CCC Makes a 10 degree Celsius change on the GPU

I was messing around with my ATI driver yesterday and noticed the GPU temperature jumped 10 degrees when I removed Catalyst Control Center but left the driver installed. The clock speeds were still the same so I do not think it is that. I think there is a 10 degree 'correction' built into the software to lower the reported GPU temperature. I wonder what the actual temperature is... When I first got my machine it would idle at around 62, after one of the driver changes the temperature dropped to 52, at the time I thought it was as a case of the GPU paste seating, now I think it is a software correction.

Anyone else noticed this? Not a big deal... just interesting.

 

gpu repaste can make a difference only when the dry paste or assembly was less then perfect. try putting it back to the way it was and see if it comes back. that would solve this mystery

 

I have it back now, with CCC removed it was 62, with CCC installed it is 52.

 

Well said.

@Morecoffee: It could be that PowerPlay is kicking in with CCC installed. What clock speeds do you get with CCC uninstalled?

 

I am pretty sure I checked that, it was 405mhz / 1000mhz... the same.

The next time there is a driver update take a look. Uninstall the old driver using Add and Remove programs and then reboot. Enough of the driver is still there so you can still run the 1920 X 1080 resolution. The GPU is still recognized as well and it will be at the normal 405 / 1000 plugged in idle rate. The temperature however will be 10 degrees higher than you are used to seeing.

 

I would have noticed that pronto. My temps are the same since my repaste.

 

It doesn't have anything to do with a repaste, my machine has not been opened. I just noticed the reported temp was different when the CCC was not installed. I run the ATI Radeon GPU Observer in the top right corner all of the time. My machine sits at about 50c give or take a few degrees either way. When CCC was not installed the temp was 10 degrees higher with the same clock speeds displayed. When I first got my machine, prior to updating the ATI software the displayed temp was always around 60c. I installed the latest software and it went down 10 degrees. My logical conclusion is the CCC makes a 10 degree correction on the reported temperature from the sensor on the GPU.

I just tested it again and did a screen print of each scenario...

 

interesting
the only thing i can remember for warming your GPU temperatures is becouse of the change of the clocks
but you've already checked that the clocks are 405/1000 hmmm

 

Maybe they are trying to stop people from worring about temps of the gpu and to just play more games.

 

They changed which sensor reports temps in furmark and some temp reading programs - it's no longer the highest temp (generally Memory IO), it's now Core temp that is reported.

AMD GPU Clock tool will report all 3.

This was a change in the latest driver set, I believe.

 

This makes sense to me, Mem/IO is ~10* warmer than my shader most of the time.

 

OK mystery solved.

So when someone does a repaste and a new driver install it is important to compare Apples to Apples.

 

Eh, I started worrying because I started hearing my fan kick in more often.