Overheat (?) on HD 6900 when playing some games

[Loader]

Hi there,

Every time I play certain games (Far Cry 3 is the latest) the monitor goes black and my GFX card fan sounds like it's going to take off into space. I have checked temperatures and they are peaking at around 80-85 degrees.

I don't understand why this is happening... I can play games like BF3 on ultra forever with no problems, but Far Cry 3 (for example) runs between 5 - 60 minutes before overheating.

Latest drivers are installed.

XFX HD 6970 2GB GDDR5
Corsair 850W HX Modular PSU
Asus P8Z68-V
Intel Core i5 2500K

I have changed the settings on Far Cry to Low 'everything', no AA and tried DX9 aswell.. Nothing I do fixes the issue.

Other games this happens with (that I have tested): Guild Wars 2 and Secret World.

As stated, I can't understand this at all. I can play some VERY demanding games (BF3) with everything on full and never have issues.

Any ideas?

Cheers,

James

 

[Loader]

Typo sorry, it's a 6970 not a 6900.

 

[MatildaPersson]

That's too hot. Don't go over 80*c max. You want to keep it under 70*c ideally.

 

[Loader]

Hi,

What do you recommend I do to keep the temperature lower?

 

[neon neophyte]

yeah, my card crashes at around 85 degrees as well. when was the last time you blew out the dust?

edit: also, have you set up a fan profile with a program like msi afterburner or sapphire trixx?

if none of the above works, you may need to reseat the heatsink. it would give you a chance to use a better thermal compound as well.

 

[Loader]

Hi Neon,

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a fan profile?

 

[neon neophyte]

it is software that lets you select at what temperatures you fan spins at.

the natural fan profile on amd cards is kind of crappy imo. 3rd party software is a much better way to go.

 

[Loader]

Sounds good to me. What settings would you recommend?

SIDE NOTE: Set power setting on CCC to -20% and all seems good so far.

 

[neon neophyte]

i like to have my card idle between 50 and 60 degrees with a low fan speed and have it ramp up on a curve where the fan will hit 100 percent between 70 and 75 degrees.

my computer is in a different room than i am though and i play with a headset on, so the noise from the fan sounding like a vacuum doesnt bother me.

 

[MatildaPersson]

i like to have my card idle between 50 and 60 degrees with a low fan speed and have it ramp up on a curve where the fan will hit 100 percent between 70 and 75 degrees.

my computer is in a different room than i am though and i play with a headset on, so the noise from the fan sounding like a vacuum doesnt bother me.

That idle is way too high... Idle should be around 30*c. My SLI 670's max out at around 58*c.

 

[neon neophyte]

6900s are a different beast entirely.

 

[MatildaPersson]

6900s are a different beast entirely.

Of course, but having it idle that high constantly will degrade your chips much faster than normal.

 

[neon neophyte]

prove it.

edit: honestly, im not overclocking everything i own to the edge because i am concerned about degradation. i think people are way over paranoid about such things and gpu and cpu dies last much longer than the components that support them. ie, it wont be the die that dies, it will be the caps.

i'll be straight with you, ive been overclocking everything i own for the last 15 years and ive never had anything die on me. not even once.

 

[MatildaPersson]

Your money, hun. Let it run as hot as you like.

 

[Loader]

Hey guys,

So I applied some more thermal paste to the GPU and gave the inside of the case a good old spring clean (there wasn't much room between the GFX fan and the PSU wires, but tidied these up to.

I also installed MSI Afterburner and setup a fanspeed of ~ 60% at 70 degrees, which has worked perfect. I can now play Farcry 3 with a steady 72 degrees at Very High settings.

Many thanks!

Loader

 

[neon neophyte]

glad that worked out for you, feel free to pick a best answer =]