Is hot spot too hot?

[***F1ZZY***]

My son's 3070 has been starting to crash with increasing frequency. It always crashes to a black screen and the pc has to be hard reset. I've worked through the other options of testing CPU and RAM and power cables etc and it seems to be focussed on the GPU. This I just confirmed by swapping his card out with mine and the crashing followed the card.

I noticed that hotspot temps very quickly rises to 109 degC and fans ramp up very quickly before the black screen crashes. This can be a few seconds to a few minutes.

Is it likely that the thermal paste needs to be re-applied or something? Hopefully it's not the card just dying on him.

It's an Asus TUF Gaming 3070 if that matters.

Thanks

 

[heatonpkmassive]

What's your case airflow set up? If it's optimal then maybe a repaste is needed.

 

[heatonpkmassive]

Thinking about it, the issue followed the card so yeah, it's a 5 year old card so repasting is where I'd start.

 

[dave28]

Yes it needs re-paste, if your lucky the temp will drop to low 90`s

 

[***F1ZZY***]

Cheers I'll give it a crack with a re-paste tomorrow.

Case has good airflow and the card, including backplate, is almost cold to the touch - so it would suggest that thermal transfer has all but stopped.

 

[***F1ZZY***]

Paste was dry and crusty. Cleaned off and replaced with some MX4 and hot spot now max is 86 C.

Crashing seems to have stopped

Nice

 

[pastymuncher]

The 3070 responds very well to undervolting. My old one did it so well it knocked just over 100w off the power draw yet at the same time boosted higher and for longer with lower temps. I know you have sorted the temps out now but it's still well worth doing.

 

[Dg834man]

Those thermal pads are toast as well never had much long term success with paste on my 3070 FE great temps for a few days then went sheet again due to pump out, last time i did it used ptm7950 didn't have to do it again after that.

 

[***F1ZZY***]

The pads were still very soft and pliable, even though they don’t look it. I did just reuse them but may replace them now I know the card isn’t borked.

Unfortunately the 3070 doesn’t seem to show memory temps so I don’t know how hot they are.