280X VRM temps

[thebennyboy]

Was running Unigine Valley and was noticing that my VRM1 temp was at 101C, yikes! What the hell would even cause that? My other cards VRM1 temp doesn't even go above 70C. RMA time?

Googling around seems to suggest that the XFX 280X DD has a history of VRM temp problems.

Spoiler

 

[Marine-RX179]

Don't think you can rma on high temp alone, and you have not had graphic errors because of it yet, and also it is not uncommon for vrm to hit that kind of temp when running demanding games/benchmark, especially most custom coolers actually doesn't cool the vrm as well as reference blower type coolers.

 

[r7slayer]

Well vrms can run that hot quite easily think they can run upto 120 correct me if im wrong but that certainly is up there at the max id feel cumfy with. Id be trying to lower tht temp too. Well unless there is an actual issue with the card such as throttling or any other heat releated issue I think it would be hard to rma tbh not entitley sure. I would suggest reseating and re applying paste but that works better for the core than vrms also would probably void warranty so leave this as last resort. Dosnt look like you have much of a overclock on there either. Would suggest lowering overclock a little and try getting volts down as much as possible?

 

[passey89]

Yeh my reference 290 would hit 100c on the stock cooler.

Max temp is approx 120c but i believe it throttles at around 110c

Xfx dnt cool the vrms which is bad tbh.

 

[pastymuncher]

I knew this was going to be about XFX as soon as I saw the title. It's something that has been ongoing with their cards for years and they should really do something about it. Putting a heatsink on the vrm's isn't going to add that much to the price so I can't see why this problem is still happening.

 

[thebennyboy]

It has a two year warranty, so if it fails it's on their dime.

 

[pastymuncher]

That's when the fun begins because unless they have improved recently, their support is abysmal.

 

[Marine-RX179]

That's when the fun begins because unless they have improved recently, their support is abysmal.

If the XFX was bought from OcUK, then OcUK will handle it directly for the rma and warranty; but if it was bought from other retailers, well...good luck with trying to get a faulty card replaced

 

[thebennyboy]

I bought it from the Boston outfit. It says on the card listing that they handle the RMA. I've managed to get the temps down a little by undervolting the card down to 1155mV running clock speed at 1080Mhz, the VRM temps now don't go above 75 when gaming.

 

[thebennyboy]

So my new backplate seemed to act as an insulator causing the high VRM temps.

Removed it and now temps are normal again, albeit still quite high (~85C).

I mananged to loose ~5C on the core temps under load by replacing the TIM, the application they used was abysmal.