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[plympton]

Hey all,

I installed 10.5.2, the graphics update, and the new Natit.  All appears to be working well on my 3850 (with 3870 Devid in BIOS).  I was able to work in Lightroom for hours without problem.  I stress-tested it last night with 2 full-screen videos playing (DV) in Quicktime, and it paniced within minutes.  The log is attached.  The heatsink was hot as F*CK this morning, which I think is related to this line in the log:

2/22/08 2:54:04 AM kernel ** Device in slot: SLOT--1 **
2/22/08 2:54:04 AM kernel ** GPU Debug Info Start **
2/22/08 2:54:14 AM kernel ** GPU Debug Info End **
2/22/08 3:05:10 AM kernel ATY_Lamna::powerStateWillChangeTo(0x4c77800, ATY_Lamna, 2 -> 1) timed out after 10109 ms

I'm wondering if, during stress testing, it throttled up to full-speed of a 3870, and NOT a 3850?  Essentially, did I overclock myself to death?  And if so, can I change this by simply replacing the hard-coded ROM in the NATIT info.plist?

Or, do I need to set these fields:
ATY,MCLK
ATY,RefCLK,
ATY,SCLK
??

I'm not sure hot to translate them from Hex to Dec, so any help appreciated.

-GPP

[plympton]

I did some digging (ain't VNC great?).  It looks like the 38xx is using the Lamna driver - which is intended for the 2900.  As such, it's probably coded for PowerPlay 6.0 and not the 38xx PowerPlay 7.0.

However, in Lamna's info.plist, you can set some things, like PP_GFXClockGatingEnabled (it's off by default), and you can set the levels of where it switches from "low" to "Medium" to "High".  I'm going to play with them to see if they help keep temps down.


I also ordered an Arctic Cooling S1, just in case it doesn't.  :-)

-GPP

[netkas]

just add ur bios dump to natit's 3800 section.

[plympton]

I'll give it a shot - it appears it was really just heat related.  I down-clocked my 3850 with AtiBIOSEditor, so that my 3d and UVD clocks were equal to low-power 3d (300 MHz) and ran the same test fine without crashing.

I've got a temp probe attached to my heatsink, and with the lower clocked BIOS, it didn't change temps during movie playback, while with the regular BIOS, it did.

I'm going to play with undervolting and see what happens next.  Nice to know it's just a cooling problem for now!

-GPP

[basketcase3000]

Hi Plympton,

Let me know how you get on with your Arctic Cooling S1 as I was thinking of getting one of these, then attaching a 120mm fan to it to help alleviate the heat problem.

[plympton]

Hi Plympton,

Let me know how you get on with your Arctic Cooling S1 as I was thinking of getting one of these, then attaching a 120mm fan to it to help alleviate the heat problem.

Will do - get a hold of me in this thread or plymptonia -at- yah00 dot c0m

It's completely backordered, even though it's "Available", who knows when it'll arrive.  The new drivers really keep it cool enough, though - I'm getting 106oC at idle right now on my temp probe, so it's not too hot anymore.  Everything I've read about the Accelero says it'll be 30-40o cooler.. no joke!

-Dan

[basketcase3000]

My Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 and Turbo fan kit arrived today. Took a bit of time to install what with taking off the old HSF and cleaning up the GPU and VRAM modules. Any way just testing it under Windows now (the only way I can see the temp of the card as I don't have a heat probe) and it is really cool.

Idling at 33oC and fully loaded only 45-46oC

This is about 20-30oC cooling than with the stock cooler. (nice)

Will test it in OS X later when I get back from work and will post the temp I see when I log back onto Windows. Before, after using OS X for a few hours, when I logged back into Windows the GPU was 70-80oC (ouch). I am hoping it will be a lot cooler now.

[plympton]

My Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 and Turbo fan kit arrived today. Took a bit of time to install what with taking off the old HSF and cleaning up the GPU and VRAM modules. Any way just testing it under Windows now (the only way I can see the temp of the card as I don't have a heat probe) and it is really cool.

Idling at 33oC and fully loaded only 45-46oC

This is about 20-30oC cooling than with the stock cooler. (nice)

Will test it in OS X later when I get back from work and will post the temp I see when I log back onto Windows. Before, after using OS X for a few hours, when I logged back into Windows the GPU was 70-80oC (ouch). I am hoping it will be a lot cooler now.

My Accelero hasn't arrived yet, but I think we're doing OK with the latest Natit and White Menu fixes.  I picked up a Kama Thermo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811998012) with another order, and jammed it deep inside the cooler's innards.

In XP (at the probe), it idles around 95oF, and in 10.5.2 it's about 100-110oF.  In XP, the driver says 107oF, so I expect I'm at about 120oF idle in Mac.

Different, but I assume since Mac has eye candy always "on" and XP is running on "best performance", it isn't too bad.  On Mac, in WoW, I'm getting 160-165oF (fan speed NEVER increases) at the probe, so your 70-80oC is about right-on with the old "always-on" driver.

It's actually cool to the touch at idle now, which it wasn't before.  I don't feel like I *NEED* the Accelero, but it's ordered, so what the heck.  The stock cooler is a bit of crap, so why not.  If I had a 3870 from the start, I'd probably not got the Accelero since I think the stock is copper with a heatpipe and exhausts out the back.

I tried some undervolting with stock clocks with AtiBiosEditor, but never achieved stability (3-D would crash).  I fiddled with the power states in the Lamna info.plist (changing the low->high percentages to stay at low more often, etc..), but video playback suffered (Camera AVI's would play at like 5-10 FPS in Quicktime), so I'm back to plain stock 3850 BIOS.

What did you use to clean the old card?

-Dan

[basketcase3000]

I picked up a couple bottles of ArctiClean when I changed the HSF on my CPU so had some left over. http://www.arcticsilver.com/arcticlean.htm

Does a great job and doesn't take too long. I also used a lint free cloth which came with one of my camera lenses to wipe the product around and remove it.

I will advise when you fit your Accelero to remove the thermal sticky tape that comes already attached to the VRAM heatsinks as it is not very adhesive. You'll have to peel it off and then apply some ActiClean. I then just applied some Thermal adhesive and job done!

All in all I'm really pleased with the results so far. Just waiting to get back from work now.

[plympton]

I got my Accelero S1 last night, and dropped about 25oF in idle (110 -> 86!), and 60oF on load! (165 -> 106).  I've found that the opening screen for World of Warcraft actually puts the most load on the GPU (more than gameplay even), and it's stable, so I'm convinced.

My machine has only 4 low-speed 12cm fans in it (psu, CPU, Exhaust, and gpu/hd) - very quiet, but not much airflow at all.

If you can get an Accelero to fit in your case (or even find one!), get one!

-Dan