is your 3870 fan always loud?

[UltraNEO*]

I paid for a product and have yet to received a working unit, simple as that. No way I'm going to be satisfied until they send me a card that actually works. I talked to OWC tech support and they even told me to fill out the form for an RMA and to specifically ask to have the new card tested before it's shipped out. After I filled out the RMA form, I got a response saying I couldn't get the RMA because of the 30 days. This is bad business and I'm going to keep bugging them until it gets fixed. I can still use the 2600 in the meantime so it's not like I can't use the machine like it is.

Please yourself! Good Luck with your mission.

If you've paid by Visa, you could talk to your creditcard company regarding the product. Explain to them it's 'unfit for the purpose', that the company your dealing with is horsing around and they might even refund you. Afterwards, you can buy the card direct from ATI.

 

[AdiosVista]

Please yourself! Good Luck with your mission.

If you've paid by Visa, you could talk to your creditcard company regarding the product. Explain to them it's 'unfit for the purpose', that the company your dealing with is horsing around and they might even refund you. Afterwards, you can buy the card direct from ATI.

Thanks for the info, that may be what I end up doing. I've had good experiences with OWC in the past so I'm giving them a fair chance to correct the situation but it's been over two months since I originally ordered the Apple card. I immediately returned the Apple card when I knew it was defective and immediately contacted them when I installed the ATI card so all of this waiting has been from their slow responses and the back and forth shipping. It's unfortunate the 3870 has this fan issue, it seems like a good card otherwise.

 

[dpaanlka]

As many others experienced, so was my brand new Radeon 3870 fans unacceptably noisy, running at 100% upon cold boot and never varying from that level.

I physically drove to OWC and exchanged my Radeon in person, explaining the issue to them. Lupe, who was very nice and polite, claimed to have never heard of the issue, but I said it had been reported a lot on the internet, and the Radeon is "supposed" to be a loud card. In any case, she happily gave me a new one and away I went.

After installation, the fans are now spinning up and down as you would expect fans on a hot card to. However, I notice that even the most seemingly trivial tasks cause the fans to eventually spool up. Trivial as in, doing absolutely nothing. To my ears, I think I can detect varying levels of fan speed, so it's not the same 100% problem as before, and occasionally the fan shuts off entirely in which case it's as quiet as the old GeForce 7300.

So that is where I am now. No more 24/7 100% fan speed, but the fan is on a lot and is loud when it is. At this point, I'm still disappointed in the noise, but not as much as before, and the card is powerful enough that I'm going to keep it this time.

 

[justit]

Can SMC fan control manage the 3870? If so you can run terminal /Applications/smcFanControl.app/Contents/Resources/smc -k F0Mx -w 4e20
in this case to 5000rpm and so on.

 

[UltraNEO*]

Can SMC fan control manage the 3870? If so you can run terminal /Applications/smcFanControl.app/Contents/Resources/smc -k F0Mx -w 4e20
in this case to 5000rpm and so on.

In short, no.

The fans inside the all Mac's have four wires (Pulse Width Modulation), this allow for a power supply, some leave of control and performance feedback. However, the fan on the ATI 3870 only has two wires, that means it's for power!! Control would only be possible of there's a way to adjust the current fed into the fan.


Looking at the Mac's innards there's lots of added monitoring hardware, posted here and there... those are used to keep track of the system's operating environment. Examining the graphics card, there's no such hardware - unless it's built into the GPU itself... In which case the enclosed drivers ain't active for monitoring.



In my system, I've removed the default heat-sink and fan, replacing it with a high performance passive unit with six heat-pipes (means it's completely silent!) I've installed the GFX card in the second slot, this allows air to flow over and under the card. By using smcFanControl I've boosted the minimum fan speed of the second zone. It's set to just below an audible rate - means my system remains completely quiet with the exceptions of the hard drives.

 

[nanofrog]

In short, no.

The fans inside the all Mac's have four wires (Pulse Width Modulation), this allow for a power supply, some leave of control and performance feedback. However, the fan on the ATI 3870 only has two wires, that means it's for power!! Control would only be possible of there's a way to adjust the current fed into the fan.

The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_control wiki page might help those who are curious.

 

[ventro]

After using the Accelero S1 for a few months I HIGHLY recommend it.

Installation is simple. It is a fanless passive cooler. Initially my fear was that it would not be able to sufficiently cool the 3870 passively, especially with games. However, after playing Left4Dead for 10 hours non stop with it with no artifacting or slowdowns whatsoever (let alone crashes) I can safely say that this passive cooler is up to the challenge. Highly recommended.

 

[gundam789]

There was a known problem with the 3870 series of cards where the fun would run at full speed.
On regular PC you can can use something liek riva tuner to slow down the fan , don`t they have any apps for Mac to control the fan on the ati cards?

 

[nanofrog]

There was a known problem with the 3870 series of cards where the fun would run at full speed.
On regular PC you can can use something liek riva tuner to slow down the fan , don`t they have any apps for Mac to control the fan on the ati cards?

SMC fan control.

The problem is, it was designed to work with Apple's fan configuration which are PWM units (4 wire). The fans used in the 3870 aren't (2 wire), so it doesn't work.

 

[Paper Mill]

After using the Accelero S1 for a few months I HIGHLY recommend it.

Installation is simple. It is a fanless passive cooler. Initially my fear was that it would not be able to sufficiently cool the 3870 passively, especially with games. However, after playing Left4Dead for 10 hours non stop with it with no artifacting or slowdowns whatsoever (let alone crashes) I can safely say that this passive cooler is up to the challenge. Highly recommended.

I just received one of the always-full-on-loud cards, and rather than return it, I've decided to try the Accelero S1 Rev 2. While I wait for it to arrive, I have a question. I see that on Arctic Cooling's Web site it recommends for the 3780 to leave the current RAM heatsinks intact and just swap out the fan. Is this what everyone else has done? Since I'm new to anything involving thermal paste and since everyone complains about the lack of stickiness of the RAMsinks I'd just as soon fuss with as little as possible. Still, I want to do it right. Any thoughts?

 

[SuperGrobi]

Two passive cooled HD3870 in Mac Pro

Good Morning. Just for the info, I managed to install 2 HD3870 (one Mac/PC, one PC only) in my Mac Pro. Both are passive cooled by Accelero S1 Rev2 and the setup just fits into the Mac Pro without any need for Modifications. Even the Crossfire Bridge fits between the fins of the lower cooler grill. Crossfire works in Windows Vista64 giving me 15011 points in 3dmark06 (compared to 11582 using a single card). I am quiet happy with this installation and can post pics if someone interested.

 

[apfhex]

I see that on Arctic Cooling's Web site it recommends for the 3780 to leave the current RAM heatsinks intact and just swap out the fan. Is this what everyone else has done? Since I'm new to anything involving thermal paste and since everyone complains about the lack of stickiness of the RAMsinks I'd just as soon fuss with as little as possible.

Impossible. The regular cooler covers both the CPU and RAM, once you remove it you will have to install the Accelero heatsinks. Going by what the instructions said, I rubbed them with an eraser first. I didn't have any problem with them not sticking. As for the main unit, it came with thermal paste pre-applied. Just be careful when installing it over the CPU.

Can I ask people with the Accelero S1 Rev 2 to post some temps running from Windows? I have the Twin Turbo version of the cooler but was never able to get the fans powered, and without them was seeing temps up to 100ºC. No crashing, but I'm afraid I'll fry the card with too much use.

 

[SuperGrobi]

Can I ask people with the Accelero S1 Rev 2 to post some temps running from Windows? I have the Twin Turbo version of the cooler but was never able to get the fans powered, and without them was seeing temps up to 100ºC. No crashing, but I'm afraid I'll fry the card with too much use.

I got temperatures in Vista64 around 46°C, however, I never checked the temperatures during extensive gaming. All I can say is the card is 2-3°C cooler when idle compared to the stock fan.

 

[MacVidCards]

"I have the Twin Turbo version of the cooler but was never able to get the fans powered"

Did you try removing the little white plastic part of the original plug from the PCB? It should leave the two pins standing alone on the card. These typically will have a constant 5V at them(especially true of fans that run at a constant speed)...usually I find that all sorts of weirdo fan connectors can be fit onto these pins and work. You may need to try different ways of plugging it, especially if the fan has 3 pins and card only two, but usually there is a way that results in spinning fan.

 

[Og Oggilby]

Good Morning. Just for the info, I managed to install 2 HD3870 (one Mac/PC, one PC only) in my Mac Pro. Both are passive cooled by Accelero S1 Rev2 and the setup just fits into the Mac Pro without any need for Modifications. Even the Crossfire Bridge fits between the fins of the lower cooler grill. Crossfire works in Windows Vista64 giving me 15011 points in 3dmark06 (compared to 11582 using a single card). I am quiet happy with this installation and can post pics if someone interested.

How did you do it? Pics would be great!

 

[apfhex]

Did you try removing the little white plastic part of the original plug from the PCB? It should leave the two pins standing alone on the card. These typically will have a constant 5V at them(especially true of fans that run at a constant speed)...usually I find that all sorts of weirdo fan connectors can be fit onto these pins and work. You may need to try different ways of plugging it, especially if the fan has 3 pins and card only two, but usually there is a way that results in spinning fan.

Yup, in fact I did exactly that, but didn't work. I've been wanting to explore some other options, but just haven't felt like messing with it for a while.

I got temperatures in Vista64 around 46°C, however, I never checked the temperatures during extensive gaming.

I get around 52ºC when idle, which is fine, but after like 5 minutes of any intensive game it shoots up.

 

[BakeJohnson]

my observations...

Skimmed this thread and read several posts and just wanted to share my opinion on the matter. In comparison to the 2600XT the 3870 is noticeably louder when the fan is spinning. The 2600 is a stock card and I am sure apple chose it due in part to how quiet it is. When you compare the size of the two cards its not surprising that the 3870 is louder due to its larger size and greater graphic capabilities. Like many have stated my fan does start spinning loudly on startup, yet does calm down after 30 seconds or so. The fan does get louder with cover flow or any other graphic intensive applications or uses. In general it is a louder card; however, it does slow down when not being used and is reasonably quiet. That being said I don't think it's unbearable whatsoever and the trade off of a faster card being louder and faster not only makes sense but is worth it in my opinion. Will be interested to see how much louder adding a second card in crossfire config is...

PS--> The ATI card im using is the Retail version; not the apple one.

 

[Chaos123x]

Skimmed this thread and read several posts and just wanted to share my opinion on the matter. In comparison to the 2600XT the 3870 is noticeably louder when the fan is spinning. The 2600 is a stock card and I am sure apple chose it due in part to how quiet it is. When you compare the size of the two cards its not surprising that the 3870 is louder due to its larger size and greater graphic capabilities. Like many have stated my fan does start spinning loudly on startup, yet does calm down after 30 seconds or so. The fan does get louder with cover flow or any other graphic intensive applications or uses. In general it is a louder card; however, it does slow down when not being used and is reasonably quiet. That being said I don't think it's unbearable whatsoever and the trade off of a faster card being louder and faster not only makes sense but is worth it in my opinion. Will be interested to see how much louder adding a second card in crossfire config is...

PS--> The ATI card im using is the Retail version; not the apple one.

My 2600XT was louder during normal usage (internet, Photoshop, Word, etc.) MY 3870 is really quiet, my hard drive makes more noise.

My 3870 only makes noise if I am playing games then it gets louder than the 2600XT.

 

[AdiosVista]

It's not unreasonable at all to think that thte 3870 would cause a little more noise than the 2600; there's a huge size difference and obviously one is more powerful. Like the thread title states though, some of these 3870s have fans that are ALWAYS loud, like the one I received. There's a difference between having a slightly louder card and a having a jet engine in your computer, even at idle.

What's interesting is I sent my 3870 to OWC and they called me about a week later and said they tested the card fine. Now, either the card still did the 100% fan load for them and they thought that was normal, or whatever system they put the card in somehow supported the card better. I'm on a new Mac Pro with the latest drivers but I would love if someone finally narrowed down problem drivers or reasons why one card can have full fan speed in one machine and not another.

 

[AdiosVista]

Just received another new 3870, installed, same exact thing (hairdryer inside my computer). I think this is clearly a driver issue and not related to hardware. Where can I download the latest drivers from Apple?

 

[kahine]

Just received another new 3870, installed, same exact thing (hairdryer inside my computer). I think this is clearly a driver issue and not related to hardware. Where can I download the latest drivers from Apple?

The latest driver was in the 10.5.5 update I believe or 10.5.6 - which I've got installed and before was using the one on the ATI CD

It's not driver related , I had two 3870's at one point - initial one has never had this problem , other one did so sent it back

 

[AdiosVista]

The latest driver was in the 10.5.5 update I believe or 10.5.6 - which I've got installed and before was using the one on the ATI CD

It's not driver related , I had two 3870's at one point - initial one has never had this problem , other one did so sent it back

Yeah, I'm on 10.6 but I tried downloading the latest driver combo update just to see what would happen and still have the same fan issue. I finally caved and bought the Accelero. So glad I had to overpay for a 3870 (compared to pc version) AND pay more for an aftermarket cooler...

 

[nanofrog]

Yeah, I'm on 10.6 but I tried downloading the latest driver combo update just to see what would happen and still have the same fan issue. I finally caved and bought the Accelero. So glad I had to overpay for a 3870 (compared to pc version) AND pay more for an aftermarket cooler...

Not ideal cost wise, but at least it did solve the problem.

 

[AdiosVista]

Not ideal cost wise, but at least it did solve the problem.

Hopefully solved the problem... I haven't received it yet

 

[nanofrog]

Hopefully solved the problem... I haven't received it yet

You left that little detail out.

I would think it will though, as other members have posted success with it.