XFX Radeon HD 6870 DD idle temp too high?

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bongpacks

bongpacks

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Feb 7, 2012
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I'm currently getting idle temps from my XFX Radeon HD 6870 DD (dual-dissipation) card at 58C. All the reviews I've read and comments on newegg about the card are telling me that anywhere between 30C and 40C is what it should be. I'm not overclocking the card at all, my whole system is at stock clocks and voltages. I put in a support ticket with XFX and I got this reply "[KEVIN_C 4/16/2012 11:02:21 PM] Hello yes that is a great temperature for this powerful card. They are known to idle between 50-65c. Under gaming loads you will see an average of 65c-85c. If it gets anything over 90c it is overheating." Is this guy yanking my chain or what, 65C?! I've seen load temps in benchmarks that high for this card, that can't be right for an idle temp and by idle i mean just sitting on my desktop after a cold boot not doing anything. I'd also like to note that this morning I got a BIOS beep code that I think indicates a video error, cycled the PSU switch and turned the computer back on and everything was peachy. Thanks in advance, just built this system a few days ago so everything is spotless clean and I'm just trying to make sure everything is running flawlessly before my return periods expire.

MSI 970A-G46
AMD FX-6200 with Big Typhoon Heatsink/Fan running at 18C idle
16GB Crucial DDR3-1600
XFX Radeon HD 6870 DD
2x Patriot 32GB Warp SSD Raid0
1x 750GB Western Digital HDD for storage
Rosewill Green Series 630W PSU
Coolermaster Centurion 5 Mid-Tower
 
Solution
stickg1
If you get the same temps with the side of your case off then I would suggest returning the card to the retailer while you still can and get a replacement. If the replacement is the same way then the issue may be related to other components.
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Graphics cards do run hotter and the tech from XFX is correct that 65c-85c at load is typical. 90c at load is dangerous. However, i looked up your case and i see a lot of fan slots without manufacturer fans in them. have you added the fans for these spaces or are they still empty?
 
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Review: XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB DD XXX
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how is the air flow in the case?
 
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My case came with a 80mm fan on the front as intake and a 120mm on the rear as exhaust both are set in BIOS to run at 100%. My PSU also has a 120mm fan exhausting as well. I've done as much cable management as is really possible with this case, everything is nice and tidy. Everything is also brand spanking new so it is virtually dust free. Even with the side of the case open and a fan blowing into it I"m still seeing 57C on the GPU while my CPU temp drops further still to 16C.
 
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Even the reference card from AMD idles at a mere 40C but I'm supposed to believe that this hyped up version with dual fans and heatpipes and all that is "within the normal range" at 58C idle?

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph3987/33250.png

http://www.hardocp.com/images/articles/1287676020VD2xGydP4f_8_2.gif

From guru3d: "Radeon HD 6870 -This card ran 35 degrees C in IDLE and when stressed it only reached 68 degrees C. Not a problem whatsoever."

All thre of those examples are on the reference card that doesn't have all the fancy heatsinks and dual fans and such and I hardly think my case airflow is the problem as liek i stated in my previous post, even with the side of the case open and a quite powerful fan blowing directly into it I still get a temp of 57C on the GPU at idle.
 
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Mine idles around 46C but I have it overclocked, it idled around 40C stock. I manually turned the fan up to 75% using MSI Afterburner, that dropped my temps down a few degrees and I never get over 65C in load. Probably bad airflow in the case, have you had the card for a while? Sometimes dust builds up in the fans and decreases performance. Also, I haven't done this with my card because its relatively new, but on an older card that was running really hot I removed the fan and cleaned the GPU's thermal paste off and reapplied fresh paste and mounted the fan back on and the temps dropped about 10C. (This would void you're warranty with XFX though)

Sorry I didn't read your OP thoroughly, if it is brand new their might be a problem. Try to sort out your airflow first though, what is the ambient temp in your case?
 
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What is your ambient temperature? Though I will say that my brother's 6870 has idled at around 45-48C with his side panel off (We have the exact same one as you). The ambient temperature at the time was around 29C, though. In February when it was still pretty cool, our ambient was around 15C and the card idled at around 33C.
 
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Brand new build, the only dust bunnies here are in your eyes. lol I kid I kid, but seriously.
 
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I just turned on my brother's PC, and his idle temps are around 40C with ambient of 25C. Since you said the card is brand new...might want to RMA it and see if that fixes your issue :??: though of course, there might be a few things you can try that I obviously can't think of at the moment...I would suggest taking off the cooler and reapplying it, but I know that XFX cards have little "Void if Removed" stickers so I won't suggest that.
 
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Yes maybe so, or the cooler somehow came loose during transit. Only possibilities I can think of, but to check both he would basically have to void his warranty 🙁
 
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If you get the same temps with the side of your case off then I would suggest returning the card to the retailer while you still can and get a replacement. If the replacement is the same way then the issue may be related to other components.
 
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Solution
One more thing!!!

Check your fan profile in MSI Afterburner. My friend's GTX 470 was idling at 62C and going over 90C load. It turned out his fans were set at a constant 30%. Try a linear fan profile to go from 30% to 100% on 30C to 80C (w/ hysteresis). Then what do your temps look like?
 
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Yeah I'm gonna RMA it, it's also making sounds like a noisy old hard drive when it's under heavy load and at it's peak temp of 80C-81C. A kind of soft clicking/popping sound, I can only describe it as the sound a HDD makes or maybe a really quiet coffee maker. Fans are unobstructed and the speed of the fans doesn't change the sound at all, after the GPU returns to idle the sounds stops after a minute or so when it cools back down. Not sure what's making that damn noise but it's making me ill, not having an awesome day playing with my new computer. :C
 
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Ahhhh I see. I should've suspected this as our 6870 had an issue like that. When the card would idle, it would make a low humming/clicking noise. If we pressed our hands on one of the fans, and let it spin up again, the sound went away. The issue hasn't come back but I suspect it was a loose fan or something.

Best of luck with your rig, and sorry your day didn't go as well as you wished it to 🙁
 
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Ugh, figured since I'm gonna RMA it I might as well see if it will overclock worth a damn, can't even get a 55MHz overclock on just the GPU when every benchmark I can find is using a 85-100MHz OC with no problems on stock voltage. Hunk of junk, definate RMA. Thanks for all the replies.
 
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