General Discussion

Apparently, there are some stock cooling issues with the 4850's. Some suggest removing the fan, reapplying thermal paste and reattaching the fan.

I stumbled across another temporary fix to this issue over at techreport.com. Here is the link to the post for those of you comfortable with making your own ATI catalyst profiles and such:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?=2751569&postcount=8

The downside of this fix according to the article is that you have to set the profile every time you boot your pc, but supposedly it resolves the issue for now.

/discuss.

The heat issue is known.  Its kind of wierd though considering the cards clock is underclocked for lower power draws.  Maybe its the fact it only uses a single-slot cooler.

Peeps over here in Malaysia are slapping TT Acceleros and Thermalright HR-03s coolers on them thing. Costs on those alone (which can run around a quarter to almost half of the 4850's price itself) kinda beats the purpose of all this "bang for masses' buck" drumrolls innit?

Apparently it is a combination of a crappy stock cooler and bad drivers for fan control. The stock fan will only spin at 10% no matter what.

Making a manual profile in catalyst or some say Riva Tuner can help alleviate this problem.

Alternately people have junked the stock cooler all together and put on after market coolers with their own fan speed controls.

riva tunner has a issues with raising the fan sometimes, i had the issues with a customers of mine with a 3870 HIS with there good fan, while it was great it wouldnt get past a certain speed in games, used riva tunner till drivers fixed it.

Dont forget to take into consideration your case also.

Anyway single slot coolers while are nice, just are reaching there limitra, i would vote a 3870 or 4870(im waiting till price drops) Not worth dropping the coolers, migt as well buy a 4870 get more power and is fine with the heat.

"Could've had a V8."

Depends what brand you bought.  An example, EVGA are the worst company for creating poor build quality gfx cards from Nvidia and ATI GPU chipsets and always use the poorest cooling solution. Where as HIS brands always have high quality manufacturing and add top quality cooling solutions to their gfx cards they make using Nvidia and ATI GPU chipsets. It all down to what brand and how well the 3rd party company assemble GPU chipsets and apply a cooling solution of their own design for either Nvidia or ATI GPU chipset.

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx

Originally posted by IAmMMO

Depends what brand you bought.  An example, EVGA are the worst company for creating poor build quality gfx cards from Nvidia and ATI GPU chipsets and always use the poorest cooling solution. Where as HIS brands always have high quality manufacturing and add top quality cooling solutions to their gfx cards they make using Nvidia and ATI GPU chipsets. It all down to what brand and how well the 3rd party company assemble GPU chipsets and apply a cooling solution of their own design for either Nvidia or ATI GPU chipset.

 

EVGA.... Bad? I laughed pretty hard on that one. Just because you got one bad card from one brand doesn't mean it can't happen somewhere else. I have had nothing but luck with EVGA, and they have the absolute best warranty.

Guys, if a card manufacturer consistently put out poor quality cards, they wouldn't be on Newegg.

Fact is, every manufacturer has their ups and downs, and every manufacturer has their bum batches. It happens. That's how technology works.

Newegg, however, doesn't consistently buy from a poor quality manufacturer, because guess who has to supply the customer with a new product when the one they just bought fails?