Sapphire Radeon 9800 overheating

**Shenlon01** · 01-25-2004

Here's a description of the problem a friend of mine is having:

This is a sapphire 9800 pro oem video card. If you know anything about video cards you know this is the best out there. I am selling this because it is having problems with overheating. Desktop and movies work wonderful but when you go into games or really intense action the card will show artifacts and lockup. I believe this is a problem with the fan. I could take the time to install a better fan on it but I am too busy working on other things right now. I am just selling this card, AS IS, to whoever would like to take the time to fix it. The retail on this card ranges from $280-340 right now. The card has an AMD CPU fan attached to the back to provide for better cooling.

Is this a standard problem for sapphire cards? I thought I remembered hearing something about sapphire cards overheating pretty easily, or the factory fans not working well enough. So, if he buys a new fan or some other type of cooling device, will that fix the problem? Has too much damage already been encurred? Thans in advance

**Wiggo** · 01-25-2004

Are ya sure that the prob isn't because of poor case airflow? :?:

**Mista K6** · 01-25-2004

What exactly is he seeing? Locking up could be because he has a poor PSU that cant handle the output that card requires. Check on that too. : peace2: Mista K6

**SearanoX** · 01-25-2004

Yes, the Radeon 9xxx cards generally take up quite a bit more power than other video cards, so the PSU could be a problem, as could airflow. If he's using a cheapie Packard Bell case then there is no way that he's going to be running cooly. His case fan may not also be all that good as well. Proper cooling is always a requirement, especially with the newest technology.

**Arsenal11** · 01-25-2004

Well, the thing is, maybe it has defective memory. My friend has the same card as me, and when he first got it, he had the same symptoms as you described, and he actually had to underclock the memory to get rid of the artifacts, but he RMA'd it, and now he has a good working one, with a very nice overclock on it I might add :)

If you have the time, try exchanging for another, but if not, you're pretty much stuck trying to sell a defective card.