Reference AMD 6950XT getting hot

[HairyRichard69]

My hot spot is going above 110 and is reaching 112c on average during intensive gaming sessions.

My Global, GPU and Memory Junction temps are mid 80's.

Shall I ignore this or is this going to shorten the life of the GPU?

 

[JediFragger]

Shall I ignore this or is this going to shorten the life of the GPU?

You won't be doing any damage per-se as the card will downclock to protect itself, but it would be worth looking at overall case cooling as that seems awful high at this time of year unless the case is next to a radiator or something!

 

[HairyRichard69]

I'm using a Corsair 3000D case.

Currently using a hodgepodge of Arctic 140mm and a Phanteks 140mm for the front intake.

Does anyone know the best 140mm case fans that have excellent CFM?

I think this card has always been on the toasty side.

I put it down to having a slightly smaller heatsink compared to the 3rd party cards.

 

[Firegod]

Try shaving a bit off the gpu voltage. I've done that on my 6900 and the wattage saved is great, and really helps the temps for very little performance drop.

 

[JediFragger]

I put it down to having a slightly smaller heatsink compared to the 3rd party cards.

Tbf the reference cooler should be alright BUT also the 6950XT is a pretty toasty card overall too. Any chance you can get a 120mm or 2 underneath the gpu at the bottom of the case to feed it cooler air?

As shown here in yellow;

 

[Phixsator]

@HairyRichard69 First of if the edge temp and junction temp of the core is more than 15 degrees C (roughly) apart it could point to poor cooler contact, most likely caused by poor or aged thermal paste. If you can't reapply it due to warranty issues or perhaps because you don't want to tinker then your only option is undervolting and downclocking. I would start with downclocking as not all cards are going to respond very well to undervolting. A core clock of 2300 won't loose you more than a few % of performance but drastically reduce thermals due to the wattage going down immensely so give that a go. If you feel you have more temp headroom and you want more performance just up the core a bit but stay below stock. RDNA2 (like your 6950XT) are pushed to the very edge and way above their efficiency sweet spot. The last couple hundred megahertz don't offer much in terms of performance vs the insane power draw increase.

Second thing would be undervolting. My old 6700XT could run at 1090mv no problem, my current 6950XT gets angry if i go below 1190 so its really up to how lucky you were at the silicon lottery which is why I suggest you do this last as instability can be completely random and after several hours if your just on the edge.

 

[BUDFORCE]

Your cable management good?

Having a spiders web of cables going everywhere blocking airflow won't help.

 

[Apex]

Sounds like an airflow issue to me.