Overheating 5870 in Windows

[Melvin Frohike]

Playing Crysis in BootCamp with the Radeon 5870 i noticed some occasional graphic errors, with spiky artifacts appearing on the screen. I didn't think too much of that until i got the same thing in Metro 2033. There they were much more frequent and were only appearing after a couple minutes of play.

Using the Ati Catalyst Center i checked the temperature and fan speed. Temperature was 71 °C and fan speed was at 21%. When setting the fan speed manually to a higher number, the gpu stays cool and i can play without errors.

So it appears, there is an issue with the automatic fan control, where it doesn't rev up high enough.

I don't wan't to set a manual value though, as it is too much most of the time and get's really loud.

I use the card in a 2008 Mac Pro.

Has anyone else encountered or solved this problem?

 

[nasabaer]

I have played through crysis and warhead on my mac pro 2010 with the ati 5870 at high settings.
there was absolutely no problem with overheating.

i would say that you have a faulty card. 71° is not a temperature were an 5870 should run into problems.

 

[dave-tx]

My 5870 was working perfectly for about a month, but last night developed artifacts and other video weirdness in both Boot Camp and OSX. Machine would freeze up after less than 5 minutes of use. I swapped back in my old 2600 and everything was good again. Going to the Apple Store for a return/exchange tomorrow.

 

[dave-tx]

As a followup for reference purposes, there was a little difficulty getting my faulty 5870 returned. My mistake was contacting tech support (thinking that since I'm still under Apple Care for a few months, that would be the best way to go). Since the 5870 isn't officially supported on the early 2008 Mac Pro, they were unable to order me a replacement. Took about an hour on the phone plus a visit to the local Apple Store to reach this conclusion.

Called the Apple sales department and within 5 minutes was given an RMA and had a new card within the week.

Moral of the story: Call the sales department first for returns. I'll only call tech support on an issue that is, indeed, fixable.