Max. operating temp. for AIW 9700 Pro???

[TJM]

Anyone know the maximum operating temp. for the AIW 9700 Pro chip?

I have this card and lately its been operating at around 166 F.....which seems a
little hotter than usual. This is during normal operation with WinXP and
non-gaming applications. It used to run around high 150's F.

I am thinking the fan bearings are starting to go bad and its slowing the RPMs,
and thus the higher temps. I think this card has a built-in thermal protection
whereby it shuts down when it reaches a critical temp, but I'd still like to
know it's operating temp. range. I checked all the documentation and the ATI
website but they dont have any specs on it.

Thanks for the help......

 

[Conor]

Anyone know the maximum operating temp. for the AIW 9700 Pro chip?

I have this card and lately its been operating at around 166 F.....which seems a
little hotter than usual. This is during normal operation with WinXP and
non-gaming applications. It used to run around high 150's F.

Whats that in real money? Rest of the world moved to decimalisation.
Still from what I remember about the conversion, its not a massive
change.

I am thinking the fan bearings are starting to go bad and its slowing the RPMs,
and thus the higher temps. I think this card has a built-in thermal protection
whereby it shuts down when it reaches a critical temp, but I'd still like to
know it's operating temp. range. I checked all the documentation and the ATI
website but they dont have any specs on it.

As a general rule silicon doesn't like working above 65-70C and it gets
critical at 80C.

 

[Derek Baker]

Whats that in real money? Rest of the world moved to decimalisation.
Still from what I remember about the conversion, its not a massive
change.

As a general rule silicon doesn't like working above 65-70C and it gets
critical at 80C.

Shit, I hope not: my X800 gets to 85C! Seriously see here:
http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=47964&page=1&pp=15

I think your temps are more appropriate for CPUs rather than GPUs.

 

[TJM]

I tapped on the heatsink fan a few times and it appears the fan started spinning
faster and the temp. fell to 56 C. I think the bearings are getting clogged
with dust and this is slowing the RPMs considerably. Not unusual since this
card is 2 yrs old and I dont routinely blow dust out of my case.

Anyone else have a fan die because of excess dust buildup?

 

[TJM]

As a general rule silicon doesn't like working above 65-70C and it gets

Shit, I hope not: my X800 gets to 85C! Seriously see here:
http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=47964&page=1&pp=15

I think your temps are more appropriate for CPUs rather than GPUs.

I tapped on the heatsink fan a few times and it appears the fan started spinning
faster and the temp. fell to 56 C. I think the bearings are getting clogged
with dust and this is slowing the RPMs considerably. Not unusual since this
card is 2 yrs old and I dont routinely blow dust out of my case.

Anyone else have a fan die because of excess dust buildup?

 

[HockeyTownUSA]

Shit, I hope not: my X800 gets to 85C! Seriously see here:
http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=47964&page=1&pp=15

I think your temps are more appropriate for CPUs rather than GPUs.

Yeah. 166F is about 60C which is pretty cool for a GPU. A CPU at 60 is not a
lot to worry about, but would worry once a CPU hits 70C, or a GPU hits 80C.
My X800 maxes out at about 60C, but it has lots of room to breathe.

 

[Derek Baker]

Yeah. 166F is about 60C which is pretty cool for a GPU. A CPU at 60 is not
a lot to worry about, but would worry once a CPU hits 70C, or a GPU hits
80C. My X800 maxes out at about 60C, but it has lots of room to breathe.

My X800 is a Pro VIVO with the extra four pipelines unlocked, and
overclocked to 520/560. This in a case with one slow turning 120mm case
fan - currently at 1328rpm.

 

[J. Clarke]

I tapped on the heatsink fan a few times and it appears the fan started
spinning
faster and the temp. fell to 56 C. I think the bearings are getting
clogged
with dust and this is slowing the RPMs considerably. Not unusual since
this card is 2 yrs old and I dont routinely blow dust out of my case.

Anyone else have a fan die because of excess dust buildup?

It's not excessive dust buildup, it's just worn bearings. You could have
blown the machine out every day and the bearings would still have gone. I
remember a rack of Dell servers, all installed at the same time. One of
them started acting up after about a year, tore it down, found a dead fan.
Checked the others, fans all fine. Adopted a policy of checking fans every
six months, several years later still not a problem with any of them. Not
dust, just sometimes fans die for no apparent reason. I've gone through
three of them in my Tivo and it never seems to have a speck of dust inside.

 

[TJM]

It's not excessive dust buildup, it's just worn bearings. You could have

blown the machine out every day and the bearings would still have gone. I
remember a rack of Dell servers, all installed at the same time. One of
them started acting up after about a year, tore it down, found a dead fan.
Checked the others, fans all fine. Adopted a policy of checking fans every
six months, several years later still not a problem with any of them. Not
dust, just sometimes fans die for no apparent reason. I've gone through
three of them in my Tivo and it never seems to have a speck of dust inside.

Interesting facts.....but why would my fan be working well now if it had bad
bearings? I would assume it wouldnt spin at normal RPMs if it had bad bearings,
but it does seem to be working fine now.

 

[J. Clarke]

Interesting facts.....but why would my fan be working well now if it had
bad
bearings? I would assume it wouldnt spin at normal RPMs if it had bad
bearings, but it does seem to be working fine now.

Sometimes if you spin it up once by hand it will run for a while.