This week I spent some time ruminating about a video adapter problem that I've been having. My desktop computer is housed in a Shuttle case (an SD37P2, to be exact). Shuttle means small and small can often mean hot and the problem I was having was related to heat. I have a Sapphire (ATI) X1950Pro video adapter, a well performing mid-range DirectX 9 card; about nine months old. It has always worked fine for normal 2D displays and was a pretty good performer on 3D games.
A couple of months ago I started playing 1701 AD, an "empire-building economic simulation game" which has spectacular 3D graphics. After playing for a short while, an ATI popup message would inform me that the video adapter was overheating and it was slowing it down for it's own good. I did a little research and got some annoyingly stupid advice from the 1701 AD user forum. So far, no harm had been done when the overheating message appeared so I checked the box that said to not tell me about it anymore (kinda like putting black tape over the engine warning light in your car).
After awhile I got bored with 1701 AD and ordered some new games from those accomodating folks at Amazon.com. First up was Bioshock, the talk of the gaming community. An over simplified view of Bioshock is that it is a first person shooter but it is so much more that that; and the 3D graphics are stunning. About 10 to 15 minutes into the game my computer would either freeze or shut itself down. Luckily, most of the time it was the latter which is a lot more graceful than the former.
Suspecting an overheating problem (remember the black tape?), I dug out some tools to examine the temperatures and the fans. First stop was SpeedFan, a nice little temp and fan utility from Alfredo Milani Comparetti. This would tell me about the temperatures everywhere except the video card. Everything looked okay so far. I soon replaced SpeedFan with XPC Tools, another temp and fan utility but one specifically for my case and motherboard from Shuttle. To look at the video card temperature, I first used the ATI Catalyst software that came with the card. I wanted more control and more info so I downloaded ATITool from TechPowerup.com. ATITool (not affiliated with ATI) is an overclocking tool that works on both ATI and NVIDIA cards. It can directly test 3D operation with a graphic demonstration that it can run. Now came my first real view of the problem: the X1950Pro idled (2D) at about 66 degrees Celsius which I though was a little hot but may not be. When I fired up (literally in this case) some 3D graphics, either from Bioshock or from ATITool, within a few minutes the temperature of the GPU was over 100 degrees Celsius and climbing toward that shutdown value. Interestingly, when registering over 100, not much heat was coming out of the GPU fan vent. My conclusion, so far, is that either the ATI temperature sensor is faulty or the Sapphire heatsink and fan have become completely ineffective. In either case, the card is kaput and I will be seeking a warranty remedy soon. In my quest for GPU termperature monitoring tools, I came across RivaTuner, another overclocking utility that has the best monitoring graphs and is a pleasure to use. It is written by Alexey Nicolaychuk and distributed by The Guru of 3D.
My short term solution was to buy a new video adapter. Since I wanted more horsepower for the new games coming down the pike and also DirectX 10 compatability in case I ever decide to install Vista again, I bought an EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS, third in line to the NVIDIA throne. This is a somewhat large card, taking up two full slots of width, which is all I have in the Shuttle. I had just read about someone else putting an 8800 GTX (which is even bigger) into a Shuttle so I thought it would work out okay. It does fit but the fan side of the card is nestled up to the power supply at one end. The card length is no problem as it is only a few millimeters longer than the ATI X1950 Pro.
If fits and it works. Downloaded the latest drivers from NVIDIA, installed, rebooted, and I was ready to take another look at the temperature situation. RivaTools told me that the 2D temperature was 72 degrees Celsius. Uh-oh, it starts out 6 degrees hotter than the card that overheats!!! Not to worry - I started up Bioshock with every graphics option set to the max and the temperature of the GPU went up to 80 degrees Celsius and no higher. I played Bioshock for awhile before I remembered that I was supposed to be working and the GPU temp stayed at 80 - well below the boiling water stage experienced by the ATI card. Closing Bioshock dropped the GPU back to its 72 degree home state.
Also, Bioshock definitely lives up to the hype - I can see a lot of non-productive computer usage coming up.
Subscribe