Radeon 9700 Pro!

[Derek79602+]

I just got my Sapphire 9700 Pro installed (after panicking because it came with out the extra power cable, and figuring out you could just hook up an extra floppy plug to it).

Thing is- believe it or not- It installed without a hitch- didn't have to reinstall the drivers or anything. It is replacing an 8500 BBA 128 meg (non se).

This bad boy blew my mind in NFSHP2, running at max res with everything turned all the way up. It ran and ran for about an hour (case cover still off), then started producing verrry mild fragments, then failed to load one track.... I reached inside the case to check the temp... the memory chips took about .25 seconds before I had to pull my hand away, same with the back side of the GPU. Is this normal for this card? Do I need to turn some stuff down if I go for an all night marathon? Anyone have any experiences?

[Atomic Rooster]

I think you should have uninstalled the first set of drivers before installing the new card. Try installing the latest drivers for your card.

Drivers shouldn't cause the card to overheat.

Maybe look into some better-than-stock heating solutions.

Look around at some of the reviews and see if they had similar problems with the stock heat solutions.

[Derek79602+]

You think that affects the heat generated? It's the same driver suite... Catalyst is Catalyst, right?

Edit

Cross post

/edit

[poopeyhed2]

Well, the Catalyst drivers are made to be compatible with ALL Radeon cards, even the original. However, the stock cooling should be sufficient. However, if you feel more secure on a more powerful method of cooling, I recommend purchasing your equipment at Jab-tech.com

[Derek79602+]

Is anyone else's card hot like this?

[poopeyhed2]

AFAIK, it is normal operation since many components generate a substantial amount of heat. As a precaution, and to overclock a little further, I removed the stock HSF of my Radeon 9600 Pro (I know it's not the same card) and put on a ThermalTake Giant II as well as a set of Tweakmonster's BGA Ramsinks. There really shouldn't be any concern regarding to this as proper airfow in the case should dissapate the heat.

[tony_j15]

You should always delete old drivers when you install a card. The 9700's run pretty hot, but i doubt that is your problem. Believe me, I have had my comp runnin BF1942 and the cpu was 50, so i dont even wanna know what the vid card was at. Never locked up or anything.