HD4870 (GV-R487D5-1GD) is BURNING UP!!!

[FoxFire]

I recently purchased the GV-R487D5-1GD for my new i7 920 build and have been putting it through all the requisite testing to make sure everything is running okay, when I discovered that the Gigabyte HD4870 is running WAY hotter than I'm hearing it should be running.

Room temperature is about 76 degrees F. I'm not doing any overclocking.

On the card, I am sitting around 74 degrees Celsius GPU Core at Idle, and when I run 3DMark06 the temperature shoots up to 115 degrees C!! (and I think some throttling may be kicking in, because my 3dMarks are about the lowest score for similar systems.)

The GPU VRM temps are around 50 C at Idle and 68 C at Load.

When I purchased this card I was aware that the Zalman fan was a Gigabyte addition and ran at 100% speed at all times. Reviews I read said that this kept the card at a cool and comfy <40 C at idle and in the 60s at load.

Reading reviews on other 4870s with variable speed fans, people are reporting that they can turn their fans up to 40 - 50% to get Idle temps at 45 C and load temps at 70 C.

Being about as careful as anyone can be (you should see me build, it's like I'm around a new born baby - well except for the ESD pad and wrist strap :-), I took the card out and tightened down the screws on the heatsink a bit (they were a touch looser than they could be), and tried again. No luck. Same temps. I unloosened all the screws, made sure the heat sink was sitting flush, and rescrewed everything down a little bit at a time diagonally altering screws. Results ---> If anything, temps went up a couple degrees!

While running 3dMark06 I touched the heatsink, it was just barely warm, I put my hand above the back of the card, and there was A LOT of heat coming from it. I touched one of the heatsink mount screws on the back of the card, and literally just about burned my finger tip!

I also noticed an occasional slight high pitched whine, I believe coming from the card, while 3DMark06 ran.

Anyhow, any thoughts? I have a feeling this card is not functioning properly. Time for an RMA?

[NimrodAUS]

Re: HD4870 (GV-R487D5-1GD) is BURNING UP!!!

One thing you could do before sending it back, however Im not sure if it may Void your warranty or not is to take the HSF off the chip and make sure there is or reapply thermal paste. If the card is hot as, but the Heat Sink isnt it sounds like the heat just isnt transfering to the Heat Sink very well. If you are as careful as you say it wont hurt to take the HS off and put some paste on there and remount it completely.

[FoxFire]

Re: HD4870 (GV-R487D5-1GD) is BURNING UP!!!

Yeah, I've considered doing that, but I'm not sure how that would effect the warranty. I tried calling Gigabyte but they are closed on the weekends.

I don't know if these high temps could damage the card as it is. My understanding is the chip will throttle down the speed if it gets too hot.

I almost get the feeling that the heatsink plate IS actually making adequate contact with the chip, because the mounting screws are literally boiling hot, but that somehow the connection between the plate and the heatsink pipes and fins is not right. Hence, heat isn't being transferred to the pipes and the fins from the plate which contacts the GPU core.

And if that's the case, I have no idea how to fix that (if it can be).

[NimrodAUS]

Re: HD4870 (GV-R487D5-1GD) is BURNING UP!!!

Yeah that could be tricky. I would RMA it because its definatly not ment to get that hot. And it cant be very good. Dont know about throttling but Im sure there would be some issues before it melts through the floor.

[FoxFire]

Re: HD4870 (GV-R487D5-1GD) is BURNING UP!!!

Yeah that could be tricky. I would RMA it because its definatly not ment to get that hot. And it cant be very good. Dont know about throttling but Im sure there would be some issues before it melts through the floor.

Yeah, I'm RMAing it. It's only gotten hotter. I did a 3dMark06 run that brought it close to 120 degrees (118), and the score on that run was quite a bit lower than previous runs, so something is kicking in to slow the card down. (And I'm not even using the provided Radeon safe overclocking software yet. I don't think I could even attempt to over clock at these temperatures).

Anyhow, I have a rebate submission that is due very soon, and I don't think I can send the RMA if I take the UPC symbol off the box, so I'm not sure how that's going to be handled. By the time I get a replacement, the deadline to send in the rebate will have passed. Gah!

[NimrodAUS]

Re: HD4870 (GV-R487D5-1GD) is BURNING UP!!!

Stuff the 20 bucks for rebate or so just RMA the damm thing and get a new one before your Card goes SupaNova.

[Psycho101]

Re: HD4870 (GV-R487D5-1GD) is BURNING UP!!!

You should be fine to RMA the card with the UPC/barcode removed. Gigabyte won't care. There is a sticker on the card with the same code to most likely.

You can always mention this to Gigabyte before you RMA it. However bear in mind if it's quite new (less than a year) it should be your suppliers job to exchange the card for you. Gigabyte will still accept an RMA regardless if you choose to go through them, but your retailer should pick up the card and return it free of charge, where as to RMA to Gigabyte, you'd have to cover the postage cost to send it out.

[FoxFire]

Re: HD4870 (GV-R487D5-1GD) is BURNING UP!!!

Well... I'm RMAing it back to the supplier with the UPC still attached, and I'll deal with trying to get the rebate even though it will be sent late because of the RMA.

FYI... the supplier is making ME pay to ship the card back to them. In FACT I live 10 miles away from them, and they refuse to let me drop it off (company policy). They have indicated that their technicians will test the card before replacing it.

I indicated that while the card does work, it is idling and running MUCH hotter than it should and appears to slow down on benchmark tests when it gets close to 120 degrees, and that I haven't even tried to use the provided ATI safe overclocking tool yet (I can't imagine what the temps would do then, as the fan is already at 100%, but I imagine it would refuse to overclock or throttle down).

Will see what happens further with this supplier before I decide to slam them on Reseller Ratings.

[Psycho101]

Re: HD4870 (GV-R487D5-1GD) is BURNING UP!!!

Yikes! Charging to send it back is a bit grim. I RMA'd my PSU to Scan.co.uk, due to coil whine (noise) and they collected it by courier next day. If it's found not to be faulty, then I have to pay pickup and return costs, but it definately is faulty so that's cool.

Good luck and I hope you get a fully functional replacement. Let us know how you get on.