Last few months i was trouble with creeping high temp of my sapphire 4850, 64C/100C at idle/load.
Today i took out my gc and observe it carefully.
external part of the card is clean without any dust.
As i look carefully, i realized that there are some dust inside the plastic cover. So what i did is i took the cooler off of my Sapphire 4850, pop out the plastic cover and WOW, lots of dust covering all the fins and the holes where the heatsink connects the fan.
I blew off and vacuum the dust, put everything bc and turn on my pc.
Now my GC run at 50c/75c idle/load. My gc cooled down by 30C!!!!!!!!! wow, holy cow.....
Hope this will help those that having same problem like mine.
The fan will not show much dust but it may be inside the plastic cover. And when dust collects on those fins, there won't be enough air flowing over your GPU.

Well, if the same s@@t happened to me, i will let u know. Anyway, i have to admit that normally i dont check forums for the sort of things you mentioned. IF my 4870X2 kaput on me, then i will have to deal with it then. My friends are all dealers and suppliers so they can help and what can i complain about when i get all 4870X2 at dealer price.

About sapphire's bad customer service, i really cant say much, because this is my first time buying a sapphire card. HOwever, few days ago, i tried to download the catalyst 9.4 from their homepage and i couldn't. So i emailed them right after i tried several times. The reply came within 1.5 hours which i think its quite fast. On customer service issues, i have tried email Lian-li Taiwan, Enermax HQ,Creative Singapore, HP (on 612c problems), Razerzone and now sapphire and all of them promptly responded.

Hey guys, i dont notice significant improvement on the 9.4. i just installed 2 days ago.

Yes, it's out.

ATI Partners Will Try Out A Radeon HD 4890 X2

AMD ever said that they had no immediate plans for Radeon HD 4890 X2, but the guys at Brightside claims the ATI partner can and will make a Radeon HD 4890 X2 with entitle from AMD Graphics Products Group. In a Youtube interview for PC Games Hardware, Sasa Marinkovic, Product Manager for Consumer platforms also confirmed the X2 part.

If AMD Radeon HD 4890 X2 plan is true, then the power consumption would be a big problem. The maximum power consumption would reach about 380W and the card should be addressed with two 8-pin connectors. Rumors indicate there is one ATI partner planning such a design and wants to do dual-1GHz GPU clock paired up with 2GB and 4GB of GDDR5 memory.

Radeon HD 4870 X2 is sold at $549 according to previous information, and Radeon HD 4890 X2 should be priced higher. But the consumers may prefer to build CrossFire with two Radeon HD 4890 with less than $500. Do you think users will buy an expensive Radeon HD 4890 X2 with such huge power consumption? Your comments are always welcome and highly appreciated.

http://en.expreview.com/2009/04/11/ati-par....html#more-3083

yah we all knew that it is left for the AIB partners to design 4890X2. just hope that it won't end up looking something like 4850X2. i still think that 4870X2 is one good looking card

user who plan to buy those X2 cards not only need to think about the power consumption, price but also space in the casing, cooling, power supply to use and so on. ITs not the matter of buying the card any more. I believed that only limited number of hardcore users will invest so much. After all, the target group is definitely not the common average users.

So coming up with a 4890X2 with such great power consumption and initial pricing should be higher than 4870X2 first appeared in the market might not be that great after all. PErhaps it will only appear in smaller quantity for a niche market. Like what you said, users might just opt for 2 4890 in crossfire but i guess the power consumption is not that small too to run both cards in crossfire.

As i believed 1 4890 will need 1 PCI-E 6pins and one 8 pins. so running two in crossfire will require double of that. Average PSU might not be able to cope and these are serious investments

at least 4890x2 solution will be better than 4890 CF

yeah n oso save some space....

at least they can try to make it more power efficient. just like 4870 cf vs 4870x2

4890 is 20% better than 4870 right?
So 4890x2 is 40% better than 4870x2..
Let's hope it'll pawn GTX295

+1

i hope the price not over 2k

2k? u can bet that the sales of GTX295 will increase even more. whereas the 4890X2 down down down. not a good move.

i think less than 2K laa
coz they wan 2 compete wif GTX295

Hotfix that fixes "Error Code 43 " when enabling crossfire and provided WHQL Catalyst : http://technologic.ysoserius.com/2009/04/h...de-43-when.html , http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages...sErrorCode.aspx

i think the initial pricing might be around 2k. Just look at the pricing of the 4870X2. after so many months in the market, its still hovering between 1700-2k and gt295 is roughly at 1900-2100 range (correct me if im wrong).

If you buy 2 4890 for CF, its still going to cost about 2k. For highend cards like the X2 and 295, i dont think the pricing is going to be reduced by much. If 4890x2 ever appear in the market, the pricing might not be below 2k because it will crash with the pricing for 4870X2 unless they stop the production of 4870X2 or decrease the pricing of the entire range of hd4000 series of card.

Well, if you are talking about 4890 has 20% more performance than the 4870 (correct me if im wrong), then it is not necessary to gain 40% performance if in CF mode. and those numbers are very subjective.

And spending 2k alone is bad enough but considering the investment in other hardware upgrades for people who have not done so. ( perhaps 1k Watt PSU, bigger casing, better cooling solutions- extra fans, etc). 600-800Watt PSU just might not be that sufficient if there are xtra hdds, a lot of fans, writers, etc.

And buying a card that cost rm2k is equivalent to buying an entire entry level PC and thats not including other components which must be present to ensure that the card is running smoothly.

This post has been edited by ma43q: Apr 13 2009, 02:45 PM

what it mean by reference card ah?

the card design same like reference card..
mean the manufacturer not relocate/customize the electrical stuff, ram, chip, layout etc

if i were into 4890, will go for cf instead of 4890x2, since not planning for quad gpus(2 x 4890x2), size normally will not an issue...those who planned for this card shud know dual gpu on single pcb will b at least d width of atx form mobo
heat might b an issue, jz hope dat at least dual fan for this highly clocked monster

when 4890x2 out in d market, wonder wat nvidia's move...going for dual gtx280/285 in one card solution or straight gtx300 series

now graphics card developing faster n faster...new cards almost every quarter

not to mention game developing a lot more slower....newer game also dont stress card too much..

actually... 4870x2 is about 1500-2000 whereas GTX 295 is 1700-2000. the RM2k cards are most likely from zotac or asus. the more expensive brands