What is recommeded card temp for X800XL?

[palouse]

I am testing my ATI PowerColor X800XL. I want opinions on what should be a maximum load temperature for the card. I searched the forum, found only a 7900GT reference (my card runs hotter.) I could not find adequate reference on ATI/AMD site.

Catalyst CommandCenter is not installed, only the latest ATI "control panel" drivers.

I have "ATI Tool" running with no O/C, stock stettings, and the "3D Window" running for a 3D test. Window is about 3"X3", with a spinning fuzzy block for 3D effect.

For a temperature reading, I have ATI Tray running, as downloaded from Guru3D.com. Prime95 "blended test", cpuz, MBM, running in the background.

I get 73.5 degrees Centigrade on the "GPU temp", and 36 to 42C on the "GPU environment", which I assume is a board mounted sensor. Is this too high? Idle temps vary from 29C to 36C.

Reason that I ask is my son has games frequently crashing to desktop. I have run tests on processor and memory, and they pass all tests. (Prime95 and Memtest tests 5,6,8 and blended for ~ 20 hours each.) The games are memory intensive intensive (BF2, WOW, CSS) so that is where I started testing. He plays same games on two other PCs, same and different LANs with no problems. I don't think it is a firewall, system admin, or security issue.

Other web forum posts suggest that overheated video cards may cause crash-to-desktop. I don't have time to reproduce game crashes, and my son claims he sees no picture corruption before crashes. I haven't tried testing or logging while he plays.

Is 73C too hot for a X800XL? I would think the ATI Tool 3D test to be fairly mild.

I am not looking for ways to cool the card down, that I can figure out if it needs to be done. What I need are parameters for cooling limits.

Thanks!!

 

[Munky]

The atitool fuzzy cube is actually fairly intensive on the video card. The x800 and x850 series cards usually run fine up to about 80C, so 73C is an OK temp for the card.

 

[Modular]

73c should not crash a card. Many 6-series nVidia users and X1900XT users are well over that with no problems. There's something else going on there, maybe with the card, just not heat related.

 

[palouse]

Thank you for the replies.

I set logging 'on' with ATITray, and ran 3DMark05, which never broke 65C. It looks like the ATITool spinning cube is a decent card stressor for testing purposes.

Unfortunately, fully functional card is not a fix for the ctd problem.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Actually, your temps are excellent. I have an x800xl from MSI and, initially, the heatsink wasn't set correctly so the card would load at ~92C. :Q Needless to say, I had frequent crashes. So I remounted the heatsink with some AS5, and with a mild overclock it loads at 69C during game play. With CCC v6.6 it is completely stable. Even if it means dealing with catalyst control center, I think you should try updating your drivers and see what happens because temps shouldn't be your problem.

 

[brikis98]

i had an x800 xl that would idle 40-50c and under load get into the mid 80's... it didn't cause any problems whatsoever, and GPU's tend to run pretty hot anyway, so i think you're fine.