GPU hotter than before

Radec · 14 Jan 2015 at 19:58

Have a HD 7870 x edition.

Usually, card was about 43c casual use, running 2 displays one at 3440x1440.
And games would push it to around 72c.
Bought a Gelid icy cool cooler to replace the stock heatsink, as was quite small ect.

Andway, after installing, turning on PC, card reads 63c right away, and can't figure out why.
Anyone have any ideas?

I'm very sure i applied thermal paste correctly. could too much cause this maybe?

BluD · 14 Jan 2015 at 20:27

Take it back off again and check the imprint of on the back of it, make sure its spreading thermal paste properly, most of the paste should have squashed out leaving a very thin layer the shape of the core in the middle.

It sounds like it hasnt sat on correctly.

BluD · 14 Jan 2015 at 20:28

Did you clean off the old thermal paste properly also? There maybe some dried bits on there.

Radec · 14 Jan 2015 at 21:38

Had a look, and the Paste was squished very fine and identical to how it was previously.
And contact seems to be correct.
The copper tubes are cool to the touch though so something isn't right.

Also HDMI just seemed to have stopped working on the output.
Am going to re install old heatsink to try and get my head around all this.

Radec · 14 Jan 2015 at 21:56

Just put the stock heat sink back, and tubes are instantly warming up. 29c, and HDMI works again. so confused to say the least.
Seems like improper contact in the only option? HDMI problem no idea.
But the contact of new cooler looked perfect.
Tempted to throw system from a window.

varkanoid · 14 Jan 2015 at 21:58

What are you using to read temps ? I would use something else to confirm. What did you connect the Gelid Fans to ? Is there anything preventing the gelid from sitting neatly on the gpu core ? eg heatsinks in the way or components ?

Use GPU-Z and Afterburner or HWMonitor

Radec · 14 Jan 2015 at 23:04

Using speccy for temps.
Has to be contact, old stock tubes warmed right away, where as the icy didnt get warm at all. Even without fans. Fans connected to both the GPU, and then into a fan on mobo.

nothing was obstructing.

I think I'm going to go do something else and come back to it tomorrow or something. A break usually helps with crap like this.

Radec · 14 Jan 2015 at 23:06

For the time being I just zip tied the icy straight onto the stock heatsink. So the new cooler should absorb some of the heat and disperse more from the dual fans

Looks kinda cool.

BluD · 14 Jan 2015 at 23:19

I would guess the new cooler you put on was hitting something on your card stopping it from having good pressure on the core, maybe it was hitting something causing a short on the HDMI connector.

Thats the spirit, mod and adapt