SPCR

As an early adopter of the HD4870 series graphics cards, I was unhappy with the cooling performance and the heat output of the card and went down the aftermarket cooling route. Thermalright HR-03 GT to be exact.

With my new Coolermaster Centurion 590 case, I can fit a 120mm fan directly over the GPU cooler bringing in nice fresh air and keeping it cooler.

I decided that at the lowest speeds, 1200rpm slipstreams are OK for drawing in the air but for long periods of gaming, they may prove less effective due to fixed performance hooked to a fan controller.

To remedy this, I have chopped, spliced and sorted out a Scythe Kama PWM fan with the appropriate fan header for the HD4870. I briefly hooked it up for testing purposes but the header and pins on the fan wires are not in the best condition and I do not wish to risk prolonged exposure.

Once I get myself sorted with a new fan header and hook it up, I am looking for a software program that will allow the fan to dynamically ramp up with the GPU temperature.

In this scenario, I require control over the fan %ages used and the temperatures at which it changes speed. I have not seen a program that can do this yet on the HD4870.... I heard that Gainwards ExperTool could do it however I was advised that it ramps up dynamically like the normal HD4870 hsf, only more aggressively with no control over ramp up %'s and temps.

I would be grateful if anyone has any insight into this.

I don't know if it supports fan control on the new cards yet, but ATITool has done what you want for quite awhile.

I did something similar for an X800 GTO2 card--took a regular 80mm fan with standard molex plug and instead snipped that off, and then snipped the header cable from the stock fan and soldered the 2 together and wrapped everything up nice and neat with electrical tape. Instant fan speed control via the videocard and ATITool (I was using a ZM80D-HP with the optional fan actually).

edit: nevermind, no support for the 4000 series yet for ATITool.

psiu wrote:I don't know if it supports fan control on the new cards yet, but ATITool has done what you want for quite awhile.

I did something similar for an X800 GTO2 card--took a regular 80mm fan with standard molex plug and instead snipped that off, and then snipped the header cable from the stock fan and soldered the 2 together and wrapped everything up nice and neat with electrical tape. Instant fan speed control via the videocard and ATITool (I was using a ZM80D-HP with the optional fan actually).

edit: nevermind, no support for the 4000 series yet for ATITool.

I aim to do similar to you. I have the fan almost ready to use and the only thing holding me back is the software.

I cannot find the right software to use that gives me these options that is written to use the HD4870.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1032891870

ATI Tool Beta with 48xx support.

Im hopefully going to hook up my fan today and have a tinker around with it. Looks as comprehensive as the old one.

Update:

I have hooked up my Scythe Kama PWM to my HD4870 and replaced the Slipstream 1200 I had keeping its spot warm.

The Kama spins up fine, using Gainward ExperTool to control fan speeds.... 57% fixed speed was the maximum before the Kama could be heard over and above the rest of my case.

I decided to set the Gainward tool to "Dynamic Fan Speed". Using GPU-Z as my stats machine, I notice that there is a 5C increase over the Slipstream... however my Kama reckons it is doing 400rpm. GPU-Z registers 400rpm but 0% fan speed.

Changing the fan speed to a fixed 57% increases fanspeed to approximately 700rpm. After 10 minutes of this, my temperatures stayed the same.

At 100% fan speed, I am getting temps of around 52-53C. These are temps that I got with my Scythe Slipstream 1200 on the side running at not much over spinup voltage.

Besides the large difference in performance, I do not really know what to say.

If someone would like to pitch in, Id be much appreciative.