Graphics cards overheating

[ah3505]

Hi guys,
I am experiencing an issue with my two Graphic card. I have 2x R9 290 MSI edition cards. I recently reapplied the thermal paste to bring the temperatures down because they were running on 92 degrees Celsius when gaming (never checked idle temperatures).

After doing so, nothing changed and now they are running at 52 degrees Celsius idle with 0 to non activity showing and temperatures still go crazy high when gaming which effects the performance of the game.

I disabled one of the cards, have changed the thermal paste around 5 times so far.
Reinstalled the windows, had everything formatted.

Still the same issue.

 

[dontlistentome]

Well, you learned something. Always establish a baseline before you change anything. In this case, establishing idle and load temps first is helpful since it gives you something to judge your results against.

Now to the problem. Those are very power hungry cards and you have two of them. Yet you make no mention of your power supply. Properly supplying them with power is critical to normal operation. Next, double check the reassembly of the cooling solutions. If you are even a bit off that can cause temps to go sky high. Next, reexamine the thermal paste you used. Is it ideal for this application or is it just generic thermal paste?

 

[ah3505]

Love your username <3.
idle is 52 and load temperature is 92.
Yes they are, my power unit is a Corsair RM750 and i just double checked the fans and they seem to be running fine. I re examined the thermal paste and i bought a new one from cooler master for gaming or such. I am really confused. to be frank i am thinking of giving up on them graphics cards.
And thank you for replying

 

[ddferrari]

Love your username <3.
idle is 52 and load temperature is 92.
Yes they are, my power unit is a Corsair RM750 and i just double checked the fans and they seem to be running fine. I re examined the thermal paste and i bought a new one from cooler master for gaming or such. I am really confused. to be frank i am thinking of giving up on them graphics cards.
And thank you for replying

Well let's get into the obvious bits- what is your case like? Do you have sufficient cooling for your system?

 

[AnonymousAndy]

What GPU usage are you experiencing while gaming?
What fan speed % are the GPUs using when they're at 90C?

Is it both cards getting that hot or just one?

 

[ah3505]

Activity sets at 100% with all of its capacity at work. temperature sets at 94C and Fan speed is at 100%. I am only using one card at the moment.
I am so confused

 

[ah3505]

I just noticed something. I have changed the thermal paste on both cards, They still heat up. Changed their places around and the one I used still heats up and doesn't cool down properly. I think the issue is the cooling. could be the thermal pads? Even tho i never touched them? and they are still there?

 

[AnonymousAndy]

Assuming when you say "MSI edition" you're talking about the blower style reference cooler with a single fan, 92C at 100% usage isn't exactly surprising for your GPU. Have you inspected the cooler up-close and with a light? The blower style coolers have been known to create a "mat" of dust/hair/junk blocking the fins of the fan and sometimes even the exhaust ports on the cooler. Have you blown it out with compressed air?

When you reapplied the thermal paste all these times, did you ensure that all of the old paste was removed and that both the surface of the GPU chip and the cooler heatsink was squeaky clean? If you know you did this, you can stop re-applying paste... you say you've done it 5 times with no change I would have stopped after the second lol.

And yes, considering the age of the card, the thermal pads would definitely benefit from being replaced as well.

What is the ambient temp in the room the computer is in?
Have you tried running the GPU's with the side panel of your case off? You can even try placing a room fan up against the case blowing directly onto the GPUs, to eliminate the possibility of inadequate airflow.

One other thing you can try, is to lower the power limit of your cards. Less power means less heat. Less power doesn't always mean less performance either, I'd start with -10% and see how that goes.

 

[ah3505]

No it is the Twin Forza IV I think, I am not 100% on it. To be frank I cleaned the card thoroughly to the best of my knowledge. Yes i used compressed Air to clean it.

Yes bought special thermal paste cleaners. I should have but i didn't know what else to do. I am a master thermal paste applier now.
Would you be able to advice me on the Thermal pad thicknesses please?

Temperature in the room is like 20C or so nothing crazy. I tried.

I believe the Issue is the GPU not being able to get rid of the heat properly. So I shall try replacing the Thermal pads.
Once again thank you.

I managed to find my Graphics card

https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/R9-290-GAMING-4G

 

[AnonymousAndy]

Well, that cooler should absolutely be able to cool the card better than 90C, even at 100% usage.

How are you determining the GPU fans are at 100%? I'd recommend MSI afterburner, it's a free program that can modify fan speed.
This review of your card says the card ran at 94C at 100% usage, but the fans were only at 50%. And that was back in 2015, when the card was newer.


https://www.custompcreview.com/reviews/review-msi-radeon-r9-290-gaming-4g/

 

[ah3505]

Yes I agree.

I did install it. I read the article and they should be preforming so much better than they are right now. Even when I set the fan speed to 100% when just browsing the internet and such the temperature is at 46C and no lower. And under load it hits 94C in no time what so ever even when fans are working at 100%

Regarding the measurements of the thermal pads and thickness of them I wasn't able to find any in the article you sent me, would you be able to advice me on them please?

 

[AnonymousAndy]

Have you tried lowering the power limit? I'm sure that would produce immediate results. But if you want to continue with the thermal pads,

I buy sheets of thermal padding and cut it to size, just eyeballing based on how big the old padding was. It doesn't need to be exact. I don't know the exact dimensions of your existing thermal pads, or even where to find that information. If anywhere it would be in the MSI datasheet for your specific GPU, but even that would be a stretch. Here is a link to an example, this is 2mm thick. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIACJF5MP7821&cm_re=GPU_thermal_pad-_-9SIACJF5MP7821-_-Product

In this video, you can see someone installing a length of thermal padding to components on the GPU, but most of the components are covered by a conducting heat plate, likely with some sort of thermal compound underneath.
https://youtu.be/8DQYP0SN_Kk?t=385


In the video below, you can see for a moment how you would apply thermal padding to more exposed components. But there is no comment about it.
https://youtu.be/26y_6bnXNkc?t=254

 

[ah3505]

I did try to lower the power limit using the MSI afterburner and dropped the power percentage by 15% but still the temperatures went up to 94C.

I looked at the MSI data sheet but still couldn't find anything.

Yeah there is a conducting heat plate and to be frank i am stuck between buying 1 mm or 2 mm.

 

[AnonymousAndy]

If lowering the power limit didn't lower the temperature, I doubt it will be affected by the thermal pads. Sounds like the card or cooler is damaged some how.

 

[ah3505]

I suppose i have to buy new graphics card. Thank you for everything.

 

[Andrew J.]

ah3505, badly, you graphic's chip died. There is no way you can do anything, other than buying new chip for full price of graphics card, or buying new. If your graphic card ever used to mine bitcoin, etherium... it is probably dead. You can only hope that with removing CMOS (reseting BIOS) you can do something. Possibly, by downloading new driver or even downgrading system. Be sure to follow youtube tutorials to do this.