Amd 6950 overheating

spyder0552

Honorable
Mar 21, 2012
2
0
10,510
Hello,
After reading an article about poorly applied heatsinks, i decided to remove the heatsink and check. After cleaning and applying new compound, things are worse then ever. She now idles at 48 celisus and quickly jumps to 100 on furmark. I have removed the heat sink 5 times and still the same. Any thoughts? Or am i off to the store for a new card?
 
Hi there

How much thermal compound did you apply and what make is it?

Also are you sure all the screws are tightened fully?

Did you reconnect the fan cable?

Is the fan working ok, does the fan speed increase under load?

How is the airflow inside the case?

Is the heatsink dusty?

Sorry to reply to your question with aload of questions, we just need some more information

:)
 

spyder0552

Honorable
Mar 21, 2012
2
0
10,510
I applied compound (thin layer) to the actual heat sink as well as a grain of rice to the center of the GPU. I always set the heatsink then lift it off to see how much coverage there is. I try to ensure there is no spill over from the GPU surface.

Fan cable is connected and the fan ramps up normally as the heat increases to 100%.

Their is lots of air in there. I have even mounted 2 additional fans to blow from the top down to the GPU. Even tried with the lid on and off to see if it makes a difference.

Heat sink is very clean.

For the 4 screws, I tightened them (cross pattern) until the heat sink stopped wiggling.

The odd thing is, the heat goes up right away when any load is put on it. I mean within a second! This just does not make sense. It is as if the heat sink is not making contact whatsoever to the GPU. However, when I remove the heatsink, I can cleary see the impression made by the GPU in the termal compund.

I am going to head out tomorrow and get some new compound. The stuff I have is about 2 months old and just "clone" stuff I had when I installed my CPU cooler (which btw is not running as cool as I thought it should).

Could I have damaged the heat sink? I don't believe this is like other cards that have that vapour block. This seems to be a solid aluminum block with a thin copper skin on the contact area.

All ideas are appreciated...don't want to shell out another $250 for a card. :D
 
The die size for the HD6950 is really small (as I'm sure you already know) so you only need the smallest amount of thermal compound, to much will decrease the thermal transfer from the GPU to the heatsink, its only job is to fill in any imperfections in the machining process of the GPU's IHS and heatsink contact surface. In an ideal world you'd have two completely flat surfaces and no need for thermal compound.

If you have intake fan's blowing down into the case your fighting the heats natural process of rising. To be honest you really want cold air being blown into the case from the bottom and front, and then the warmer air being exhausted out of the top and back of the case. Though I doubt its the cause of your graphics card overheating.

You've done the correct method by tightening the screws in a criss-cross manor, I'd personally tighten them fully, just make sure you use the correct size screwdriver so you don't strip the screws.

Try manually setting the fan speed to 100% in CCC, and if it still overheats you can be pretty sure the heatsink isn't making contact with the GPU core.

I'd recommend Arctic cooling MX-4 or Arctic Silver 5 for thermal compound

Its possible that the heatsink has been damaged, hard to tell without pictures though.

If you can't get any joy, then perhaps just buy an aftermarket heatsink rather than buy a new card.
 

Earnie

Distinguished
Jun 21, 2005
536
0
19,010


1-what are you using to check temps?and have you tried other monitoring programs...afterburner,trixx,gpuz....

what temps where they before?mine idles at 45'c@31% fan in ccc.(as of right this moment)

2-not sure how old your card is,but by removing the heatsink,it will void any warranties by most manufactures,if no warranty,disregard.
 

dicfeynman

Distinguished
Oct 14, 2011
30
0
18,530
i am running 2x 6950 cf
while playing bf3, i get to 88 c, on my primary card with the secondary trailing at low 70.
plz do post your bf3 numbers.
i havent checked with furmark
 

Earnie

Distinguished
Jun 21, 2005
536
0
19,010



primary 65'c
secondary 77.5'c(sound card under it,thats why its higher)full load,BF3 ultra.

correction,sound card cable stuck on fan,oops

Karg island 32 player,both 100% usage.about 1/2 hour to 45 mins.
primary 70.5'c
secondary 66'c
 

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