Problems with Sapphire HD 5770 Vapor-X!

[zerounodos]

Hello, people of Tom's Hardware!

I've been noticing a bit of problems with my card (well, perhaps it is not my card alone, that's what I need to find out).

I got together a new pc las july, not too powerful,but smth to play some games, and for media production and things. These are the aspects:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x2 555 BE
MOBO: MSI 770t-c45
Ram: 4gb Kingston
GPU: Sapphire HD 5770 Vapor-X
PSU: 600W
Samsung 23": I generally played at 1900x1080, but I had to reduce the res to 1600x1200

Well, the things is that during the winter (I live in Argentina, so It was winter when I bought it),my gpu had no trouble, not that I really cared for checking every single detail, I kind of just used the pc. But, when summer stroke, my GPU turned bright red: temps. of 45°C on idle, and 100°c-105°c on full load!!As my warranty had expired, I used a new pasty-thingy that goes between the processor and the heatsink,but it only got the gpu to drop about 2-3°c, which is no good, hehe...I was kind of hoping if you could tell me what the problem may be?perhaps the Vapor-X system its malfunctioning or else...
Also,I was wondering another thing...I've got a friend who has a 3 years old PC, and it seemed like his PC runned games almost as good as me, if not better. I was wondering if that could be due to the diffr temps of our pc's (he's got a home made Water cooling system, his cpu wont get any hotter than 35°c, neither his gpu),the res of playing (he plays 1024x768 i dont remember the number exactly) or perhaps my pc its just crappy, he...
His specs are:
CPU: Amd Athlon 64 x2 +6000
MOBO: MSI K9a2 neo
GPU: Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT
Ram: 4gb (don't remember the brand)

Well, I know I've written a lot, but I think it was necessary XD!!

hope you write back!

Manoleta

 

[servarus]

What's the room temperature during that 100°C reading? My brother's 5770 (the same model) 42°C. On load the highest recorded is around 51°C.

About the thermal-paste did you cleaned and applied it correctly?

 

[apache_lives]

first of all MSI? wtf there just garbage

what case, psu and fans are you using? and is the hsf on the video card full of dust?

 

[zerounodos]

Room's temp can't be any higher than 30°C, only perhaps 25°C. Of course, as it is the summer, there's been days with almost 40+°C, but on those days I avoided my pc and tried to get my self some water!! Hehe... Thermal Paste was correctly cleaned, nevertheless, the friend that helped me with that seemed to notice that the heatsink surface was quite uneven, so he told me that perhaps I should polish the surface until it's almost a mirror...do you agree?

My case is a normal ATX, just generic, and a pretty un-aircooled one, I haven't been able to create a good air flow in there due to lack of time-money. I've got my case open on the rightside, and I installed a small fan right at the lvl of the CPU...do you think that could be it? I didn't think it could be that because of the huge difference between my gpu and the rest...it's 30° higher of full load than the rest, and I don't think thats just bad airflow alone.

My PSU its a Shark-Net 600W. I know its not a known brand (i think it its from Argentina), but I haven't had problems before with it, do you think that it could be causing my temp problems?

The first thing I did when I got the high temps was cleaning the GPU...and the rest of the PC.

Hope you can Help Me!!

 

[zerounodos]

I'd really would like just an opinion on the matter of my GPU heating up, just a what could it be?, if the PSU, the Air Flow in the Case, or if the GPU it's bad from the fabric. Just that! Thanks.

 

[servarus]

I don't think the casing would have much effect unless you change it into a really good casing with all the fans. Though there is a drop in some cases, unless you really uses the casing ability you won't see much difference. In my case, changing from a standard casing to CM 370 with 2 fans installed only made a 1°C-2°C change.

I don't recommend polishing the heat sink. It might be a bad idea.

Here's a good read.

Did you notice any burnt marks on the card?

 

[zerounodos]

Sorry for the delay! Since no one was answering I thought I might've asked a stupid question and let it alone...I haven't notice any burn marks on my card!

The situation as it is: I did a little driver sweeping, and installed only the latest fromo ati website, seems to have made a bit of a difference in my temps (I was mistaken before, mi card had gone all the way to 110C° with CoD:MW, not overclocked at all), i saw an improvement of at least 2-3 C°, only by sweeping drivers, ha!

My ultimate guess is that the heatsink and fan are defective, so I went and bough an Artic Accelero 2 pro, to check the difference...it should be arriving next week.

Any other guesses?

 

[servarus]

Hm... Well, I guess that could be it. Though it is crazy to get to that temp... Update after you installed the cooler.

My old 9500GT went to 90°C and it turns out the cooler got melted somewhere. Luckily it did not melt to the card. So I replaced it with another cooler. Works fine after that.

 

[zerounodos]

Wow, an awful experience that must've been! Thanks for answering 'servarus'! As soon as I have accelero on, I'll post! thanks...

 

[zerounodos]

My Accellero is here! I've installed it on my GPU and everything appears to be fine!Temps dropped to 37°C idle-70°C load on first try out (lost planet 2 full resolution and graphics - no overclock). They may not be the best temps out there, but at least my 5770 won't melt down! I still need to ventilate better my case, but the results just yet have been great! Thanks for the help guys.

 

[zerounodos]

Best answer selected by zerounodos.