My gpu is overheating

[kotpx3]

Hello, My graphics card runs idle on 90C, I checked it with speedfan. I have no games or windows open and it runs at 90C.... When I play any games, after a while the computer will shut down and I will have to restart it manually. Does anyone know how to fix this?

 

[HugoStiglitz]

GPU is like CPU,

Clean it, reapply thermal paste and see how you go.

 

[kotpx3]

I have a GTS 240 and it came with my computer. I am not sure how to clean it and apply the paste. Where would I get the paste?

 

[HugoStiglitz]

thermal paste.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

as for cleaning the card, from most hardware stores you can buy a can of compressed air (spraycan type thing)

take the card out of the system and give ite a good blow out.

any left over air u can give the rest of the system a blow out as well.

 

[kotpx3]

Are you sure I can apply thermal paste on my graphics card? (GTS 240).

 

[cygone]

Yes, you will need to take off the fan and the heatsink, clean the surface of the chip with an cleaning agent (nail polish remover works), apply a little TIM (thermal interface material) and reapply headsink and fan, It really is easy and nothing to worry about at all ./

 

[thesnappyfingers]

you can buy artic silver 5 at any radio shack. Some people suggest as5 has some conductivity and thus may be bad for application on a gpu, ceramique may be a better option.

So long as you are careful it really shouldn't be a problem.

do not remove the ram heat pads.

 

[inerax]

Hello, My graphics card runs idle on 90C, I checked it with speedfan. I have no games or windows open and it runs at 90C.... When I play any games, after a while the computer will shut down and I will have to restart it manually. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Hello Kotpx3.

This job is not a hard job. But if you purchased a prebuilt computer and do not know 100% what you are doing, take it to a local computer shop.

I would not want to see you hurt your computer.

one thing you could do, take off the side pannel of your computer. check if the GPU fan is running. Use a can of compressed air and try and blow out your GPU.

If the fan is dead look into replacing that. once again, if you dont know whats going on, take it in.

By removing the heatsink on your GPU 99% of the time you voide the warrenty. they have stickers on the screws holding it on, so they would know if you did it .

if you have any more questions let us know.

 

[kotpx3]

I think I will upgade my graphics card to this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121435
and I am not sure if it will fit because I think that card is a dual slot card. I have a dell wireless card right beneath my GTS 240 and I an not sure if there is enough room or not. Also would the GTX 550 ti card overheat in my system?

 

[thesnappyfingers]

what case do you have? how many fans? It probably would be fine but we need more info to make an educated guess.

Also what is your PSU? and cpu?

I would suggest that you purchase this gtx 460, as it is cheaper (after MIR) and more powerful. I would choose the 460 over the 550 even given the 129.00 price tag.
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=55409&vpn=N460GTX%20HAWK&manufacture=MSI%2FMicroStar&promoid=1367

Edit. Actually the 550 card that you are considering has no advantage to the gtx 460 in terms of cost and performance. So dont purchase the 550. purchase the 460.

 

[kotpx3]

Thank you thesnappyfingers, I am not sure about the PSU becuase it came with the computer, but the cpu is an Intel i7 and I have 2 fans in my computer, one in the back and one over the cpu. The case is a Dell Studio XPS 8000 case which is discontinued for some odd reason but it looks the same as the 8100.

 

[thesnappyfingers]

the only way you are going to really know the wattage of your psu is to open the case and look at the psu. you are going to need 450 to 500 watt psu to run the gtx 460. I am basing this of of this article.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-review/13

I figure it would be ok to upgrade to the 460 as i believe you have the 260 (just assuming) in your machine, and the 260 consumes more power.

Your 260 (assumption) might be fine it just might need a bit of cleaning, maybe it has to much dust in it. however even the 460, will bottleneck your cpu so an upgrade will improve the performance of your system, and thus more eye candy.

I don't know to much about the case, so i cant comment on the thermal displacement efficiency, nor can i comment if you can upgrade case fans. Your going to have to do some digging.

Your case cooling is probably OK if your CPU has its stock heat sink and you have decent temperatures. You could also check your hard drive temps to check if those are in the normal range as well. Doing this will at least give you an idea if just the GPU is hot or all components in the system are hot, and thus your case is lacking in cooling capabilities.

Here is a good system monitor program HWmonitor, available at cnet, or good ole google.
http://download.cnet.com/HWMonitor/3000-2094_4-10793486.html

 

[kotpx3]

So the Gtx 460 card will bottleneck my intel i7 cpu?

 

[thesnappyfingers]

the cpu will not be the limiting factor when you play games, the gpu will be. the gtx 460 is capable of playing every game perfectly fine, most games at high to very high details depending upon the screen resolution.

here are benchmarks for that particular card for a bunch of games, the page is currently on metro 2033, very gpu demanding game.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_460_HAWK/16.html

The cpu that they used was an i7-920@3.8 ghz, so the limiting factor for gamming performance would be the gpu and not the cpu. I assume this will also be the case for you.