Umm, is this normal?

[Werne]

Well, it seems my graphics card is having some tough times. This morning, after an hour of playing Skyrim, my GPU temperature was at 117 degrees celcius but the game and the comp were working normal, no stuttering and no visible signs of overheating. I snapped when I figured out I could boil eggs on my graphics card so I turned off the comp, digged through my magic box and found two 120mm fans which I placed on the case (had to drill it out a bit) and they now blow cool air on my card. I also cleaned the inside of the case though it was clean already. After an hour and a half of Skyrim, with those fans the CPU temperature fell down to 104 degrees celsius.

 

With these new fans, the card's temperature in idle mode (no programs running) is 46 degrees, Fallout 3 heats it up to 82 and Empire Earth 3 heats it up more than Skyrim, 111 degrees. As I recall, the graphics card can survive up to 125 degrees but I sure as hell wont test that. Is it normal for GPU temperature to be so high? I don't think so. And is there a way to cool it down even more, preferably a cheap way, adding a few more fans maybe (since I have a whole bunch of them in my magic box)?

 

And the card I have is ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series 1GB. It has no buit-in fan, just a whole bunch of short alluminum ribs for cooling.

[Rennn]

That kind of temperature is definitely not normal for anything except something very high output like a GTX 590.

 

More than blowing cool air on the card, perhaps you want them to suck the hot air out? That would work better, I think. Also, it'll work better if the fans are high on the case since heat rises, though it sounds like you don't have much of a choice where you put them.

 

Ideally you would want one fan sucking in cool air and one blowing out hot air near the top.

 

How's your framerate? If you're not struggling at all for performance, you could try to cap your gpu or cpu to keep heat down. For example, in my case I might be able to use Nvidia Inspector to cap my card speed at like 75%, but I don't know what you'd do with an ATI card.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Rennn

[samadchaz]

this is normal for that card but wont survive a big time, you must get another 60mm fan for your card and stick it close in a way where its blow the hot air ( install your two 120mm like these

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/pictures/airflow.jpg

[Werne]

@Rennn That's what I thought, the temperature really seemed too high. As for the sucking/blowing, I tried but blowing gives a much better effect. And my framerate sucks, I'm lucky if Skyrim runs at 30 fps, average fps is 20.

 

@samadchaz I already had two fans installed like that. I placed two new fans on the side, right next to the card, to cool the card since it doesn't have it's own fan.

 

And my friend told me something that might as well be the problem, since the card is pretty old. He told me that the thermal paste on the GPU might be "screwed" (since there is no translation for the word I need). He said that I should remove the card from the comp, remove the alluminum ribs from it, then clean the thermal paste, apply it again, assemble the card and try it out. Shouldn't be too complicated to do so I'll try and see what happens.

[bben46]

Some types of thermal compound do dry out over time. If you do decide to apply new compound, be sure to thoroughly clean all of the old thermal compound off first. I use alcohol to clean it off - apply the alcohol to a rag or paper towel and wipe it off, then wait a few minutes for the alcohol to evaporate.

 

Then put a THIN layer of new compound. The most common mistake when applying thermal compound is putting it on too thick. The purpose is to even out the small imperfections in the surface of the chip and the heat sink. and give a larger contact area. A thick layer actually cuts down the contact area by forcing the surface of the chip and the surface of the heat sink apart.

 

Then when reinstalling, slide the heatsink around a little to allow it to smear evenly.

[Erik005]

It should be hot passively cooled graphics cards are hot but over 100 degrees is not good, these cards are designed for cases with good airflow. The airflow in the case takes over for the fan that would normally be placed on the gpu.

 

And the 4300/4500 is not designed for gaming that might be another problem.

[Werne]

Ok, I managed to resolve the graphics card overheating. it seems the thermal paste was the problem, after I applied it the temperature fell to 88 degrees after running Skyrim. With an aditional 2 fans I managed to reduce it further, down to 74. The only problem was getting the paste, I couldn't find it in any stores.

 

@Erik005 I know 4300/4500 isn't designed for gaming but I don't have the money to buy a better one so I'll just stick with this one untill it dies.

 

And thanks for the help, kudos :thumbsup:.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Werne

[Paxan_1]

Hi Werne,

 

this is only a suggestion :whistling: , i have set the max temperature for an optional thermal sensor to 90 degrees. I have three of this on my mainboard, if this is over 90°C my computer will shut down itself. I'm not sure if your MB has this option, but for me this is very helpful. To prevent this shutdown during playing i have to turn on one optional fan. This is my secure net if i forget this :rolleyes: .

Btw, my graphic card is at 45°C in idle and ~ 70 when playing Skyrim. Its a GTX 470 atm.

 

Sarah