How to better cool your Radeon 4870 / 4850 without buying any new cooler !

Requirements:
- Radeon 4870/4850
- 5 minutes of your time
- The programs listed below

0. Get GPU-Z 0.2.7 or later, Radeon Bios Editor 1.12 or later and Winflash 2012 or later.
1. Save your Radeon card BIOS (128KB for 4870, 64KB for 4850) using GPU-Z (little green thig on the BIOS version line can save it).
2. Start Radeon BIOS editor 1.12 or later. Load your BIOS from the .bin file (128KB for 4870).
3. Goto fan / temperature control and use the following settings (graph updated, more mathematically correct):

You can also use different settings but I strongly don't recommend it unless you're absolutely sure on what you're doing.
4. Save the file to a .rom file (128KB for 4870).
5. Uninstall your Catalyst Control Center. Do not reboot.
6. End task the two ATI2evxx tasks you can detect in your task manager.
7. Enter Winflash 2012 or later. Load the .rom file and press the 'Program' button. It will take about 30-60 seconds to write.
8. Reboot when asked by Winflash.
9. Reinstall your Catalyst Control Center and re-reboot.

That's it !


To detail a little the graph and settings above:
The look-up table will use the speed I set in row 2 when the card gets to the temperatures I set in row 1.
36% is not at all loud and it will keep your card at ~60C in idle mode (instead of 80-100 as it will do by default).
The PWM ramp is used to increment the speed by a specific amount (1% as I set) so instead of jumps from one column setting to another we have small increments of 1%. This is more efficient and not noisy at all.

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World's best Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge mod and Star Trek: Starfleet Command 3 mod: Overmind.ro

Edited: 08/25/2008 at 09:47 AM by Overmind

i cant use winflash, keep pop up runtime error, and i cant find any ATI2evxx tasks in my task manager.
Suggestion?

Using 64bit Vista system, and ATI 4870

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AMD 9850, M3a79-T Deluxe, ATI 4870/512MB, CM 690 + CM Real Power 650W, 4G Ram, Thermaltake TMG A1

Hi. For me the following works a little better. I am also at 60°C (58 right now) and the fan is running at 30%. I can't hear it. I am using a 4870.



But with this post you made my life a lot easier. Thanks.

Edited: 03/06/2009 at 04:00 PM by nautsch

It's easier to config is this way.
You should put the Tmin lower, tho'. About 30C should do.

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World's best Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge mod and Star Trek: Starfleet Command 3 mod: Overmind.ro