5700XT temp issues

[overqual]

Hello everyone!

My 5700XT (Sapphire Pulse) is having strange temperature issues and I can't seem to get rid of those so I thought I'd ask you guys for some advice.

This issue started few months ago when I first noticed higher temps (~70°C GPU and ~100°C+ hotspot) and the big difference between GPU and hotspot on top of that (~25°C, sometimes even more), the card gets very loud because of the fans running at full speed.
My initial idea was to just re-paste the card and it actually worked, or so I thought...
This is where things got weird - re-pasting the card worked for like 1 or 2 weeks and temps dropped to ~70°C GPU and ~80°C hotspot, after that it returned back to the "original" state where it's getting very close or even hitting the thermal limit and starts throttling.
Repeated this process 3 or 4 times in the past couple of months/weeks and got the same result every time, the card is even undervolted and underclocked to 1010mV and 1900MHz.
There's always a blank spot near the middle of the GPU without any thermal paste, I tried three different thermal pastes (MX-4, kryonaut and hydronaut) with little to no difference, I'm starting to think that there's something wrong with the mounting pressure since the thermal compound basically always does the same thing and "pumps out" of the middle area, no idea how to deal with (or improve) that though.
The card is still relatively new and the thought of replacing it with something else in current situation is quite horrifying.

I'll be grateful for any help, thanks!

 

[Mussels]

it's meant to pump out, that just means that spot has good contact
How much paste are you using?
Vertical or horizontal mount?

Used for mining, or just gaming?

Have you tried plastic washers on the screws for the GPU mount to increase pressure slightly? its a common fix for this sort of issue, and safe

 

[Cowboystrekk]

GPU heatsunk sagging? Try something like carbonaut which can't pump out?

 

[overqual]

it's meant to pump out, that just means that spot has good contact
How much paste are you using?
Vertical or horizontal mount?

Used for mining, or just gaming?

Have you tried plastic washers on the screws for the GPU mount to increase pressure slightly? its a common fix for this sort of issue, and safe

I know it's supposed to pump out, but probably not the way I described, with the middle of the die left without any contact (which I suppose is definitely the hotspot in this case)
I'm not using any riser cables or anything, the card is normally mounted (horizontally)
Card is used for gaming and nope, haven't tried washers yet.

GPU heatsunk sagging? Try something like carbonaut which can't pump out?

I was thinking about trying another paste but I basically gave up after going through the 3 different ones I mentioned in my original post.

 

[Cowboystrekk]

I know it's supposed to pump out, but probably not the way I described, with the middle of the die left without any contact (which I suppose is definitely the hotspot in this case)
I'm not using any riser cables or anything, the card is normally mounted (horizontally)
Card is used for gaming and nope, haven't tried washers yet.

I was thinking about trying another paste but I basically gave up after going through the 3 different ones I mentioned in my original post.

Carbonaut is a pad, if pumping out is the issue then a pad will resolve this thermal grizzly kcarbonaut - Bing images it has a bit lower performance than MX 4, but will probably be better if you experience pump outs.

 

[overqual]

Carbonaut is a pad, if pumping out is the issue then a pad will resolve this thermal grizzly kcarbonaut - Bing images it has a bit lower performance than MX 4, but will probably be better if you experience pump outs.

Yeah forgot about that, I actually thought about this before but then realized that I don't think I've ever seen people using those on GPU's/bare dies and I have no idea how the pad would behave.

 

[Mussels]

Yeah forgot about that, I actually thought about this before but then realized that I don't think I've ever seen people using those on GPU's/bare dies and I have no idea how the pad would behave.

they perform worse than paste, so with such a hot card its likely not going to work great.

 

[overqual]

they perform worse than paste, so with such a hot card its likely not going to work great.

I know they perform worse, but it's not like there would be a 30°C difference. I just mentioned that I have no idea how the pad would work on a naked die, especially because that they are electrically conductive (at least most of them from what I've heard) so if it was sliding around for example it would quickly turn into a nightmare if it touched the SMD's...
It would be a good option because I wouldn't have to care about the paste pumping out (and causing only the hotspot to reach 100°C+) and having to repaste the card every month/few weeks.

Anyways, I repasted the card once again and carefully checked everything like the thermal pads on VRAM etc. and moved one or two of them around since they were not covering the entire chip, also noticed something weird on the retention bracket - one of the spring-loaded screws had the spring a bit "scrunched" compared to the others so I adjusted/fixed that.
Everything looks alright so far (as it always does the first couple of days/weeks) but at this point I'm pretty sure the issue will come back.

 

[Mussels]

I know they perform worse, but it's not like there would be a 30°C difference. I just mentioned that I have no idea how the pad would work on a naked die, especially because that they are electrically conductive (at least most of them from what I've heard) so if it was sliding around for example it would quickly turn into a nightmare if it touched the SMD's...
It would be a good option because I wouldn't have to care about the paste pumping out (and causing only the hotspot to reach 100°C+) and having to repaste the card every month/few weeks.

Anyways, I repasted the card once again and carefully checked everything like the thermal pads on VRAM etc. and moved one or two of them around since they were not covering the entire chip, also noticed something weird on the retention bracket - one of the spring-loaded screws had the spring a bit "scrunched" compared to the others so I adjusted/fixed that.
Everything looks alright so far (as it always does the first couple of days/weeks) but at this point I'm pretty sure the issue will come back.

There absolutely can be, as they require a more flat mount and perfect mounting pressure to function. Paste (and pads) fill thicker gaps far, FAR better

 

[AlwaysHope]

OP, is the system in a case? & how are you measuring those temps?

 

[overqual]

Yeah it's in a case (NZXT H500 to be more specific), I'm using hwinfo for all the monitoring.

 

[AlwaysHope]

Yeah it's in a case (NZXT H500 to be more specific), I'm using hwinfo for all the monitoring.

Got it. I have the same ref card as you & I get up to 111c with hot spot but because I have new mobo now, the primary gpu slot is closer to my case inlet fans so I'm yet to launch a game & check that aspect out yet. Case air flow can have an impact on gpu temps no doubt.

 

[AlwaysHope]

Quick update to this with new mobo. Because the 16x slot is now further to the bottom of my case & thus closer to the inlet fans, getting 2C reduction in the hotspot temp during gaming session. This is with the same ambient temps as before.

 

[overqual]

Anyways, I repasted the card once again and carefully checked everything like the thermal pads on VRAM etc. and moved one or two of them around since they were not covering the entire chip, also noticed something weird on the retention bracket - one of the spring-loaded screws had the spring a bit "scrunched" compared to the others so I adjusted/fixed that.

Update: Don't want to jinx anything but temps are still looking decent, even few weeks later - 83°C was the worst I've seen so far on the hotspot after a longer gaming session but it usually stays around 70-75°C so a nice improvement considering the fact that my case isn't the best when it comes to airflow, looks like the screw on the retention bracket was the culprit.

 

[Rubbish]

Update: Don't want to jinx anything but temps are still looking decent, even few weeks later - 83°C was the worst I've seen so far on the hotspot after a longer gaming session but it usually stays around 70-75°C so a nice improvement considering the fact that my case isn't the best when it comes to airflow, looks like the screw on the retention bracket was the culprit.

Glad you got this figured out.

 

[eidairaman1]

Glad you got this figured out.

Id do the washer mod that wad found on the Radeon VII (VEGA)

 

[Rubbish]

Id do the washer mod that wad found on the Radeon VII (VEGA)

Would he have to change the thermal pads?

 

[dark2099]

Probably not, granted I didn't have a Vega, done that with other cards, and I try to find a thinner washer, and only do the screws that surround the actual GPU, not every screw.

 

[GerKNG]

i repasted a lot of GPUs (funnily my 5700xt pulse just last week)

pump out is 50/50 paste or a thin heatsink that expands a lot under heat.
for repasting GPUs i only found two reliable Pastes so far (Noctua NT H1 and Arctic MX5)
arctic MX4 turns into silicone oil soup after a few days/weeks, the whole Thermal Grizzly lineup is completely overrated and only useful for sub zero overclocking.

try out MX5 (it is very sticky and turns into a thick sticky paste after a few weeks)
NT H1 works as well (used that on the 5700XT and a 2080 Ti AMP Extreme back in 2019 and it's still like it was on day one)

MX4 is one of the worst pastes on the market:

 

[sam_86314]

Repasted my 5700 XT with MX5 recently and did the washer mod.

Made a sizeable difference on my particular model (MSI MECH OC).

I've done some more tuning since this screenshot and am currently running at 1850MHz on the core at 950mV. Also tuned my fan curve because I'm a silence freak (limited to 50%/~2300RPM max), so this is a bit of a sub-optimal scenario. The core temperature usually stays in the low-to-mid 70s, hotspot occasionally gets into the low 90s, and memory stays in the mid-80s.

I might do some tests and post more exact numbers.

 

[eidairaman1]

Would he have to change the thermal pads?

No

i repasted a lot of GPUs (funnily my 5700xt pulse just last week)

pump out is 50/50 paste or a thin heatsink that expands a lot under heat.
for repasting GPUs i only found two reliable Pastes so far (Noctua NT H1 and Arctic MX5)
arctic MX4 turns into silicone oil soup after a few days/weeks, the whole Thermal Grizzly lineup is completely overrated and only useful for sub zero overclocking.

try out MX5 (it is very sticky and turns into a thick sticky paste after a few weeks)
NT H1 works as well (used that on the 5700XT and a 2080 Ti AMP Extreme back in 2019 and it's still like it was on day one)

MX4 is one of the worst pastes on the market:
View attachment 234892

For gpus or cpus, because mx4 has kept my 8350 at 5GHz for years.

 

[sam_86314]

Would he have to change the thermal pads?

Only if he had my MSI card.

i repasted a lot of GPUs (funnily my 5700xt pulse just last week)

pump out is 50/50 paste or a thin heatsink that expands a lot under heat.
for repasting GPUs i only found two reliable Pastes so far (Noctua NT H1 and Arctic MX5)
arctic MX4 turns into silicone oil soup after a few days/weeks, the whole Thermal Grizzly lineup is completely overrated and only useful for sub zero overclocking.

try out MX5 (it is very sticky and turns into a thick sticky paste after a few weeks)
NT H1 works as well (used that on the 5700XT and a 2080 Ti AMP Extreme back in 2019 and it's still like it was on day one)

MX4 is one of the worst pastes on the market:

I've had pretty good experiences with MX4 over the last four years or so, and now with MX5.

However, I did have a 20g tube of MX4 separate on me. I bought that tube in May 2018.

My MX5 (that I bought in March 2021) hasn't done that yet.

 

[eidairaman1]

Only if he had my MSI card.

I've had pretty good experiences with MX4 over the last four years or so, and now with MX5.

However, I did have a 20g tube of MX4 separate on me. I bought that tube in May 2018.

My MX5 (that I bought in March 2021) hasn't done that yet.

I'd remix the mx4 on a clean paper sheet to use it.

 

[GerKNG]

For gpus or cpus, because mx4 has kept my 8350 at 5GHz for years.

on GPUs / Direct Die

MX4 just melts like butter and temps are rising like crazy within weeks.
i repasted a lot of cards with MX4 and not a single application lasted longer than 4 weeks (except on a 1030 that runs in the high 40s under full load)
my 2080 Ti AMP Extreme (340W), 2080 Super, 3070, 5700xt Nitro + SE and 6900XT Nitro + all had the same problem.
meanwhile the MX5 i put on the same 6900XT in late march last year is still fine.

 

[sam_86314]

Here's a quick and dirty graph showing my 5700 XT's temps while running Unigine Heaven at Ultra in a 1080p window for about 9 minutes. I started the benchmark where the initial temp spike is.

Red is GPU Temp, Green is Hotspot Temp, and Blue is Memory Temp

GPU maxed at about 72C, hotspot at about 85C, and memory at about 82C

The GPU-Z log that I got this graph from is attached for those who are interested.