Sapphire HD 6850 overheating

[Cubiclemon]

Hello there,
I made an account on this forum only to ask this so I hope it was worth spending a minute of my life... .

Here is my problem : I`ve got a HD 6850 GPU and it randomly reaches 100 degrees. I know this is hot as hell and I don`t know why. My specs are :
-Phenom II X4 955
-Saphire HD 6850 (obvious huh?)
-ASRock N68-GE3 UCC
-Dual Channel 8 GB Ram
-Energon 650w PSU


So... when I play games (on 1280x1024 and Maximum settings) my GPU sometimes reaches 100 degreees (Celsius). I know when this happens because the games begin to stutter. Sometimes I can play a game, let`s say AC Revelations for 6 hours without the card going over 60 degrees, and sometimes it gets to one hundred in 30 seconds after entering the game. And after I exit that specific game (ALT + F4) the temp drops at a nice 40 in minutes.

Another thing, I have never overclocked anything in my PC, but I did use FurMark several times, and then I unninstalled it (BTW it reached 100 degrees in FurMark too). The card is about one year old so it is still under warranty but I bought it second-hand (from a friend) and he forgot to give me the warrany paperwork... and he`s off for about a month and I can`t get it right now.

Oh, and I did set all the settings in the Catalyst Control Pannel to "Performance".


So, my question is : Why do you think my card is overheating and what can I do to fix that ?

 

[nissanman]

Have you cleaned all the dust out of the cards cooler and made sure the heatsink is seated properly? Is the fan on the card spinning? You could try removing the cooler and replacing the thermal paste. Remember though that if you do that, you may void the cards warranty.

 

[Cubiclemon]

I tried everything except replacing the paste but I suspect there is a problem with the airflow inside the case. It is a Raidmax Hurricane.

 

[nissanman]

If all the fans on your case are working and the video card is an actively cooled one, you should be fine with that case. I would try replacing the thermal paste. I replaced the stock paste on my XFX 6870's with some Arctic Cooling MX-2 and dropped the load temps by at least 15c. It is worth a try.

 

[Cubiclemon]

OK... so I just found out that my GPU fan, even at 100%, does not go over 1000 RPM. Is it broken or something ?

 

[nissanman]

Maybe, but it depends on the cooler. Does the card use a reference cooler?, or is it one of Sapphire's own designs?

 

[PC nerd]

Sapphire generally only release custom cards. Only the very high-range cards are released as reference blower coolers.

I've got a Sapphire 6850 also. The max I've seen it is 77[FONT=sans-serif]°C[/FONT] with the fan going at 2500ish rpm.

If yours is the same model (fan in the middle of the GPU), there's something wrong with your fan profile.

Is there any software messing with it? It might be that there is a program controlling the fan speed.

 

[Cubiclemon]

OK so I think my fan is broken. Here are my 2 main problems :
- When I first start the PC the fan does not spin. It is 100% - RPM.
- After restarting the fan works but barely reaches 1000RPM.

I did not realise the first problem until yesterday. When the fan works (even if it only gets to 1000-1200 RPM at 100%) the temps can reach 80C in some games like Saints Row The Third. 80 is better than 100 (at 90C the image begins to stutter) but I know it could be better. Any advice (except RMA) ?

 

[PC nerd]

Your case is pretty grim for airflow. Front 80mm, rear 120mm. But the GPU's fan should be enough to keep it below throttle temperatures.

I think the problem here is definitely the GPU fan. It should be spinning way faster than 1000rpm.

If your card is still within it's warranty, RMA it. Otherwise, you could look into buying a custom cooler for it (google Accelero coolers).

You might want to do a case upgrade at some point. Even a cheap Bitfenix Merc Alpha/Beta will be a serious upgrade from your current case.

 

[Cubiclemon]

I live in Romania and the card was unfortunately bought in another country. So RMA is pretty much out of question (I do not even know if it`s under warranty). I will buy a custom cooler at some point but my question is :is running the gpu at an average of 65C bad? Will it just burn some time or another ? Because I thought g. cards could run hot for a long time.

 

[PC nerd]

I live in Romania and the card was unfortunately bought in another country. So RMA is pretty much out of question (I do not even know if it`s under warranty). I will buy a custom cooler at some point but my question is :is running the gpu at an average of 65C bad? Will it just burn some time or another ? Because I thought g. cards could run hot for a long time.

In general, you don't want a GPU to ever exceed 90°C. Past 90°C is dangerous territory.

Idling at 65°C is not ideal, but it won't damage the graphics card.

You should probably pick up a new cooler ASAP.

http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/vga/375/accelero-twin-turbo-ii.html?c=2182

 

[Raoul Duke]

I would see if there is something on your computer that is controlling the fan speed. For example in my UEFI bios I can control CPU and case fans (silent, optimal, performance = slow, faster, fastest), perhaps there is a utility installed that is the problem. With Sapphire cards there is also a utility called TriXX available at https://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/TriXX/ that according to the website you can "Adjust your Graphic Card's Fan Settings with Automatic, Fixed or Custom Fan Speeds" among other things. It is a Sapphire video card application from a 'locked' Sapphire website so it should be o.k. to install

FWIW, I am running a Sapphire HD6950 with 2 GB DDR5, not the reference card cooler, has two fans, a big heatsink and I can see copper heat-pipes. I am unfamiliar with TriXX because I do not overclock and I have found in general the less stuff I install (that for me is unnecessary) the better Windows works. I am having no problems that I know of, but I cannot tell you GPU temps or fan speeds. I just regularly clean the heatsink and fans with a can of compressed air.

 

[Dat1Gamer]

It could be a bad contact with the paste, or its dried out and you need to replace it, had the same thing with my laptop, I replaced the thermal paste, an it brought it down about 20C

 

[Raoul Duke]

Curious, how are you two finding your GPU temps and fan speeds? Do you have some software installed or is there something native to Windows I haven't found yet?

 

[Cubiclemon]

OK so : - Nerd : you got me wrong. I don`t idle at 65. My idle temp is actually 35C. I said "running at an average temp of 65".
IDLE - 35; MAX LOAD - 80
-Raoul : My bios is pretty simple and there are no fan speed options except Silent Fan (which I have disabled). And for the temps I use PC Meter and a windows gadget.
-Gamer : I don`t think the paste dried out in less than 2 years. I will replace it but I doubt it would do something.