GPU overheating

[Bockage]

I recently replaced the fan/heatsink on my CPU and installed a CPU temp monitoring program to check how the new fan was doing. The CPU temps are just fine (35C Idle, 55C Load), but I discovered the GPU temps are alarmingly high. It runs at 55C idle which isnt bad, but it reaches 80C in ffxi alone. I played some Team Fortress 2 and it jumped as high as 98C. That cant be good for it.

The card in question is an EVGA GeForce 7950:
Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P2-N637-AR GeForce 7950GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported KO Superclocked Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

I was wondering if there was anything I could do to cool it down like buying a fan for it, or is it a lost cause? Thanks for the help.

[Jotaru]

If you haven't recently, I suggest two things:

Take card out of case, remove the cover, and clean out all the vents (assuming its like my 8800GT, with metal fins with air channels inside). The fan on the GPU itself will circulate air in these channels to radiate the heat to the air blowing away, but if they are clogged with dust / dirt / whatever, there's no airflow, and it all just sits. This simple process lowered my temps probably 20' C- an alarming amount.

The other thing you can try is unseating the entire heat sink / fan combo from the board itself, cleaning off the thermal grease, and reapplying some more. It sounds complicated but its not really- take off some screws, remove the outer case, clean everything out- takes maybe 15 minutes. Doing this brought me from running idle at WoW login screen / under load from 90-100' C to maybe 60'C under load. It seems like an unbelievable amount, but I've checked temps from a few diff. programs before and after, and its worked wonders.

If that doesn't fix it you have the option of installing a PCI-slot cooler, which basically sits under your vid card in a PCI slot and circulates fresh air into the fan, but again, this won't do jack unless the circulation vents in your GPU are clean and allowing airflow. Something you should also definitely check is in-case circulation, make sure wires etc. are clean and tidy so there's proper ambient temperature around the GPU itself.

[njitjk68]

GPUs are built to have a higher treshold on temperatures than CPUs. I believe it is around 110C.

First thing I would suggest, if you haven't already, is to download EVGA precision or Rivatuner and turn up your default fan speed settings higher. Normally, by default, the fan speed starts low (around 30%) and slowly ramps up as the card temperature rises.

[Bockage]

If you haven't recently, I suggest two things:

Take card out of case, remove the cover, and clean out all the vents (assuming its like my 8800GT, with metal fins with air channels inside). The fan on the GPU itself will circulate air in these channels to radiate the heat to the air blowing away, but if they are clogged with dust / dirt / whatever, there's no airflow, and it all just sits. This simple process lowered my temps probably 20' C- an alarming amount.

The other thing you can try is unseating the entire heat sink / fan combo from the board itself, cleaning off the thermal grease, and reapplying some more. It sounds complicated but its not really- take off some screws, remove the outer case, clean everything out- takes maybe 15 minutes. Doing this brought me from running idle at WoW login screen / under load from 90-100' C to maybe 60'C under load. It seems like an unbelievable amount, but I've checked temps from a few diff. programs before and after, and its worked wonders.

I removed the GPU cooler, cleaned out all the dust, and replaced the thermal paste with some Arctic Silver 5. Idle temps are about 10C cooler, FFXI is about 15C cooler and Team Fortress is about 10C cooler. 65C in FFXI is much better then it used to be, thanks for the advice.

[Olo401]

Ah ok.. I was about to say it's probably your thermal paste.

BTW I'm getting a free sample of a new thermal compound that's supposed to be better than ACS5 (about -5C difference, which is pretty damn big).. should have some review of the stuff once it arrives.