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7970 running too hot???

demon8991

demon8991

demon8991

Soldato
Joined
7 Jan 2003
Posts
4,458
Location
Gold Coast, Australia
I think my GPU is running a bit too hot and I am trying to work out why.

I have a Gigabyte 7970 OC which has the windforce tri fan cooler on it, and is at 1000mhz core (factory oc) and stock memory frequency 1375 mhz.

I am using a Shinobi Mid case with 1 x 120mm intake fan and 1 x 120mm exhaust fan with a Noctua NH-D14 in push-pull setup directly lined up with the exhaust fan out the back of the computer.

My CPU tops out in the high sixties under full stress and my case temperature is around 30 degrees when idle.

Ok so when I use MSI Kombustor I am seeing temperatures in the high eighties and some times creeping into the low 90's after 8-10 minutes which I think is rather high. I have played Anno 2070 for like 8 hours & a bit of CSS last night and in both games the fan is fully maxed out with temps reaching nearly 80 degrees!

Also if I try any sort of OC on the card Kombustor crashes out after a couple of minutes.

Do you think I need to reseat the heatsink and apply some new thermal paste to keep these temps down a bit?
 
Ok so I think I have sorted this problem now.

I took the heatsink off and removed all the thermal paste which was applied awfully I must say, and reapplied my own Noctua paste, the temps on stock have now reduced to 67 under a full stress test for 20 minutes and topped out at 82 degrees after 2 hours on 1125/1550(6200) which I thought was pretty good, especially as the thing wouldn't even overclock at all before I did this.
 
demon8991 said:
Ok so I think I have sorted this problem now.

I took the heatsink off and removed all the thermal paste which was applied awfully I must say, and reapplied my own Noctua paste, the temps on stock have now reduced to 67 under a full stress test for 20 minutes and topped out at 82 degrees after 2 hours on 1125/1550(6200) which I thought was pretty good, especially as the thing wouldn't even overclock at all before I did this.
Click to expand...

Nice one, glad you got it sorted, sorry I didn't reply sooner.
 
I also had problems with the WF 7970 so i gave it back and asked for a refund.

I also have the d14 in my case with 3 fans. At stock temps would be around 65C and a mild overclock would take the temps to 85C at 100% fan speed. With side panel off it would 75C.

Was not happy with this so I got my refund and bough the lightning instead.

82C at what fan speed?
 
Well as it was using a stress tester the fan was 100%, the card idles at 33-35 degrees with fan on auto 33%.

I genuinly believe it was just a bad application of the thermal paste applying my own stuff which is really good by the way cured the problem, the card is fantastic and the cooler is good too!
 
demon8991 said:
Well as it was using a stress tester the fan was 100%, the card idles at 33-35 degrees with fan on auto 33%.

I genuinly believe it was just a bad application of the thermal paste applying my own stuff which is really good by the way cured the problem, the card is fantastic and the cooler is good too!
Click to expand...

Sounds good, iirc i was idling at stock 40-45C.
 
demon8991 said:
Well as it was using a stress tester the fan was 100%, the card idles at 33-35 degrees with fan on auto 33%.

I genuinly believe it was just a bad application of the thermal paste applying my own stuff which is really good by the way cured the problem, the card is fantastic and the cooler is good too!
Click to expand...

Badly applied factory thermal paste does happen, those idle temps are spot on.
 
dave_beast said:
Badly applied factory thermal paste does happen, those idle temps are spot on.
Click to expand...

Yeah I did the line method this time on the GPU and then just applied the heatsink again. I made sure to clean the chip and heatsink thoroughly with Isopropyl before as well which I know is the best way to clean them!

All i can say is its one hell of a clocker and a great card! Such a step up from my 4870 which was a good card in its own right as well.

Honestly dont know how far it would go if i pushed the core and ram but i am happy with how it is running now.

One question though, how does the power slider affect the card?? Does it auto up the voltage when it is needed? Will this damage the card if this is the case?
 
demon8991 said:
Honestly dont know how far it would go if i pushed the core and ram but i am happy with how it is running now.
Click to expand...

If you're happy, leave it where it is, you still have plenty of headroom with voltage adjustment through the likes of Trixx etc if you did want to push it for benchmarking etc.

demon8991 said:
One question though, how does the power slider affect the card?? Does it auto up the voltage when it is needed? Will this damage the card if this is the case?
Click to expand...

It allows the card to use more when it's needed, and no, it won't damage the card at all as it's a standard AMD feature :)
 
dave_beast said:
If you're happy, leave it where it is, you still have plenty of headroom with voltage adjustment through the likes of Trixx etc if you did want to push it for benchmarking etc.



It allows the card to use more when it's needed, and no, it won't damage the card at all as it's a standard AMD feature :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for that Dave, much appreciated.

Have to say its a beast of a card and really well priced!
 
Ok so now had a proper real world temperature comparison instead of using high stress benchmarking.

Anno 2070 was peaking at 84 degrees at stock a few nights ago! Since removing and reapplying my own thermal paste the card now runs at a peak temperature of 65 degrees with a 1125/1550 overclock.

So a vast improvement there, I would suggest reapplying your thermal paste to anyone with temperature issues!
 
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