Crossfire HD6950's, High temperatues and Loud fans, best solution?

shumaa1

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Mar 11, 2010
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Hi, I have two "XFX HD 6950 2GB GDDR5" running in crossfire in my PC, which I put together about 3 years ago. They seem to run fine, and can still handle most modern games at med/high, however I have noticed that over the last year they have been running hotter and hotter.

At first I used afterburner to modify the fan speed curve, setting the fans on about 10-20% higher, which seemed to work for a while and kept tempers around 70-75C under load, and around 40C idle. A few days ago I tried playing Archeage, which utilises crossfire and was maxing out both cards around 90-100% usage. This caused the temperature to soar to nearly 85C before I turned it off.

The case is an NZXT Hades, with a large fan on the front, a large fan on the side and two on top. CPU is cooled with an H60.

So far I have tried:


  • Increasing the fan speed curve even more, this can keep the temps below 80C but at around 90% fan speed, and it's very noisy.
    Changing the side case fan to an exhaust (this made things worse)
    Moving a fan form the top of the case, to blow air directly onto the cards, this did seemingly nothing.

Would it be worth reseating the heatsinks on the cards with fresh thermal paste? I have never taken a card apart before and would be willing to try it if it could make a difference.
 
Solution
Looks like your only option is to go deeper and strip off the coolers to replace the thermal paste.
Tips:
Use a good quality, close fitting screwdriver, the 4 screws holding the 'X' plate at the back of the card WILL be tight and one slip is all it takes.
Once all the retaining screws are off it may be difficult to break the coolers free, try a little twisting action along with a lifting force to get them off.
Cleaning solutions are available but like most I use pure alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) to remove the old stuff, try not to use rubbing alcohol, it contains oils that effect the new thermal paste.
There is plenty of ways to put new paste on, whatever method you use the aim is the same: A thin, even coverage.
I don't like to use...

NiCoM

Honorable
If you say the cards where running cooler in the past, a paste change is possibly a good idea.
can you change the fan speed of the side fan? I would balance out the noise from side & gpu's, making it so one aren't silent while the other is extremely noisy.
 
Sounds like its time for a cleanout.
Unless you're confident and fairly comfortable around a Phillips screwdriver I'd leave the coolers alone for now, just get a can of cleaning air from your local computer store and give the coolers a good blow through.
Tips:
Use a small brush to clean the fan blades, I use a cut down toothbrush or cotton bud.
The air must be blown backwards, IN through the exhaust.
Hold the fan still when using the air can, overspeeding it in reverse can damage it.
Remember, short, controlled bursts, long squirts can build up a harmful static charge.
Do it outside, especially if you're asthmatic (I am and it's not funny triggering an attack this way.)
 

shumaa1

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Mar 11, 2010
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This is usually the first thing I try, have lots of empty air cans littering the place now! The inside is pretty spotless at this point.
 
Looks like your only option is to go deeper and strip off the coolers to replace the thermal paste.
Tips:
Use a good quality, close fitting screwdriver, the 4 screws holding the 'X' plate at the back of the card WILL be tight and one slip is all it takes.
Once all the retaining screws are off it may be difficult to break the coolers free, try a little twisting action along with a lifting force to get them off.
Cleaning solutions are available but like most I use pure alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) to remove the old stuff, try not to use rubbing alcohol, it contains oils that effect the new thermal paste.
There is plenty of ways to put new paste on, whatever method you use the aim is the same: A thin, even coverage.
I don't like to use electrically conductive stuff on GPUs, the die is surrounded by small components leading to the possible risk of a short circuit if you get a little heavy with something conductive like Arctic Silver.
 
Solution

shumaa1

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Mar 11, 2010
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Thanks for the advice, Im gonna order decent tools, cleaning solution and paste for the job and do it as carefully as I can, I'll update with progress when its done!
 

shumaa1

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Mar 11, 2010
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Hello again!

So I bought some cleaning solution, tools etc and took the card apart very carefully, cleaned off all the dust from every part with a brush and canned air. Was crapping myself the whole time incase I damaged anything.

Removed the old paste, which was a bit chunky and solid, and applied some MX-4.

So far, after about an hour of usage, theres no real visible difference in temperature. Which is a bit disheartening, however I enjoyed the process and learned a few things. On the plus side, I didn't break anything.

I may look into aftermarket coolers, the heatsink on the card looks pathetic.

Here is a photo album of the process, for anyone interested or curious: http://imgur.com/a/k2Ftf

Thanks for your advice!

 

shumaa1

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Mar 11, 2010
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Final update, for anyone thinking of doing the same:

Its been a few days since reapplying the paste and there has been a change, I noticed the top card (the primary card) actually now runs cooler than the lower card, which means it has cooled by 5-6C. So I think ill be reapplying on the second card too.

On stock fan speed profile, the card runs at 37-38C idle, down from 45~