C90 Cooling Tips

Well after getting guild wars and after a while my gpu constantly downclocking I was PO'd beyond belief. Due to guild wars not using cpu at all my gpu was overheating and crashing. Heres some steps you can take to overcome this and in general keep your gpu cooler.

First of all disable speed step. It often overrides fan controls when the cpu is on low usage and keeps the fans at a lower RPM. This can be done in the BIOS. PRess F2 at Asus splashscreen at startup and go to cpu and disable speedstep. After disabling this I immediately noticed alot less crashing in guild wars but yet it remained.

So I ordered some new thermal pounds and thermal paste. After hearing alot of positive things about the less known Coolaboratory liquid metalpad I decided to give it a shot. Before this I had arctic silver 5 on my gpu and cpu.
For installation this is the easiest. Simply cut and put it on the heat spread and voila your done. This is great for people who are afraid to or don't want to deal with applying a thermal paste, since if not applied correctly it does more harm then good. I was a little skeptical at first since it felt like a sticker. However, the results speak for themselves.

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/colimeforamd.html

I applied this directly on the gpu die. Though its kinda expensive I decided to see how it performed compared to arctic silver 5. It requires a burn in process to allow the metal to melt onto your heat spreader. I found it funny that it needs at least 58 degrees to melt in while the lowest my c90 gpu idles at is 62.

Then for the pads I bought these.

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/shpc.html

I applied this between the gpu's heatsink and gpu plate. While I was concerned that the heatsink would not make proper contanct since the new pad is alot thinner, after a quick test I realized it does make contact properly. I was also going to place these on the memory but these would not stick properly there. They are easy to apply but get kinda finnicky if you don't apply them properly.

I also recommend sidewindercomputers since they were simply amazing. I ordered wednesday afternoon and got it friday morning. Also they didn't have the metalpad for gpus so I got an email saying that he had replaced mine with the metalpad for cpus. I was kinda annoyed since I hear this is kidna finnicky and flakes and shatters easily and would require cutting. BUt the best part was that since he didnt have the gpu one on stock (both are same product) he gave it to me for free. Thats service right there. They updated their site because of me. Actually after getting the pad in my hand I would recommend getting the cpu one. Since you can cut it and have plenty left over for at least 2 more uses if cut neatly.

Ok so the results. Sorry for no fancy chart. All you experienced c90 users know that the c90 has 4 fan states essentially. Off (basically), low, medium, (noticeable), and screaming loud. I decided to put the fan state each are running at for some interesting results. Guild wars was used for stock and COD4 for overclocked.
Before- Idle- 63 - Stock - 88 to 92 (eventually crashing) Fan-Medium
Overclocked 620/505 90-92 Fan High (eventually crashing)

After- Idle 62 Stock- 82-84 Fan-Medium Overclocked 635/1300/520 -Fan Still on Medium 88 Max

I also applied the new thermal pad to the cpu and it was great to see even with the fans on medium the temps stayed so low.

Heres the little trick for you overclockers. So we all noticed that when you enable higher levels of turbogear you can't overclock the core as high. All you have to do is lower the PCIE express frequency which is increased when you changed the modes.

You can use clockgen or setfsb to do this. I use clockgen.
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=189

Easy steps.
1. Put turbogear on overclocked.
2. Open up clockgen and read clocks in PLL setup. Our PLL is CY28551.
3. Then go to PLL control and reduce the pcie a little by little. Until you reach the 103 default.
4. THen simply overclock your gpu and continue as usual.

I know people say that the PCIE should be in line with the FSB but I have tested it for a couple of days now and see no adverse effects. If you want you can still lower the CPU freq to 2.4. All that matters is that essentially that turbogear mode is enabled since that it was controls the fans.

Now in grid with the fans pumping out at max. My overclock at 620/1300/525 my gpu never reaches over 81. Since the memory is more temp bound I am testing it out and can get my memory to reach 540 stable.

All of this was done with a zalman nc1000 cooler.

Hope this was helpful. Feel free to ask questions or pm me.

 

Mm, nice, so your crashing stopped completely, right?

 

Yeah, now even with the fans low it doesn't crash.

 

You were crashing at 92? I'd be in heaven at those temperatures lol.

 

@The Forerunner...Hmm, that's nice. I might have to invest in this, thanks.

@JCMS...I really think that you should consider getting a graphic card replacement. Lol.

 

Yeah I should. Will wait until my AoC subscription hits its renewal period lol.. My main problem is the fans not running because of my E4500 that doesn't support OC mode in this laptop.

Under Linux it's crazy, 95C idle

 

Nice. Do any of these tactics void the warranty?

 

Depends where you got it from.

Its a build it yourself laptop, so in most cases everything is under separate warranty.

If you bought it all together from a reseller you are at the mercy of them to determine this. I do not think replacing thermal compound is serious enough tho, and probably most of them would never notice.

I already upgraded my cooling to a metal pad for the cpu long ago, its more foolproof than AS5 to install and I did see better results. The GPU I figured it wouldnt matter since that metal heatspreader is between the gpu and the heatsink, its going to destroy any real gains from a better thermal compound than AS5, so I just use AS5 on there.

The best cooling mod yet is still the "vicious mod". I sit pretty in the 50's after doing that.

 

Yes buts thats alot more extensive and more than some people are willing to do. Especially with using the downclocking the PCIE trick I can get my memory up to the 550-560 range easily while keeping the core high.