High Temps

[robohazard]

Hi,
I have two Radeon 4850's in crossfire. I noticed that they both run very hot. Both are like 70 degrees c. idle and The master gets up to 90 under load and the slave reaches 100 to 110 under load. I make sure to clean the dust out of both of them on a regular basis. I have not however replaced the thermal past with a high grade past. I used the stuff from radio shack.
My questions are:

Is this a normal temp for my cards?
How much of a difference will expensive thermal past make?
What is the best thermal past to use?
Other than increasing airflow and liquid cooling, what are some effective cooling techniques?

Thank you all for your input.

 

[siddharthmukul007]

these temps are nowhere close to normal temps....i suggest you replace your thermal paste with the arctic silver 5 immediately.
100-110 degree might damage your gpu soon.
also ensure that your gpu fans are running properly and set fan profiles a little higher.
also update the drivers for your graphic card.

 

[robohazard]

My gpu fans are running properly, I keep them at 100% all the time. I underclock both of my cards to prevent the high temps from happening and damaging them. When they are running at the stock speeds I encounter these themps. I will try the thermal past you suggested. The only reason I ask if this is a normal temp is because I read somewhere that all radeon 4850's run hot. About how much do you think the change in past will effect my temps?

 

[siddharthmukul007]

if everything else is the way it should be...you should get temperature decrease form10-15 degree(minimum)

also don't forget to update your drivers after a complete driver sweep

 

[ashharun]

reference model 4850 normally have very high load temps. It almost hit 80 in many cases. If you use reference model of 4850 its normal.

EDIT: Sorry, i didn't read the 100-110C part. It out of normal if your card reach that temp! Make sure you have good airflow. I can't find other way to reduce gpu temp other than that. Make sure the heat that produced from the GPU chip blown out of the case if the cooler model isn't the one that blow the hot air directly to behind. Maybe if you have side fan on your case you can make it to be an exhaust