HD 7970 95C (OverHeating)

porze13

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Hi, so when ever i play my games like bf3 and bf4 my gpu will always hit about 95 degree which is very hot and dangerous, so i was thinking if i low my Mhz (Clock Speed) from 925 to something like 800 Mhz will that reduce the heat and will that be good for the card, will its cause any issue to the card in the future?

hope u guys can help and thank you.
 
Solution
the software will do it for you. Lower GPU clock first(a bit each time, about 25mhz to begin with), leave board power limit alone,then lower VDDC (GPU POWER a bit at a time, about 0.025mv ).
Press apply, save to preset, tick start with windows. It is quite simple and i've never heard of anyone damaging a card under clocking/volting. Worse you will see is a game freeze or crash to desktop. GPU's don't generally reboot systems, unlike a under-volted cpu would.

Gee Bee

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i would try cleaning dust from the card first. Check case airflow also.
Yes, not only can you under clock, you can under volt also
This will not harm card but will reduce performance a little.

From member Cuecuemore:
Quote
75C is actually icy for a 7970; 95% of the folks here will tell you otherwise, but they're not serious users. There is no official data on TJM out there, but in a conversation with an actual Radeon engineer I found out that the max for my 7970s was 100C. I keep them below 90 just to be completely safe, but I've been running them 24/7 for 2 years in the high 80s without any issue. unquote
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1994660/downclocking-7970-ghz.html
 
First thing to check is how dirty the card itself is(GPU cooler). Also make sure your case has proper ventilation. I would also check the amount of thermal paste applied from the manufacturer. Most of the time they put too much on making a mess, and a lot of the time replacing the thermal paste alone will reduce temperature by 10c. You can also try a manual fan setting to start gaming on a lower temperature, making it harder for the card to reach those high of temps. I use 70% fan speed set manually when I game, and I never go over 60-70 degrees on a highly overclocked HD7950. I Idle at 34c at 70% fan speed. Hope some of this helps.
 

doron

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Please provide the card's make and model.

As sincreator said, first inspect the card and make sure that there isn't any dust buildup which can severely hinder your cooling efficiency.

I had the same problem with an aging HD 4870, at the end I managed to undervolt it just a bit while maintaining stock clocks. Temps got down by 20C and the card was completely stable. While lowering the clock speed may result in slightly less heat output, the best thing you can do to lower the card's temperature is to lower the voltage.

The other option would be to get an aftermarket gpu cooling solution, keep in mind though that the heat will still remain inside your case so you'll need to make sure that your case removes this heat efficiently.
 

porze13

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hi thank for answering back.
my card is HIS 7970 reference model
Stock at 925 Mhz

you said something about about lowing the voltage, as i have no experience in tweaking the voltage i wouldn't know how to do it, if u will i would very appreciate if you or someone would help me to tweak my voltage to a stable level.
and yeah i use the GPU FAN Speed % thing.
thank you

(my case only has 2 fan one side and one back both r 80cm, the back fan is right on top of the gpu so it can suck the hot air out from the gpu)
 

porze13

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i think opening it and re-cleaning the thermal paste and add new paste would be a good idea but as i have no experience with these type of things i wouldn't want to do it, don't want to broke my card. right now im doing the fan speed thing going from 30% at 40c to 60% at 85c, its not really helping much, but yeah thank you for ur time and ur reply i very appreciate it.

i would like to try lowing the voltage but like i said i have no experience so doing that would be a bad idea if im tweaking it my self.
 

Gee Bee

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the software will do it for you. Lower GPU clock first(a bit each time, about 25mhz to begin with), leave board power limit alone,then lower VDDC (GPU POWER a bit at a time, about 0.025mv ).
Press apply, save to preset, tick start with windows. It is quite simple and i've never heard of anyone damaging a card under clocking/volting. Worse you will see is a game freeze or crash to desktop. GPU's don't generally reboot systems, unlike a under-volted cpu would.
 
Solution

doron

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i think opening it and re-cleaning the thermal paste and add new paste would be a good idea but as i have no experience with these type of things i wouldn't want to do it, don't want to broke my card. right now im doing the fan speed thing going from 30% at 40c to 60% at 85c, its not really helping much, but yeah thank you for ur time and ur reply i very appreciate it.

i would like to try lowing the voltage but like i said i have no experience so doing that would be a bad idea if im tweaking it my self.
I did this with my HD 4870, keep in mind that although this isn't very compicated I wouldn't recommend it as it's still a relatively advanced process which voids your warranty at many cases, and I only got the temps down by about 3 degrees which isn't much. The stock thermal paste with gpus is usually good enough to hold for 3-4 years or more.

Since you have the reference card, this isn't overly surprising as the cooling is designed to dissipate most of the heat to the outside of the case using a small radial fan, which also work at high pressure, which leads to higher noise and usually lower cooling capabilities but less heat buildup inside the case.

The other cooling design which most manufacturers utilize is using usually 2-3 bigger fans in an open area and dumping all the heat to the inside of the case. This usually leads to less noise, better cooling capabilities but all of the heat is dumped to the case and usually goes through the cpu which can lead to less overclocking capabilities and hotter components overall.

With your card's type of cooling design, dust is really the enemy so again make sure that the card stays relatively clean from dust.

What do you mean when you say that your back fan is on top of the card? Can you please provide us with your case model?

I think that before trying to undervolt you should follow the steps above so we can make sure that you have an optimal environment for the card.