[SOLVED] Strange HD 7870 Overheating Problem

[joshuadohring]

My friend gave me an old XFX HD 7870 Double Dissipation that was hitting 100+° so I opened it up to clean it and replace the thermal paste. However, it only has 2 heat pipes and every other picture I can find online has a copper plate and 4 heatpipes. Other than that, the cooler looks identical. I was just wondering why that would be the case. I would undervolt the card, but the voltage seems to be locked. Would flashing a new bios on it allow me to change the voltage? I'm honestly surprised it still works after running at 100+° for years. (Sorry, I'm new to this forum and not 100% sure how it works)

 

[neojack]

"double dissipation"
"2 heatpipes"

i love marketing lol

good idead to undervolt/underclock it. the factory OC from those old cards don't make sense anymore. but for casual gaming why not keep using them underclocked.
It's was one of the first cards on the GCN architecture, still supported today, you can use the latest AMD's driver 8 years after the card came out. how cool is that !

I bought a pair of huge fanless 6850s just a year before this one. now they are useless paperweights because not supported since 2014.

Did you tried to change the voltage with afterburned instead of AMD's drivers ?
changing voltage directly in he drivers is only a thing since the RX480 if i remember well

Before that, you needed a 3rd party app like MSI's afterburner. i would try with an old version if the recent one don't work.
here is the one i used on my 290x in 2014 : https://drive.google.com/file/d/15i6GOhai3NFxbUb1NwDWx-lmwFPFbM1t/view?usp=sharing

 

[kiss-method]

which hardware monitor are you using? have you tried another program?

after you replaced the paste, and cleaned the fan, what was the temp change?