Howdy,

I recently installed a Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2 on a 6800 GS CO SE (EVGA) inside one of the machines I use for graphics programming (which I do as a hobby).

The 6800 GS's stock cooler was just far too noisy, so I opted to try a passive solution. Installation went smoothly. (All the ramsinks went on, etc...)

Once the card was back in the machine I took some readings from ntune. The machine was getting about 45 degrees Celsius while idle. Not too bad, considering the tower it is in is now virtually silent. Unfortunately I started noticing some weird behavior soon after. While running Direct3D tests that card emits a high pitched whining sound (I've heard it before in power supplies that are on the fritz). The whine changes frequency arbitrarily, much like radio fuzz.

Now in OpenGL (which is what I develop with) I experience visual errors, such as flickering or tearing in both applications I have written, and software from other developers. But - no whine.

While running simple tests (such as OpenGL Extensions Viewer or PC Wizard) the temperature never creeps above 50, but the symptoms persist. When I ran Crysis on the machine it shot as high as 79 degrees, but the game ran as smoothly as can be expected from a 6800 GS.

In an attempt to fix the issue I downclocked the core and memory by 50mhz each. Sadly, no improvement.

Is it likely that I've damaged the card in some way? Will trying the original or an alternative cooler fix this?

Any assistance you can offer would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Thanks for you time and patience.

Hey Joe, ouch, I'm very suprised that card was still able to function a 79°c. Should ideally be below 60°c, and absolutely not to raise higher that 70°c, certainly not 79, and from what you have described I would be very suprised if that card hasn't been damaged. Any burning smells coming from the card? Did the cooler cover the GPU chip entirely, and should be in firm contact with it?

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Personally-- I think this is kind of a specialized rig--
so I would want specialist's advice--
This site has everything to do with running silent PC's-- including articles/gear reviews and forums that are visited by passive-cooling support techs.

silentpcreview.com | View topic - Aerocase Raven passive GPU cooler v.3...



I could make an educated guess--these guys can probably give definite answers.
My opinion is that 75 C = 167F-- sounds a bit warm to me--warmer than I would want.
Did you use any thermal compound (Arctic Silver) on the sinks?

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The instructions from this cooler (first VGA cooler I've ever installed, to be frank) recommended keeping the ramsinks clean, so as not to mess with the pre-installed adhesive.

The processor cooler itself sits nice and tight on the GPU. (It had a thermal pad included by default).

Hmm, shame I damaged the card. To be honest, I didn't need much power in this particular machine and it came down to a toss up between making this older card silent and buying a silent 8500 GT/7300 GT or something similar.

What I find odd is that it still runs the desktop and Direct3D apps with no visual issues, only the high pitched whining.

I have some higher quality cooling grease around here somewhere. Do you think - at this point - it is worth trying?

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated, and a thank you goes out to all those who have contributed so far.

Possibly-- those thermal pads are garbage... Arctic Silver does make an adhesive-type of compound also-- I trust their stuff.
Arctic Silver, Inc. - Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive

Is the adhesive the only fastening for the heatsink ? You could at least try the better compound-- if it makes no difference then you know it's "time"

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The adhesive tape is for the ramsinks. The heatsink is attached with bolts, and there was a thin layer of thermal compound between the bottom of the heatsink and where the processor would be.

I'm going to take off the heatsink and replace it with the Arctic Silver-5 compound I have.

Results (with new compound):

At startup: 35 Degrees Celsius
Idle: 48 Degrees Celsius

While running OpenGL Extensions Tester: 56 Degrees Celsius

I then noticed one of the ramsinks was sliding off (good thing I ran it with the case door open!) and stopped all testing. In any case, it was still making the screaming/whining noise (although the visual errors did not return). I think this video card (or at least the cooler) is a no go.

I'll try re-attaching the original cooler, to at least check if that fixes the issues. In any case, thanks again to all those who contributed to this thread. I appreciate your input.

Hows it going Joe?

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