X800 XL - PSU Ramping Up

Chris.Day · Post by **Chris.Day** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:53 am

I've had a 9800 Pro with VGA Silencer in my A64 system for a month or so now, and the PSU fan hasn't ramped up. The 9800 died and I replaced it yesterday with an X800 XL.

The stock cooler isn't all that annoying. At 100% it's loud but it's more air whooshing through it than whining (like I've heard with some nVidia cards). At 10% it's inaudible (and GPU temperature is reported ~35/40°C at idle). When I start a game though the whole system heats up considerably and the PSU fan sounds like it's running full whack. It will take a long time to cool off after I finish gaming and it is definately the PSU fan (Nexus NX-4090). I suspect that this is due to the heat staying in the case rather than being exhausted out.

It seems that fitting a Zalman won't be of any use here since while it will cool the graphics card quieter, it won't do anything to help case temps. In your opinion am I better going with the ATI Silencer 5 Rev.2?

Green Shoes · Post by **Green Shoes** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 7:52 am

A lot of members have reported ticking problems when using the ATI silencer, especially when coupled with ATI's voltage regulator for the fan. You're right, though, the PSU is ramping up b/c now the 60C-70C temps that your VGA card are putting off are staying inside the case. The zalman can still work, you just need to build your own duct. Or, you can try the Artic Cooling silencer and just not attach ATI's voltage solution; you might still get some ticking but it appears that graphite might take care of that.

nbac · Post by **nbac** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:23 am

But the x800XL is supposed to be a low power enthusiast card. And your PSU should also be rather good, so If the fan ramps up, you either got a very high power CPU or poor case ventilation?

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Fri May 06, 2005 5:33 pm

It's possible that increased power consumption during gaming puts enough stress on the PSU that it has to ramp up. I have 6800GT and 470W Enermax Noisetaker and this has always been the case for me. Whenever I game my PSU ramps up despite having arctic silencer on the card that exhausts heat outside the case and excellent case airflow otherwise. My PSU comes back to normal RMPs fairly quick though, I think under five minutes. If I were you I wouldn't worry about it, even if it's annoying, it's unfortunately unavoidable with high power draw cards. For comparison my PSU never ramped up with the old card - R8500.

Green Shoes · Post by **Green Shoes** » Fri May 06, 2005 5:58 pm

JazzJackRabbit wrote:It's possible that increased power consumption during gaming puts enough stress on the PSU that it has to ramp up. I have 6800GT and 470W Enermax Noisetaker and this has always been the case for me. Whenever I game my PSU ramps up despite having arctic silencer on the card that exhausts heat outside the case and excellent case airflow otherwise. My PSU comes back to normal RMPs fairly quick though, I think under five minutes. If I were you I wouldn't worry about it, even if it's annoying, it's unfortunately unavoidable with high power draw cards. For comparison my PSU never ramped up with the old card - R8500.

This probably has something to do with it but his fan isn't ramping down for quite a while afterwards, suggesting that it's more of a heat issue. Besides, graphics cards don't (yet) have anything along the lines of cool 'n quiet....the delta between idle and load power consumption for most graphics cards is only 2-3W. Since this is true the PSU would be running that speed all the time.

You might be on to something though with the addition of heat from both the CPU and GPU.

ilh · Post by **ilh** » Fri May 06, 2005 7:25 pm

Green Shoes wrote:...the delta between idle and load power consumption for most graphics cards is only 2-3W.

Where do you get 2-3W? This post shows a 32W idle/load swing for a 6800GT. I don't know where those number came from, however.

tay · Post by **tay** » Fri May 06, 2005 8:33 pm

Mr.Shoes forgot about the underclocking in 2D mode bit that all the modern cards do now. Some even jack up the voltage a bit in 3D mode IIRC. In any case, getting back to the OPs problem its tough to say if its PSU heat related (the NX-4090 has average efficiency) or system/video card heat related.

An arctic vga silencer would definitely help, and if you want to avoid the PWM nonsense from the ATI card you can always wire it yourself or solder a capacitor on the 12v line (although this may not be everyones cup of tea).

Green Shoes · Post by **Green Shoes** » Fri May 06, 2005 9:32 pm

tay wrote:Mr.Shoes forgot about the underclocking in 2D mode bit that all the modern cards do now. Some even jack up the voltage a bit in 3D mode IIRC. In any case, getting back to the OPs problem its tough to say if its PSU heat related (the NX-4090 has average efficiency) or system/video card heat related.

Hmm, yes, sorry, got voltage and wattage confused, CPUs can drop voltage, GPUs do not

. My bad.

Mr. Shoes....heh. Might have to change my screen name

Chris.Day · Post by **Chris.Day** » Sun May 15, 2005 5:33 am

Well it seems that Arctic Cooling have lost whatever they used to make the original VGA Silencers so great. I was cautious about replacing the stock cooler with the ATI Silencer 5 (Rev.2) because of the general dislike of it here and it seems that my caution paid off. I unplugged the stock cooler knowing that the card can run without the fan at idle and listened to the ATI Silencer using ATI Tool to control the speed.

At 100% it's definately quieter than stock, but the stock cooler never needs to run at that speed anyway. It vibrates more than the stock cooler which feels very smooth.

At 10%-20%, where the stock cooler usually runs, it is considerably louder. Holding it in my hand I can feel how bad it vibrates and it makes a horrible grinding noise (not any clicking but I suspect that it is the "filter" which has translated the clicking into the grinding).