Asus HD 4870

[Mike029]

Well, Asus really did me dirty. I sent the card in for repairs 4 times and I swear they have sent me back the same card 3 times. Not my original card, just the same broken one. This has been going on for 9 months and I've quite dealing with them. That said I have the card and it does run for a bit then the artifacts appear. It could be bad vram, or overheating issue. I'm through playing with it and will send it to anyone that wants to try and fix it or needs the spare parts from it. Let me know. This is a pic of the one a sent them. 631 This is the crap they have sent me four times. 630

I'll never buy from them again.

[Philadelphia]

Well, Asus really did me dirty. I sent the card in for repairs 4 times and I swear they have sent me back the same card 3 times. Not my original card, just the same broken one. This has been going on for 9 months and I've quite dealing with them. That said I have the card and it does run for a bit then the artifacts appear. It could be bad vram, or overheating issue. I'm through playing with it and will send it to anyone that wants to try and fix it or needs the spare parts from it. Let me know. This is a pic of the one a sent them. 631 This is the crap they have sent me four times. 630

I'll never buy from them again.

That sucks big time, one of mine is an Asus, hopefully mine doesn't ever have to be sent back. I was under the impression they were one of the better companies.

[Crazybob]

What kind of artifacts are you seeing?

[DrPop]

That is really lame. I have to say they were Johnny on the spot with replacing my GTX 460 when it went down, and I'm thankful for that. Wonder what their deal is - probably it's the fact that they would have to majorly upgrade you to a nicer card, since the 4870 isn't made any more.

Hmmm...wonder how high you could take this (your displeasure with their lame warranty policy)? I am sure they wouldn't want the bad vibes leaking into the gaming sector...:rolleyes:

[Fire$torm]

Hey Mike, I've decided to give you an update here so that other members could give some feedback. Hope you don't mind.

After doing the baseline testing and getting similar results to what you posted, I underclocked both MEM and GPU to the minimums allowed by CCC and was able to cunch a wu for approx. 20~30 sec. before the system would BSOD. Next I pulled the cooler and the vregs (aka VRMs) heatsink, cleaned everything with a solvent/degreaser, applied Arctic Silver 5 to the GPU and replaced the thick "spongy" tape on the vreg heatsink with Sekisui 5760 thermal tape.

When I retested the card it behaved as before only now, after the third reboot the system would BSOD before the desktop finished loading. This was not a good sign. I shut it down and pulled the card to inspect it again and noticed that all the major components in the power distribution section was very warm, including the capacitors (The round cylindrical components that look like miniature pop cans)! So I let the card cool down, reinstalled it and tested again. This time after the second BSOD with the system still running I started checking relative temps by touch. This is when I discovered that all the parts on the right side of the card (The side with the PCIe power connectors) were warmer then they should be to the touch. This includes the VRAM chips which I could only check from the backside of the circuit board. Please note that the most likely reason the card was BSOD'ing faster then before is that the Sekisui tape that I used isn't making full contact with all the vregs, probably because they are not mounted flush to the circuit board (There are 8 vregs under the heatsink). The spongy thermal transfer material does a better job of making full contact in such cases though it does a poorer job of conducting heat.

I can only conclude that the VGA cooler never properly controlled the vreg temps. Therefore over time they cooked until the vregs could no longer hold spec. To hold spec means that a part/component can no longer perform as it was designed to. This is usually do to a breakdown of its internal materials or structure. And considering how warm the VRAM chips were getting I can only assume that with the vregs going out of spec they allowed the VRAMS to get cooked along the way. And once the VRAMS started going south is when you started getting the BSODs.

This is probably why you have been through three cards of this version. What I don't get is why Asus never changed the design of the GPU cooler and vreg heatsink! Also note that Asus is the only maker of the 4870, to my knowledge, that did not use any form of heatsinking for the VRAMS. This is very, very poor design.

There is one small glimmer of hope. I still have the bricked 4870 that DrPop sent me earlier this year. Since I did a backup of the Asus BIOS, just in case, before I took it apart, I might be able to use it on DrPop's card. I believe that the reason that I was unable to fix DrPops card before was do to some incompatibility with the BIOS files I dl'd from techPowerUp's website. If it works, then you will have a functional card. I will still need to fabricate heatsinks for the VRAM chips since no one makes anything short enough and the ones that were on the DrPop card were used on my old 4850 along with the cooler from that card. I found some copper bar stock that will do the trick on eBay (Here (http://www.ebay.com/itm/130543219095?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649)) and (Here (http://www.ebay.com/itm/360418473201?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649)).

After all this works and you get the card back, Positive Mental attitude here, I would recommend replacing the stock cooler with something like the Zalman VF1000 (Link (http://www.directron.com/vf1000led.html?gsear=1)) or Arctic Coolling Accelero Twin Turbo Pro (Link (http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSearch.asp?px=FO&scriteria=AA77254)).

Keep your fingers crossed.......

[Mike029]

After all this works and you get the card back, Positive Mental attitude here, I would recommend replacing the stock cooler with something like the Zalman VF1000 (Link (http://www.directron.com/vf1000led.html?gsear=1)) or Arctic Coolling Accelero Twin Turbo Pro (Link (http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSearch.asp?px=FO&scriteria=AA77254)).

Keep your fingers crossed.......

WHOA WAIT A MINUTE here!!! :-o (I'm all positive thinking now, so here goes.) When you get that card ready to come back this way, :-c I'll buy the above parts and have them shipped to your house if you don't mind? Sound good?

[Fire$torm]

WHOA WAIT A MINUTE here!!! :-o (I'm all positive thinking now, so here goes.) When you get that card ready to come back this way, :-c I'll buy the above parts and have them shipped to your house if you don't mind? Sound good?

If you are talking about replacing the VGA cooler, OK. Remember, a new cooler is just my opinion and it is not absolutely necessary. The HS plates that I'll fab for the VRAMs should mitigate the possibility of them getting cooked. Also the VRM heatsink on DrPop's card is much larger then the one that came with your card, so those components should be fine.

[rgathright]

If you are talking about replacing the VGA cooler, OK. Remember, a new cooler is just my opinion and it is not absolutely necessary. The HS plates that I'll fab for the VRAMs should mitigate the possibility of them getting cooked. Also the VRM heatsink on DrPop's card is much larger then the one that came with your card, so those components should be fine.

This is all very interesting information, the write up was perfect! I wonder if you could restore broken ATI 4870's from Ebay this way? Would be a cost effective way to get a lot of good hardware for the team.:cool:

[John P. Myers]

I agree with F$ that it definitely sounds like a heat issue and better dissipation is needed. Something you may want to focus on is there is at least 1 VRM (Vreg - but usually never more than 3) that supplies the VRAM so it may be worth double-checking whether there might be a VRM that's a bit hotter than the rest. But without a doubt, the VRAM needs some sort of heatsink, whether fabricated or purchased as a replacement for the stock cooler. Very poor design :/

As for Asus in general, i'm not exactly sure what they themselves actually make anymore. Here is what i mean (http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20111219PD215.html). They now have 3 other companies making their mobos, which makes quality control impossible. Not certain about the GPU side of things, but if they're doing something similar, it's not really surprising that many ppl are having many more problems with Asus lately.

[Fire$torm]

Update:
Mike's card is working!! Well sort of... I managed to use the BIOS backup I did of the Asus card to unbrick the Sapphire card Jed sent about a year ago. Still need to fab heatsink plates for the VRAM and test before I ship it back but hoorah! This is a good day.

[Mike029]

Update:
Mike's card is working!! Well sort of... I managed to use the BIOS backup I did of the Asus card to unbrick the Sapphire card Jed sent about a year ago. Still need to fab heatsink plates for the VRAM and test before I ship it back but hoorah! This is a good day.

I can't believe it. Simply amazing. Thank you!!

Now remember team, ship ALL broken and unwanted gpu's (HD4870 and newer please) to F$. He'll get those puppies crunching again in no time. \m/\m/

[Fire$torm]

It's ALIVE!!!!

An update in pictures & words. (as usual :P )

Mike's Asus HD 4870 (It just fell apart on me............)
http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/9844/desassembledsmall2.png


Copper bar stock - Before & After
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/6900/finishedcopperasmall.png


Copper Heatsinks installed on DrPop's unbricked Diamond 4870 with Asus BIOS
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1412/installedcopperasmall.png


Project Phoenix installed & running (Burn-in & testing)
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/6505/runningcoppersmall.pnghttp://img713.imageshack.us/img713/121/pheonixhd4870.gif


Proof Of Life (1920x1200) ---> http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/386/proofoflife.jpg and note the Moo runtime :D


So Mike I'm am very happy that I was able to get this up and running for you. And thank you DrPop for having the foresight to send me the bricked Radeon last year....... :D


<EOF>

[DrPop]

Dude, you got that thing working???:confused: If so, bro - you get the SETI.USA NERD AWARD of the year!!! :D :D :D :-bd

[Crazybob's Son]

Nice F$!!!


you get the SETI.USA NERD AWARD of the year!!! :D :D :D :-bd

We have one of these? Hmmm... let me think of something crazy I can do to win it for the next year...