HD5770 idle at 70°C

[dingo_d]

My XFX HD5770 is searing hot! In the beginning the temps were max 40°C @ idle (if that), and 70°C when I was playing games.

Now after I updated my drivers to Catalyst 11.3. (on the new drivers in general) the temperature is 70°C @ idle. I had to manually set the fan speed to 70% to get the temp down to 55°C.

When I play Crysis 2, for example, the temps go up to 90°C and beyond

I tried vacuuming (carefully, blocking the ventilator from spinning), and brushing but the temps are still high. I was thinking of using canned air and see if that'll fix it.

Is this the driver thing or?

And when using canned air, do I need to dismantle the cover or?

Thanks...

 

[vilenjan]

Try rolling back to 11.2 and see if that will help you. If it does, than wait for 11.3 to be fixed.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

i agree try the old driver. The thing about drivers,"if it aint broke, dont fix it". If it is dusty, use compressed air. if the card is a year old or more, re-seating the heatsink with new thermal paste may help.

 

[vilenjan]

Just reading som news, and it seems like the 11.3 driver was mainly made to fix problems for 6990 cards, so no reason for you to have it. 11.4 which should be out soon is the one that will increase performance across the 6 series line.

 

[dalauder]

Check your overclock settings. I checked my GTX 470 the other day and realized I'd put a substantial overclock on it and had completely forgotten. Make sure you fan ramps up quickly enough too.

You might need to reseat your heatsink, but I'd hate to do that on a card still under warranty.

 

[galeener]

Just roll back 1 untill 11.4 comes out. Then try 11.4 sometimes drivers are only updated to support new cards not to really help anything. This seems to be the case with 11.3

 

[dingo_d]

Oh thanks for the answers. I did roll back to 11.2 but it didn't do that much help (still around 60°C).

I was thinking of dismantling it and cleaning the aluminium passive cooler. I was also thinking of changing the thermal paste on the GPU.

What do I need to be careful of, so that I won't damage the card?

 

[galeener]

Blow it out with some canned air make sure you hold the fan so you dont over rev the bearings on it. Some times it helps some times not.
Blow off the rest of the board. Clean all the connectors with chem clean or a high percetage alcohol. 90% or above. Clean off all the old themal paste.
Some times they do use a themal pad which is thicker make sure that if its a thick pad you get another to replace it as a coat of artic silver will be to thin.
If its just paste clean it all off then put some thermal compound on itand replace the heat sink.
(make sure you cleaned the heat sink and the gpu )
There are several articles here at toms on who do replace the TIM just do a search lots of details and theorys.
Make sure you only get the TIM on the heat sink and the gpu not on amy other parts.

 

[dingo_d]

I bought the alcohol and thermal paste and went down to business (the shots were taken with my shitty cell phone, but I think it's pretty visible )



There was a huge chunk of thermal paste all over the gpu and the copper base of the passive cooler, so I wiped that clean.

Then I unscrewed the passive cooler and I think I found the source of the problem




So I took the vacuum cleaner and brush (just in case) and voila!



Everything looks clean and nice ^^



Now, with default running fan speed @ 35% the temp is around 45°C which is perfect (@ 65% the temp was 39°C ). All went better than expected ^^



Thanks for the advice galeener ^^

 

[galeener]

Nice job.