89c too hot for 6970?

[Spike]

Just installed my 6970 and after an hour or so of playing BF:BC 2 my GPU temp was at 89C. I have not overclocked the card at all except to move up the power control slider to +10%, limiting or eliminating the card throttling itself for TDP reasons. My old 4870 512 would get above 90c when playing but for some reason I figured this card would be lower than that by a fair bit. Should I be worried?

At the very least it idles in the low 60's (Which also seems warm compared to the reviews) though this is WAAAAAY cooler than my 4870 ever did...

 

[Sickamore]

Too hot for my taste.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Damn...that's bad, probably a misplaced heatsink at best, a faulty chip at worse.

Either try to change the thermal paste yourself and risk blowing the warranty

or

Put it in a nice box, file an RMA and enjoy your gaming-less holidays while you keep your investment safe.

 

[Triggaaar]

Just installed my 6970 and after an hour or so of playing BF:BC 2 my GPU temp was at 89C. I have not overclocked the card at all except to move up the power control slider to +10%, limiting or eliminating the card throttling itself for TDP reasons.

Run a test, then slide your power control back to default and run again. The reviews I read suggested that there was little to gain increasing the slider at standard clocks.

 

[GundamF91]

Also, how's your inside the case temp? Even double slot cards don't dump heat well outside of case. So if your case doesn't vent, the air it takes in would be hot too.

 

[soccerballtux]

open side of your case up and see how that affects temp.

Personally from now on I'm only going to be buying cards that exhaust air out the back of the case...non that spew it out into the insides of my case.

 

[notty22]

You can probably set up a more aggressive fan profile, to keep temps down. But those temps are normal in a few reviews I've read.
It all depends on the case, air flow, ambient temperature.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Oh, stupid me, you bumped up power slider...ignore my post :x

 

[RussianSensation]

89*C is still acceptable though. So don't worry about those temperatures.

P180 is one of the worst cases for air flow. If you are going to spend any money, it should be for a new case!

 

[tincart]

That case doesn't like it has very good air intake from the front. Do they put any fans to draw in cool air from the front of the case at all?

 

[RussianSensation]

That case doesn't like it has very good air intake from the front. Do they put any fans to draw in cool air from the front of the case at all?

"Our last case was an Antec P182, outfitted with four fans (two front intakes, one top exhaust, and one rear exhaust). It stayed around 46 degrees Celsius, except under load when it spiked to 50 or 51 degrees. The AZZA Solano 1000 peaks at a frosty 38 degrees under load; in the BIOS before booting, it's normally around 32 degrees. That's with a pair of Radeon HD 4870's inside." - Extremetech.com

I bet any of the top cases such as HAF932, Antec 1200 etc. will drop his temperatures about 10*C.

 

[snarl]

I cut a hole in the side panel of my old P182 to help cool the video card (120mm Fan) also removed the Fan Filters to increase Air flow. Helped with my Video Card Temps at the time (HD4870) I believe I also ran Riva Tuner/ATI Tools for custom Fan profile, worked great.

 

[shangshang]

Snarl,
you didn't have to remove the air filters. As long as the filters are not clogged up, airflow is fine. The thing about airflow is that you really get a diminishing return. All you need is some (even if it's a tiny) airflow and you're good.

 

[sandorski]

Heard one reviewer mention that with the 6900 series part of the exhaust from the cards comes out from the Top. So any Side Panel fans above the Cards should Exhaust rather than Draw air into the Case.

 

[Spike]

Thanks for all the replies. As for the P180... I love the thing. I bought it for silence, not air flow, and it has served me well for many years. I figured that since it could handle a 4870 all this time (though it idled at 79-81 c) a 6970 would be fine. I may have to check out ways of increasing my air flow with minimal extra sound. Heck, I even blocked the top exhaust fan to cut down on ambient noise.

I'll drop the power slider back to 0 and see if that does anything. I was just trying to keep the card from under-clocking while gaming as I don't care about going a little above the 250w TDP. However, I don't want to screw up the card... though it does have a lifetime warranty