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Gfx card too hot/Any ATI tray tools experts?

platypus

platypus

platypus

Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2003
Posts
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Location
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Recently whilst playing SW:TOR I've had my graphics card shut the computer down because the temperature has pushed 95-100oC. It is an ATI Toxic 6950HD with a vapor chamber cooler - the card doesn't appear to be anywhere near under full load and yet the temperature shoots up to ~80oC as soon as I load the game. It idles at 50-60oC, which sounds probably too high for idle? What can I do to sort that? Airflow in my case is not restricted, and I can't be doing with water cooling (although the noise of the fan on load is beginning doing my head in!).

Also not in direct relation but I saw when running ATI tools (to check temps) that the clock speed of my card was 480MhZ, but the BIOS GPU speed was 850MhZ. Anyone able to shed some light on what that means?
 
When some gpu's are idle they can sometimes (not always) down clock themselves automatically to save power that could explain the readings. I know nvidia cards do this not sure if ati ones do.
 
Don't use ATI tools, it sucks quite a bit. Use MSI afterburner; best software/freeware out there for your GPU!

It sounds it could be one of two things.

Either you need to take the cooler off clean it and apply new TIM and see if that will cool it down. The card could just be really dusty and need a good clean out to make sure the air is getting to where it needs to be. I have heard vapour chamber coolers get dusty really easily.

OR

The card maybe faulty/ the bios may need updating.

Have you tried uninstalling it and reinstalling the drivers. AMD/ATI can be bad to drivers sometimes.

Hope this help :)
 
Cheers - I've recently updated my drivers so not sure if thats an issue - though I shall reinstall them tonight to see. I presume that updates the BIOS too? Will install Afterburner too; didn't realise it was intended for ATI cards as well.

Not 100% confident in cleaning a vapor chamber cooler as I haven't done it before; is it just the same as taking the older style hsf off, re-applying thermal paste (will artic silver suffice for a gpu?) and then cleaning the fan?
 
No the BIOS is totally spearate. If you want to update the BIOS... use ATI TOOLS to do it.. I know I said it's crap but for updating the bios, it's basically the only tool out there to do it with, but for monitoring and recording etc use AB!

Yea its the same as taking off another cooler and cleaning it. It's just the design of the cooler that makes it a vapour chamber thats all. Arctic silver will do yea. Clean the fan with an ear bud or tissue. I prefer ear buds, they get right in the corners and clean fans very well. I use them to clean in between the fins on my arctic freezer pro 7 rev 2 cooler.
 
I'll use the cpu trick I use - a dab in the middle spread with a credit card. Fingers crossed :p. Cheers all, will see if things improve.

How does one update the bios with ATI Tools? Can't see an option.
 
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Ok I've just rebooted after cleaning the card and reinstalling drivers, and running GPU-Z (not sure how accurate that is?), I have:

395.png


So after just booting from cold, the temperature is already at 60oC. Let me just try a "stress" test...
 
The load temp looks fine, but the idle clocks should be lower. Do you use two screens? As dual screening increases the idle clocks to around the level in your screenshot and probably explains the fairly high idle temp.
 
Hows the cooling inside the case? Could probably get something like the Spotcool and face it at the graphics card or get a custom cooler.
 
I've got 2 6950's in crossfire which idle in the 30's and load to the high 60's. Those temps look really hot to me.

What case and cpu cooling do you have? If the gpu only has hot air to cool it then the temps will go wild.

edit: also someone above said that your card isn't idling properly. And I agree with that, idle clocks should be a lot lower something like 250 core and 400 memory. If you have a 2nd monitor then the clocks will stay that high to power it even when idling. Unplug the second monitor whilst playing swtor (if you have one) and see if that helps.
 
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Card is in medium power play mode as it probably has multiple monitors attached, or it's using hardware acceleration for your browser or something else in the background. Medium clocks will raise temps by 10-20 degrees.
 
flinco said:
The load temp looks fine, but the idle clocks should be lower. Do you use two screens? As dual screening increases the idle clocks to around the level in your screenshot and probably explains the fairly high idle temp.
Click to expand...

Tealc said:
Card is in medium power play mode as it probably has multiple monitors attached, or it's using hardware acceleration for your browser or something else in the background. Medium clocks will raise temps by 10-20 degrees.
Click to expand...
Yes to these, I'm running two 24" widescreens.
 
Deception said:
Hows the cooling inside the case? Could probably get something like the Spotcool and face it at the graphics card or get a custom cooler.
Click to expand...

Clav said:
I've got 2 6950's in crossfire which idle in the 30's and load to the high 60's. Those temps look really hot to me.

What case and cpu cooling do you have? If the gpu only has hot air to cool it then the temps will go wild.
Click to expand...
I've got an Antec 300 and the card only just fits in. There isn't a right lot else in the case though, an SSD and a 500GB hard drive, and the airflow feels good, of course it might not be.

I have an H50(?) sucking air in from the back for the CPU, and a 120MM extractor fan on the top.
 
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