Underclocking Geforce 4 Ti 4200

gdi2k · Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 8:25 pm Post subject: Underclocking Geforce 4 Ti 4200

My box is too loud. So I went out today and bought a nice new quiet cpu cooler, only to find that the cheapo fan on my graphics card is actually making all the noise. It's an nVidia Geforce 4200 Ti (by Gainward) and looks something like this (only the fan on it looks cheaper).

As I don't do any 3D stuff anyway, I'm wondering if it would survive without its fan if I were to underclock it (the fan is easily disconnectable). It still has a bit of a token heatsink around the fan - maybe that would be sufficient if it's underclocked? In terms of software, I think this is possible with nvclock, but haven't tried it yet...

Has anyone tried anything like this? I'd be annoyed if I fried it - it's not mine. (if it were mine, I'd be really upset about frying it!

)

Cheers,

GDI

SerfurJ · l33t Joined: 10 Apr 2004 Posts: 824 Location: Texas

are you sure it's your graphics card? do you have a quiet PSU?

blueworm · l33t Joined: 09 May 2003 Posts: 962

nvclock should work just fine but would'nt be better to sell the gf4ti4200 and get something with a proper passive heatsink solution?

djpenguin · Guru Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 386

I've got a much better idea. Go get yourself an old Super 7 (K6-II, K6-III) heatsink and stick that on there in place of the fan. That ought to be enough passive cooling to do the trick, especially if you're not doing 3D stuff.

gdi2k · Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 8:43 pm Post subject:

SefurJ: Yeh, it's definitely the gfx card, I've replaced it with an old fanless radeon (pathetic image quality!), and the only thing I can hear is the air conditioning (a heatsink for my room will be the next thing!

)

blueworm: Here in the United Arab Emirates, it took me all day and a fat parking ticket to find that Zalman cpu cooler - I don't think gfx cards with large heatsinks are a concept yet here unfortunately...

djpenguin: Hmm, doesn't sound like a bad idea, still got a couple of those things flying around somewhere, not sure how I would securely attach it though - there are lots of other, higher components in the way...would require a bit of handy-work. And it would eat 2-3 PCI slots, but I could live with that...have you tried something like that?

djpenguin · Guru Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 386

Indeed. I have a Radeon 9000 VIVO (purchased back in my Winblows days) laying about somewhere that I gave that treatment to. I used some Arctic Silver thermal epoxy to attach it (Although they say this stuff is permanent, it can be seperated...though you need a freezer, a razor blade, a modeling hammer, and a steady hand to do it) and it works just fine now. I was going to use it in my HTPC, but gave up after too many headaches with the VIVO stuff and switched back to my trusty GF4 440MX SE. The HS by itself takes up one PCI slot, barely leaving enough room for a card in slot 2. But then again, most folks don't have that many add-in cards, so there's usually at least two spots that can be sacrificed (besides, slot 1 and slot 5 are essentially the same slot, so it's acutally beneficial to always have one of them empty if the other is to be occupied.)

Since the GF4 Ti4200 was from about the same time as the R9000, I would expect that they would have similar clearances around the GPU. You can do measurements if needed...about a 60mm x 60mm square ought to accomadate the Super 7 heatsink nicely.

gdi2k · Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 4:02 pm Post subject:

Ok, I've dug up an old K6 cooler, and ordered some Zalman heat-conductive epoxy from Germany, should be here in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know how it goes...

Thanks!

GDI

gdi2k · Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:31 pm Post subject: The deed is done

Right, the deed is done. Zalman's conductive adhesive appears to be sticking well enough to support the cooler upside down so far. Lets hope it stays that way. The silence is bliss - only thing audible is are the HDDs and PSU. Here are some pics of this work of art: 1 2 3 (excuse the mess in the case

).

I've run glxgears for a bit, and it seems to be stable even without underclocking. But it does get hot - skin-burning hot! Is that ok? How hot can these things get before being broken and ruined? Will the system shut down before melting? Isn't there some clever way of monitoring the temperature of the GPU, like you can with the CPU?

Thanks again for your tips djpenguin, probably wouldn't have tried it without having heard that someone else had already done it :lol:

GDI

blueworm · l33t Joined: 09 May 2003 Posts: 962

The card looks sweet with that new heatsink

<cough>spaghetti</cough> :wink:

gdi2k · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:08 am Post subject: Yes, but...

Yeh, I think so too, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. After about 45 mins of operation, the heatsink was unbearable, the edge of the PCB was enough to burn the skin, and I've never felt the monitor cable boil like that either. When it started smelling funny I shut it down

Luckily I had a spare 12 cm fan (from one of these), designed to cool the CPU from a distance, but modifiable to cool the GFX card. It's nice and quiet, does it's new job well, and has a regulator so I can turn it up if I need to some 3D stuff.

Here's the final version. So far so good.

vonhelmet · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 8:26 am Post subject:

That looks like an awfully heavy cooler to be stuck straight onto the GPU... You might want to secure it a bit more or it could just tear the chip right off the card.
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gdi2k · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 1:27 pm Post subject:

I was concerned it was going to be too heavy too, but it seems to be solid so far. Solder's pretty hard stuff as long as it doesn't melt

If it came to the crunch, I don't know which would give first, the solder under the GPU, or the glue on top of it. Hopefully I won't find out too soon...

Cintra · Advocate Joined: 03 Apr 2004 Posts: 2111 Location: Norway

I have the MSI Ti4200, and have been looking for a way to quieten my beast too, but unlike your epic performance - the pictures are great & I had a good laugh, ROFL in fact - I took the easy approach, and ordered a fanless MX4000 today instead... will let you know how it goes..
mvh

PS did you see this http://www.silentpcreview.com/article33-page1.html
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gdi2k · Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:59 am Post subject:

Good article, thanks for the link! I took his word for the temp calcs, (forgotten my physics formulas) and have underclocked the GPU to 200 Mhz (down from 250). It stays very cool indeed, so I can have the fan on its lowest setting, which is inaudible.

I'm also using the CPU frequency scaling stuff in the kernel, which takes the CPU down to 800 MHz (from 2000) when idling, so I have the CPU fan on it's lowest setting too. My CPU temp rarely gets over 42 C, even when compiling. A nice side effect is that the PSU doesn't seem to get as warm (less power needed?), so the whole system generally runs cooler.

Need to look at either modding or replacing the PSU tho, it's got a pretty noisy fan (noticable now all the other big noise-makers are out). Also not sure what to do about the 3 HDDs... rubber washers?

GDI