Graphics card overheating symptoms?

[Ragnarous]

What are the symptoms that a graphics card shows when it overheats? A friend of mine's pc shuts down when playing games, and i need to determine if its from the cpu or gpu! he hasn't got any temp monitor programs installed, and i would also like to know the symptoms a graphics shows!
Thank you!

 

[Cons29]

it can be, but why not just install a temp monitor, it's not a big application anyway. at least you wont be guessing anymore.

note that it can also be a psu issue

 

[jakegroves]

Install Open Hardware Monitor http://openhardwaremonitor.org/ can monitor your temperatures and work it out and as previous guy said ... could be PSU.
What is the room temperature the PC in and how dusty is the ystsem 😛

 

[Ragnarous]

Yea i did send him gpu-z and realtemp but i dont know if he can actually use them and understand them.. so a graphics card sysmptom will help me see if it matches up his descritpion!

 

[BrandonYoung]

An overheating GPU would most commonly play fine for a few seconds/minutes, then performance will decrease substantially as temperatures increase to unsafe levels. Most GPU's have thermal protection capabilities which would slow their performance down in order to reduce the amount of heat generated. In theory this will not cause a system to become unstable, unless the GPU is unable to reduce its speed and voltage to a point where the system will continue running. Such an issue could be a clear sign that the GPU cooling has an issue, be it heatsink mount related, or fan speed related, or perhaps it is simply clogged with dust and grime.

The clear cut answer as everyone else has mentioned, would be to monitor CPU/GPU temperatures, if they are high, there is probably an issue that needs to be resolved. A good program to monitor CPU/GPU temps is "RealTemp". A search engine can provide you with a download link.

As others have also mentioned, a low quality, or low wattage PSU could also be cause the instability. The fix here would be to replace the PSU with a quality unit capable of providing the system with enough power to support the CPU and GPU not to mention any fans, motherboard, and anything else connected to the computer.

If temperatures are an issue, please report back so we can further address the issue.

Best of luck!