6870 running a bit hot?

lindseyhunt1090

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Jul 15, 2010
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i just went from a 5770 to a 6870 and it was a decent amount faster. then i got the hot fix for it and wow did it make a difference. i doubled my fps.. i am very happy with this card.. i have it over clocked a bit.. 980 core clock.. the card seems to run hot unless i run a fixed fan speed. if i let the fan speed goes how it wants to it seems to get hot.. 80c + so i fixed the fan speed at 80% and wow is it loud. it hovers around 60c now.. but the card seems to even idle hot.. around 60c.. i have 7 case fans as well to.. does this seem wierd?

what kind of heat can these cards see.. 80c seems really hot to me considering the 5770 wouldnt go over 55c..
 

runninaround

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Oct 29, 2010
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I just got my 6870 on wednesday and can provide you with what I have experienced. I have played L4D2, BC2, and fallout: new vegas with this new card. All games I have upped to highest settings with 1080p resolution. Unfortunately, I do not capture my FPS, but they are all running very smooth for me thus far.

I run two monitors, but only game on the main display. I had CCC opened on my second montior on the first day and I never noticed temperatures climb above 60c (57-59 mostly). I just let the card set its own fan speed and I have not heard it once while my headphones are on.

I am not 100% sure how accurate this is because I have had troubles upgrading my CCC to latest version since like 10.3 or so. I always get an error on Win7 x64 telling me, "this program did not install correctly." I usually spend 5 minutes or so looking for an answer before giving up and simply installing video drivers only.

edit: forgot to add that I am running w/o overclock yet!
 
You are overclocking the card to it's extreme limit, so the extra heat and noise are to be expected. That 980mhz overclock you got is higher than I have seen the card taken in reviews without applying extra voltage.

Hardwarecanuks.com did a great article on it:
"We’ll start with the obvious: overclocking increases heat output and overclocking with higher than reference voltage impacts thermals even more. Unfortunately, without a custom cooler the HD 6870 gains heat at an almost alarming pace and believe it or not, the vapour chamber-totting XFX HD 6850 isn’t that far behind. If you are thinking of going for high clock frequencies with a HD 6800 series product, we highly recommend you look into upgrading the heatsink or at least buying a product with a higher end thermal solution."
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/37499-hd-6870-hd-6850-vs-gtx-460-1gb-overclocking-study-14.html