HD 3850 temperature (?) problems

[ig-88]

I wouldn't bother amd with that ..neither with queries about that pplib stuff, they probably have their own plans. The functionality is already there at least.

i didn't intend to bother amd with this (knowing the uselessness of doing so). i merely wanted to state that work in this sector has been done. ;-)

[ashrack]

Hello,

stress-testing the new Nexuiz release on my rig makes my system with a HD 3850 have nice X freezes (or black screens) on Ubuntu 8.04 x86-64.

Booting into windows I noticed I can easily push the gfx card to 92?C without the gfx card fan speeding up audibly (and without crashing). On Linux I once got it to sound a bit like a vacuum cleaner, so I guess the card may get even hotter with fglrx.

Dumb question: Is there a tool for Linux to read the gfx card temperature? It may be the temperature, it may be some unrelated fglrx-specific thing, but without sensors I just can't tell. I find it rather disappointing that the catalyst control center doesn't offer thermal monitoring (the last card without sensors I had was a Nvidia FX5200...) - but then again there may be bigger issues.

if you are using BBA (built by Ati) then you may be suffering from a faulty bios. I had the same problem I just had to flash to a newer bios. Which card do you have?

[SavageX]

if you are using BBA (built by Ati) then you may be suffering from a faulty bios. I had the same problem I just had to flash to a newer bios. Which card do you have?

This one: http://www.powercolor.com/de/product...ProductID=2066

This may actually be a rebranded BBA thingie, no idea.

[SavageX]

Tried

aticonfig --pplib-cmd "get temperature 0"

and it seems to produce meaningful readings. Cool.

As a mostly unrelated note: I purchased a tool to measure power consumption and on Windows this machine idles at ~68 Watt, with Linux ~74 Watt (all components included). Not bad for an Athlon 64 X2 5200+, HD 3850 and 4 Gig of RAM, I guess. Apparently power saving mechanisms on Windows are better tuned, but I of course can't pin it down to e.g. the graphics driver.

With several glxgears instances this machine will happily consume ~167 Watt.

edit: I was as of yet unable to push temperature beyond 90?C.

[ashrack]

This one: http://www.powercolor.com/de/product...ProductID=2066

This may actually be a rebranded BBA thingie, no idea.

go DL rivatuner in Windows and burn the GPU using 3dmark and watch if the FAN will increase when the temperature increases. If you are hitting 90C and the FAN is not running 100% then you have a bios issue.

[SavageX]

go DL rivatuner in Windows and burn the GPU using 3dmark and watch if the FAN will increase when the temperature increases. If you are hitting 90C and the FAN is not running 100% then you have a bios issue.

I watched the fan speed on Linux (aticonfig --pplib-cmd "get temperature 0") and the fan is at roughly 44-47% at 90?C.

#!/bin/bash
for((;1<2;)); do
echo "----------------------------"
aticonfig --pplib-cmd "get fanspeed 0"
aticonfig --pplib-cmd "get temperature 0"
sleep 1
done

gives output like

----------------------------
Fan speed query: 
Query Index: 0, Speed in percent
Result: Fan Speed: 47%

Temperature for thermal controller 0 is 91.000000

[ashrack]

then you are suffering from the bios bug. Same as I had.
You should contact powercolor for an updated bios or if you do not want to wait you could go ahead and flash with this bios:

http://www.visiontek.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3778&sid=cd61139e1ef72c491cfda0c43e33b382

some info also available here:

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33919389

The bioses for BBA ATIs are all the same. I own a Sapphire card and I flashed it with the above mentioned bios since Sapphire never responded back to my email.

edit:
with the faulty bios usually the card will not go over 92C except if you really stress test it with some heavy gaming it will even reach 97C. But by then you should be seing lots of artifacts which was the main reason that I first checked the temps.

[Melcar]

If you're brave you could check out the BIOS collection on techpowerup and/or edit a compatible BIOS with custom fan settings. Incredibly easy to do if you have a spare Windows partition (to launch the BIOS editor since I don't think it would work on Wine).

[SavageX]

Thanks for the hints. I contacted Powercolor support and I hope I can retrieve an officially blessed BIOS (so if things go wrong I won't end up standing in the rain).

As a fun note: The decorative sticker on the card peeled itself off.

[SavageX]

I now flashed the Visiontek BIOS and the card stays well below 80?C. Thanks for the hint, I assume the card may feel much healthier now ;-)