Overheating Issue

[Immobileurchin]

Hey, hopefully you guys can give me a hand cause I am in way over my head.

I am running an AMD Radeon 6870 and am having some pretty serious overheating issues.

I have tried really hard to listen to the voice of the internet and have done a bunch of the procedures and am still running into pretty persistent issues.

If I'm not running any crazy programs or watching videos my card is running at a nice 46C but once I start running a game that has even some graphic requirements, even low ones like WoW, I can only play for like an hour or so before the temp is up at like 105C and everything seems to go south really fast.

I made sure to blow all of the dust out as step one. The inside of the computer was pretty dusty but sure enough same issue.

Then I went ahead and downloaded MSI Afterburner and cranked up my fan so that it was running at 100%. Still no dice.

Next I braced myself and went into the card itself and applied new thermal paste. The old stuff was looking pretty bad. However after I buttoned the computer all back up and started playing the same issue cropped up.

If anyone has ideas I'd love to hear them!

Thank you so much!

 

[FireFox]

first of all welcome to TPU.
would be very grateful if you fill up your system specs.
would help us and could make things easy.

 

[Ebo]

First of all, welcome .

To me is sound like you mabye need to put 1-2 more fans in your case. 6870 isent a warm card and to see you hitting 105 degrees, thats hot.
Even my R9 290 has never been over 77 degrees, so mabye you need a new cooler for your GFX, it could be a cooler from AC, but the price contra your older GFX, mabye it would make more sence just to buy a new card, depending on the price where you live.

http://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/products/cooling/vga.html

 

[Immobileurchin]

Thanks for the welcome!

I am running...

Motherboard : ASUS M5A88-M

Processor : AMD FX-8150

RAM : 8gigs

And of course the video card that seems to be giving me so much trouble.

 

[FireFox]

If anyone has ideas I'd love to hear them!

Have you tested it on other pc, or is something blocking the GPU fan?

 

[Immobileurchin]

As far as fans go there is one at the top, one on the back, one under the power supply and the one that is directly on the video card itself.

I'm afraid that my computer knowledge is really limited and I don't know where the line is for video cards. Do video cards just eventually start degrading and then overheating? I've had the card for around 3 years but mechanically it doesn't make sense (to me at least) that this card should all of a sudden start behaving so poorly.

Its just one of those things that I'm not really rolling in cash and having to replace a video card when I don't know why its behaving in a way that even I know it shouldn't seems a little scary.

 

[Immobileurchin]

There is for sure nothing blocking the fan. I checked that and can see it happily spinning away but sadly to what seems like no effect.

 

[FireFox]

There is for sure nothing blocking the fan. I checked that and can see it happily spinning away but sadly to what seems like no effect.

test it on other pc.

 

[Immobileurchin]

Sadly I don't have ready access to another computer and would have to put it into a friend's computer and try it that way.

Is that something that could hurt their computer? I would be afraid to do damage and for sure that would make me feel pretty terrible.

If I do test it on another computer what are the things I should be looking out for? Just downloading the MSI Afterburner and playing a game to see what happens?

 

[Toothless]

Clean out any dust? And how warm is your room?

 

[eidairaman1]

If its a blower type fan clean it thoroughly or recheck to ensure cooler is properly mounted on gpu and check vrms

 

[FireFox]

Is that something that could hurt their computer?

It won't.
If after test it in your friend's pc the problem continue It's hard to say but maybe your card is dying.
Which thermal paste did you use, did you apply enough, is the fan of you card working properly?

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

run gpuz and hwmonitor stick some extra fans on and see what difference there is.

if you lower the temp and can cope with the extra noise happy days.


if you have space for it try something like this

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/scanfx-hard-drive-cooler-for-35-hdd-twin-50mm-quiet-fans

for a couple of quid something similar to this sitting on the pcb side (check the components are insulated against each other) made a big difference to a passive card i had a while ago.




the pics are of a 9500gt i think but the principle is the same.

the fan housing is metal so i put insulating tape around it

 

[FireFox]

Maybe try running your pc with the side panel off and see if temperatures change.

 

[MrCellkill]

New here. But and old nerd

I had the same problem with my old 6970. (dried thermal paste)

1. Remove all the old paste and clean the gpu chip and cooler with alcohol.
2. Use Arctic MX-2 -3 or 4 for your graphic card.
3. Apply thermal paste like a [ X ] on the gpu. (Don't smear it out)

 

[FireFox]

Remove all the old paste

Already done!
It's better to read the whole thread before suggesting the same thing that someone already did, otherwise he will get confused.

 

[TC-man]

And make sure the VGA cooler's heatsink is touching the GPU itself, otherwise the GPU will overheat easily.

 

[FireFox]

And make sure the VGA cooler's heatsink is touching the GPU itself,

+1
That could cause overheating, If I have not misunderstood the overheating issue didn't start after he changed the Thermal paste, that's mean that the problem was already there.

 

[MrCellkill]

Already done!
It's better to read the whole thread before suggesting the same thing that someone already did, otherwise he will get confused.

I was referring to he should remove the paste he had applied and use Arctic. And applying it like this [ X ]

 

[Immobileurchin]

And make sure the VGA cooler's heatsink is touching the GPU itself, otherwise the GPU will overheat easily.

I have to admit I have no idea what that means.

 

[FireFox]

I have to admit I have no idea what that means.

Here you can check and have an idea about what is it.
http://www.acousticpc.com/zalman_vf950_led_gpu_vga_cooler.html

 

[Henkenator68NL]

Removing the stock Fan and reapply the thermal paste is only part of the solution.

The gpu core is covered with paste but the memory IC's and the VRM's are covered with an other material: thermal pads. Those pads tend to dry out over time and crumble. So besides replacing the paste should also try and replace the thermal pads. You can buy replacement pads at most specialized (water cooling) shops. In general these pads are used in both 0,5 mm and 1 mm thickness.

Best way to check is to go to for example EK water Cooling site - > configurator and search for your exact gpu. Then click the waterblock for your gpu and download the manual: why?
Because there you get an exact overview of the pcb for your gpu (shows the card without the FAN). In the manual there is always an instruction how to put both paste and thermal pads on your GPU.

Also it would be wise to run a log file during the gpu test. You can use gpu-z and look at both the core and vrm(s) temps. To see which is actually high.

Hope you get it fixed!

 

[Immobileurchin]

Removing the stock Fan and reapply the thermal paste is only part of the solution.

The gpu core is covered with paste but the memory IC's and the VRM's are covered with an other material: thermal pads. Those pads tend to dry out over time and crumble. So besides replacing the paste should also try and replace the thermal pads. You can buy replacement pads at most specialized (water cooling) shops. In general these pads are used in both 0,5 mm and 1 mm thickness.

Best way to check is to go to for example EK water Cooling site - > configurator and search for your exact gpu. Then click the waterblock for your gpu and download the manual: why?
Because there you get an exact overview of the pcb for your gpu (shows the card without the FAN). In the manual there is always an instruction how to put both paste and thermal pads on your GPU.

Also it would be wise to run a log file during the gpu test. You can use gpu-z and look at both the core and vrm(s) temps. To see which is actually high.

Hope you get it fixed!

Thanks!

 

[Immobileurchin]

Going through all this craziness it sort of makes me ask the question if I should just be looking at getting a new video card.

Do they eventually just go bad?

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Dont get a new one yet. Its got to be worth a couple of hours research and tinkering to sort it out.

Follow the advice you have been given.

Even if it proves to be broken you will have learned a bit more.

It is intimidating taking stuff apart but give it a go.

And yes...stuff does wear out for all sorts of reasons.

I buy cans of compressed air and blast that around.
I used to use a bycycle pump which was very effective and directional !