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:
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.
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.