I can confirm the issue on Lucid. Brand new Sapphire Radeon HD4350, fresh Lucid install with current updates on a Core 2 Quad board. Heat measurements have been taken in three locations: 1.) Digital pyrometer aimed at passive heatsink over chip, 2.) Film sensor under heatsink next to chip, 3.) Discrete Sensor under heatsink on other side of circuit board. Pyrometer used is a Trotec TP4, Sensor controller is a no-name 8-channel thermometer for 5.25" drive slots. Readouts after settling (idle desktop display, very slight activity, no 3D):
So it looks like the die does run about 20 degrees hotter with the open drivers.
As an interesting sidenote, the Radeon replaces a Geforce 8400GS that became unreliable and then finally died yesterday. When I diagnosed the problem, the passive heatsink of the Geforce was too hot to touch even after the computer was powered down for a short while, which would hint at a similar problem.
I can confirm the issue on Lucid. Brand new Sapphire Radeon HD4350, fresh Lucid install with current updates on a Core 2 Quad board. Heat measurements have been taken in three locations: 1.) Digital pyrometer aimed at passive heatsink over chip, 2.) Film sensor under heatsink next to chip, 3.) Discrete Sensor under heatsink on other side of circuit board. Pyrometer used is a Trotec TP4, Sensor controller is a no-name 8-channel thermometer for 5.25" drive slots. Readouts after settling (idle desktop display, very slight activity, no 3D):
Stock (open source) driver: 1.) 80 deg C, 2.) 68 deg C, 3.) 63 deg C
fglrx (enabled from settings): 1.) 62 deg C, 2.) 54 deg C, 3.) 50 deg C
So it looks like the die does run about 20 degrees hotter with the open drivers.
As an interesting sidenote, the Radeon replaces a Geforce 8400GS that became unreliable and then finally died yesterday. When I diagnosed the problem, the passive heatsink of the Geforce was too hot to touch even after the computer was powered down for a short while, which would hint at a similar problem.