Radeon 9000 Pro Fan

TheMuffinMan · Post by **TheMuffinMan** » Sat Jan 11, 2003 5:00 am

Is the heatsink on the Radeon 9000 Pro (stock) good enough to do the cooling w/out the fan? The Radeon 9000 Pro specifications don't even require a fan, it appears to be there for show.

I got a new Radeon 9000 Pro and it has a somewhat loud fan on it

Alicey · Post by **Alicey** » Sat Jan 11, 2003 6:24 am

I'd check your heatsink against the reference heatsink, it's possible that they might've used a smaller heatsink as they planned to cool it by fan. It's not that likely though, it's probably just the reference heatsink with a fan whacked on top. How's the fan connected to the heatsink? If it's just by screws, you can always just take that off and put it back in later if there are problems, I very greatly doubt that your card would fry without it, just overheat and crash.

So yeah, make sure it's the same heatsink as the reference design, make sure the fan's something that can be replaced if it needs to be (or for if you need to return/replace it), then go for it. Though don't blame me if it explodes in a ball of molten silicon =P

Alicey · Post by **Alicey** » Sat Jan 11, 2003 6:42 am

Okay, this is the ATI reference design (brightened up so you can see the fins on the heatsink better). This is what all the 3rd-party manufacturers seem to use.

If you look through the blades of the fan, underneath it, it's the same as the ATI heatsink except (shock horror!) the fins go vertically instead of horizontally. The third-party heatsink is actually bigger than the reference design, so as long as it isn't 'shorter' (I can't find any pictures that show the perspective you need to tell), it should in fact work cooler than the reference design. And the fan is just screwed into the fins, so it's easily removeable and replacable.

If your card uses the same third-party heatsink design, I'd check that it's the same height as the ATI heatsink (important!), then go right ahead.

Queue · Post by **Queue** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 12:46 pm

MuffinMan,
I've got a 9000 Pro (Sapphire) with no fan. If you need me to, I can measure the HS on my GPU.

Q

Paul Jungnitsch · Post by **Paul Jungnitsch** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 12:17 pm

I tried out a 8500 and took it back for the same problem, an annoying fan. Wondering though if it would be possible to plug the fan into a PS connector and run it at 5 or 7 volts.

Do video card fans normally run at 12v?

simmers · Post by **simmers** » Sun Feb 02, 2003 5:22 am

I read that BOTH types of Radeon 9000 were designed by ATi to run without a fan, but that the majority of 9000 Pros have fans fitted by OEMs to increase desirability and perceived value. The standard 9000 has no fan and runs at 250MHz compared to the 275MHz of the Pro, so you should be OK...

Feel the heatsink temp, try disconnecting the fan and see if it gets hotter! At your own risk, of course

. Otherwise you could hook up slow, quiet 80/92mm fan to blow across the card.

jinu117 · Post by **jinu117** » Sun Feb 02, 2003 12:47 pm

If you have enough airflow in your case. In my case, I was worried about temp and put a fan on top at 5v. My test shows absolutely no difference in min vs max temp with Radeon 9500 PRO having the extra fan or not. (Promptly took out the fan and plan to use it in my seasonic PSU).
BTW, seasonic being the silent PSU, the adda 0812HS-A70GL running at 1300 RPM sounds louder than Vantec stealth running at 1600 RPM. (which seems to put out almost 1.5 times air out... tested with 3cmx8cm strip of 22lbs paper seasonic 1cm, vantec 2cm)

Radeon 9000 Pro Fan

Radeon 9000 Pro Fan

Or go use Zalman Passive heat sink.