6950 overheating :(

[crownedclown]

Hi guys, my first post!
anyway!
so yeah my 6950 has been overheating the point of crashing while playing skyrim after about 15 minutes up to an hour or more, temps hit a bit above 86c perhaps higher as that's the highest i've seen so far. (granted it's skyrim maxed settings with some pretty intensive mods, my fps is 45+ so it's easily capable of running it)

I plan on upgrading my entire rig when I start working again in a month or two, so until then budget is a bit limited. With that in mind do you guys think that a simple blower + fan(or just a blower with twice as much CFM) placed above the GPU would keep it cool enough not to crash, or go ahead and grab a VGA heatsink like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118006

keep in mind with an upgrade planned that VGA might not fit on the new GPU, while the blower/fan would... however if the blower/fan isn't enough it's wasted moneyz.

by the GPU not crashing until a significant amount of time has passed i'm assuming it only needs a touch more cooling to make it stable.

(all this to just make skyrim look as awesome as possible... sometimes I question my sanity)

anyways thanks in advance for your advice!

 

[samuelspark]

Rest of specs? Pictures maybe?

 

[j2j663]

Well the first obvious thing is if you are overclocking you need to tone it down a bit. The second thing is that just because you are pushing 45fps doesn't mean that you can run a game easily. 30fps is usually considered the bare minimum to play a game (not to enjoy it) and closer to 60fps is what most people shoot for.

Sounds like you are taxing your 6950 pretty heavily. That doesn't mean that it should crash though. I frequently run BF3 on very high settings with my 6950 and and I have never had it crash because of my 6950. Which says to me that you need better cooling for your 6950. Either better airflow in your case or better cooling like you said directly for your GPU.

If you tell us what case you have I would be happy to help with a good cooling solution.

 

[crownedclown]

Rest of specs? Pictures maybe?

CPU - i5 2500
PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817709027
MOBO - www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130571
GPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150524
CASE - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144268
Heatsink - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223

I don't have any other PCI cards installed, and the cables are mostly ran between the case's backplate

 

[crownedclown]

Well the first obvious thing is if you are overclocking you need to tone it down a bit. The second thing is that just because you are pushing 45fps doesn't mean that you can run a game easily. 30fps is usually considered the bare minimum to play a game (not to enjoy it) and closer to 60fps is what most people shoot for.

Sounds like you are taxing your 6950 pretty heavily. That doesn't mean that it should crash though. I frequently run BF3 on very high settings with my 6950 and and I have never had it crash because of my 6950. Which says to me that you need better cooling for your 6950. Either better airflow in your case or better cooling like you said directly for your GPU.

If you tell us what case you have I would be happy to help with a good cooling solution.

No overclocking for me And it's just skyrim that it crashes on... and yeah it's pushing it hard with all the mods, but it looks soo kewl and if I lower the settings anymore it'll start showing a big difference in quality. -pampered- >.>

 

[j2j663]

Yeah I haven't had time to see if I can mod my 6950 to a 6970. I bought it at that time so there is always that chance. And I am definitely not saying to turn down those settings (although that could be a temporary solution) because there is no reason to buy a top end graphics card if you aren't going to push up the eye candy.

So looking at your case it looks like you have one problem but plenty of solutions. The problem looks like you get very poor air flow from your front fan, there is quite a bit of material in the way even if you don't have that many HDDs in there.

However, that giant side fan is a huge benefit to your GPU. Make sure that thing is running at full speed when you are playing Skyrim and make sure your rear fan is doing a good job exhausting all that hot air along with your PSU.

Speaking of your PSU, I cannot find a review for your specific PSU but I have not seen a lot of great reveiws for Sunbeam PSUs. Your PSU may be overheating and causing the shutdowns as well. It that case you may want to look into adding some top fans to pull the air up or even consider replacing the PSU for one that is known for its quality and won't be bothered by the hot air from the GPU.

 

[crownedclown]

Yeah I haven't had time to see if I can mod my 6950 to a 6970. I bought it at that time so there is always that chance. And I am definitely not saying to turn down those settings (although that could be a temporary solution) because there is no reason to buy a top end graphics card if you aren't going to push up the eye candy.

So looking at your case it looks like you have one problem but plenty of solutions. The problem looks like you get very poor air flow from your front fan, there is quite a bit of material in the way even if you don't have that many HDDs in there.

However, that giant side fan is a huge benefit to your GPU. Make sure that thing is running at full speed when you are playing Skyrim and make sure your rear fan is doing a good job exhausting all that hot air along with your PSU.

Speaking of your PSU, I cannot find a review for your specific PSU but I have not seen a lot of great reveiws for Sunbeam PSUs. Your PSU may be overheating and causing the shutdowns as well. It that case you may want to look into adding some top fans to pull the air up or even consider replacing the PSU for one that is known for its quality and won't be bothered by the hot air from the GPU.

yeah the front fan isn't that powerful, and the location is at the bottom (avoids the HDD but doesn't hit the GPU directly), however the PSU has the intake on the bottom and the output fan for the PSU is by far the most powerful fan in my case the top of the PSU stays extremely cool as well... i was on a budget when building the PC so i concentrated on the more essential components for a while i was even using the stock heatsink not too sure if i can control the speeds of the fans via mobo... would a fan controller help as well? (that piece of gear would last through the upgrade so i can justify that)