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6950 throttling at high temps and crashing

Jack Bauer

Jack Bauer

Jack Bauer

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Joined
6 Nov 2005
Posts
1,675
Location
Oxford
Previously when Ive been playing BC2 my system crashed now and then. I had assumed this was my overclock on my i5, but all the stability tests were fine. Anyway this didnt happen very much so I kinda ignored it. Since I started playing crysis 2 it crashed after 10 mins ish, so I desided to check it out a bit more.

Having ran a few tests it seems my 6950 is reaching temps of 100+ C and the shaders (I believe thats what the addtional 3 temps are in GPU-Z get up to 110+ C.

I had a play around using the artifact scan in GPU tool and the result before hand is shown below. My temps go straight up to 90 + C and note that my fps are 257 in the artifact scan. In that image GPU-Z hasnt updated my GPU load but its 100 %




My GPU load remains constant untill temps get over 100 at which point it starts to throttle and the load jumps up and down (this makes my games stutter a lot and eventually crash). Can see this be comparing the fps in the first image to the second.



I fairly certain that the temps are my problem now, but my question is do I have grounds to return this card? My case cooling isnt bad, see the cpu temps, although this is using H70. The H70 radiator is in the top of my case and the grpahics card is in the bottem. I have a 120 mm case fan blowing in the front directly at the graphics card. In take for the H70 in the top front (in DVD bays) and a final fan blowing air out of the back. I dont really see what else I can do to cool this down short of buying a after market cooler which I dont really want to do. Just to be clear, this card has not been unlocked to a 6970 yet and is running a stock.
 
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nm, having had a look a some other threads it seems having a second monitor affects this. Dropped my temps by around 10 C, however it still got to close to 100.

One thing I did notice tho is that with the second monitor on the fan speeds stays at constant 1045 C (see above). When I have a single monitor when the temps got close to 100 the fan kicked in to 2500 RPM. I assume this is a known bug with a second monitor?

Can I get around this using a second GC for my second monitor?
 
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Those are really high temps even with second monitor. Mine never goes above 80c-81c and its overclocked and unlocked so I would have thought yours has got one of those TIM problems.
 
Those temps are from the stability test in GPU tools. Playing crysis 2 now and its steady at 80 C. Strangly in both apps the GPU load is 100% but the temps are different.
 
ok cheers for the help both of you, I have no idea what a TIM is as I dont tend to read the forums much these days, but Im sure a quick search will find it.

edit: Thermal Interface Materials (TIM) :)
 
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TIM = Thermal Interface Material.

This is the paste between the GPU and the cooler seen in the middle of the card here:

radeon-6970_pcb.jpg


If you take the card apart to replace this it technically voids your warranty.
 
You'd expect the fan to be screaming along at 100% at those temperatures. That 1000rpm speed must be wrong. Is the fan picking up speed properly? It should sound like a leaf blower in your pc.
 
nope its not wrong, as you say you can hear when the fan RPM goes up. It just sits there at 1000 RPM regardless of temp with 2 monitors. More to the point, if I turn off the second monitor the fan speed on the log goes up and I hear the fan go up!
 
Have you been messing with the fan profile? I once set mine to 20% while playing a game and caused the card to spazz out on me.
 
Gerard said:
Better off rmaing it.
Click to expand...


Well as above in single monitor mode in crysis it was sitting around 80 ish, so I dont think I could get away with RMAing it.

And no I havent touched anything on it as yet, its basically running at out of the box settings. No cards near it, the only other card in there is a sound card wihich is 4 slots away.

It really does seem to have been the second monitor, idle is 40 C now and it was 80 C before with two monitors. Im slightly amazed and annoyed that this is the case tbh. Why include the option of a second monitor when there are such problems with it, not just in my case but in general.
 
For those interested....

All single monitor:

idle



load




Notice my fan speeds now change and I can hear this happening. This was not the case with 2 monitors. Drivers are 11.3 if this makes a difference.

Temps settled at 81 C 1900 RPM, so fixed as long as I never use my second monitor (which I do all the time!).
 
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You could use Ultramon to switch off the connection to the second monitor while gaming. I've found the dual monitor idle clock setting to be way too high with my 6950 and consumes 40 watts even when my TV is switched off. I only use the second monitor for watching Films and stuff so this is not a problem for me.
 
Tealc said:
You could use Ultramon to switch off the connection to the second monitor while gaming. I've found the dual monitor idle clock setting to be way too high with my 6950 and consumes 40 watts even when my TV is switched off. I only use the second monitor for watching Films and stuff so this is not a problem for me.
Click to expand...

I will have a look at this.

and no, I have set no fan profiles. Are you suggesting this as the problem or a possible solution?
 
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