ShadoX

Greetings

I just moved my self back onto watercooling (see case mod in sig) and i've got a swiftech MCW60 block on my 4870.

Now before i had a maze5 with no changes to the ramsinks/etc and i never had temp problems.

Just powered up the PC after leaktestings and got into windows, saw my CPU temps nice and low but my powercolor 4870 was reporting a "Memory IO" temp of 140 Degree's.

But i had no artifacting or anything that would hint at it being overheated. Never the less i underclocked my card down to below 500mhz for ram and the temps dropped to a toasty 90 Deg, which i spose it ok for short runs till i get this nutted out but what the hell, 140 Deg !

Anyone got any ideas as to why the ram temp would be so high (and "Shader core" is pretty high too at around 85 Deg, GPU core is nice and cool at 50 Deg, but i'm not sure for a WC'ed and underclocked 4870 (currently at 500mhz core) that 50 deg is good, i don't think so.

So anyway, the short, any ideas would be helpful. I'm going to pull the block off now and reseat it, reseat the ramsinks (stock sinks, but just incase) and rig up my old Slot cooler right under it (which i previously had in there, but considering i've got a 250mm side fan blocking at the card i didn't see any reason to keep it) and see if the temps change

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My Case Mod : TT Armor Refurbished

I_dalder_I

yeah your ram must not be making contact that's the only explanation

ShadoX

well just reseated it all(heats and waterblock) and no real diff.

I've got a Powercolor 4870 which comes with their own cooler, not the standard 4870 design, basically its a big HSF heatpipe design with 2 copper strips overtop of the Ram and a stand alone heatsink for the power side, i've left all those extra heatsinks on and just changed the HSF for a waterblock, i'm not sure what to do next, i've currently got my 25cm fan in the bottom of the case blowing directly upon the card, makes no difference

Perhaps its a driver issue? I did just upgrade to the newest catalyst drivers (but then, that was before i took the PC apart to put the WC'ing back in, and it was fine before that....? and the temp comes down if you underclock it)

gah might drop the block off and stick the original fan back on and see what happens. I may swap the copper sinks out with my Zalman heatsinks i've got round here somewhere (the spikey blue ones)

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My Case Mod : TT Armor Refurbished

I_dalder_I

Maybe swapping would help, but if its under water it should be massively lower then that even if its not makeing very good contact. It could be software issue im really not sure.

ShadoX

Ok, did a little more screwing around (reseated them again, pulled off the ramsinks and replace them with my Zalman ramsinks (cleaned em up, put on new thermal tape) and i seem to have fixed it.

Here are my Temps. Ya'll think their ok?

Powercolor 4870 1Gb
- Core Speed : 780Mhz
- Ram Speed : 925Mhz

@ Idle
GPU Temp : ~45-50 Deg
Memory IO : ~80-85 Deg (Was topping 120 Deg before)
Shader Core : ~65-68 Deg (Was about 85 before)

And that is with no fan under it blowing on it (my 25cm fan is off atm)

FYI CPU Temps (Same WC'ing loop)
Intel Quad 9550
Core1: 31 Deg
Core2: 26 Deg
Core3: 29 Deg
Core4: 25 Deg

System Temp (From mobo) : 27 Deg
CPU Temp (External/IHS Temp this is apparently): 18 Deg
Chipset Temp: 26 Deg

How do those temps seem?

I'll get some temps under load soon

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My Case Mod : TT Armor Refurbished

almighty15

Memory still seems high tbh

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I_dalder_I

Na thats good mate enjoy

ShadoX

i've read in a few places that the MCW60 waterblock doesn't make a really tight fit wit 4870's (or 4000 series cards in general), due to swiftechs attempt to make it "really hard to break things due to over tightening".

Now i've also read that all 3 of those temps (GPU/MemIO/Shader) are from 3 seperate sensors which are all contained within the GPU die its self, rather than the MemIO reporting the temp of the actual memory (which would make sense cause theres what, 8 ram chips but one 1 reading?).

I've seen a few ppl "shim" the mounting plate out a little bit with electrical tape so theres move distances to screw down for a tighter fit. I might give this a go cause if all the above is true, i might not be getting good contact regardless of how tight the screws are

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My Case Mod : TT Armor Refurbished

ShadoX

well i'm officially confused. I just put the original HSF back on to the card, checked temps @ idle

GPU : 40
MemIO: 54
Shader: 42

.....I dunno what to do. Its like this bloody waterblock just isn't making good contact with the GPU, but its screwed in all the way and i can't "shim" it out like i was going to above without draining the loop (i realized the couple of bolts you need to under to free the mountint bracket from the block its self actually hold the block together, taking them out causes coolant to...well flow)

Any ideas at all from anyone would be greatly appreciated

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My Case Mod : TT Armor Refurbished