ANOTHER overheating thread - XFX 7950 3GB Black Edition - TIM reapplie

[TheHermit84]

Hi all, pleased to meet you. I seek some assistance!

I bought an XFX 7950 3GB Black Edition back in March 2013.
Everything was fine and now I'm suddenly reaching temps of 100c in Skyrim, taking roughly 5 minutes to reach this temp in game

http://imageshack.us/a/img109/8430/f978.png

I've tried 3 other games, Fallout, BF3, Hitman and the temps are reaching unsafe marks.

The fans are working at 100% on full load, there is no issue with the bearings that I can see. I haven't had any BSODs but games will usually CTD once these high temps are reached. My case is a Corsair 500R and is very well cooled.... in fact, nothing in my case has changed and the card used to run at 70c-75c under max load before. I've used compressed air to clean the case and GPU thoroughly.
Room temps are normal, a little higher than normal in UK but nothing beyond 5c normal room temp...

Not sure what's changed. I've tried to apply TIM thrice now using Akasa (AK-455) thermal paste and I've meticulously tried to seat the heatsink correctly... Everything LOOKS fine and the TIM appears to make contact and I don't use much but a pea size... but my temps are still dangerously high to use the GPU for gaming. Even just watching a youtube video I'm seeing my temps reach 65c! Ha! It idles around 45-50, which is so-so I suppose...

GPU-Z readings:
-----
IDLE
Temp: 41c
Fan Speed: 20%
Fan Speed RPM: 755 RPM

UNDER LOAD (SKYRIM)

As soon as I loaded the game to the menu, temps jumped from 41-65c.
Once in-game temp jumps to 80c then subsequently increased at approx 1c per second

Temp: 97c-102c
Fan Speed: 100%
Fan Speed RPM: 3587

Game FPS: 60 (with vsync!!)

GPU Load: 99%
Memory Usage (Dedicated) 1019 MB (GPU has 3GB?!?!?! yet 99% load?!?!)
----

What's more, the case, when reaching these excessive temps... doesn't even feel THAT hot... but the PC and all temp measurement software all show the same reading. So it can't be wrong, right? I'm not getting any noticeable artifacting in game but FPS rates are lower than usual and there are more microstutters too.

I've tried a number of different driver versions - reverted to old non-Beta etc... which haven't changed the situation... currently gone back to using the latest 7xxx series 13.8 Beta for 64bit OS.

The Black Edition comes factory overclocked @ 900 MHz / 1375 MHz.
I don't overclock myself. I see no need for it, so I've left it at stock.

Sadly, the company I bought it off through amazon are no longer trading THROUGH amazon, so I cannot RMA... Amazon aren't being any help either. The company are available at their main website, but are reluctant to deal with me saying they have no recollection of trading through Amazon... funny that if you check this companies feedback on Amazon they were getting quite a lot of negative feedback... I wonder why.

So I've ticketed XFX with the hope that they'll RMA me and not void my warranty for trying to fix the damn expensive card myself. I have received a reply and they are offering RMA, but it means sending the card to Nederland and I'm going through a lot of house moves at the moment. Plus I've had to 'request' permission to apply thermal paste from them to justify the damaged stickers. It's not really what I need right now. I don't think the GPU is dying... it's just pieced together incorrectly or something? Or perhaps an aftermarket cooler would solve the problem? I just don't want to buy one if the problem isn't to do with heatsink contact or whatever... Any more advice would be great, peeps. Thanks!!

http://imageshack.us/a/img842/3196/mv7p.jpg

[FMod]

This is way too much thermal compound. There should be literally visibly bare spots where contact is direct. Unless the heatsink is very uneven, you don't need this much.

 

That said, they usually put as much and sometimes more in the factory, since they cba to apply it right and too much is safer than not enough.

 

Have you tried running another OS copy? Just install fresh Windows on another drive, minimum software, try that. Can be driver/OS related.

[Thor.]

looks like you may need some better air flow, i have a crossfire setup with two gigabyte 7950's and it works like a charm, a standard crossfire temp is 70C. Crossfire of 60c on heavy load.

 

It might be thermal paste, but it also could be a faulty card. I have oc'ed my 7950 beyond manufacturer oc and its still stable when it comes to temperature.

 

This could be a good benchmark for temperature if you are having issues finding out what the default running temp should be. I recommend taking off the original thermal paste and buying some high quality for the gpu, make sure not to use to much.

Edited August 23, 2013 by Thor.

[obobski]

This is way too much thermal compound. There should be literally visibly bare spots where contact is direct. Unless the heatsink is very uneven, you don't need this much.

 

 

Agreed.

 

I'd agree with trying another base install of Windows. Another question: is there any fan blowing towards/onto the graphics card itself? It looks like you have water-cooling for the CPU, and I don't see any other case fans - it may simply be that the card/case/etc is not exhausting the heat its generating, which is causing the overheating.