PowerColor HD3870 'PCS'
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PowerColor HD3870 'PCS'
I've got a new Plasma on the way, so I thought I'd take the dive and order a new graphics card to off load all HD processing.
Went for the cheapest 3870 I could find in the UK which turned out to be a PowerColor HD3870 'PCS', which means it comes with a replacement cooler, looking very similar to a Zalman VF900
Thought it was a nice bonus getting that cooler over the stock until I found out the fan is set to 100% all the time
I'd like to get an Accelero S1, although I'm currently using an Antec Fusion so thats out the question until I upgrade (to hopefully the Fusion Max).
Anyone else have the PowerColor? Have you figured out how to turn the fan down ? Am I better off just getting a FanMate and manually turning it down?
Went for the cheapest 3870 I could find in the UK which turned out to be a PowerColor HD3870 'PCS', which means it comes with a replacement cooler, looking very similar to a Zalman VF900
Thought it was a nice bonus getting that cooler over the stock until I found out the fan is set to 100% all the time
I'd like to get an Accelero S1, although I'm currently using an Antec Fusion so thats out the question until I upgrade (to hopefully the Fusion Max).
Anyone else have the PowerColor? Have you figured out how to turn the fan down ? Am I better off just getting a FanMate and manually turning it down?
If the fan is attached to the built-in header, you can use the ATI Tray Tools to adjust the fan speed. Check out the "Overclocking Settings".
http://www.guru3d.com/article/atitraytools/189/
Ironically, I use it to turn the fan on all the time since my fan clicks at lower voltages.
A Fanmate would work also.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/atitraytools/189/
Ironically, I use it to turn the fan on all the time since my fan clicks at lower voltages.
A Fanmate would work also.
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A 2600 Pro or XT would have been fine for HD decoding duties. They also have the advantage of being readily available with passive cooling.KuniD wrote:I've got a new Plasma on the way, so I thought I'd take the dive and order a new graphics card to off load all HD processing. Went for the cheapest 3870 I could find in the UK which turned out to be a PowerColor HD3870 'PCS', which means it comes with a replacement cooler, looking very similar to a Zalman VF900
PowerColor have become my least favourite VGA board maker as they are too lazy to implement basic features such as under-clocking the GPU and RAM at idle and in this case lowering the fan speed. This is one company I will not even consider at the moment unless I read that they have rectified their slackness.KuniD wrote:Thought it was a nice bonus getting that cooler over the stock until I found out the fan is set to 100% all the time
I’m used to VGA fan headers as being too small to work with a Fan Mate; have they changed to a larger format these days?discdude wrote:A Fanmate would work also.
I also want to play games at 1920x1080 so I'll need the extra power. I'm actually planning on getting another to run them in Crossfire.smilingcrow wrote:A 2600 Pro or XT would have been fine for HD decoding duties. They also have the advantage of being readily available with passive cooling.
As far as passive cooling goes, I'm planning a dual Accelero S1 setup, but they won't fit in my Antec Fusion, so I'm waiting for the Fusion Max before I decide how to proceed.
As this is essentially an overclocked reference ATI design surely it'll have these features as the reference does?PowerColor have become my least favourite VGA board maker as they are too lazy to implement basic features such as under-clocking the GPU and RAM at idle and in this case lowering the fan speed. This is one company I will not even consider at the moment unless I read that they have rectified their slackness.
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I too have this card.
I installed atitray, I've configured it to vary the speed with temperature. I can see that atitray is wanting to change the speed of the fan (the number in the "duty cycle" box is going up and down) but no variation in fan speed actually happens - fan speed is permanently on "too fkn loud", from power on the fan noise is constant.
I haven't checked the power usage at idle but would be very disappointed if this wasn't implemented - is that a video BIOS thing or driver thing?
The fan header is smaller than the standard size found on mainboards.
I'm in the process of fanmating my gfx card.
I installed atitray, I've configured it to vary the speed with temperature. I can see that atitray is wanting to change the speed of the fan (the number in the "duty cycle" box is going up and down) but no variation in fan speed actually happens - fan speed is permanently on "too fkn loud", from power on the fan noise is constant.
I haven't checked the power usage at idle but would be very disappointed if this wasn't implemented - is that a video BIOS thing or driver thing?
The fan header is smaller than the standard size found on mainboards.
I'm in the process of fanmating my gfx card.
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fanmating was easy enough, the hard parts were (i) finding where I stashed my solder and (ii) deciding which other fan to cannabalize for the connector - I recently had a clear out
snipped off the existing connector and soldered the wires from the new connector on to the fan, connected fanmate to fan as per usual.
Now I'm playing with speeds to see what I can get away with which is quite difficult when I get sucked into playing Crysis and forget about gfx temps
I don't yet want to play with 3rd party cooling just yet, but may end up doing that.
snipped off the existing connector and soldered the wires from the new connector on to the fan, connected fanmate to fan as per usual.
Now I'm playing with speeds to see what I can get away with which is quite difficult when I get sucked into playing Crysis and forget about gfx temps
I don't yet want to play with 3rd party cooling just yet, but may end up doing that.
No need to buy another cooler :)
I was also unhappy with the cooling and the noise it made
So I decided to take some action. Heres what I did:
Disconnected the ZeroTherm fan from the card.
Got some Zip Ties and mounted a silent 120mm fan.
Vola! Silent and effective cooling. I've found this actually cools better then the Zerotherm fan as it blows air to the VRAM and not just sideways.
Idles at 39*c and 53*c at load.
A totaly reversible mod incase you need to send it back for RMA.
So I decided to take some action. Heres what I did:
Disconnected the ZeroTherm fan from the card.
Got some Zip Ties and mounted a silent 120mm fan.
Vola! Silent and effective cooling. I've found this actually cools better then the Zerotherm fan as it blows air to the VRAM and not just sideways.
Idles at 39*c and 53*c at load.
A totaly reversible mod incase you need to send it back for RMA.
70mm diameter.
http://www.zerotherm.net/eng/product/GX810.asp
http://www.zerotherm.net/eng/product/GX810.asp
It's the exact one, minus the LEDs and minus the Temp. Sensor (which is why its spinning 100% all the time)
http://www.powercolor.com/Global/produc ... uctID=1632
Look at the banner on the left of the PowerColor site, you can just about catch the word "Optimized by ZeroTherm"
Just to make sure, I measured it myself and the fan was 68mm.
http://www.powercolor.com/Global/produc ... uctID=1632
Look at the banner on the left of the PowerColor site, you can just about catch the word "Optimized by ZeroTherm"
Just to make sure, I measured it myself and the fan was 68mm.