Overheating X1950 Pro

[cjdomer]

My current GPU, Sapphire X1950 Pro 512MB, is not cooling itself properly. According to both the ATI CCC and ATITrayTools, it idles at about 75 C and easily gets over 110 at load when I am warned about it overheating and I either close the application or the GPU shuts itself off. I have talked to Sapphire and they agree that it is almost assuredly their fault and are willing to RMA the card, even though it is out of warranty.

My issue is it worth the $15 to RMA the card at this point. I don't do much intensive gaming, but I do occasionally play Civ IV (surprisingly a graphics card hog), HL2, Far Cry2, etc. Since I don't play those games often, I don't want to spend a lot on a new card, say ~$100 max, and I would only want to do that if I will see a noticeable improvement. I currently have two monitors hooked up to my rig, a 19" (1280x1024 native) and a 37" TV that I use to watch movies/recorded TV/etc.

Since my card works just fine as long as I am not stressing it, I hate the idea of shutting it down (I don't have another PCI-Express card) while I wait for the new card to come back and paying $15 to do it. Would it make more sense for me to get an after-market cooler and just replace the standard one, rather than RMA? Would I gain any noticeable improvement if I upgraded to say, an HD 4670 or any other card in a similar price range? Should I just suck it up and deal without the rig for a week or so? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

In case anyone needs to know the rest of my specs: Q6600 with U120 cooler, 4GB DDR2 RAM (Ballistix), Corsair VX550, and Vista x64.

 

[videogames101]

This
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814130435
or this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814121289

would both provide a substantial boost to performance, and you can see a comparison of both cards in this AT article: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3437&p=1

(ATI FTW)

 

[Lalakai]

have you cleaned out the airflow vents??

i had 1950 which did same thing; when i removed it and looked at the vents, they were very very dusty. after i cleaned it out and re-installed, it ran great.

 

[cjdomer]

I noticed the fan was dusty so I cleaned that out. Do you mean under the cooling unit itself, i.e., between the actual chip and the cooler?

 

[darkmandaddy]

I had the x1950 awhile back from Visiontek, the reason why I bought it was hdmi out on the card. The card didn't have sound, I was going to keep it until we tested for sound on my buddy's pc and it blew up in flames (small flames, my buddy's pc is alright). This was the 256mb version. For what it's worth, $49-20rebate, I say it wasn't worth it. I don't play a lot of games, but it didn't look good on the big screen, and I ran 3dmark back then and it stutters very badly. I think the card is fine if you're just playing RTS, and do what the person above did. However, you can get the Asus 3450 for $32 + sh(maybe) minus $10 rebate. This does get hot, but it has never shut down on me before. Performance ? It ran 3dmark better than the x1950, but it couldn't run the last game on there.

 

[Lalakai]

Originally posted by: cjdomer
I noticed the fan was dusty so I cleaned that out. Do you mean under the cooling unit itself, i.e., between the actual chip and the cooler?

not the fan, but the cooling vents inside the shroud. on my card, those vents had been plugged with dust and didn't allow air to move through. I didn't check between the cooler and the chip......didn't want to remove the shroud. up to you on that one.

 

[cjdomer]

Originally posted by: Lalakai
not the fan, but the cooling vents inside the shroud. on my card, those vents had been plugged with dust and didn't allow air to move through. I didn't check between the cooler and the chip......didn't want to remove the shroud. up to you on that one.

I just checked and those seemed ok. I don't have a can of air at the moment, but they looked pretty clean.

 

[Lalakai]

if you've checked the vents and cleaned the fan, and the unit is still overheating, then you might want to take Saph up on their offer to RMA the card. For $15 it's a cheap way to extend your system until you opt for a major upgrade.

out of curiosity, have you checked to see if the fan itself (on the card) is working? The cooling mechanics on this card are pretty straight forward and if the fan is working and the air flow is good, then you should be safe on the temps. only possible alternatives at this point would be faulty card or low ps reaching the card. A drop in power into the card would make the card work harder, increasing the temp, but this is a very rare situation; easy to check though if you have a power meter.

as for changing cards and getting a big improvement, I would hold off on that until you also swap out mb's and go pci-e. if you change cards now and stay with the agp, you will see some improvement, but you will also be locking yourself into a future upgrade that requires mb with agp slot, or new mb and new card.

sorry couldn't nail it down for you.

 

[cjdomer]

Thanks for the help Lalakai. My X1950 is actually the PCI-E version, so I can directly upgrade without having to change boards. Does that change your recommendation?

 

[Lalakai]

Originally posted by: cjdomer
My X1950 is actually the PCI-E version, so I can directly upgrade without having to change boards. Does that change your recommendation?

yes..........and no :roll:

yes, you will definitely see an improvement if you go with a newer card and give yourself a card that you can carry with you to a future upgrade; this makes the idea of purchasing a newer upgrade, more acceptable.

no I wouldn't go with a high dollar card (even $100), unless you want the extra graphics muscle, and as you were saying that gaming isn't heavy for you.......... Grab the RMA for $15 as you are content with what it gives you now.

bottom line: if you were unhappy with the performance of your old card, this would be perfect time for modest upgrade. If you are happy with performance of old card, stick with the RMA until you do a major upgrade, then make a major leap in vcard.