GPU Overheating?

[Darkfire Fox]

Hello. I recently purchased an ATI RadeonHD 3650 (AGP interface) for my 5-year-old Gateway 614GE desktop PC. I wanted to test the new 2D/Xv acceleration support on Kubuntu 9.04, and it works wonderfully so far (can't wait for OpenGL 3.0 acceleration!!)

However, I think the fan is not spinning fast enough to properly cool the GPU. My screen intermittently starts glitching out, then returns to normal. I felt the back of the GPU and I actually pulled back a blistered pinky. OUCH !!!!!!!

So.......Is there some way to increase the fan speed? I'm currently using the "ati" open source driver that comes with Kubuntu 9.04

[bridgman]

There are some power management options to lower the GPU clock, which should help. I think it's Option ForceLowPowerMode in the Device section. The power management options went in just after 9.04 locked down so you'll need to either build the driver yourself or find a package, hopefully someone else here can jump in with advice (maybe the edgers repo ?).

We aren't programming fan speed yet in the open source driver; I believe the fan speed / power relationship is programmed at power up by the VBIOS but not 100% sure about that yet. As a first step I would update the X driver and try the power management options.

[agd5f]

I suspect the glitching may be display watermark related. Use of the 3D engine could be causing underflow to the display controllers due to the extra demands on the memory controller. I just added support for properly programming the display watermarks, but you'll need the driver from git for that as well.

[ForexGuides]

The GPU is running that hot when I am not playing any games. I was thinking that my reboots are because of my PSU but now I am not quite sure. I got a fairly cheap 450W PSU for my box when I got the card but have been having problems of the machine rebooting on and off, only when I play games.

I ordered a new Antec 550W PSU but now I dont think that it will help me resolve this issue. Do you guys have an idea on how hot the GPU should be normally? Also, how hot should it be during my playing games? Also, is there any cheap and easy solution for me (other than buying another graphics card)?
Forex Guides

[curaga]

Cheap'n'easy: reflash the card bios on windows to use higher fan speeds. But on the other hand it's sacrilege to use windows, so do only if your conscience can take it

[nanonyme]

Cheap'n'easy: reflash the card bios on windows to use higher fan speeds. But on the other hand it's sacrilege to use windows, so do only if your conscience can take it

Also it's a terrible risk and probably voids the warrantee if vendor ever finds out.

[frische]

Before resorting to such measures, check if the fan is working at all. Either open the case or use [1] in Windows and see, if the temperature is going down at all.
( Maybe you could use Linux for that, but the driver has to provide access to the sensors and I'm not sure whether fglrx or xf86-driver-{ati,radeonhd} do that )

[1] http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

[RealNC]

This is the reason I stopped using the open drivers on my old X1950XT. I can't believe they put out drivers that may actually result in hardware damage.

[nanonyme]

This is the reason I stopped using the open drivers on my old X1950XT. I can't believe they put out drivers that may actually result in hardware damage.

I partly agree. I think the powersaving options should default to on and user should have to turn them off with an override until more dynamic measures can be coded..

[TechMage89]

I think it's the vendor's fault as much as anyone's. If the card they build doesn't have enough cooling to run at full clock, I count that as a serious design flaw.

That said, "just because it isn't your fault doesn't mean it isn't your problem," so the Linux driver really should have some sensors support, and clock down the video card if it starts to overheat.