6970 Very high temps

[carbonstyle72]

Hi all,

Just noticed that my 6970 has been sitting at 80c idle, and when I was playing Live for speed, (Not very GPU intensive) it was hitting 97c.

Are there any suggestions as to what this might be? I've never had this problem before. specs are-

Asus 6950 unlocked to 6970 (reference)

Phenom 2 X6 @4.0ghz

Coolermaster V8

Asus Crosshair IV formula

Fractal design R3 case (stock fan layout)

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[kajabla]

So this just started happening? That's very odd. Use some program like MSI Afterburner to check out the fan speed and, more importantly, the GPU usage. If it's at zero or close to zero at idle, you can pretty much rule out an electronic problem, blame it on the card and RMA it. How old is the card?

 

[carbonstyle72]

So this just started happening? That's very odd. Use some program like MSI Afterburner to check out the fan speed and, more importantly, the GPU usage. If it's at zero or close to zero at idle, you can pretty much rule out an electronic problem, blame it on the card and RMA it. How old is the card?

First of all, thanks for the reply-

I only just noticed that my fans were really loud at idle, I've got a custom fan profile, 1% fan speed for every Celsius. GPU usage on afterburner is 0, and I got the card in April last year.

I'll have to sort out RMA'ing it on Monday then.

 

[amuffin]

Broken sensor, is the card physically hot though? You can always purchase an aftermarket cooler for it.

 

[kajabla]

^good idea! Feel the back. Personally, I'd take an RMA over an aftermarket cooler, just because it would still be in warranty for any other failures.

 

[spentshells]

^good idea! Feel the back. Personally, I'd take an RMA over an aftermarket cooler, just because it would still be in warranty for any other failures.

He already flashed it no warranty to be found....


edit yeah I guess he could flash it back.

 

[kajabla]

Oh, right. SSSHH!

 

[JDFan]

"Asus 6950 unlocked to 6970 (reference)"

THat is probably the reason --- a 6950 is not made with the same parts as the 6970 (uses different memory chips that may or may not be able to run at the 6970 reference spec) so you probably just got a card that is not able to handle being flashed to a 6970. (They sold it as a 6950 for a reason not just to give you a better price !!)

 

[Deemo13]

"Asus 6950 unlocked to 6970 (reference)"

THat is probably the reason --- a 6950 is not made with the same parts as the 6970 (uses different memory chips that may or may not be able to run at the 6970 reference spec) so you probably just got a card that is not able to handle being flashed to a 6970. (They sold it as a 6950 for a reason not just to give you a better price !!)

I have mine flashed to a 6970 and in Furmark it doesn't hit over 75C. All AMD did when they made the refrence 6950 is took a 6970 board and disabled some of the cores. It explains the identical refrence PCB between the 6950 and 6970. There is no other difference other than the fact that the 6950 requires 2 6-pins while the 6970 requires a 6 and a 8.

 

[JDFan]

I have mine flashed to a 6970 and in Furmark it doesn't hit over 75C. All AMD did when they made the refrence 6950 is took a 6970 board and disabled some of the cores. It explains the identical refrence PCB between the 6950 and 6970. There is no other difference other than the fact that the 6950 requires 2 6-pins while the 6970 requires a 6 and a 8.

They did use the same PCB board but some of the components are different -- on most of the 6950's the memory chips that are used are binned lower performing than the ones they used on the 6970's so while the PCB board is identical not all of the components are thus some 6950's can not run as a 6970. (That is why they also decreased the memory speed to 1250Mhz. vs. the 1375Mhz. of the 6970 -- Sure some 6950s can handle the OC but not all of the RAM chips used can handle the extra speed )

 

[bystander]

That still wouldn't account for the jump in temps all of a sudden. Something may have broke, or perhaps the HSF needs new thermal compound.

 

[JDFan]

That still wouldn't account for the jump in temps all of a sudden. Something may have broke, or perhaps the HSF needs new thermal compound.

Where do you see him say it is all of a sudden -- he merely mentions he just noticed the temps doesn't ever say it used to be fine !!

EDIT : just reread and saw where it says he never had that before -- but then the question becomes how long ago did he flash it (was it during this past winter and ambient temps are just now rising as summer approaches ??) and what were the temps before he noticed this ?

 

[Deemo13]

They did use the same PCB board but some of the components are different -- on most of the 6950's the memory chips that are used are binned lower performing than the ones they used on the 6970's so while the PCB board is identical not all of the components are thus some 6950's can not run as a 6970. (That is why they also decreased the memory speed to 1250Mhz. vs. the 1375Mhz. of the 6970 -- Sure some 6950s can handle the OC but not all of the RAM chips used can handle the extra speed )

Mine is clocked at 1385MHz right now, and has no problems, but that is not the point here. Even with the flash, the card should not generate that much heat. Either something is faulty in the card, which you could RMA (maybe if you flash it back they couldn't tell, thats why you save the previous BIOS) or your case has horrid airflow.

 

[spentshells]

Disable the fan profile and put it to run at 75% see how that works before we go doing anything to crazy, since it is a 6950 and the components are different (not sure about this. It depends on the model I guess)

 

[fil1p]

Hey,
Well as others have said before, feel the back of the card, is it actually that hot? Also what are your voltages for the card? Did you update any drivers or settings for the card, or is this completely out of the sudden? It may just be your card if you did nothing, and it ran perfectly before. If thats the case, flash it back to a 6950, cross your fingers and RMA it