ATI Radeon 9800 overheating

[Jani]

I just bought a new graphics card ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. Installed it and mouth watering waited to get on with GTA San Andreas I had bought earlier this week. In less than an hour I started to have some blank piksels and half an hour later screen was covered with black lines and artefacts. Half an hour later the computer shut down due to overheating. I googled the problem and found out that this is quite common problem with Radeon graphics cards. What really annoyed me was that many forums I visited advised to buy an extra cooling system for the card. (just paid 187 euros for the card!!!)
I´m getting sick with half made products in computer bisness. So far I´ve been suffering only non-finished games/programs but is it getting common that they sell un-finished hardware as well? And why people accept in computers? If I bought a car with "broken" radiator I would´t tolerate it. ATI can say farewell from my computer.

Jani

No complaining with GTA though...

[shamrock_uk]

I have similar symptoms with my 9700, apparently it's a common problem with those two cards.

P**ses me right off, I'm also a future NVidia customer [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Larry_OHF]

I would have said go NVidia if you would have asked. Hey, for the time being, MAYBE you can compensate by removing the front cover of the box while you are enganged in playing the game. It might help.

[Kynaeus]

Just get more ventilation, remove the sides and the front from your computer and put some there or something. Reset it if it is overclocked.

[Felix The Assassin]

I would say how much can your system handle? Is your system capable of handling a superior graphics card? Can your PSU handle the extra load plus extra heat generated by the product? Ever thought of why most of those other brands have BIG LOUD fans on them? Ever thought of water cooling?

Big bad video cards do not come in stock machines, they would literally melt it down. That includes the other brand as well. Ever looked at a custom rig and wondered why in the sandhells is there so many fans?
Did you by chance overclock your system? What about the vid-card itself? There are numerous overclocking programs that will kill a card and or system.
ATI cards are very hard, very fast, and need lots of cooling as well, but they choose to put a single fan on their boards, with the understanding that most systems that run a higher card are not stock.
I run ATI, and despis that other brand. However, I also have massive cooling, and a superior PSU to go along with OC'd CPU, Memory, and ATI 9600XT. I can run 3 hrs heavy (ALL Options Maxxed) 3D programs, and have a CPU temp of 129*F with a case temp of 89*F, and vid-card temp of 150*F without any pixelation.

In order to achieve a superior performance, you must start with the basics for said layout.
how many uncluttered intake fans do you have?
what size are they?
how many exhaust fans do you have?
what size are they?

I'm sorry if you had a bad experience, but a little bit of extra cooling will go along way. In addition, if you go with that other brand, your stock PSU will be working overtime to keep up with the power demand, again you will be faced with a heat issue.

[Bozos of Bones]

It's not a glitch in the hard itself, but in the program Overdrive. It is known to misread temperatures off the card, and acts on wrong information, raising the frequency of the GPU and the memory. Disable the Overdrive until you download the newest drivers and preferably the newest firmware. And note that this does not happen on all ATi cards, not even on all 9800s. Maybe one in 50 is vulnerable to the glitch. My card(Sapphire 9600XT) runs on 35 Celsius now(around 95 F), after playing UT2004 for about an hour on max detail. It might be worthwhile to do as Felix suggested and chech out how many clean fans you have. No modern card, no ATi, no nVidia or anyhing wil run well in a case with no fans.

[shamrock_uk]

Would you mind being more specific about disabling this overdrive feature Bozos? I can't say I've ever noticed an option for it!

A cooling note - case fans are much more efficient with the sides on. Don't think it's the problem for me unfortunately My computer is well ventilated, case temps never above 35c and CPU never above 50c which isn't bad for a Palamino.

[Bozos of Bones]

Open up the Catalyst Control Center(if there isn't a desktop icon, it should be in the ATi Control Center in Start-Programs) and go to the OVERDRIVE tab. Disable it. You might need to switch to Advanced View to access Overdrive.

[Zebodog]

Overdrive is only available on XT cards.

I'm using a 9800pro myself, and haven't had any problems at all with it. I've heard that you have to be careful what kind of card you get.

I heard good stories about ATI and HIS versions, but others have been known to be problematic.

[johnny]

I noticed that problem just recently myself. I also have an 9800 Pro, and the black dots appear only in certain games, and then only when you're in certain areas. In my case it's bright areas, like the skies in KotOR 2, or the entire floorside in NBA 2005. Other games seem to run perfect with all graphical options completely open, such as Rome Total War, Imperial glory, or Dungeon Lords. Beats me why that is though. haven't checked all the options yet, since i lost my pc for 5 weeks, nearly two weeks after i got my ATI card, but i don't think it has anything to do with overheating. I downloaded the latest drivers for the card, so that can't be the problem either. I'll try what Bozos suggested, maybe that will help.