XFX 5870 vid card

[rawhide]

Had this card for a couple of years. First ati card I had every bought. Previously owned Nvidia cards.

 

About a week ago, I noticed increased fan noise coming outa the magic box. Then yesterday it changed to intermittent. This am when out and fired up the compressor and used a flow limited nozzle to blow out any accumulated dust after taking off the side panels (lian li box self built). Re attached all the freakin' cables and fired it back up. Obviously it's still working but same intermittent noise. This is the first vid card to do this. Normal after 2-3 years???

 

Can the fan be replaced or is it even worth it; just bite a high priced bullet and get another card?

 

 

May just hit up newegg and get a nvidia card 650 or 660 maybe??

[Mavric]

I think you should expect it to last longer than 2-3 years. However, I doubt there's a lot you can do. Some parts last longer than others and it sounds like you might have gotten one on the shorter end.

 

I doubt trying to fix the fan will get you very far - at least not any cheaper than just getting a new card. I'd probably just look for a new card.

[rawhide]

Thanks, I went to Tom's hardware and read about new video cards. DAMN I'm not sure whether it's amd/ati drivers or just my system but it seems like I've had problems with my whole windows system since I changed to the amd video system; maybe just my imagination not sure. Run:

 

Win 7 ultimate 64

Intel Q6600 w/fan

16gb ram

and the video card

 

seems like the system tends to hang whenever I attempt to look at the network system or almost any explore. sys option. I may just change to a nvidia card and see if that is the issue. If not, I'm almost due for a new sys but since most of my stuff is just net surfin' might just go with a mac mini instead of building my own system.

[AR Husker Fan]

As Mavric said - probably best just to go for a new card. Replacing a fan can run the gamut from a snap to impossible depending on the way it was installed (is it open or in a shroud, etc.). A 660 TI will use less power, give better performance, and will run cooler - and the last may be a reason for the system to hang; things are overheating. ATI and nVidia used to run neck-and-neck, but these days it's nVidia hands down for the price/performance metric.

[rawhide]

Thank You everyone.

 

660 ti was the price range I was looking at.

[The Maudfather]

See what you can do about tightening the fan on the card and if that doesn't do the trick, then you're going to want to get a new card. Unless you want to deal with the nuisance of a noisy fan.

[rawhide]

I think it was going bye bye. Temps were 80+ idling so the fan wasn't moving much air. It was starting to smell like burning plastic; so I said enough. Changed to an old 8800gts I had laying around and waiting on newegg.

[strigori]

Sounds like the bearing in the fan to me. I have had several cards die over the years. How long they last can be based on how you punish them. Years ago me an my brother burned up a 6600gt pushing it to the limit for about 18 hours a day.

 

ATI/AMD vs nVidia is about drivers more than hardware in recent years. nVidia has had better driver support for a long time, and hardware isn't as big a deal as it used to be, games will run on such a wide range of cards. The drivers can make games unplayable though

[VectorVictor]

I think it was going bye bye. Temps were 80+ idling so the fan wasn't moving much air. It was starting to smell like burning plastic; so I said enough. Changed to an old 8800gts I had laying around and waiting on newegg.

 

Did you try calling XFX support? Office mates that have had out-of-warranty issues like this with XFX cards have had their cards swapped out with refurbs or been sent parts to replace--they just had to pony up shipping. XFX is one of the better card manufacturers out there, support-wise, last I knew.

 

Also, if you don't mind me asking, why a 660 Ti, when the Radeon 7870 comes in at $40 cheaper, has better specs, and it appears to preform better in benchmark and most in-game testing?

[rawhide]

FLASH OVERRIDE ALERT:

 

My bad; after perusing Tiger Direct and NewEgg I decided that the XFX 7950 was the schnitzel grueben. The 660Ti and the 7950 were similarly priced but I got the super saver special at Newegg that included the new Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite games free. DAMN saves like 100 bucks right there. It was a lock on the crysis 3 game; woulda purchased it anyway. Plus the $30 rebate card YES.

 

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814150590

 

 

 

I started reading some other sites and found somethings about XFX support; they seem very responsive to customer complaints/issues. After I tore the card apart :|

Was going to shoot it with a .357, .45 and 5.56 each and see which hurt it more but the city where I live frown up such activities. So I didn't.

[VectorVictor]

FLASH OVERRIDE ALERT:

 

My bad; after perusing Tiger Direct and NewEgg I decided that the XFX 7950 was the schnitzel grueben. The 660Ti and the 7950 were similarly priced but I got the super saver special at Newegg that included the new Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite games free. DAMN saves like 100 bucks right there. It was a lock on the crysis 3 game; woulda purchased it anyway. Plus the $30 rebate card YES.

 

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814150590

 

 

Nice choice. May have to bite on this myself--I was looking at the 7870 (over the 660 Ti, which is why I was asking for your opinion), but may just spend the extra $20-30 for a 384-bit processor and an extra 1GB of DDR5.

[rawhide]

Well, I do agree with strigori; I've had less problems with the nVidia drivers in the past. But the AMD Catalyst update manager keeps track of things pretty good. I'm gonna try this XFX card again and see what happens. Have to remember to contact their customer service if necessary prior to disassembly/destruction

[VectorVictor]

Well, I do agree with strigori; I've had less problems with the nVidia drivers in the past. But the AMD Catalyst update manager keeps track of things pretty good. I'm gonna try this XFX card again and see what happens. Have to remember to contact their customer service if necessary prior to disassembly/destruction

 

How's the card Rawhide? You get it yet?

[rawhide]

Kinda taking it easy. My cpu fan is 10-7 it's a Freezer Pro 7 cooler but it is cooling without the fan but not under any heavier load than surfing. Getting a new fan from Shitzuland in China. Couldn't find anyone else that had one adaptable other than the source. :|

 

While running the 8800gts I didn't reload any other drivers and windows 7 downloaded whatever generic drivers for it. Re installed catalyst when I got the 7950 and my system does not like it. System access times went up and rebooting times are extremely sluggish with a long time to upload the network and wireless network connection. So I deleted the catalyst manager from amd. Things are better just don't know if running generic drivers will suffice when running crysis 3

[krill]

Did you ever register your card?. Before the 7000 series, all XFX cards had lifetime warranties and they are honored in a timely fashion after going through the service ticket hoops. Since the 5870 has been off the shelf for so long you probably won't get one back, instead a product of "comparable performance"...maybe a 7770, or whatever refurbs they have laying around.

 

The fan is replaceable, whether you have the reference blower style or non-reference bladed fan. It's just a matter of obtaining one from ebay or such and carefully disassembling the heatsink. You can also buy entire aftermarket heatsinks that will perform better than the stock units.

 

If you can't get a warranty replacement and don't want to mess around with a new fan or heatsink, the 7950 is a good choice and more attractive with the new game bundle. The 660 Ti is nice, but the smaller memory bus can mean lower minimum FPS at high resolutions, and if you really want the AMD game bundle, the price advantage on a good deal is negated. I've had a 7950 for a couple months now with no complaints other than the lack of dual DVI.