Graphics Card Heating up Fast

[mikey2276]

So I just got this replacement GTX 580 after my previous 580's fans died. (RMA'd it) Performance wise, it's great; nothing to complain about. But this replacement card heats up *really* quickly. It's remarkable because my previous 580, before the fans died obviously, was easily able to stay within 70-84c while gaming.

The card I have is an MSI GTX 580 Twin Frozr II (same model as my previous card, same clock settings)

I don't think it is a fan problem because once I stop gaming the card temperature drops like it's in free fall: it goes from say 85c to 42c in about 6 seconds.

I've noticed a correlation between the card's heating up and games with depth of field activated. I recently decided to pick up Skyrim again (haven't played it in a long time) and found that Skyrim takes this card to ~87c. I do have an ENB graphics mod installed (with depth of field and all that) but my previous card had no problems handling it; without the ENB mod, Skyrim takes the card to ~83c.
As another example, I use an ENB mod for Fallout 3 and the card will promptly move past 90c in less than 10 seconds.
For reference, the Skyrim ENB mod is "A Realistic Hope Performance Enhanced Version" and my Fallout 3's ENB mod is "Midhrastic ENB".

I've also noticed that the card heats up faster with shadows activated; which to me is weird. For starters, shadows didn't noticeably affect my previous card's temperature. Second, I was taught that the CPU is the component responsible for shadows; not your graphics card - nevertheless increasing the shadow quality in any game causes the temperature to go up by as much as ten degrees.

In summary, this card heats up really quickly but also cools really quickly. Effects such as Depth of Field, and Shadowing have a greater effect on its temperature. This is all in comparison to my previous 580, which maintained a temperature of under 85c playing the same games I'm playing now, and had a more gradual temperature increase instead of one that would shoot up dramatically.

Can any explain why this happens?
I don't think it's the cooling fans, but I can be wrong,
Is it BIOS related?
Driver Related?
Defect with the card itself?
Something else entirely?

 

[ur6beersaway]

How are you reading the temps (with)?

 

[mikey2276]

MSI Afterburner (same program I read previous card's temps, btw.)

 

[ur6beersaway]

I guess you RMA'd the old one. Most likely a thermal paste issue or the gpu his a serious voltage leakage.

 

[mikey2276]

If it is thermal paste, can I fix it myself?

 

[ur6beersaway]

YES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jExfK6_zZRU ...sorry I didn't pick the song

 

[mikey2276]

Ha, at least there's a mute button. I will try this, but just one question: can I use the thermal paste I got with my i7 CPU or do graphics cards require something else?

 

[ur6beersaway]

Yes, Same stuff

 

[mikey2276]

Okay, so I reapplied the thermal paste (several times for experimentation purposes) and discovered a few things - chiefly that my issue is, at best, only partially resolved by the reapplication. After discovering that cooling is more effective when the thermal paste is "spread" across both contact surfaces, I ran Far Cry 3 using the same quality settings as previously for comparison. At the same quality level, I observed an 8-15 degree difference in temp; taking the temp from 78c to around 64-70c when gaming.. which is great but not very conclusive since my other games like Star Wars The Old Republic and Skyrim only managed to yield a difference of, at most, 5 degrees.

However, because of issues with my hard drive, I've had to reinstall Windows 7 - and the problem is now worse than before everything: the temperature climbs up really quickly (even faster than previously) yet cools down at a similar rate. I would run a test with Furmark/Heaven (or any other GPU testing application) but, given the symptoms its experiencing now, I'm pretty certain that the temperature will elevate past the 90 degree mark.

So, some questions that I'd like help with answering:
Can the GPU drivers or its BIOS adversely affect temperature? (by improperly stressing the card or anything like that?)
What is a serious voltage leakage and would I be able to determine if my card *does* have a "serious voltage leakage"? (If so, how.)
Can MSI Afterburner be reading the temperatures incorrectly? (Some elaboration on this theory?)

I should point out that, since my initial post, I have moved from my hot, humid bedroom into my air conditioned (22c) living room in the hopes that my card's temperature won't be affected by a less than ideal ambient temp. (This A/C room is the room in which I noticed the 8-15 degree change in FC3 after reapplying the thermal paste.) Also:
-the thermal paste I used was Arctic Silver 5
-my case is open
-did test putting an actual fan angled at the card to help with air flow: resulted in something like a 1 degree difference.. so not much change.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: I've replaced the drivers from Nvidia's site with the ones provided on MSI's website, and the temperature is much more manageable now;.. well.. back to the 8-15 degree temp difference in FC3 and game temp of 61c in TOR (versus the 78-85c I was previously getting.)

Since I don't have to treat the card like a hot potato, I can now explore this issue fairly comfortably.. and I will still like help answering the questions above; I suppose the answer to the drivers adversely affective temp is true then?

Any help with the questions will be appreciated.

 

[Rupss Kenway Phelps]

I have exactly the same Issue,my GT 630 will go up from 45c to 70-80c almost instantaneously starting any game & after playing for 2-3 minutes it will rise above 104c & the machine will hang with a zzz sound.
It COULD be a heat-sink issue. BUT the fishy point is,after reaching 95-100c whenever I kill that game using task-manager, the temperature comes down from 95c to 45-55c within 5-6 seconds!!!!! How on earth is that possible? No element on earth can dissipate heat like that!!!
Did you find any solution? I didn't. 🙁
Can't decide what to do.

 

[rajnish06429]

I have exactly the same Issue,my GT 630 will go up from 45c to 70-80c almost instantaneously starting any game & after playing for 2-3 minutes it will rise above 104c & the machine will hang with a zzz sound.
It COULD be a heat-sink issue. BUT the fishy point is,after reaching 95-100c whenever I kill that game using task-manager, the temperature comes down from 95c to 45-55c within 5-6 seconds!!!!! How on earth is that possible? No element on earth can dissipate heat like that!!!
Did you find any solution? I didn't. 🙁
Can't decide what to do.

hey i am facing same problem. have your problem fixed..what u did?

 

[Rupss Kenway Phelps]

I have exactly the same Issue,my GT 630 will go up from 45c to 70-80c almost instantaneously starting any game & after playing for 2-3 minutes it will rise above 104c & the machine will hang with a zzz sound.
It COULD be a heat-sink issue. BUT the fishy point is,after reaching 95-100c whenever I kill that game using task-manager, the temperature comes down from 95c to 45-55c within 5-6 seconds!!!!! How on earth is that possible? No element on earth can dissipate heat like that!!!
Did you find any solution? I didn't. 🙁
Can't decide what to do.

hey i am facing same problem. have your problem fixed..what u did?

Sadly ... no...
I took the card to the service center & they told that the Fan control section has been damaged. As my card was over the warranty period,I had to buy a new GPU.

 

[20dka]

Please someone give me a good solutution!
I have the same problem with my Asus GTX 770 with DirectCU2 cooling.
Whenever I load up the extreme test in Heaven benchmark my gpu goes from 30c to 100c in less than 5 seconds!
Then (as mentioned before) it hangs with the sound glitching...

 

[mrcstalgic]

I also need help when my Gigabyte GTX 1080 gets hot it freezes my whole computer and I have to restart it. How can I did this? and how do I keep the temperatures from getting so o high?