MSI 6950 Twin Frozr ii Not pushing heat out the back

grandnexus

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Dec 22, 2013
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10,510
I used my MSI 6950 in one computer under maximum load and it never really got past 75 C (while it was overclocked to 840 MHz). I also noted that it pushed heat towards the back of the case and which exited out of the slots on the back of the case (basically I put my hand behind the computer case where the PCI-E slots are and felt it pushing heat out the back). In that computer I'm on windows 8 64-bit with 2 6pin connectors.

However, I have now moved the video card to another computer, and even underclocked the video card gets hot up to 81 C. I noticed in these computers (I tried two separate, same model computers) that no heat was being expelled out of the case via the back slots. Instead I put my hand in front of the video card (case open) and saw that the video card was pushing heat towards the front of my computer, which basically means it is just circulating hot air inside the case.

I've tried several different versions of AMD drivers, still the same effect. The only thing I can think of is that for this I'm using 1 6pin connector, and another SATA to 6 pin converter.....I can't imagine why this would make a difference.

If my fans on the GPU for whatever reason started spinning in the opposite direction, would this cause the heat to be pushed towards the front of the computer instead of being expelled towards the rear like it should?

What is going on?
 
Solution
That Twin Frozr card does not exhaust through the back, it intakes from there. This is why proper case ventilation is important to that cards. The fans blow the heat away from the card, not through and out the back like reference ATI and Nvidia cards do. You need to make sure you have sufficient air flow through your case.

grandnexus

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Dec 22, 2013
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10,510
Yea I figured as much. What I understand is that I was getting fairly low temperature readings from this card on my home computer as of yesterday, like upper 60's on full load, and now all of a sudden, for no reason, it has jumped to the upper 70's lower 80's on full load.

I haven't changed anything in my computer. I don't get what happened.
 

Anub1s

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May 27, 2012
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10,960
That Twin Frozr card does not exhaust through the back, it intakes from there. This is why proper case ventilation is important to that cards. The fans blow the heat away from the card, not through and out the back like reference ATI and Nvidia cards do. You need to make sure you have sufficient air flow through your case.
 
Solution

grandnexus

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Dec 22, 2013
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10,510
Ok, but the part I don't understand is that it was in my computer and everything was fine, it didn't overheat at all. I put it back into the same computer recently, in the same spot and the computer is located at the same place, and all of a sudden it is overheating very easily.

What changed?
 

Anub1s

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May 27, 2012
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It's an aging card, so it probably just needs some cleaning and maintenance. When was the last time the heatsink was cleaned? Dust is a big hindrance to cooling parts. Also, the thermal compound between the heatsink and the GPU is probably getting old and cracking, so it may be worth it to you to find instructions on tearing that card down, cleaning the heatsink and GPU and reapplying the thermal compound. Other than that, you need to look into how well air is flowing through the case.