Video Card Thread (Mostly Gecube x1950xt)

Btw here are the pics:



The overclocking is locked...



The tidewater



Tidewater connected to the x1950xt



The contact between the back PCI bracket and the tidewater...

 

You know, it seems like this card is just not completely utilized.
I mean, like it's only half active or something.
When I'm in a game it seems to stay in the specifications for 2D-mode or whatever, like I also thought before.

Just now I tried Need For Speed Underground, which my 6800XT could run sutterless maxed out, except just at 1024x768 and occasional low framerates but no lower than in the high 20's.
It has always looked smooth and everything, but with this X1950XT it's jagged like hell.

I also can't find the AA-setting in the game when the CCC is on application-controlled.
The setting will only appear in the game's menu when I set it to an amount of Anti-Aliasing in the CCC.
And even if I set it at 6x in the CCC, it will be at "off" in the game's menu.
But even when I fully turn it up (in the game), it will give those jagged lines from hell.

It's like this card is dead/broken or just can't do a thing.
Maybe also a software-issue.
I think I'm going to call the store today and ask if I can trade it for that XFX.


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I also have another Motherboard here, I mentioned before.
But it's this one: http://asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=12&l3=31&l4=0&model=178&modelmenu=1
I don't think it would be much of an improvement, unless the features are of higher performance than versus my Gigabyte's features.
Everything I can see physically on the board itself is about the same as mine.
And mine might also have slightly more features even, I'm not sure.

But this ASUS is from January 2004 the manuals says, so it's probably from the same year.
Maybe even some months older if mine is from later than January.

I will still keep looking if I can find a suited "PCIe-transformation".

 

GeCube X1950XT AGP Cooling - Tape Mod V2

I had read about the first tape mod, (putting some insulation tape between the thermal patch and the nipple on the backplate to increase the pressure on the gpu and try and hold the cooler on better) and I had done this mod when I first got my card. A couple of weeks on and although the temps had come down a bit I still had crashing issues from overheating so I thought I'd actually take the cooler completely off, and this is what I found:



As you can see from the pic, two corners of the GPU had no thermal paste on them and cannot have been in contact with the heatsink. I got this card second hand so I'm not sure if this is how it came from GeCube or if someone else had had a go at it before me but I was pretty sure I'd found the problem.

I then flipped the card over and had a look at the mounts. In the next pic what you can see is the back of the card with the posts from the heatsink coming through and the rubber washers that are supposed to provide tension between the backplate and the PCB, which would pull the cooler against the other side of the card. As you can see from the pic my washers were flush with the tops of the posts, which meant however hard you tightened the screws on the back you were just screwing the metal of the backplate harder against the metal of the mounting posts, and NOT increasing the tension between the backplate and the PCB - (and therefore GPU and cooler.)



The flaw with the first tape mod is that although it increases this pressure between the backplate and the PCB, it creates a pivot in the middle of the 4 mounts, which means that one side could be tight whilst the other is peeling away.
This is when 'Tape Mod V2' occured to me. The problem is the washers on the mounts, so, beef up the washers.
Not having any more insulation tape to hand I got out he trusty old Duck tape (which we know is the cure-all for everything!) and it's also reinforced with strings of fiberglass (or something!)
I set about making 4 little pads with the tape, and used about 6 layers of tape, then cut them down into neat squares:



(applying the last 2 layers)

With my neat little squares made I had to put a hole in the middle of each for the screw to go through - (this is where I think Duck tape is actually the material of choice due to the reinforcement)
I achieved this with a corkscrew:



Finally I put the screws thru the backplate and popped my little patches over the screws:



Finally I cleaned all the old gunk off my GPU with some white spirit, put the whole lot back together with some new goo and screwed it up tight, and this time the backplate felt solid. Before I could push on the back plate and this would physically move the cooler on the other side! (Not good!)
I turned back on and let it idle for 10 mins and temps were 44-45c (3-4c lower than before) then I gave it 1/2 hour of ATi Tool's 3D View. Before I had let it run for about 5 mins and temps would hit 74-75c quite quickly and then build and build slowly after that (I think it hit 80c in 3d view before I stopped it once). I never actually found out what top temps it used to hit when gaming because it always used to crash on me! (I would get about one race on Dirt then 1/3 of the replay - then poof!)
After 30mins of 3dview now it tops at 71-72c and stays there. I can play all my games sans crashes and run this card at 675mhz like you're supposed to.
That said I am still considering aftermarket cooling, but at least I can actually use the card!
As an afterthought, I am now in 2 minds about doing tape mod 1. I left mine on there but I'm thinking putting insulation tape behind the gpu might actually be hindering heat transfer between the PCB behind the GPU and the heatspeader... I'm sure it's negligible but hey.

Alternative: Of course you could forget the tape altogether if you can find yourself 4 rubber washers that are a bit thicker than the ones on there! Which leads me to…

Note To GeCube: Put larger mounting washers on your peltier cooled cards you stingy buggers! That way you might save yourself a few RMA's! (Infact how about loosing the pelts altogether and putting a decent case-exhausting solution on there!)

 

Wow man, nice guide! To bad I cant try it though... I think I'll gibe my card a half hour of 3d view and see what the temps are compared to yours.

Btw, the fan all the way to the right of the card (when it's tipped over in the case) only spins at I think 40% so I just went into ATiTool and cranked it up to 100%. It took off a couple degrees celsius. Just thought you should know....

All in all, nice mod!

EDIT: Did you use the same thermal compound when you put the cooler back on? I use AS5. It will bring down you temps more. Maybe you can get some from newegg or something next time you buy from them...

 

A lot happens in a day and a half of being away!

MaccerM: The HR-03 is an excellent cooler that doesn't even require a fan. The stock VRMsink is adequate, as long as you have some degree of case ventilation!

My specs:

(all case fans at 500rpm, <17dB(A))
GPU Idle: 50-53C (takes a good 10-15 minutes to reach this)
GPU Full load: 70-74C

3DMark06 run at 1280x1024 Optimal (standard settings)

6755 3dmarks
SM2.0: 2588
SM3.0: 2866
CPU: 2570

 

Uh oh sammorris, im catching up to you! I got 5192 3dmark06 score! (But that was with the gecube overclocked to 702/855.)

Anyways, I just ran the 3dview for about 25 minutes and at stock speeds (648/702) the highest it got to was 66C. (With the tidewater on high)

But as sammorris said, you can take the HR-03, I just didnt becaue it creates more heat in the case and I didnt want to add any more fans...

 

Uh oh sammorris, im catching up to you! I got 5192 3dmark06 score! (But that was with the gecube overclocked to 702/855.)

Anyways, I just ran the 3dview for about 25 minutes and at stock speeds (648/702) the highest it got to was 66C. (With the tidewater on high)

But as sammorris said, you can take the HR-03, I just didnt becaue it creates more heat in the case and I didnt want to add any more fans...

 

Why would you need to add more fans? My case fans can run at 2400rpm, and I run them at 500rpm with no heat issues. What does that tell you?

 

that you must have a kick ass case, with no wireing problems...

Are the fans your refurring to 80mm? Or 120mm? What size are they?

 

120mm, in an NZXT Lexa case.

 

nice case! How many 120mm fans? My case can only support 80mm so I have 4 of them, 3 spinning at 2700rpm and 1 spinning at 2000rpms.

 

Three 120mms, two 80mms.

 

that was a fast reply! What are the temps in you case?

 

What, the ambient temperature? I don't have a probe in there at the moment.

 

oh ok then... Is 45C to much for a case temp?

 

For a case temp, yes. Where are you getting that reading from, though?

 

Oh yea, I just realized its 113F!!!! Anyways, that was from RivaTuner...

I have a screen on the front that reads the VGA temps, HDD temps case temps etc. It says 30C... Is that alot?

 

that's fine.

 

Man, you don't need anything else than to add cardboard washers, that fixed my problem.
But also keep the tape in the middle for pressure.

Actually, when I traded the card for the exact same one, it was being cooled good out of the box.
It stays around 40degrees, even with the standard toothpaste on there.

You might not even need to tighten anything except the standard screws that were only a bit loose.
The problem is that the cooler was probably mounted crooked in the factory or with luck straight like my second one.
Something (like a wire) was probably between the cooler and the card, making the cooler sit crooked and not cool right.
Making everybody think it doesn't have enough pressure.
It might be sometimes, but I doubt it.

 

I used some coolermaster grease I had kicking about when re-applying. Probably not as good as the AS5, but i'm sure its gotta be better than the stuff that was on there!
I must say too Waymon that 5192 is seriously impressive for an old p4! More than 1000, or 20% faster than I managed to get from the same chip o/c'd to 3.44! You must have some pretty good RAM in there. I just ran 3dmark again and got (everything stock, (gpu @675));

5242
2085 SM2
2362 SM3
1585 CPU

Not sure where I got the 5700 from in my other post! (liar!)
I just can't wait now till I get a freezer 7 for my cpu so I can start giving that some extra juice! I think judging by what you've achieved sam that about 6000 should be within reach with the freezer and a HR-03 with a modest overclock on both cpu/gpu.
Untill then I'm just happy that I have a stable system that can play all my games in full!

Dinc you have consistently confused me with many of your posts! Crooked mounting!? How? If you read my tape mod post I think I explained that if the washers were thicker then you would be able to put more tension between the backplate and PCB - PCB (GPU side) to cooler. You may find you need to do something similar to your new card in the future as the weight of your cooler starts to compress those washers and it starts to peel away as a result.