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Zotac GTX 580 Overheat

Associate
Joined
25 Nov 2012
Posts
13
Hi all,

My GTX 580 has been running fine up until about 2 months ago. Now when running high intensity games it often reaches the 102°C threshold and shuts down. That seems like a pretty insane temperature. I previously had it in an Antec 900, but recently changed to an NZXT Phantom, hoping that the extra space and fans would be enough to cool it, but apparently not.

I'll run through what I've got quickly:

Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe V2
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 @ 2666MHz
RAM: 3x2GB Corsair @ 1333MHz
GPU: Zotac GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB
Harddrives: 1 Samsung, 1 Seagate, 1 Western Digital coming in at 4TB
Case: NZXT Phantom Enthusiast Full Tower

Cable management is far from amazing, but it's not too bad.

My fans are set up like so:
1x 140mm Front - Pushing
2x 120mm Side - Pushing
1x 200mm Side - Pushing
1x 200mm Top - Pulling
1x 120mm Back - Pulling

My CPU cooling seems sufficient. I ran IntelBurnTest v2.54 and got a full load temp of 77°C on my hottest core. Idle it seems to be around 40°C.

My GPU temp on the other hand just seems to get massively ramped up whenever I do anything slightly graphics intensive.
It idles at around 50°C with the fan at about 55%, but running Crysis 2 on max it is going all the way to the threshold with the fan at 85%.
If I switch on my other monitor it goes up a good 15-20°C.
I was making a basic Water Material in UDK yesterday and that took it up to around 85-90°C.

Should I be water cooling? Is there something wrong with my graphics card? Does it need opening up and cleaning? (I had major dust problems with the Antec 900).

Some advice would be very much appreciated.
 
Associate
Joined
26 Jul 2011
Posts
504
Location
Harlow
That seems a crazy high ideal temp of 50 degree's, has it always been that high? You could try removing the heat sink and reapplying thermal paste to see if that helps.

You could also try compressed air to clear out any dust ect, but 50 degree ideal and over a 100 load temps seem crazy high.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
25 Nov 2012
Posts
13
Thanks guys, I've got some thermal paste and some compressed air on order. Hopefully that'll arrive soon. Ill try turning my fans round tonight and see if that makes a difference.

I'm sure it never used to be like that I've had it for a couple if years now and it never got so hot that it shut down until recently, so it's possible that it's just got a lot of dust inside. The antec case let a lot of dust in so that may be the cause.

Thanks again, I'll post back tonight when I've tried moving the fans round.
 
Soldato
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9 Mar 2009
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2,885
Location
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if the cleaning doesn't help you may need to remove the shroud /heatsink and reapply thermal paste

edit, only do that if you're confident / it's out of warranty
 
Associate
OP
Joined
25 Nov 2012
Posts
13
Ok thank you very much.

Do you know what will void my warranty? If I take the shroud off will that void my warranty? It's just that the Zotac GTX 580 is ridiculously difficult to clean with it on.
 
Permabanned
Joined
21 Oct 2002
Posts
2,573
Location
U.K
I think that cleaning the dust out and applying thermal paste will bring the temperature down. It's very easy to remove the shroud (good examples on Youtube should you need them) so that you can both clean the fan/shroud properly and apply some decent thermal paste.

Fully maxed out you should be looking at temps ~86c tops with your case/fan setup. The fan will running fairly high at ~65%. (it should be about ~46% at idle)
 
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OP
Joined
25 Nov 2012
Posts
13
I'll get it open when my air can has arrived, give it a good clean and see how the temps are. I don't want to void my warranty applying thermal paste though. But I'll just see after I've given it a good clean.
 
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OP
Joined
25 Nov 2012
Posts
13
I certainly will do. This case is a lot better at keeping dust out though.

It seems that some card manufacturers allow thermal paste to be applied without voiding warranty. I couldn't find what zotac's view is though. Does anyone know?
 
Soldato
Joined
31 Jul 2004
Posts
3,730
I certainly will do. This case is a lot better at keeping dust out though.

It seems that some card manufacturers allow thermal paste to be applied without voiding warranty. I couldn't find what zotac's view is though. Does anyone know?

If you have the correct screwdriver and do not damage the card, no manufacturer would say anything, unless they prefer you wait until it melts !

Right tools, soft antistatic mat, just remove the top fan shroud 7 screws then 4 cooler screws...I cant see how you can clean it out without taking off the fan shroud anyway ! And being frank if it is clogged up I would think that more reason to refuse a warranty claim anyway.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
25 Nov 2012
Posts
13
Thank you everyone. I took off the cover and cleared the dust from the heatsink. It's worked perfectly.

I ran Heaven Benchmark 2 and Crysis 2 to see what max temperature I got, which was 61°C through Heaven and 63°C through Crysis 2 (whereas previously Crysis 2 was getting my graphics card to 102°C and then shutting down).

Extremely pleased. I'm now idling at around 40°C, which seems about right.

Thank you all for your help.
 
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