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ATI HD3870 Mac & PC edition - noisy - Why??

U

unlokia

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 14, 2007
137
0
Hi folks!. Just installed my ATI Radeon HD3870 Mac & PC edition card, in my 2008 Mac Pro 8-core. This card is SO noisy!.

AMD/ATI support guy sounded like he was half asleep, and yawning down the phone, mid-conversation (no suppression of the yawn - kinda like he wanted to make it obvious he didn't care that much) and he then told me that Apple THEMSELVES produce ATI cards? :confused::confused: ... uhmm no they don't!. I was also informed (probably erroneously also) that ATI don't make OR supply Mac drivers for this card, and Apple do. Really?. How VERY helpful.

Bottom line is: ATI support is about as much use as a wax kettle, and they SERIOUSLY DON'T CARE about Mac users (seems like the "Mac" part of the name was an afterthought!). Sorry for the rant - can anyone tell me how I get this card to reduce fan speed from a dull roar, even when just IDLE?.

PS: ATI europe make me angry - they don't give a f***
 
There's been a LOT of complaints on the noise factor on these cards. I don't know that anyone has locked down the reason, but a lot of people fix it by getting an aftermarket fan and replacing the stock fan on it.
 
The guy before explained what to do to reduce the noise (which he told well). I'm gonna defend ATI a little bit. Most cards for the mac (I don't no if it's all of them) that you order from apple are a little bit "tweaked" (don't no if it's a english word). The make some adjustments, so that it works optimal with the mac. And so they (apple) makes the drivers. (integrated in the os). So you wont have to download anything.

p.s. if you don't want to replace the fan, but want to make the fan speed lower (which might be dangerous because of overheating) you can use smcfancontrol (however, the lowest speed is apple adviced speed, so this might not help you so much).
 
arjen92 said:
The guy before explained what to do to reduce the noise (which he told well). I'm gonna defend ATI a little bit. Most cards for the mac (I don't no if it's all of them) that you order from apple are a little bit "tweaked" (don't no if it's a english word). The make some adjustments, so that it works optimal with the mac. And so they (apple) makes the drivers. (integrated in the os). So you wont have to download anything.

p.s. if you don't want to replace the fan, but want to make the fan speed lower (which might be dangerous because of overheating) you can use smcfancontrol (however, the lowest speed is apple adviced speed, so this might not help you so much).
Click to expand...

That's no answer - there is obviously a HARDWARE issue with this card, or a firmware that needs fixing.
 
Some people have used this to solve the issue. :)
Not sure where to get one in the UK though. Didn't see it on span.com. :(
 
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