Overheating 6600GT. Please help...

[deathwalker666]

Hi there

I have an XFX 6600GT graphics card, which ive had for over a year.I didnt really notice any problems with the card until recently, when I start noticing quite bad graphics tearing and artifacts while playing World of Warcraft. I then downloaded NVTemp Logger and recorded the temp, and I noticed that under load, the GPU core temp is often reaching 90C! Tonight when I ran 3D Mark the temperature hit 100C!. I know the threshold is 127C or something like that, but the fact that Im getting artifacts is definately causing concern.

Here are a few points which might help some of you guys diagnose the problem.

- Idle temp of the card is around 50C

- The card is not overclocked.

- Im using the stock cooler. However, I have removed this, cleaned out the dust, removed the old thermal paste and then evenly applied some arctic silver. (Still no change)

- Airflow in the case is not a problem. My overclocked CPU is 32 at idle and never goes above 50 under load. The NVidia tools also reports the ambient temperature at 40C idle. I have 1 intake fan at the front, 2 at the side and 1 exhaust fan.

I know these past few days have been hot, but Im sure my card shouldnt be getting this hot. Any help would be much appreciated Id be willing to buy a better cooler, but I'd still like to get to the root of the problem. Also I have a zalman northbridge heatsink, and I hear that some VGA coolers wont fit with this?

Thanks in advance

 

[Raikiri]

6600GTs do tend to run pretty warm, a zalman vf700 should be perfect to keep it cool though and fairly cheap

 

[deathwalker666]

Thanks for the advice, apart from the artifacts the games are still running smooth, so i guess its worth investing in a better cooler, just so I dont have to keep playing with all the graphics settings on low

So do any other 6600GT owners experience high temps then?

 

[doran1801]

my 2 6800gt's idle at between 58 60oc and can go up to 70 when playing middle earth 2, i don't notice and adverse effects though.

 

[Wile E. Coyote]

I have 2 6600gt in sli the max temp they hit under load is just under 60deg with stock cooler and thats overclocked to 550/1.1, my cards are both MSI by the way.

 

[=assassin=]

90C is way to hot - articfacting is the first signs of that - I'd get it cooled fast!! If you run it too much at hot settings, it will kill the card.

 

[postmanfw]

you want to get a zalman vf700 cu. the ramsinks need to be cut to fit properly but the arent really needed. if ** card doesnt have a seperate hsi heatsink then you need to get one with vf700. a good way to cool the ram is by putting a fan on the back of the card. i removed the fan from its casing and glued it to the vf700 braceplate via a rubber interface. my temps used to be 40/80 with stock cooler but now they are 30/39!!!! worried me a bit as they do seem very low....too low. the ram cooler does help as i was getting artifact at 600/1200 in 3dmark05 but after i fitted it they went. good case cooling/air flow is important with the vf700 as it doesnt ventalate to to rear like some others do. very quiet tho even on 12v setting. highly recomend. rem to keep stock one just incase!!

 

[deathwalker666]

Thanks for all the help.

This might sound like a dumb question, but with no experience of VGA cooling, I just want to ask. If I buy the VF700 and install it onto my 6600GT, if in the future I decide to upgrade the card (7900 for example), can the cooler and the ramsinks be removed from the old card and put onto the new card? I mean, it isnt a permanent attachment right?

My card is a PCI-E version, do these have separate HSI heatsink? Or is it integrated into the stock cooler?

Thanks again.

 

[Raikiri]

PCI-e dont have an HSI chip, so you dont need to worry about that. The cooler can be removed and reused although you will need some new heat transfer tape stuff for the ram because they dont stay sticky.