Weird issue with my Sapphire 4870x2

[GreyFox37]

I've been having an odd issue one day with my 4870x2. I was playing Modern Warfare 2 and my GPU overheated to 105C. I decided that I would reapply thermal grease to it and clean out the heat sink a bit later and lay off the games. So, I stuck to emulator games. Here is where it gets even weirder. My GPU fan started speeding up to 100% and overheating while playing my ZSNES emulator! 95C. Since my warranty expired, I took off the heat sink carefully and reapplied thermal grease, Arctic Silver to be precise. I re-fastened the heat sink, cleaned it out a bit with compressed air, and then plugged it back in. Didn't do the trick at all. I noticed my fan is kinda caked in dust. I tested my old HIS 4870 512MB to see if it would do the same thing. Only thing that heats up slightly is my CPU (of course) as I play my ZSNES, but the 4870 stays the same temp. I have been looking all over for anyone else having this incredibly weird issue. Is it a driver issue? Should I get an after market cooler? I will thoroughly clean out the CPU fan and see if that does the trick, but if anyone else has any ideas, I would appreciate it. Specs are as follows:

Windows XP SP3
Intel Q9550 OCed to 3.2GHz
4GB ADATA PC-2 6400 RAM
Antec 1200 Case (I know it's not an airflow issue since my 4870 doesn't cook even when I play a big game, it only goes up 12C on 70% fan speed)
Sapphire ATI Radeon 4870x2 2GB not OCed
SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
Roswill 1000W PSU Bronze edition modular
ASUS P5Q Pro Mobo (The "green" one, aka, energy saving model)
WD Caviar 640 GB HD

Card works fine with desktop and media apps, but once I game, emulation or hard core, even old school (Thief, Jedi Knight 2, etc), it just skyrockets in heat.

 

[rolli59]

Start with the thorough cleaning. If that does not work try under-clocking a little and see if that affects temps.

 

[GreyFox37]

Cleaning that heatsink case out did the trick. Diablo 2 and my SNES emulator still rise, but only 10C, I'll live. Heavy duty games run 75-80, which is expected with this card. Huzzah!