Help! High temps!

[lordtristan28]

Hello! In my computer i have a AMD Radeon HD 4870. I have 2 fans blowing out. And the fan on the card is blowing to. But at 0% usage my graphics card hits 80 degress. My room is pretty cold and is not hot at all. Anyone know why? I have had this computer for a few months now and have NEVER seen this card that hot. Thanks!

 

[SkyBill40]

What about your intake fans? How many do you have and are you sure they're working? Also, what's the inside of your case look like from a cleanliness standpoint as well as airflow issues or restrictions?

While your fans may all be working, you also have to look at the age of the card seeing that it could be 10 years old (depending on when you bought it) and the thermal paste may be dried out. You can reapply it if you know what you're doing and are careful to see if that'll help.

 

[10tacle]

Yeah that GPU dates back from 2008. You might want to check into dried thermal paste between the heat sink and chip. I have an ASUS Radeon HD 4870 sitting in a box as a backup GPU for testing and five or six years ago I replaced the thermal paste (with Arctic Silver 5) because it was getting too hot in the retro gaming PC it was occupying. It dropped the temps about 8C. Keep in mind thermal paste when it ages reduces its ability to dissipate heat.

 

[lordtristan28]

Yeah that GPU dates back from 2008. You might want to check into dried thermal paste between the heat sink and chip. I have an ASUS Radeon HD 4870 sitting in a box as a backup GPU for testing and five or six years ago I replaced the thermal paste (with Arctic Silver 5) because it was getting too hot in the retro gaming PC it was occupying. It dropped the temps about 8C. Keep in mind thermal paste when it ages reduces its ability to dissipate heat.

I talked to a few people about it and yes thats what a lot of people were saying. Thank you for the info! I'm going to take that apart and apply some more thermal paste!

 

[lordtristan28]

What about your intake fans? How many do you have and are you sure they're working? Also, what's the inside of your case look like from a cleanliness standpoint as well as airflow issues or restrictions?

While your fans may all be working, you also have to look at the age of the card seeing that it could be 10 years old (depending on when you bought it) and the thermal paste may be dried out. You can reapply it if you know what you're doing and are careful to see if that'll help.

I just cleaned my computer today, And Intake fans are not a problem since the computer has never overheated from not having intake fans. I have 2 exhaust fans and that is it. The airflow is not problem. Its completely clean and no wires at all. I'm 100% sure now its the thermal paste since the card is around 9 years old now. And i did infact clean it with some canned air outside (dumb move on me) and so it dried out. Thanks for you're help!

 

[SkyBill40]

You're welcome.

The point of troubleshooting is to rule out as many potential variables as possible which would include the intake fans. That's why I asked. Wait... did you say your machine has no intake fans or is that a typo? It's pretty odd to not have an intake fan and even though it's not overheated prior to now, it's still a valid point to check it and keep it clean (if it does have one, that is).

As for your point about using canned air and it possibly drying out your old paste, that's highly doubtful. If it was old and brittle, your use of the air isn't likely to have made any difference on drying it out any further than it already was, so go about carefully cleaning and applying new paste and hope for the best.