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"Gfx card problem"

I've a Gainward 6800Gt golden sample. It's just under a year old now, and I've got a really irritating problem.

The fan speed is dymanic or static. On dynamic, it changes depending on the amount of cooling required. At 100percent in 3d games, it clicks like the fan is catching on something. really load, and really irritating. If I run it at static, I can run at 99% without a problem. Still, this only occurs when the experttool program is loaded, so on windows startup, it's running at full belt.

Anyone any clues on cleaning / replacement of the fans?

That noise will be irrepairable worn out bearings on the fan, my North bridge fan started doing exactly the same thing you described. If you RMA it, all you will get is another years worth of use out of it as they will wear out again.

The Arctic coolers boast ceramic bearings with an absurdly long lifetime, Im sure they nail the Zalman when it comes to ease of fitting, mine was fitted in about 10 mins. They are also very very quiet. I just don't like the very clumsy oversized Zalman designs.

Gainward never went into liquidation..it was confused with another company, they are still selling cards.

Suicide Soldier wrote:
> No idea what performance is like with NVIDIA cards as they already
> have a dual fan don't they?
>
> Was better than then standard ATI one for me.

I think it's luck of the draw to be honest what type of experience you'll have with it. A lot of people say it fits straight in without a problem, others say they had to file down parts. I think it's zalman for me, as it looks pretty easy to fit, and since I've got an exhaust blower (working) already the quiet running is the factor swinging me.

Still. I'm unhappy that I'm having to go third party cooler after less than a year. The warranty will be voided, although I'm pretty sure that's just a single year only. I doubt Gainward (oh great. "Gainward (UK) Limited is now in liquidation.") would replace a card that isn't (yet) faulty.

No idea what performance is like with NVIDIA cards as they already have a dual fan don't they?

Was better than then standard ATI one for me.

Suicide Soldier wrote:
> Yup, grab the latest Rev Artic Cooling fan. Warning though, they
> describe it as easy to fit but in fact their utter toss
> washers/screws snap very VERY easily, I ended up sending two back
> because of it.
>
> Not sure if the Nvidia cards have memory chip cooling but it is a
> pretty decent feature on the Arctic jobbies.
>
> Also when talking about the fan speed, are you amending this in the
> BIOS or through some Nvidia util?

Gainward Experttool for fan speed. On bootup it'll be like "clickclickclickclickclickclickclick" until it loads into system memory, than fines once it slows down. It's getting worse, and I'd hate for the card to burn out through it. I've been reading a thread about the Arctic fan, and it's supposedly utter crap.

"Quote:
Originally Posted by snozski
Dont agree Arctic silencer for 6800 is great. Reduced Temp on my crappy club 3d 6800 gt by 35c ... i was amazed and very easy to fit.


Well your wrong, the design is flawed.

1. The GPU sink and ramsinks being on the same platform is going to cause problems, not all cards are going to have the same height differerence between the memory and GPU.

2. The exhaust system doesnt even get utilised, the coper is so thick that it holds all the heat and the poorer conducting aluminium fins do not transfer enough heat from the copper for the air to run between them and disperse.

3. The plastic is tacky and the craftmans ship is shody. Theres at lest 8 members on these forums which have had to sand down the ramsinks.

and the Zalman cools much better in reviews and also the members who have converted from here have reported better temperatures. Also my system temps were the same with the Arctic cooler, prooving that the "exhaust" system does nothing."

So I'm going to take the card fans apart tonight, try to clean them properly, and if that fails, go for a Zalman VF700-CU (copper). This comes with free memory sinks.

Yup, grab the latest Rev Artic Cooling fan. Warning though, they describe it as easy to fit but in fact their utter toss washers/screws snap very VERY easily, I ended up sending two back because of it.

Not sure if the Nvidia cards have memory chip cooling but it is a pretty decent feature on the Arctic jobbies.

Also when talking about the fan speed, are you amending this in the BIOS or through some Nvidia util?

unknown kernel wrote:
> I stuck an Arctic Cooler on my last graphics card but sadly put the
> washers on the wrong side (duh) and crushed vital parts. Still just
> about worked but I had artifacts everywhere. Good luck!

Oh lovely.... Fill me full of confidence why don't you? :D

I stuck an Arctic Cooler on my last graphics card but sadly put the washers on the wrong side (duh) and crushed vital parts. Still just about worked but I had artifacts everywhere. Good luck!

monkey_man wrote:
> Seeing as it pulls air through by design anyway, what's the harm in
> blowing compressed air through it?

??? None as far as I can see. I've been using them for years. They've never caused a problem.

So far it's looking like a Zalman VF-700c, with some white spirits to remove the existing gunk, and some arctic silver. *cringe*

I hate fannying on with kit like this. It always goes belly up for me....

Seeing as it pulls air through by design anyway, what's the harm in blowing compressed air through it?

Those compressed air doohicks are wicked, but turn them upside down and dry ice comes out!