Need some advice re video card fan speeds and temps

[AddictedGamer]

Was wondering...was looking through Catalyst Control Center (have a Dell 435MT with a Radeon HD4850 512MB) and noticed the ATI Overdrive settings. I've always wondered if my fan on the video card wasn't running enough...when I'm at 0% GPU load (using GPU-Z) my GPU temp tends to be around 56-57 C and my shader temp tends to be about 60 C.

Was playing GTA 4 PC last night and noticed that the max shader temp while I was playing had been 92 C, but the fan had only ramped up to 42% at most.

I tried an experiment--enabled ATI Overdrive, set manual fan speed to 60%, and played GTA 4 for an hour. Noticed that the max shader temp had only been 83 C, a significant decrease.

I also tried running the fan at 30 percent and noticed that my idle temps were down--GPU and shader to 52-53 C under 0% GPU load.

So, the following questions:

(1) Is there any harm to my video card or fan by running the fan at 60 or 70 percent while I'm 3D gaming?

(2) Is there any harm to running the fan at 30 percent constantly?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Keysplayr]

1. No
2. Yes, if by constantly you mean while gaming as well.

You should be able to set fan profiles using a utility for ATI cards. I don't know if the standard driver, CCC or ATI overdrive lets you do this.
You can set the fan to run at 30 percent when at idle or using 2D apps. Then have it kick up to 60 to 70 when a 3D app is started.

I think I've heard some people mention a utility called "Radeon Pro". You might check that out.

 

[AddictedGamer]

I meant 30 percent while not 3D gaming--thanks .

 

[Keysplayr]

That's fine then. Also blow out your PC with compressed air from time to time to get all the accumulated dust out of the heatsinks. That can make a big difference in temps all around.

 

[AddictedGamer]

Great--thanks. I didn't know if running the card's fan at 30 pct when not 3D gaming could damage the fan/card or reduce the life of the fan or card.

 

[AddictedGamer]

How often should I blow out the system with compressed air? I'm a newbie--don't feel comfortable taking over the cover and doing it myself, but I have a friend who could do it for me.

 

[Tempered81]

Every 6 months.... Depending on how dusty the inside of your case gets

 

[bryanW1995]

I run the fan on my gtx 260 at 65% constantly.

temps are a bigger deal than fan speed, as long as you are ok with the noise of high speeds. however, a lot of people were concerned when the 4850 first came out about high temps, but I haven't heard of an inordinate number of failures on them yet. technically even 92c is still ok on those.

do you have a single slot or dual slot cooler?

 

[AddictedGamer]

Don't know which it is, I have a ATI 4850 that came straight from Dell with the system, hardware ID says it's a Sapphire Radeon HD4850 512MB. Don't know if that's single or dual-slot cooling.

 

[bryanW1995]

doesn't really matter I guess. I just asked b/c I used to have a 4850 with the single slot cooler design and it got pretty whiney at higher fan speeds. all of my other "modern" cards have been dual slot and thus not nearly as shrill at higher fan speeds.

think of a dual slot card as your girlfriend right after you pop the question, you can push her to the limit and the noise stays pretty much under control in a good way; think of the single slot card as your wife after you've been married for 6 years and she finally realizes that you're not going to change, get her ramped up at all and you might not like what you hear...

 

[AddictedGamer]

I'm running it at 30% right now for non-gaming and I have a profile for gaming with it set to 60%. The noise at 30 is negligible...at 60 it's pretty noisy, but I can live with it as long as 60 or 70 percent isn't going to damage the fan or card, which folks are saying it won't.