Date:
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Author:
Kyle Bennett
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Take Control of Your 4800 Video Card's Fan

Many of our new Radeon HD 4800 series card owners are not happy with their GPU temperatures. Seeing it from a computer hardware enthusiast view, it is hard not to think the same. Whether or not idle GPU temperatures of 80°C are dangerous, us enthusiasts want that heat out of our cases. We show you how to easily do that.

Making the 4800 Jump

A few days ago, after we published our 4870X2 review and attending the following discussion thread, I really got the itch to go ahead and upgrade my 8800 GTX. I was waiting for a water block to come out to use with the 4870X2 (as well as games to really push the card). Given all the excitement and controversy over the GPU temps, I figured I needed to experience an air cooled Radeon HD 4870X2 in my own case. An ASUS EAH4870X2 had fallen into my hands several weeks ago and it was time to put it in, damn the water block (although I am still looking forward to it).

How To

The video below is a walkthrough of what you need to do in order to easily create your own custom fan speed profiles for your 4800 series video card from AMD. It is my opinion that AMD has been a bit too aggressive towards keeping the acoustic profile “below the radar” on these 4800 cards, and that may have come about for a very good reason.

Overall the temperatures that we see the 4800 series GPUs operating at seem to be safe for most users, but the enthusiast certainly would like a bit less radiant heat dumped into their cases. My idle GPU temperature is setting at 53°C this morning and I have to say that makes me much happier than having an 83°C GPU at idle. The fans on the 4800 series cards are far from annoying at this level of cooling and we suggest you give the project a try as it is rather simple.

Due to compression artifacting, the text in the video is a bit hard to read at the native size above; by clicking the four arrows on the right hand side of the viddler menu allows moving to full screen mode which is easier reading.

Video Notes

ATI Overdrive Profiles Default Location (must have Folder Options set to “Show Hidden Files and Folders”:

Vista - C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles

XP - C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\ATI\ACE\Profiles\

Line to change to “Manual” from “Automatic”:

“FanSpeedAlgorithm_0” for 4850/4870 and “FanSpeedAlgorithm_1” for 4870X2.

Line to change the fan speed percentage:

“FanSpeedPercentTarget_0” for 4850/4870 and “FanSpeedPercentTarget_1” for 4870X2.

Tweaks / Ins & Outs

We have seen it reported that some 4870X2 users will to possibly change the “_0” lines as well, or instead of what is listed above as their controlling GPU may default to that designation. One or the other is going to work though. Some of you may also try enabling “All Catalyst Control Center Settings” instead of just activating the profile for “ATI Overdrive” only as we have shown here. A borked profile that does not work is easily deleted through the CCC without issue. So you really don’t have to worry about screwing things up.

One thing I did find of importance, and I did mention it in the film, is if you open the XML file to edit and DO NOT actually change any values in it before you save it, seems to not make the needed updates. This is important to know, because as you start playing with multiple profiles the defaults that were being presented to me were changing. YMMV.

The Danger Element

I really titled this section just to get you to read it, because from my perspective there really is very little danger here. If you do totally hose your profiles and the card actually runs too hot, at 102°C the CCC will take over and spin up your card’s fan to around 100% RPM to cool it off. There will likely be an “annoying element” to that and it will surely get your attention unless you are hearing impaired.

Follow-Up

What inspired me to put together this video was the amount of new 4800 series owners that I was seeing in the HardForum that were concerned about their 4800 GPU temperatures. While I am not going to sit here and argue whether or not it is a valid concern, it certainly is an enthusiast concern.

Taking this tweaking a step further, is an excellent thread by “ribbell” that addresses how to use RivaTuner and the above technique to automatically control your fan speed’s ramp based on the temperature of your GPU(s). The drawback is that it is somewhat hit and miss currently, but we are told that the upcoming RivaTuner v2.11 is supposed to smooth out the process. We look forward to that and will maybe publish a follow-up video if you guys want.

And to let you know where I ended up; my AMD HD Radeon 4870X2 is idling at 54°C on the desktop.

Discussion

Please join our HardForum discussion about this article.

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