GPU temps,heatsink mods,and O/C results for the Quadro 500 goGL in my M50

[jlangton]

Well,I couldn't leave it alone.... :)

I had to play around with this Quadro and see how well it would perform with a few tweaks and a couple of heatsink/heatspreader modifications.

A Dell Precision workstation P3 heatsink lost a few fins to make my heatsinks,and it only too about 30 minutes to get them together.

I cut the thin aluminum from the heatsink in a shape that allowed maximum area while still clearing all of the internal components.

Since the Quadro 500 doesn't have a real heatsink on the RAM,I added one. I drilled a single hole to allow one of the screws that retain the card to the chassis to hold this one in place,and used a fiber washer to insulate it from making contact with the PCB. A bit of thermal compound on the RAM,and it was on no problem. The GPU has one of those awful thermal pads on it,but I left it since this aluminum was too thin to make contact with the EMI shield and the heattube under the keyboard.I simply added a sheet as large as was possible keeping in mind to stay clear of the CPU heatsink to prevent it from absorbing heat from the CPU.This simply sticks between the thermal pad and the EMI shield(they both seem to have an adhesive),and seems to be working pretty well.

Before this heatsink modification,the GPU temp ran right around 144 degrees F most all of the time.Now it stays around 130 most of the time.

Did some more benchmarking to test and see if the GPU temps would affect the results.

This time around in 3DMark2000,it got a test result of 6502 with OE clockrates. This is up from a best of 5938 with the 82.10 driver. I changed nothing from yesterday except adding the heatsinks.

GPU temp never got above 135 degrees F.

Now to see how it likes a little bit of overclocking.

Bumped clockrates up 10% from 221/440 to 243/488.

3DMark2000 score jumped to 6630. Not a huge increase,but an increase nonetheless.

GPU temp went up 2 degrees to ~137 at the peak load of the benchmark.

Well,maybe it wanted more?

Bumped clockrates up a bit more to 260/500.

Scores jumped to 6910.

Tried 260/520,and got a lockup/error.

Tried a little different approach...270/510.

Another hang..but it didn't shut down the benchmark software this time.

Now for 265/505-same thing.

260/505-same thing.

Looks like this Samsumg RAM can only go to 500 mhz before it starts to act up.

Retested 260/500 to make sure it was stable after several back-to-back tests,and came back with a 6836.Pretty close to the previous 6910, I'll say it's just good and heatsoaked now.

Maybe the core clock could take more?

Nope...it doesn't like anything more than 260.

Dropped back to 250/280,and it scored 7063. I guess the GPU temps are getting hot enough at the core that it's slowing performance down,and it likes the slightly lower clockrate.

Just my ramblings from an evening of playing with the new toy. :)

What are some of you other C-Series guys seeing for GPU temps?

JL

Edited January 3, 2006 by jlangton

[Bill]

Care to post pics of the GPU mod?

I might try that one sometime, I'm getting similar GPU temps to what your getting, and a mod might insure this graphics card survives.

[jlangton]

Care to post pics of the GPU mod?

I might try that one sometime, I'm getting similar GPU temps to what your getting, and a mod might insure this graphics card survives.

Wish I would have had the camera handy a few minutes ago..I had it all apart again.

It's very odd...If the machine hangs for any reason when I'm running 3DMark2001(even with the OE clock rates),the external CRT port drops totally out,and I can't get it to output through the dock,or to the external CRT port no matter what I do. But,if I remove the vid card fromthe MB,and unplug the BIOS battery,it goes back to working right again after I put it all back together.

Very,strange-I wonder if it's a Video BIOS compatability bug with DirectX 9c that I'm just lucky enough to have found?

Anyway..I'll snap a couple of pics if and when I have it apart again. It's running 120 degees F right now idling in the dock.

JL