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Powercolor Custom Cooled Radeon Hd 4870


Nemo

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Great review for a great card :)

 

I've got one question though.

 

Does the addition of the custom cooler make it significantly louder/quieter than a stock 4870?

 

I do realise that high end video cards aren't really meant to be quiet, but I am curious nevertheless.

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  • 3 months later...
The fan that is included is not much louder than the stock one for the HD4850, I was surprised how quite it actually was. I was unable to hear it during normal operation over any of the 120mm case fans

 

Hope this helps

 

I wanted a silent gaming computer. I bought this videocard. The fan for this videocard is completely crap: it is very silent for a few seconds, then it starts whirling for a few seconds and so on. It is extremely noisy - even when setup to work at 30%.

 

I ended up changing the cooling solution. It is a very-very bad cooling solution - there are also some other reviews that are explaining that this cooling solution is not optimal for this card, and PowerColor had added some code in their driver to slow down some video tests for the card, because otherwise in a few seconds, at best 1 minute, the computer will crash because of VRMs overheating during the execution of a very well known video test. A stressful video test, yes, but this is a high end video card, theoretically it should work like a charm; unfortunately it is not the case, the PowerColor solution is not adequate.

So, as I said, I changed the cooling system: it was too noisy, completely inappropriate. I have now Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo. With the cooler at 12 V it was also too noisy for me, I put it at 7 V. The Twin Turbo is also not completely without failures, I will post some links to photos with my system. The VRM's heatsinks fell off. And believe me that I paid a lot of attention when I placed those sinks. It took me at least 3 hours, I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned those VRM chips with the ArctiClean sollution, but unfortunately the sticking glue on the aluminum radiators is far too weak.

System details:

Sennheiser PC 150

Logitech Z10

Samsung SM 2493HM

NZXT HU001B

Seasonic S12 550 Energy Plus

Intel QuadCore Q9400

2x2GB Patriot 4-4-4-12

Hdd 500GB

Asus P5QPro

Noctua NH-U12P

DVD RW LiteOn

PowerColor HD4870 PCS+ with Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo

Logitech MX 518 Dark Knight Edition

cheap and black Logitech keyboard

 

So, proudly presenting you my nest of cables with pics:

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg454/v...ro/S6301921.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg454/v...ro/S6301925.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg454/v...ro/S6301926.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg454/v...ro/S6301927.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg454/v...ro/S6301933.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg454/v...ro/S6301935.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg454/v...ro/S6301937.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg454/v...ro/S6301941.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg454/v...ro/S6301943.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg454/v...ro/S6301947.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg454/v...ro/S6301949.jpg

 

I had a shock when I looked to the pictures and I saw those VRM heatsinks felt off. I will solve the problem this evening. I had to cover the ultra light leds from lcd monitor and case (and when I mean ultra, they are ULTRA-ULTRA-ULTRA BRIGHT LIGHT LEDs - they have now 3-4 pieces of paper over them and they are still visible, trust me). Also I disabled the blue lane from the case door, it was also too bright. Probably I will change the case coolers with 2 12 cm Noctuas (I already bought them). I can still hear the coolers, but it is not so loud as the PowerColor cooler. By far. Now the computer is, let's say, medium quiet; it's not quiet. But when it was with that a-few-seconds-dead-silent-a-few-seconds-whirrling-noise-to-hear-in-the-other-room... At 30% also it was so loud... Too bad that the sticky substance on the Twin Turbo radiators is so weak, I have to reattach those radiators again :(

 

I have this system for 3 months now. After I will reattach the VRM heatsinks, I will check it again in one month. For not having too much trouble, I just "underclocked" the card to the standard frequencies. With those heatsinks felt, I can play Company of Heroes at 1920x1200, maximum details (with Twin Turbo, not that Zero crappy fan) - there are moments when it is not so smooth, but after the firm fixing of the heatsinks (again), I hope that FPS won't be a problem any more.

Edited by vikingro

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