# Sensor Problem - GPU-Z Readings on Sapphire HD4870



## TaKeN (Jan 11, 2009)

Hello everyone,

I've tried a search for this but it seems I'm alone on this problem 

Using the latest build of GPU-Z 0.3.1 my card doesn't list all the sensors! Screenshot below.







The problem is there with the Catalyst 8.12 & the 8.11, any ideas on how to get the voltage and rest of the listings showing?

System spec (incase it helps)

C2D E8400 @ 4ghz
Abit IP35 Pro
Corsair XMS2 CAS 4 6400 DHX
Sapphire HD4870 512mb (New revised heatpipe cooler)

Thanks in advance.


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## jedirock (Jan 11, 2009)

What version were you using before? Because I've got a Sapphire HD4870 1GB, and it doesn't show voltages on 0.3.1 or 0.3.0.


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## TaKeN (Jan 11, 2009)

Hi there,

I've only tried 0.3.1 and 0.3.0 ! Neither of them show the voltage reading.


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## gplracer (Jan 12, 2009)

*same problem*

I have a Sapphire HD4870 1GB DDR5 and see the same thing with GPU-Z 0.3.1.  I'm having random crashes with a blank screen and the fan going to max speed just doing 2D stuff like spreadsheet and web browsing and I would really like to see more information.

Catalyst 8.12
Q6600 2.4 GHz
MSI 7514 P45 Neo3
2x1GB Mushkin DDR2-6400 RAM
Corsair 620 W PSU

The crashes happen more often when I overclock, but they still happen at stock settings.  Temperatures on the card seem high, 56 C idle for the core, 70C for memory and 61 for Shader core.  They go over 100C if I run Furmark for 60 seconds without renaming the exe file.  This is with auto fan mode.  At fixed fan speed, the idle temp is lower, but the running temp is higher.


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## TaKeN (Jan 12, 2009)

Gplracer, Unfortunately (for you) we are not experiancing the same issue.

I'm beginning to think that ATi have possibly changed the design of the newer cards.. therefore removing the extra sensors 





The card I have is the bottom one (Black cooler), the top card is my X1950 XTX.


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## gplracer (Jan 13, 2009)

The temperature and crashing issues are bad enough that I'm RMA'ing the card to Newegg for yet another replacement.  I'm hoping the third time is the charm.  I've not been impressed by the picture quality of either of the examples of this card compared to my old Gigabyte HD 3870.  But since they were both defective in different ways, I can't really say if my experience is typical of a properly working card.


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## jedirock (Jan 13, 2009)

TaKeN said:


> Gplracer, Unfortunately (for you) we are not experiancing the same issue.
> 
> I'm beginning to think that ATi have possibly changed the design of the newer cards.. therefore removing the extra sensors


I believe there was a major redesign in AMD/ATI's graphics cards around the HD3xxx series, especially with the move to the 55nm process. It's possible they dropped the voltage sensors in there, because voltages should stay the same on the card anyway. As for any other sensors, I haven't noticed any others before and you didn't list any, so I can't touch on that.


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## gplracer (Jan 13, 2009)

jedirock said:


> I believe there was a major redesign in AMD/ATI's graphics cards around the HD3xxx series, especially with the move to the 55nm process. It's possible they dropped the voltage sensors in there, because voltages should stay the same on the card anyway. As for any other sensors, I haven't noticed any others before and you didn't list any, so I can't touch on that.



Except we have screenshots of other 4800 series cards that have data from additional sensors.  The Sapphire card I have also only has three led's compared to four for the original version of the card. Rather than red only and normally off, they're green and normally on.  I think it must have been a change in the layout of the card itself and apparently specific to Sapphire, at least so far, rather than say a new stepping of the GPU


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## jedirock (Jan 13, 2009)

gplracer said:


> Except we have screenshots of other 4800 series cards that have data from additional sensors.  The Sapphire card I have also only has three led's compared to four for the original version of the card. Rather than red only and normally off, they're green and normally on.  I think it must have been a change in the layout of the card itself and apparently specific to Sapphire, at least so far, rather than say a new stepping of the GPU



Hmm, I didn't realize the standard cards had 4 red LEDs, normally off. I just took the 3 green LEDs to mean that everything is all right. I suppose it's possible Sapphire chopped off some sensors to fit the cooler on. Frankly, I'm fine with the cooler temperature if it means I can't verify the stability of the +12V line. I can do that using a molex connector anyway.


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## TaKeN (Jan 13, 2009)

Hmm the plot thickens!

My card also has the three Leds on the back of it, these are green and constantly lit. I'm beggining to believe they must have changed quite a bit on these PCB's..

I've also noticed that these cards (with the new cooler and green leds) are very bad overclockers. I can only run at 800/1000 any more and VPU recover kicks in or the pc locks up (with vpu recover off..) , on the OcUK forum another member with the same card has the same stability problems when he tries to clock his card past 800/1000.

I know the previous Sapphire 4870's with the red cooler clocked alot better.. something very fishy going on here


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## jedirock (Jan 13, 2009)

Huh. And here I was thinking my 780/990 overclock was good. Anything over that starts producing artifacts in ATITool's checker.


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## YiZuSc (Feb 10, 2009)

Hi, there
My diamond hd 3870 stopped from showing temperature and fan duty, from de CCC (TM) and from any software, GPU-Z, atitool.





and the fan its always working at full speed. cant be modded by rivatool or CCC profile.

I upgraded bios but nothing seems to work. can it be sensor? where is it located?. I remember plugging once the GPU but... dont know what else to do.

Thank you for your help


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