monitor temperature of Sapphire 9600XT Ultimate videocard (is without fan!)?!

[Dance123]

Hi,

I intend to get a Sapphire 9600 XT Ultimate, which is very silent cause it doesn't have a fan. Normally a fan isn't needed with this one, but just to make sure, is there a way for me to monitor the temperature, like to see if doesn't go up to high when heavy gaming or something? Can an Asus P4C800 motherboard report this or does this only work if you have an Asus videocard? By the way, what is the max. allowed temp for a videocard to run safely.

PS: does the passive cooler of the Sapphire 9600 XT Ultimate allow you to install that optional Zalman fan if you want or isn't that possible with this card? I believe it needs to have holes somewhere so you can install that optional Zalman fan.

 

[Pete]

I think 9600XT come with temperature probes built-in. There was an issue of the majority of earlier boards not supporting this (or was it Overdrive? the two are related, anyway), but I think all XTs should come with a temp sensor, so you should be able to tell the temp either via ATi's drivers or via Sapphire's OCing tool.

I think.

 

[Matthias99]

PS: does the passive cooler of the Sapphire 9600 XT Ultimate allow you to install that optional Zalman fan if you want or isn't that possible with this card? I believe it needs to have holes somewhere so you can install that optional Zalman fan.

The one on the 9800Pro/9800XT Ultimate does. I'm fairly certain it's the same one (the Zalman ZM80C-HP) on the 9600XT, but if they use the smaller one (the ZM80A), it might not fit.

In any case, you *don't* need to worry about the card overheating. If my 9800Pro can run fanless even overclocked, it's cake for the 9600XT at stock...

 

[Dance123]

How do you read the temp "via the ATI driver". Which program do you use for that? Also, what's the "Sapphire's OCing tool". Where can I download this?

Also, anybody can tell if the Sapphire 9600XT Ultimate comes with the ZM80A or C?!

 

[Matthias99]

How do you read the temp "via the ATI driver". Which program do you use for that? Also, what's the "Sapphire's OCing tool". Where can I download this?

I believe once you install a version of the ATI drivers that supports the XT cards, there's a tab in the drivers for the temperature readout. I don't have an XT card, though, so I can't verify this. I would guess that whatever tools Sapphire uses are either included with the card, or can be downloaded from their website...

lso, anybody can tell if the Sapphire 9600XT Ultimate comes with the ZM80A or C?!

If it's this card, that's the ZM80A (or a customized version of it), and it won't take the add-on fan.

Believe me, though, you don't need it on a 9600XT. My 9800Pro runs fine -- even mildly overclocked -- without it, and that card puts out WAY less heat.

 

[Blastman]

Pete is right ?the 9600XT has an on die temp diode and you can read the temp from the overdrive tab in the catalyst drivers?

http://www.rage3d.com/content/reviews/video/sapphire9600xtue/?page=3

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/volt-red_7.html