Lateral winds AHEAD! aka ATI Radeon HD 7990 6GB!!! The Prodigy - Firestarter
What's all the hubbub with the
lateral winds ahead? READ and you shall FIND! ... or believe ... nah ... faith has nothing to do with this episode ... unless we are talking about my unshakeable belief that "road kill" actually means still alive and kicking ... until proven otherwise ...
On a cold and rainy day I was at the spot ... you know all too well what I am talking about ... To my amazement I was greeted by a
DUAL GPU from the camp from which I do not buy too often cards. Reasons? Reasons have nothing to do with logic so let's move on ...
As it was a bad day for the seller in a pure sense that there was no way that many buyers will come at the flea market, I asked:
How much is the fish? Ahem ... this card? SCOOOOOTER!!!! ahem .. NO! Borderlands Scooter scream when Sanctuary lifts off comes to mind. CATCH A RIIIIIDDEEEEEE!!! This is how much I was pumped to see the triple fan beast, but I contained it all inside of me as we all know, the more you show the more you pay! Flea market rules are ruthless!
After a short haggling session I managed to score the card for the obscene sum of 14 EUROS. UHH YEAHHH!!!! So little for so much I said to myself at that moment ... little did I know ... like many times in the past ... but hey, you never know what might come your way so you must be ready to receive the good with the bad in equal measure.
At a glance the card was in a relative good shape, I mean relative in a way that it was whole and also in a way that made me think that it might not require elbow grease in excess ... I never learn ... but I am a sucker for DUAL GPU cards no matter the manufacturer ... so, this ended with me taking my beloved back home.
The board looked like it made contact with Good Ol' H2O or other liquid? Coca Cola?! The salty deposits spoke volumes about the ordeals this card endured until it reached me. It pains me to see any high end component that once was King of The Hill suffer at the hand of ignorant people but what can you do?
The first thing I did was to dismantle the card. I really like this long, sleek, FPS machine I said to myself while I worked on it.
When I buy a component I always look into to future and I see with my eyes how it will look once I am done with it. If I was to judge any component just on the initial looks I would have about a quarter of what I have now. There is only one thing that makes me do what I do:
the experience that I have accumulated coupled with my capacity to find new methods of restoration, reconditioning and rejuvenation of "relics" of times gone but never forgotten.
And one more thing, without
passion there can be nothing. I lost count of how many times I was asked: What are you doing with them?! Ha Ha Ha!!! What am I doing with them? From the get go if you ask such a thing you will never understand a passion that burns inside you day in and day out. What am I doing with them? He He He ... the ones that have bought from me know already and the ones that did will buy from me in the future. My mission is to keep alive the passion in the heart of any PC enthusiast and I will save any component that comes across my path that I deem worthy to be rescued. And believe me, they are billions!!!
After 9 years of collecting and almost 2 of selling I know what my mission is. The initial feedback is good so as they say: "Strike while the iron is hot!"
But I digress ...
ATI 7990!!! Check!
I dismantled the card and the sensation I got was like the one when you see a good friend after years and years.
The layout was so familiar and brought back memories of articles I read about it. Also the many OC records this card broke under LN2, dice or just regular air cooling.
This thing is sleek as f..k! A work of art in all its (naked) beauty! More F's went out of my mouth but hey, this is a Family friendly channel so I decided not to go F... overboard.
The TIM was rock solid and the memory chips had oily stains from the thermal pads. Other than that nothing else looked out of place or that could make me think about the card being damaged or that it had crossed the river Stix.
As a 'policy" of "truth" I never test cards that look iffy, as soon as I get them, exception being cards that I remove from a PC case with my own hands. This procedure has saved my a$$ more than once, but hey, I did my share of "stupid" things ... LOL!
This board was no exception to my guiding rule so NO POWER UP until I restore it to its former glory!
Hmmm ... nice vintage ... Chateau Neuf du RUST! RUST! My No.1 ENEMY!
While I dismantled the card I took great precautions not to damage the fragile thermal pads. As my stash has thousands of components, changing thermal pads to each and every one of them can quickly mount to a pretty sum ...
Even if the card bears the HIS name it is as stock as any ATI 7990 so throughout this episode I will refer to it as a ATI 7990 nothing less, nothing more.
The cooling fans were in good shape albeit dirty. Also the screws were a little rusty.
Where de F... Hell was this card stored?!?!
The heatsinks were looking a little worse for wear with salty deposits. This was not looking good at all. ATI 7990 cooling assemblies are not sitting around easily ready to be plucked ...
This looks like a purpose(full) driven slab of metal.
The copper heatsink went straight into a bath of vinegar made from real grapes of 9 Degrees(alcohol).
While the copper sizzled in its bath I asked myself a logical question: Will I be able to make this card look at least 75% as it was when it was new?
Time will tell.
Things weren't looking too good ...
I washed the metal backplate and the cooling frame of the VRAM and VRM with hot water and dish soap.
The rusty screws went into a rust remover solution based on boric acid. Initially I wanted to replace them but where am I going to find replacement screws as this is my ONLY 7990?!
Keep it simple bro. I told to myself. K.I.S.S. If this works out well it will be bliss if not then it will still be bliss. You can look a pictures but when you hold a component in your hand and feel its weight it is a totally different thing. REAL HW or GTFO!. Besides, even if I dont get to see this card working, maybe some time down the line I will be able to fix this kind of monsters, so CARRY ON like you don't give a damn ... and so I DID! I took no stops. ALL OR NOTHING!!! FTW!!!
As I had nothing to loose I washed the aluminum heatsinks with hot tap water and Fairy Lemon. I mean what could happen that didn't already? As a side note, washing aluminum heatsinks with water is really bad as this can lead to the formation of salty deposits on fins and other kind of nasty sh... In practice you shouldn't do this but as the heatsinks were already corroded I said I have nothing to loose ...
Said an done. Water!
After I washed the heatsinks I used an air compressor to dry them.
After the water wash one thing hit me. Some of the corroded fins simply vanished. It seems that this card found me a little too late but hey, a few missing fins mean nothing in the grand scheme of cooling so I wasn't too stressed about it.
The results were as good as it gets taking into consideration the above mentioned facts.
Against increasing odds I wasn't ready to throw in the towel yet.
Fizzing action (or not).
PCB wash in progress! Air compressor to the rescue to blow out the offending water.
While I was drying out the superb PCB my mind was restless looking for a way to rejuvenate the aluminum heatsinks.
And then it HIT ME!
What if I was to use a buffing wheel and some polishing green paste? I mean what have I got to lose? I will only have access to the outside of the fins and the lateral parts but even if "that damned salt will remain between the fins" what I am (again) to lose?!?! Absolutely nothing!
LET'S DO IT!
The inital results were to my liking. This card still has a snowball's chance in hell to make it! I LIKE THE ODDS!!! Carry on 'till the end!
The rusted bracket also took a bath in white vinegar made from grapes.
Cleaning the cement like thermal paste was a PITA requiring IPA 99%, acetone, cottons sticks, credit cards with or without PIN numbers ...
Even after quite an effort some signs of discoloration were still visible. Some things will have to remain as they are for the time being ... or at least ... until I find an electro plating service and then you will see some bling bling ... dreams for the time being though ...
After many hours of hard work I had in front of me a puzzle that I wanted to assemble ASAP as I wanted to see if the mighty 7990 was still amongst the living.
Naked GPU dies. Uhhh is it getting hot in here is it just me?
Two of the thermal pads had a little problem in the sense that they were kind of whole but they had a small excavation so this was not ideal. I didn't have replacement pads so I had to improvise. As a stop gap solution I resorted to filling the missing area with Arctic MX-4 TIM. Not great I know ... but HEY. While in ROME ...
Other two thermal pads were replaced with custom Arctic Blue pads. The pads from the VRAM were reused.
The PCB received its final cleaning. The rust from the video connectors was eliminated using a rust remover solution, patience and other tools.
The final results were better than I anticipated. It doesn't get better than this folks!
Final results for the aluminum heatsinks.
Bits and pieces.
The bracket was left with some scars from the rust. This, I can't do anything about ...
Before.
After.
Ready to be assembled.
With each step I took I knew that I was getting closer to power up the mighty 7990. Will it work or will it be dead? Only time will tell!
Fresh TIM.
As it was the case with the previous ASUS GTX 680, I didn't wait to take the final pics with the 7990 as I was anxious to fire it and see what's what.
OH YEAH!!! POST and a CLEAR IMAGE!!! Winner winner chicken dinner!!!
... only TWO fans are spinning? Something is not right!?
... STILL TWO?! What the F*$(#*$()#$(!!!!!!!####!!!!
Eventually, under the 3D Mark 2011 load the middle fan took off.
Nothing warned me about what I was about the experience. You see, one is to read about a card being noisy while you read some reviewer's article and one is to feel it yourself.
The moment the middle fan started to spin was both a moment of joy and a moment of complete surprise. Joy as the card was @ 100% working state and surprise of the dB it made.
More 3D Mark passes and temperature monitoring later revealed that this card is working as good as new! YAY!
And now we get to the lateral winds ahead part of this story.
After the middle fan started to spin there was only one thing that came into my mind and that can only be put into "words" by the following picture.
So, my advice IS: IF YOU ever play with this beast on an open bench setup please take some sort of safety measures or you will end up like the good fellow from the above picture.
If this board, once had even the mildest trace of some sort of fan management, I must say that this is at best some sort of a bad joke.
High end bleeding edge meant back in the day: noisy, hot and power hungry. All the things a real man needs!
After the test session was done and my chest hair was a lot thicker
I was very happy that I scored this beast.
14 EUROS? NO BRAINER! Any day of the week! TAKE MY MONEY!
So all that is well ends well! Of course that this card will never be a PRIME or a MINT example of its species but what I can say for sure it that this card is a SURVIVOR. I bow to you ATI for making this awesome card!
I wanted to own this card when it was brand spanking new, but hey, as they say, better late than never.
A video card has marked you existence? What are you waiting for? The moment to save one is NOW! Cards like these are minced in recycling centers on a daily basis. In a short span of time we will be left with only pictures of them so I say that we have to postpone this moment as long as possible. We live in a fast world and fast doesn't always mean better!!!
Be smart and fearless! I salute you! ... R o b e r t ...
gallery:
https://postimg.cc/gallery/LfHLqGN
More later.
