Noisy fan on Radeon 6870 - driver 1.2

AmigaOne X1000 platform specific issues.
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JohnFante
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Noisy fan on Radeon 6870 - driver 1.2

Post by JohnFante »

I have a RadeonHD 6870 (XFC Black Edition) in my X1000 and a Radeon 9250.

The RadeonHD works fine in 4.1 but the fan makes much more noise (runs faster) than in Ubuntu. Is there something I can do to make that better? I thought that RadeonHD cards were better supported in the new 1.2 driver but maybe not when it comes to fan speed?

My tooltypes are (just changed the name of the 5450 I had installed before):

Code: Select all

CMPLENGTH=14
BOARDNAME=Radeon HD 6870
DDCMODE=All
(VSYNCMIN=60)
(VSYNCMAX=60)
(HSYNCMIN=31000)
(HSYNCMAX=85000)
(MODE=320x240@60)
(MODE=320x256@60)
(MODE=640x480@60)
(MODE=800x600@60)
(MODE=1024x768@60)
(MODE=1280x720@60)
(MODE=1280x800@60)
(MODE=1280x960@60)
(MODE=1280x1024@60)
(MODE=1440x900@60)
(MODE=1600x900@60)
(MODE=1600x1200@60)
(MODE=1680x1050@60)
(MODE=1920x1080@60)
(MODE=1920x1200@60)
(FAKENATIVEMODES=No)
INTERRUPT=Yes
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LyleHaze
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Re: Noisy fan on Radeon 6870 - driver 1.2

Post by LyleHaze »

According to http://forum.hyperion-entertainment.biz ... 96&start=1,
The linux drivers have dynamic power management, but AmigaOS does not.
This is the most likely cause of the difference you noticed.
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Re: Noisy fan on Radeon 6870 - driver 1.2

Post by JohnFante »

Thank you for the answer. That explains a lot.

Anybody having any experience with ekstra coolers like this:

http://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/accelero-twin-turbo-iii.html
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Re: Noisy fan on Radeon 6870 - driver 1.2

Post by Raziel »

JohnFante wrote:Thank you for the answer. That explains a lot.

Anybody having any experience with ekstra coolers like this:

http://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/accelero-twin-turbo-iii.html
Yes, i normally switch the default fan/heatsink on new gfx boards to those from Arctic.

Unfortunately, while the specs sounds sweet they are aswell only reached when using a driver that does dynamic power management (or dynamic fan control).
I made a 1:1 comparision with the same cards in both my X and a PC (Arcitc heatsink on both).
The PC card was bearly audible, while the card in the X happily blew full power :-)
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Re: Noisy fan on Radeon 6870 - driver 1.2

Post by tommysammy »

You can switch 12v to 5v and the fan have enough power for cooling, is much quieter. I did it with all my fans
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Re: Noisy fan on Radeon 6870 - driver 1.2

Post by JohnFante »

tommysammy wrote:You can switch 12v to 5v and the fan have enough power for cooling, is much quieter. I did it with all my fans
How excatly do you do that? :-)
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Re: Noisy fan on Radeon 6870 - driver 1.2

Post by Hans »

JohnFante wrote:I have a RadeonHD 6870 (XFC Black Edition) in my X1000 and a Radeon 9250.

The RadeonHD works fine in 4.1 but the fan makes much more noise (runs faster) than in Ubuntu. Is there something I can do to make that better? I thought that RadeonHD cards were better supported in the new 1.2 driver but maybe not when it comes to fan speed?
As LyleHaze said, the Linux drivers have dynamic power management, but the AmigaOS drivers don't. That means that they will run cooler when idling, and the fan speed will automatically slow down. The driver doesn't adjust the fan, as the graphics card throttles it automatically. Of course, if you run something that puts the GPU under maximum load, then the graphics card will heat up and the fan will go to max speed, regardless of OS.

I've personally taken extra time to find quiet or "silent" models when buying graphics cards. This is partially thanks to the Radeon X800 that I used for my PhD research sounding like a jet taking off whenever I was testing out my computer vision algorithms on it. Graphics cards that are designed to be quiet are usually a bit more expensive, but it's definitely worth it, IMHO.

Hans
http://hdrlab.org.nz/ - Amiga OS 4 projects, programming articles and more. Home of the RadeonHD driver for Amiga OS 4.x project.
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Re: Noisy fan on Radeon 6870 - driver 1.2

Post by tommysammy »

JohnFante wrote:
tommysammy wrote:You can switch 12v to 5v and the fan have enough power for cooling, is much quieter. I did it with all my fans
How excatly do you do that? :-)
You have to switch the yellow and red cable. Note: you do it at your own risk
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Re: Noisy fan on Radeon 6870 - driver 1.2

Post by LyleHaze »

One possible problem with running fans on 5 volts, if you ever run the CPU/GPU hard enough, the slower fan may not be able to keep things cool enough. If you want "smarter" tools, consider a fan speed controller with temperature sensors.

You won't get the actual CPU core temp, but a sensor stuck to the side of the CPU heat sink could control the CPU fan speed, another sensor stuck on to the GPU heat sink could provide variable fan control there too.

Here's one example.. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 3XT1R66877

NOTE: I have never used this exact model, but I have used similar devices in the past.

This way you get the quiet of slow fans when you're taking it easy, but the fans will spin up as you drive the machine harder.
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