# Serious overheating problems with 9800XT



## Mawman (Jul 8, 2005)

Hi there, I bought a built by ATI 9800XT about a year and a half ago when they were new and like $500. Everything was good until I started playing Doom3 a couple months ago and some artifacting started to come up in the game. At first it was only Doom3 that caused this, but now pretty much every game I play gets artifacts. I Downloaded ATI tool to check my temperature of my vid card and was quite shocked. Right now on idle i am currently at 82°C at the stock settings of 412/365, not overclocked. On load i usually get in the high 90s such as 98 or so when playing games and artifacting pretty bad. I took the card out of my comp and took off the fan and heatsink and i applied artic silver 5 to the gpu and all 8 of the memory chips, yet it didnt do anything. My temps are still way to high. So i suppose Doom3 really fucked my card up. damn u id software. But anyways, I ordered a thermaltake big water kit and a aquarius II vga waterblock which will hopefully bring my temps down but they wont arrive until a few days. I have the newest ati drivers and my P4 2.8 stock is idle at a cool 45°C. So I know the problem is  the card itself. Anyway, I would appreciate some suggestions from people that may know how to solve these problems or have had the same problems and if Doom3 F'ed up anyways elses vid cards.

Thanks.


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## INSTG8R (Jul 9, 2005)

Mawman what version of P4 is that? Prescott or Northwood 
I ask because I wonder about overall case temps 82 for idle is pretty hot but if thats a Northie P4 you need to look into some better case airflow


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## Dippyskoodlez (Jul 9, 2005)

INSTG8R said:
			
		

> Mawman what version of P4 is that? Prescott or Northwood
> I ask because I wonder about overall case temps 82 for idle is pretty hot but if thats a Northie P4 you need to look into some better case airflow



\by idle i think he means GPU

anyways, try opening the case and blowing a fan in. temps that high will cause some major problems. also make sure the fan is spinning, and the heatsink is clear of dust.


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## INSTG8R (Jul 9, 2005)

Yes Dippy I know that thats why I ask. 9800's were known to run hot but he also stated his idle CPU temp. I am trying to Isolate the heat issue IF he has a Prescott the 45C idle he stated is fine if its a Northie well then he has Case Temp issues which are not gonna help his 9800 out at all


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## Mawman (Jul 9, 2005)

Thank you for your reply. When i said idle 82 i did mean my GPU, not my CPU and my CPU is an old Northwood 533mhz FSB i got like 3 years ago. The fan is spinning, and ATI Tool reports the fan at 134% lol.


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## Dippyskoodlez (Jul 9, 2005)

Mawman said:
			
		

> Thank you for your reply. When i said idle 82 i did mean my GPU, not my CPU and my CPU is an old Northwood 533mhz FSB i got like 3 years ago. The fan is spinning, and ATI Tool reports the fan at 134% lol.



stick a big housefan twards the side of the open case and see if it helps.


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## INSTG8R (Jul 9, 2005)

K well as I stated those Idle temps for your CPU yes I said CPU are FAR too high hence my asking, Im very aware your GPU temps are too high,but when you stated your CPU was idling at 45C AND its Northie you have air flow issues in your case so for starters I would try Dippy's suggestion but in the longterm you need to look into better cooling for your case


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## Mawman (Jul 9, 2005)

Ok, thanks INSTG8R. The house fan is slowly cooling my GPU down, and as for better cooling, As i mentioned in my first post, I am getting the thermaltake bigwater so that SHOULD solve all of my heating problems but i dunno.


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## INSTG8R (Jul 9, 2005)

that should help but how many/size fans are running in your case? Water will keep the CPU and GPU cool but other components still generate heat


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## Mawman (Jul 9, 2005)

The house fan has been going for about 5 minutes and it has cooled my GPU down from 82 to 79 so far, not much but it may continue to cool it down more.


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## Mawman (Jul 9, 2005)

I am running 4 case fans, one in the front for intake, one on the side for intake, and two in the rear for exhaust, all aree 80mm.


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## INSTG8R (Jul 9, 2005)

thats should be sufficient really, now Im a bit puzzled why your temps are so high. As you see in my Specs I only have 2 60s for intake and an 80 for exhaust and my Prescott idles at 48C or so and my X800(with Silencer) idles at 38-40 tho my previous 9800 did get pretty toasty I dont think it ever got that high at idle.I would be interested to know the Wattage of your PSU and the Amps on the rails(12v, 3.3,5V) and who made it. another sign of overheating is an inefficient PSU.


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## Mawman (Jul 9, 2005)

I have an Aspire 520Watt power supply and here is the amps on the rails +3.3V@30A, +5V@32A, +12V@35A, -5V@0.3A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@2A


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## INSTG8R (Jul 9, 2005)

Not a reputable PSU for sure but the ratings look good. I guess you may have to go for that water set and hope it cools things down


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## Mawman (Jul 9, 2005)

Ok, thank you so much for your help. I will probably post back here after I install the water cooling system and hopefully will have some cooler temps and congratulations on your 500th post heh.


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## INSTG8R (Jul 9, 2005)

LOL I hadnt noticed thanks. here is a good review on PSU's though I would add it as some food for thought read it HERE


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## Mawman (Jul 9, 2005)

alright thanks, i will read that.


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## Dippyskoodlez (Jul 9, 2005)

ive got 4 90mm fans and 2 in my PSU and my case temps are still.. higher than what i want.. give a hosuefan on the side of the case a shot.. you may be amazed


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## Mawman (Jul 9, 2005)

Ive been running a house fan on the side of my case for about a half an hour and it only dropped my gpu temp to 79 from 82. My CPU temp is still 45 but my case temp dropped from 45 to 33.


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## TheChad (Jul 11, 2005)

The stock Heat sinks stink, when i took mine off my 9700 the thermal paste was only touching the core on about 10% of the surface.  Replaced it with some good thermal compound or get a new heat sink all togeather.  

i got this from newegg.  been very happy with it.  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186110


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## Mawman (Jul 12, 2005)

I did put some Arctic Silver 5 on the GPU and on all 8 of the memory chips but i am still overheating badly. I ordered a thermaltake bigwater system and a vga waterblock about a week ago and i should be getting it tomorrow or wednesday, and that should fix my overheating problems and might allow me to overclock my 9800xt.


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## Mawman (Jul 17, 2005)

I installed the big water system on my cpu and gpu. My cpu has cooled from 50C idle to about 30C idle. My videocard however has been having some problems. The waterblock cooled it to 72C from 82C. So it is still too hot. But not only that, but i now have a strange problem where i get artifacts around the edge of the start menu, or when i hold right click on the desktop to draw a box to select icons, artifacts start to appear around the box. I think it may be because the stock fan and heatsink cooled all the memory chips. But the waterblock only cools the gpu and not the memory chips. So maybe the memory chips are overheating?


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## ati/aholic (Jul 21, 2005)

*Wooo*

Yeah i get funky sh*t on my screen when i play FarCry! Where did you get that ATI temperature thing from?


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