Reduce Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD4870 Fan Noise

Donald313 · Rated PG Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 1

Hi Jason,

I'm desperately in need of your help. Can you please send the firmware and patcher to me?

They still seem to sell the cards with the old firmware - I got mine last week... and according to the guys at the shop it was a new shipment.

Thanks

**Jason** · Posted: Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:34:01 Post Subject:

Hi Donald313 - Check the e-mail on the account you used to register here!

supermunky · Rated PG Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 3

Hi I'm posting in the hope that someone else has this problem: Basically I'm interested in reducing the fan speed etc, but first I need to stop the card crashing!!

I've read numerous posts and complaints (and bios fixes) for the regular 4870 but I'm not really getting anywhere with the Toxic HD4870.

(I think because of some kind of switch function that alters the clock speed) the card will crash the system without warning. no blue screen, nothing, just a black screen and a very loud fan at full throttle. I have to hard reset to solve it. Sometimes I can go 8 hours without a crash, sometimes 5 minutes.

I'm wondering if this fanspeed bios update will solve this problem at the same time...due to it being a later version?

**Jason** · Posted: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:08:58 Post Subject:

Hi - I haven't experienced this issue... Any clues as to why?

How are the temperatures of the video card, CPU?

What drivers are you using?

Are you doing anything in particular when it happens? Are you playing games, or does it happen at the Windows desktop?

Not sure if the BIOS being discussed in this thread will help, as it sounds like something else is wrong... But you are welcome to try it if you want.

supermunky · Rated PG Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 3

Hi, thanks for the fast response…I’ll make sure I swap threads if this keeps going….I won’t clog this one up with irrelevant stuff.

The system is an Asus P5Q3 Deluxe motherboard with 4GB Corsair RAM. I have a Q6600 2.4 GHZ processor and a 1000W power supply. Everything was rock solid and working fine until I installed this card. I’m happy that everything is powered/wired/built properly, and when the card is working everything runs brilliantly.

The system could have been running for 5 minutes or five hours, it could have been sat on an empty desktop or under heavy load, but when a crash happens, it will switch off both monitors and throttle the Graphics card fan to full speed and hold it there. I have to hard reset to get back in.

The machine is used for editing video so I can’t compare it with anything from a gaming point of view…
However the temps mentioned in the article (46 idle, 59 load) are literally bang on what my card is putting out….So I’m not inclined to think it’s a temp issue…in fact my whole case runs pretty cool.

I’m not really challenging the card compared to a serious gamer or after-effects compositer etc…the crashes are very random and seemingly not work related. I would say however that the card crashes more towards the start of a session, believe it or not, it’s seemingly more stable when under a load!

I’ve searched heavily and found lots of issues with the regular 4870 card that describe identical problems. Apparently due to the card switching between clock speeds and confusing itself (lol !?). I can’t find a fix for this card though…Hence why I’m here looking at this bios fix and wondering if the company sent it as a fix for a dodgy bios fault masked as something else.

Sorry for the huge longwinded post…It’s driving me insane!! I’m only mediocre experienced when it comes to the really techy stuff…

Thanks!!

(p.s. drivers haven't done the trick)

badger · Rated PG Joined: 29 Mar 2009 Posts: 2

Jason;
Found this site and topic within 20 minutes (good 'ole Google) of running a 2-month old card that I picked up from someone who decided it wasn't powerful enough. Nearly took it straight out after a dose of Crysis-induced noise.
The on-load level is horrendous, so I'd much appreciate a link or email to the new BIOS and flash utility.
(Still no mention of this on the Sapphire website so far as I can see).

Best Regards. Smile

supermunky · Rated PG Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 3

....Just thought I'd add a quick update to the problems I was experiencing in the posts above. I've flashed the bios, (very straightforward) and after a few restarts the card is now stable and happy. Oh and not to mention no longer sounds like aircraft engine....

Thanks to Jason for the update.

**Jason** · Posted: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:50:40 Post Subject:

Thanks for the update supermunky - glad it was useful.

badger - I just mailed a copy to you at the address you registered with.

badger · Rated PG Joined: 29 Mar 2009 Posts: 2

Many thanks for the medicine Doc: an excellent cure.

Can't hear it at all now when web browsing (fan running at 14%, temperature 55°C).
Rises to a noticeable but acceptable 'whoosh' in Crysis, but only 65°.

zzzuzu3 · Rated PG Joined: 15 Apr 2009 Posts: 1

Hello

Does this update can be applied on a system with Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD4870 1 Gb card (instead of 512 Mb) and ATI Catalyst™ 9.4 Display Driver?

Thanks in advance for your help.