[STICKY] IMPORTANT- ATI cards - high temperatures - solution

It has been reported that the open source drivers of the ATI cards cause very high temperatures to the PCs/Laptops especially in gnome3 and distros based in ubuntu 12.04. Usually users would have to install the closed drivers to get better results but this is not always the case.

I am a member in the greek ubuntu forums and I have come accros a very nice trick to get lower temperatures with the open source drivers of the ATI Cards.
It seems that the ATI cards have 3 settings which are high, medium and low. By default the setting is set to "high" supposedly for better effects and performance. But this increases a lot the temperature. So in case you don't really need your linux PC/Laptop to play "heavy" 3d games or equal programs (even if it has been reported that even heavy programs work just fine when setting to "low" the ATI performance), and in case you would like to cool it down a little , keep reading.

First of all, and in order to test if you are experiencing high temperatures you need to install lm-sensors.

Code:

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors

Then

Code:

sudo sensors-detect

and you answer "yes" to all the questions. Then reboot.

After that you can type

Code:

sensors

in terminal and see the results. If you experience temperatures in the region of 60-70-80 celcius degrees you could try the following trick.


Open terminal and write

Code:

sudo su

give your password and then

Code:

echo low >  /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

You have just set the performance of your ATI Card to "low".
To check for results, wait 1 minute and then type in terminal

Code:

sensors

and compare the results with your previous temperature results.
The effect is imminent and you will probably see the temperature lowered by 10 degrees. (which is quite nice).
Start testing. Open browsers with flash content, play a game, navigate etc. so as to make sure that everything works fine.

In case you are happy, and in order to make the changes permanent, so as your ATI card to be set to "low" after each reboot, do the following.

Open terminal and write

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

and then add the following line, one line before the end, i.e. above the word "exit".

(sleep 30 ; echo low > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile) &

FYI we give 30 seconds delay so as to give the chance to other programs, i.e. conky, to load first.
You save the rc.local file, exit and reboot.

After the reboot (and the 30 second delay ), in order to check if the settings have become permanent, open terminal and write:

Code:

cat /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

If you get "low" as a reply, then all is well.

I hope this is helpfull to ATI card owners!

Yours is the best post I've seen after spending hours and days of searching. Thank you so much. You are like a laser - you hit the issue dead on. I've followed your advice and tried it. Below are the temps I see on my Toshiba Satellite A665D-S6091 running Linux 3.2.0-27 (KDE SC 4.8.4) 64 bit. Should I be satisfied with this? I have a dual boot system and when I run Window 7, I get between 50 and 54C.
radeon-pci-0200
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1: +67.0°C

k10temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1: +54.6°C (high = +70.0°C)
(crit = +115.5°C, hyst = +110.5°C)

First of all thank you for your kind words.

The above solution is up to now the best solution to get normal temps when using the open source ATI driver.

Have you tried to see what was your PC's temp before applying the aboce trick?

At least where I live, this period we have very hot summer and these temps seem normal.

It wouldn't hurt to try. 99% will work if you have the path /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile.