Windows 7: ATI HD5850 Temperatures? What Is Considered "High"?

Can anyone tell me what the average load temps should be on current gen GPUs?

I have a brand new computer with an ATI HD5850 (stock speed / non-OC'ed) and, while playing Crysis demo on max settings, it gets up to about 70-72C which I feel is normal. However, after playing the Sniper:Ghost Warrior demo for awhile earlier at 1920x1080 and maxed settings, I exited out after about 30 minutes of play and noticed once exited my GPUs temp was at 81C and the fan speed was only at 35% (never seemed to go any higher than that).

Is 81C too hot? I've never had a GPU in the past get THAT hot but yet haven't had one capable of playing any of the games within the past 3 years until just now. My last one was a 6800GT and it only got up to about 76C while playing Doom3 many years ago but it was normal for that card.

- My idle temps stay around 40-45C depending on the room temp and time of day w/ 21-23% fanspeed.

- Watching videos, it averages around 52-56C w/ 25-26% fanspeed.

- Playing games, it goes anywhere from 67-70C for Dirt2; 70-72C for Crysis demo, and now 78-81C for Sniper: Ghost Warrior demo w/ <35% fanspeed.

I would think that a pre-fab'ed "gaming computer" would be made to withstand heat, but then again perhaps not. Just wondering if I have any reason to be concerned right now and, if so, if there's any solution one could suggest to me (PCI blower fan, desktop base cooler, or something similar). I really don't want to change the heatsinks on the card since that would void the warranty and I just bought this computer last week.



If I should NOT be concerned at 80-81C temps, what is the temp on the 5850 I should become concerned at? Just wondering if I have any reason to be concerned right now and, if so, is there any solution one could suggest to me (PCI blower fan, desktop base cooler, or something similar). I really don't want to change the heatsinks on the card since that would void the warranty.

Also, the average room temperature stays around 25C (give/take a few degrees).

Sounds about normal from most of the reviews when the card came out,

Overclocking - Power - Temp - AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5850 Video Card Review | [H]ard|OCP

Radeon HD 5850 review (CrossfireX)

The difference between the two games is normal to, as not all games will work the card the same.

Yeah, I expected the difference in temps between games to be normal, just not that high. Looking at the websites you posted I'm a bit relieved considering they were all running hotter than mine! I don't have mine set up in CF mode, as it's just a single card, and on one of the links it showed a max of 77C for single GPU and 83C for 2x in CF...guess I still shouldn't worry too much then, huh?

Is there such thing as a desktop cooler like what's made for laptops? I know the functionality would be different, but would still like to know. When I search on Google, all I get are case fan results.

Also, would it be wise to go into CCC and change the ATI Overdrive setting to Manual Fan Control or just leave it on auto? Can I even engage Manual Fan without turning on Overdrive/OC'ing the card (which I do NOT want to do!)?

Other than more or better case fans, not really. If you don't have room for more fans you could use something like this,

NCIXUS.com - Buy Antec Spot Cool Adjustable System Cooler Blue LED 3 Speed 2000-3000RPM 23-33DBA 15-22CFM - SPOT COOL.

As far as setting the video card fan to manual, you could. If you do once set it will stay at that speed and not speed up or slow down depending on temps. And yes you would have to unlock OverDrive. Also unlocking it does not automatically overclock anything, it just unlocks the option too.

So, is there a program that will control the GPU's fan according to different temps? I find it rather odd that it maxes out at around 35% speed when it's at 80C. Say, something that I can do the following with:
GPU Temp / Fan Speed
40C / 20%
50C / 30%
60C / 40%
70C / 50%
75C / 60%
80C / 70%
85C / 75%

...or, would that not even make a difference or end up being more hazardous to the card?

MSI Afterburner

has that and more. And again you don't have to use the overclocking features to use the fan profiles.

Cool, thanks...I was just reading about SpeedFan when you posted that. Is MSI better than SpeedFan? Do they both start up when the system comes on, or is it something that I have to enable everytime? What about uninstalling it? Any problems with it going back to the system default?

Also, does using something like that hurt the GPU (or other components) in any way if no OC'ing is done and it's just used to control the fan speeds? Would I need to do anything with the Catalyst Control Center or does MSI override it?

Much better than Speedfan. That and I don't think Speedfan works with GPU fans; read them maybe, configure them, no.

And no it won't hurt anything to use just the fan profiles. As far as CCC and Afterburner, it is one or the other. In your case leave Overdrive alone and just set up and activate your fan profile in Afterburner.

I just downloaded MSI and installed it...setup the fan speeds similar to what I posted above, with 25% being the minimum instead of 20% default, and it's immediately dropped 5*C on idle. I also put 70% as the max

I did not touch any of the Clock Speed bars and they still show to be the default settings...as long as I don't touch those, it's not being OC'ed right?

I also chose to have it start up with Windows 7...any other settings I should (or shouldn't) change?