Problem with AMD Radeon HD 7850. I think it may be overheating.

[Evantc]

Hi,

I recently built a new computer, but have been having problems with the monitor cut to a blank grey screen. It has only done this when I'm playing games, usually for extended periods of time. I've noted that whenever it does cut out, the air near the graphics card inside my tower is pretty warm, so I'm assuming that it's a problem with the card overheating. I've found that leaving the left panel off the tower and pointing a fan towards it at the very least slows the overheating, but would really prefer to find a more permanent solution. Any advice in regards to fixing this would be greatly appreciated.

If needed to help diagnose the problem, here are my specs:

Spoiler

1 x Case (NZXT Tempest 410 Gaming Case - Black))
1 x Processor (Intel® Core™ i7-3770 Processor (4x 3.40GHz/8MB L3 Cache)))
1 x Motherboard (Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H -- 1x PCI-E 3.0 x16, 4x USB 3.0))
1 x Memory (8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - G.Skill Ripjaws X))
1 x Video Card (AMD Radeon HD 7870 - 2GB - Single Card))
1 x Power Supply (700 Watt - Standard))
1 x Processor Cooling (Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-1155] - Standard 120mm Fan))
1 x Video Card Brand (Major Brand Powered by AMD or NVIDIA))
1 x Primary Hard Drive (1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive **Free Upgrade to 2TB SATA 6.0Gb/s Single Drive**))
1 x Data Hard Drive (None))
1 x 2nd Optical Drive (None))
1 x Optical Drive (24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black))
1 x Sound Card (3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard))
1 x Network Card (Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)))
1 x Wireless Network Adapter (ASUS USB-N53 802.11 a/b/g/n 300Mbps Dual-Band Wireless-N300 USB Adapter))
1 x Monitor (19" LCD 1440x900))
1 x Operating System (Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit))
1 x Warranty (3 Year Standard Warranty Service))
1 x Flash Media Reader / Writer (12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer - Black)))

Edit: Here is a screen of the heat of my graphics card while running Skyrim. I had previously found that my card will often shut off at around 52 degrees, so I took the screen at this point.
http://i.imgur.com/QtEFH.png
Edit2: I'm going to try and see if I can get some more screens tomorrow of higher temperatures. I think setting them off back to back may have lowered the temperature at which it overheated at.

 

[nyterage]

check and make sure the card is actually overheating, download a temperature monitoring tool, such as msi afterburner, and monitor the temperatures while you are gaming. if it starts to get above 85c, that could very well be the problem.

 

[larkspur]

Use GPU-Z to record your temps while gaming and then report back. That way we won't make too many assumptions. Are you using the latest graphics drivers from AMD?

 

[Evantc]

I downloaded a heat monitoring program, and ran Skyrim a few times, trying to get an estimate of the heat at which it blanked my monitor so that I could get a print screen of the chart before it happened. I found that it often blanked my monitor at around 52 degrees, so I took a print screen of the chart just as I reached this temperature.
http://i.imgur.com/QtEFH.png

And yeah, I downloaded the latest drivers.

 

[dudewitbow]

52 is moderately low for a load temperature

 

[thor220]

Just get a room fan and prop it right next to your computer, then play until they system crashes. If not, you know it is not a heat issue, probably drivers. If it does crash try getting a slot cooler for inside your case.

 

[jd101]

Is it a single or dual slot card? If it's a single slot try cleaning out the heat sink. I've fixed this problem on a few cards doing this.
You can also try turning the fan onto manual by enabling the AMD overdrive and setting the fan to 100% just make sure you don't change the clocks on the card.

 

[Evantc]

I'll have to try propping up a fan to it tomorrow, if I don't figure out the issue beforehand.

I was looking through my Catalyst Control Center settings and found that the fan was set to automatic speed control, but I never noticed the fan going faster. It seems that the fan won't go faster than 37% unless I set it to manual and increase the fan speed myself. Would it be an issue if I were to just increase the fan speed manually whenever I planned on playing more graphic intensive games?

 

[jd101]

It's not really an issue unless your leaving it for long periods of time. All it will do is probably shorten the life of the fan. That being said, it should be managing its temperatures better than that to begin with. Is it overclocked at all? Also what is the make and model of the card in question?

 

[suat]

At around 52 C, it never goes faster. By the way, gfx card temp may go as high up as 125 C before permanent failure occurs. Try OCCT from http://www.ocbase.com/index.php/download . This is a good program that load-tests CPU, gfx card and PSU and lets you monitor temps, voltages, etc.

Hope this helps.

 

[gaborbarla]

Hi Evant,

What happens when your monitor "cut to a blank grey screen". Does it come back to windows at all? Can you still CTRL-ALT-DEL?

The reason I am asking this is because I am trying to see if it is your graphics card that is the problem or perhaps your CPU or something else. If your pc says graphics driver restarted then yes it is likely that it is your graphics card.

Using automatic overclocking software or even automatic bios overclocking can create instability that may seem like a graphics card glitch. You could also look in your Event Log and see if you can see the error logged there. I have played with a 7850 and they are very cool and quiet cards so it should not overheat unless you overclock things. Another thing that can maybe cause trouble is your PCI power connector not supplying enough power in these high power gaming situations. Also check your CPU temperature.

Not sure if this helps.
Gabor

 

[Evantc]

No, it will not go back to windows at all. Turning off the monitor, ctrl-alt-del, etc... will not display windows again.

This problem has only ever shut my computer down once, and when I turned it back on, it said that the graphics card had stopped responding, which is when I started thinking that the graphics card was causing the problems. Any tips to tell if my power connector is supplying enough power to the card? I'm not all that computer savvy so I'm not sure how this would be done. I haven't noticed the rest of my computer getting significantly hot, but I'll check on this as well.

I'm also going to uninstall and reinstall the drivers, to see if it could be a problem with them. Will check back after I have done all of this.

Thanks for your help thus far, everyone!

 

[zarrdemon]

Hi,

I recently built a new computer, but have been having problems with the monitor cut to a blank grey screen. It has only done this when I'm playing games, usually for extended periods of time. I've noted that whenever it does cut out, the air near the graphics card inside my tower is pretty warm, so I'm assuming that it's a problem with the card overheating. I've found that leaving the left panel off the tower and pointing a fan towards it at the very least slows the overheating, but would really prefer to find a more permanent solution. Any advice in regards to fixing this would be greatly appreciated.

If needed to help diagnose the problem, here are my specs:

Spoiler

1 x Case (NZXT Tempest 410 Gaming Case - Black))
1 x Processor (Intel® Core™ i7-3770 Processor (4x 3.40GHz/8MB L3 Cache)))
1 x Motherboard (Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H -- 1x PCI-E 3.0 x16, 4x USB 3.0))
1 x Memory (8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - G.Skill Ripjaws X))
1 x Video Card (AMD Radeon HD 7870 - 2GB - Single Card))
1 x Power Supply (700 Watt - Standard))
1 x Processor Cooling (Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-1155] - Standard 120mm Fan))
1 x Video Card Brand (Major Brand Powered by AMD or NVIDIA))
1 x Primary Hard Drive (1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive **Free Upgrade to 2TB SATA 6.0Gb/s Single Drive**))
1 x Data Hard Drive (None))
1 x 2nd Optical Drive (None))
1 x Optical Drive (24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black))
1 x Sound Card (3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard))
1 x Network Card (Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)))
1 x Wireless Network Adapter (ASUS USB-N53 802.11 a/b/g/n 300Mbps Dual-Band Wireless-N300 USB Adapter))
1 x Monitor (19" LCD 1440x900))
1 x Operating System (Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit))
1 x Warranty (3 Year Standard Warranty Service))
1 x Flash Media Reader / Writer (12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer - Black)))

Edit: Here is a screen of the heat of my graphics card while running Skyrim. I had previously found that my card will often shut off at around 52 degrees, so I took the screen at this point.
http://i.imgur.com/QtEFH.png
Edit2: I'm going to try and see if I can get some more screens tomorrow of higher temperatures. I think setting them off back to back may have lowered the temperature at which it overheated at.

ok, so i had a similar problem with the exact same card and the problem isn't any of that. its simple really. the graphics driver needs to be rolled back to the previous driver. Download catalyst 12.11 beta11 from the AMD website. It fixed everything

 

[zarrdemon]

and btw once you get it working properly you can overclock the core to 1000mhz and the memory clock to 1400mhz without a votage increase or alternate cooling method. also use msi afterburner to overclock not amd overdrive as this is a horrible clocking tool one last thing this card does run about 55-61 degrees celcius on maX load and 34-43 on idle THIS IS NORMAL.