HD6950 -> HD6970 hot temps

[wats6831]

Hello, I bought a 6950 2 GB Dirt 3 special edition. I flipped the BIOS switch and it unlocked the additional shaders and used the Sapphire TriXXX utility to get the clocks up to 880/1375 and 1.175 volts. The problem is my idle temps are 49-51 and under full load it gets up to 72 C. I'm told this is quite high and the GPU should not be getting this hot. Thoughts?

 

[amuffin]

Thats not that high.

 

[wats6831]

I'm being told by several folks that own the same card over at Guru 3d forums that this is quite high even with a dual monitor setup. I just tried lowering the voltage to 1.15 with the same settings and the driver did hang once in Skyrim but then I played for another half an hour with no problems other that a lower frame rate. Temps were around 65 under load so it cooled it down some.

 

[c_h1132]

my 6950 flashed 6970 bios, gets to 65 during gaming, bf3, skyrim. gaming never over 65c. under furmark it can get to 75c. i didnt OC my card though. your temps seems to be fine, except idle is a little high. what case do you have for air flow? mine idles arounds 33c in a CM storm sniper.

 

[Dogsnake]

I am running 870/1310 and it never goes 66-68 under heavy gaming.

 

[wats6831]

I have a CM690 with 2 x 120 mm fans in the top as exhaust, a 120 in the rear as exhaust, a 120 intake in the front, a side 120 as intake and a 80 mm as exhaust under the mobo tray. My CPU stays very cool like around 28 or less, the rest of the mobo is around 38.

Can you guys list what voltage your running your 6970 at? Thanks.

 

[merloin]

If I were you, I wouldn't be concerned. Honestly, these cards are built to take heat and abuse. Your idle is a bit higher than what would be considered "normal" but then 6950 when unlocked to 6970 runs hotter than "normal". Keep in mind, "normal" is relative to each user and his or her setup and environment.

In my experience, I've owned a number of different graphics cards, both AMD and Nvidia. Some have run at the temperatures you are showing, and others have not. None have failed on me because of it. I may be blasted to oblivion for this stance, however, unless you plan on running the same graphics card for the next 10+ years, I don't think a few celcius higher than some other people is real cause for concern.

For what is worth, I have a Sapphire Toxic 6950 unlocked to 6970. I have the same clock and voltage as you. I did put in place a custom fan setting with Trixx because the stock setting was allowing the card to hit near 100 C before it really kicked in. My idle is around 40 C and hovers between 60 and 70 during load. Just depends how heavy the load. My fan setting has the fan at near 50% though at the full load temps.

 

[Dogsnake]

I have not changed to voltage settings from stock. I do turn the CCC power control adjustment full up.

 

[wats6831]

I tried running it at a lower voltage (1.15 and 1.120) with the same clocks but it isn't stable at all. I think the min stable voltage for those clocks is around 1.150 for this card.

 

[flips]

Pretty sure they are rated to 105c

 

[wats6831]

Pretty sure they are rated to 105c

Good to know. Where did you get this spec? Thanks

 

[ch3rok33jo3]

You're safe to at least 90C, 100+ is typical for a card under extreme stress.