First post, by Iris4g
- Rank
- Newbie
Hey all! It's been nearly a year since I last posted here.
I have owned several HD3850 AGPs, the cheapest one (10$!!!) died after about a week of use. The other two that I have acquired recently still work.
One thing I have been trying to look into is keeping the RIALTO bridge chip cool.
When you do some research online, a lot of people suggest using a big heatsink with active cooling, others say that it's fine without any cooling and it can be left alone.
I noticed that my chip gets up to 133 degrees (Fahrenheit) under full load, and it sits around 97-99 (Fahrenheit) on idle.
I decided to order some small heatsinks on amazon and experiment. I didn't do my homework and what I ended up with was a lot smaller than I had anticipated... But hey, it still covers the bridge die! (case fan screws for comparison)
I put some thermal compound on the die and carefully stuck my cute little heatsink to the pink pad (in this pic there is no TC, I just stuck it on to test fit).
I fired up Call of Duty: World at War for some testing. After a few rounds of Der Reise zombies I used my temperature gun on the little heatsink and saw that it was at 136 degrees!!!! Shortly after this the game crashed, and I could not get back to the desktop, but I could still move my mouse. A system reset was needed. I should also note that as soon as it crashed the RIALTO chip temps dropped drastically, and it wasn't until I reset the system that the temps came back up.
So I took the mini heatsink off, cleaned the RIALTO die, and played some more zombies without any issues. The highest temp I saw on the die was 133 degrees. No crashes this time!
A few questions...
-Is that mini heatsink doing more harm than good?
-Would it be worth it to invest in a bigger heatsink?
-Would improved airflow have any positive effect on die temps with or without a heatsink stuck to the RIALTO die? I am building a slightly faster AGP system that will be housed in an Antec 300 with 2x120mm front fans VS my currently very dated generic no-name 2002 case with one tiny front fan that is blocked by my hard drives...
I am sure a lot of you here once owned an ATi based GPU with the infamous flamin' RIALTO bridge chip. What are your thoughts/opinions?? is 133 Fahrenheit too hot? Or do you think that it's nothing to worry about?
EDIT: Specs in case anyone was curious
-GA-8VM800PMD-775-RH Rev1
-2x512MB ULTRA PC4200 533Mhz DDRII
-Pentium D 945
-Sapphire HD3850 AGP