Hi guys,

I'm running an Intel Core 2 E6300 1.86Ghz with a Radeon HD 3870 card. The card worked fined for a while but is now constantly overheating in any graphically intensive game, even those that should be well within its capabilities. Idle temperatures are about 50c, but as soon as I start a game (pracitcally any game above CS 1.6 or Starcraft level) it skyrockets to 100-110c, artifacts appear, and the computer freezes forcing the graphic card drivers to restart.

I tried fixing the fan to 100% and I'm not even sure the various utilities (Rivatuner etc.) are actually cranking the speed up (I dont hear any sound difference). Anyhow the results are always the same, 5-15 mins into any game the temperature shorts the card out.

Can somebody help me with this please?

Hi Armitage,
assuming that your case conditions are the same (airflow) you could do two things. 1) remove the HS/F and replace the thermal compound. 2) if you have a PCI slot available below your card you can put a slot fan underneath your card.

Did your card come over clocked? Some of the OC'd cards had issues with temps, if so, either down clock it, or pick up Rivatuner and turn up that fan speed, hopefully one or both of those being done will help fix the issue.