AMD R9 290x "Overheating" Easily

[armydr]

First, thanks for such a great community and any help will be greatly appreciated!

Summary of Problem:
My GPU is overheating, mostly while playing games, mostly World of Warcraft. While I type this message, my Open Hardware Monitor is showing my GPU is at 42°C. However, as soon I load the game, my GPU temp shoots up to the mid 60s°C. While gaming I will have spikes to 70-80°C, game crashes/reloads. This often occurs when I have a second or third monitor also streaming video, but not always. One strange thing is there is often very little build up, i.e. almost as soon as I start playing/watching a video the temp will spike. Another odd thing, is that when the game crashes/reloads or the other video stops/reloads, the temp drops and I have another period where I can play normally.

My system (see specs below) should have more than enough power to play this particular game and/or stream video (usually YouTube), and has been doing so fine for the last year; i.e. this has only been an issue for about 1-2 months. It initially helped when I switched to Vertical Sync with Triple Buffering in the video settings of my game, but this is no longer helping.

Finally, my understanding is that GPUs should be maxing around 90°C, but mine is doing so around mid 70s°C (for example, it just overheated prior to this post, OHM shows max GPU load of 100% with a max temp of 71°C). So I am not sure it is "overheating" or "overloading". Please see what I have tried, system including GPU specs below.

Thanks again for your time!!!


Step Taken Before Posting:
Thoroughly cleaned GPU fan, entire case and all intake/exhaust fans
Ensured low temp environment (average temp in room is < 70°F when issues above arise)
Upgraded AMD Catalyst driver to current
Lowered graphic settings on game(s)
Changed in game settings to cap foreground FPS to 60, set Vertical Sync with Triple buffering
Disabled 3rd Monitor
Read game specific and other related posts for possible causes


System Specs:
CPU i7 4930K Processor (6x 3.40GHz/12MB L3 Cache)
Memory 1 x 16 GB [8 GB x2] DDR3-1866 Memory Module - ADATA XPG V2
Video Card 1 x AMD Radeon R9 290X - 4GB - MSI Twin Frozr Gaming OC - Single Card
Motherboard 1 x Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4 -- 4x PCI-E 2.0 x16
Power Supply 750W Thermaltake SMART SP-750 - 80
Primary Hard Drive 1 x 256 GB ADATA SX900 SSD -- Read: 550MB/s Write: 530MB/s - Single Drive
Data Hard Drive 1 x 2 TB WD Black HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200rpm, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive


More about GPU:
Radeon Settings Version - 2015.1118.123.2413
Driver Packaging Version - 15.30.1025-151117a-296570C
Radeon Software Version - 15.11
Radeon Software Edition - Crimson
Graphics Chipset - AMD Radeon R9 200 Series
Memory Size - 4096 MB
Memory Type - GDDR5
Core Clock - 1030 MHz
Windows Version - Windows 8.1

 

[Tam99]

That's kind of weird. My R9 290 can run even at 94C for more than 2 hours and it's still fine (only in Witcher 3, other games the temp is around 80-85). I suppose the GPU throttles due to high temp (!?).

Since you didn't mention I suggest you tried MSI Afterburner to monitor GPU usage and adjust the fan speed.

 

[17seconds]

Other than the crashes, your temps are completely normal.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/R9_290X_Gaming/28.html

 

[armydr]

That's kind of weird. My R9 290 can run even at 94C for more than 2 hours and it's still fine (only in Witcher 3, other games the temp is around 80-85). I suppose the GPU throttles due to high temp (!?).

Since you didn't mention I suggest you tried MSI Afterburner to monitor GPU usage and adjust the fan speed.

Exactly, very weird! As above, I am using Open Hardware Monitor, which shows GPU loads are hitting 100% when temperature rises. I will try Afterburner, but how should I adjust the fans?

 

[renz496]

There is section where you can set your fan curve.

 

[Shaun o]

Since you have done all of the above clearing dust ect, and checking for good air flow.
There is only really one other thing to recommend armydr.

That is to buy some better thermal cpu or gpu compound such as Artic MX 4

Then.

Take the cooling solution off the card, and wipe the factory applied thermal compound off the base of the cooler contact plate to the gpu, and the gpu die it`s self.


Put the new MX 4 on the cleaned gpu die.
Making sure you do not put too much paste on the die, or too little.

Then refit the cooling solution to the card making sure each screw on the gpu tension bracket is tightened starting at one corner then in a diagonal manner till all four screws have tension on them.

It can help lower the gpu temps by about 7 degrees.

In catalyst control center, set up a manual fan speed of 55%, to keep ahead of heat build up.
Use the over clocking features of catalyst control center to down clock the gpu speed by 100Mhz
And on your memory clock also lowering it by 100Mhz.

On the power profile set it to -10

The changes made should help keep the card a bit cooler when gaming.
Do this if you don`t wish to buy some more thermal paste and perform removal of the cooling solution on your 290X card.
If you have a case where you can fit extra case fans, i recommend that you buy some more fans and fit them to the case.
It really does make a difference, and worth doing if you can.

In a push pull configuration.

290 X cards do run quiet hot though, Not sure at what temp they begin to throttle the gpu core.

 

[armydr]

Thanks for the link 17! I didn't realize that my Video card had such good ratings!

So, it's not overheating... Why the temp spikes + load spikes?

One side note: don't know if this matters... Just before the crash of the game one or both monitors will get progressively pixelated, until finally "resetting".

 

[Tam99]

That's kind of weird. My R9 290 can run even at 94C for more than 2 hours and it's still fine (only in Witcher 3, other games the temp is around 80-85). I suppose the GPU throttles due to high temp (!?).

Since you didn't mention I suggest you tried MSI Afterburner to monitor GPU usage and adjust the fan speed.

Exactly, very weird! As above, I am using Open Hardware Monitor, which shows GPU loads are hitting 100% when temperature rises. I will try Afterburner, but how should I adjust the fans?

MSI Afterburner ---> Settings ---> Fan ---> Enable user defined... ---> adjust the graph.

 

[armydr]

Ok, thanks all for your help and support!!!
Let me test the above changes (I will await the results before replacing thermal paste, but will do if all else doesn't work).
I couldn't figure out how to make the adjustments via the new Catalyst software, sorry Shaun o, so I went with MSI Afterburner software.
Here are the settings I have chose: http://i.imgur.com/PrymLor.png
I have not yet decided to decrease my clocks (core/memory) as suggested by Shaun o, as I wanted to limit the testing to one factor at a time.

-->As you see in the image, the first thing I have decided to change was the manual fan speeds. As recommended, I set the default to 55%, and had it ramp up significantly before my crash point, which seems to be around 70°C.
-->If this doesn't work I will try lowering both clocks by 100mhz.
-->Next ... open for suggestions!

 

[armydr]

Update:
1) Using MSI Afterburner fans set to http://i.imgur.com/PrymLor.png
2) Still had crashes, so used Afterburner to lower both clocks by 100
3) Much more stable, ordered Artic MX 4, will apply on Friday

Thanks for the support!

I am kind of disheartened at having to down throttle my factory OC graphics card, that had no issues under heavier loads just a few months ago

 

[Shaun o]

Well if you apply the MX 4 compound, it is likely you will be able to set the gpu and the memory clocks back up by 100Mhz each.

The MX paste should result in the gpu temps lowering.
You may be upset but 100Mhz to keep the card stable over an extra two to three frames per second in a game.
And preventing the cards Gpu core from potential throttling of the core speed has to be better in the long run.

It`s better than the card crashing and locking mid game. and the annoyance of it doing so.
Surely armydr.

All the best anyway, glad it`s at least working a bit better.

 

[armydr]

Thanks to all!

I got the Artic MX 4 in today, and applied it to my GPU.
I did another thorough cleaning of my computer, and checked that all the fans were set for ideal airflow (which they were).
I am continuing to run the MSI Afterburner with the settings above.

I am now running without "overheating" and/or graphic issues as described above!!!

I have tested my system with 3 game windows open, Netflix and Youtube stream all in full stream!!! I never got temps > 60°C!!!

I will never underestimate thermal paste again!!! And the MSI Afterburner seems to really help.

For the time being I am going to leave the clock/core set a bit lower, as I have seen no performance decrease in my game, but did see lower temps.

 

[amtgardzealot]

Since you have done all of the above clearing dust ect, and checking for good air flow.
There is only really one other thing to recommend armydr.

That is to buy some better thermal cpu or gpu compound such as Artic MX 4

Then.

Take the cooling solution off the card, and wipe the factory applied thermal compound off the base of the cooler contact plate to the gpu, and the gpu die it`s self.


Put the new MX 4 on the cleaned gpu die.
Making sure you do not put too much paste on the die, or too little.

Then refit the cooling solution to the card making sure each screw on the gpu tension bracket is tightened starting at one corner then in a diagonal manner till all four screws have tension on them.

It can help lower the gpu temps by about 7 degrees.

In catalyst control center, set up a manual fan speed of 55%, to keep ahead of heat build up.
Use the over clocking features of catalyst control center to down clock the gpu speed by 100Mhz
And on your memory clock also lowering it by 100Mhz.

On the power profile set it to -10

The changes made should help keep the card a bit cooler when gaming.
Do this if you don`t wish to buy some more thermal paste and perform removal of the cooling solution on your 290X card.
If you have a case where you can fit extra case fans, i recommend that you buy some more fans and fit them to the case.
It really does make a difference, and worth doing if you can.

In a push pull configuration.

290 X cards do run quiet hot though, Not sure at what temp they begin to throttle the gpu core.

I have the same card and the same problem. I just want it to run cooler. I don't care if the graphics or its performance has to be scaled down. I lost an expensive gc in the past to overheating and I don't want it to happen again. I use MSI afterburner and I just want to know what settings I can change without possibly hurting it. I left all the settings atm to default because I am afraid changing something might damage it.

Core voltage (mV): +25
Memory voltage (mV): it is blank
Aux voltage (mV): +0
Power limit %: +0
Core clock (MHz): 977
Memory clock (MHz): 1250
Fan speed (%): 18 auto

If you could tell me which of these I can change and what to so it will run cooler, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[armydr]

Amtgardzealot - As I selected, Shaun o's answer worked for me for almost 2 years. Your question I do believe is completely answered above. I have since moved on to a 1080 with zero regrets