Woah! Is the 260 able to get this hot?

tinymouse2 · Dec 3, 2009

OK so a little back story.

Resident Evil 5 is a game that gets my GPU the hottest. I left my computer downloading Evil Genius and Mirrors Edge from steam overnight so I set the fan speed to 25%.

When I came back to it this morning to play a bit of RESI 5 I completely forgot to change the fan speed back to auto (it usually puts itself at about 47%)

So some pickies of the event

Now the recommended highest temp for this GPU I think is 85 degrees so quite why the whole thing didn't just explode in front of me is VERY odd

OK so here's where it gets REALLY strange.

Heat is the main cause of artefacts as far as I know but the game was running perfectly... No graphical glitches, no artefacts, no nothing. Just seemed like I was playing the game with normal fan speed.

I'm kinda posting this because I want to know if I could have caused some permenant damage that isn't apparent as of yet (so no glitches, no problem. Fans still run fine and everything generally feels normal)

tinymouse2 · Dec 3, 2009

OK so I took it out and took it apart. Cleaned all the dust out so now it's nice n dust free. It was playing Resi 5 at 68-70 degrees before and now it's only at 55 degrees? It did have some dust in it but I think I've damaged the temp sensor =(

Is it possible that a bit of dust can affect the temps that much?

petteyg359 · Dec 3, 2009

tinymouse2 said:
OK so I took it out and took it apart. Cleaned all the dust out so now it's nice n dust free. It was playing Resi 5 at 68-70 degrees before and now it's only at 55 degrees? It did have some dust in it but I think I've damaged the temp sensor =(

Is it possible that a bit of dust can affect the temps that much?

Yes, if it is blocking the airflow.

tinymouse2 · Dec 3, 2009

There was some dust on the actual main heatsink but not a massive amount. But 20 degrees difference? That's gotta be some VERY dense dust

Amtrak · Dec 3, 2009

Did you replace any thermal paste? The stuff applied from the factory is usually quite poor.

EarthDog · Dec 3, 2009

I cant see the picture at the office but GPU's are good upwards of 80C and it also has thermal protection in it to prevent overheating. So I doubt you damaged it.

Tell me you removed the old thermal paste and applied new as that would make sense with cleaning the dust out as far as your temps are concerned.

torin3 · Dec 3, 2009

On 9800 GX2 cards and GTX 295s, I've had them both operating at near 100°C stable when folding (with some airflow problems due to the case and multiple cards).

Also, I've had a GTX 295 drop nearly 20°C just by blowing it out. And no, there wasn't that much dust in it.

tinymouse2 · Dec 3, 2009

Hmm torin3 sounds like I've had a similar case to you. There was a fair amount of dust around the intake fan area and little clumps on the actual heatsink. Sounds like the temps could be right which means WOOOO! 55 degrees in Resi 5 vs 70 degs before

Also I don't have the guts to replace the thermal paste on my GPU. I came close to it for this 260 but if I got it wrong... CPU pasting I've done a few times so I'm fine with that but just seems scary on a GPU.

Also earthdog. The picture is just of rivertuner with a steep line going from 32 degrees (idle temp) up to the 96 degrees then falling rapidly where I realised what a muppet I'd been. Shows a nice constant voltage, ambient temp in the card going up to 68 degrees and the fan speed all the way down at 25% until I bumped it up to 70% to cool it fast.

petteyg359 · Dec 3, 2009

tinymouse2 said:
Also I don't have the guts to replace the thermal paste on my GPU. I came close to it for this 260 but if I got it wrong... CPU pasting I've done a few times so I'm fine with that but just seems scary on a GPU.

Get some MX-2 or similar non-conductive stuff. No need to worry whether it will spread out that way. However, I've read that most GPUs come with Shin Etsu stock, so replacing the TIM might actually make it worse.

tinymouse2 · Dec 3, 2009

I already have some MX-2 and I just tried re-applying paste to an old 7900gs. After getting fairly messy (I think I've broken the card) I managed to get some temps and they've risen. From 39 idle to 42 idle =S
Ah well was dying anyway but it looks like I'm not applying thermal paste to my GPU any time soon.

Special7 · Dec 3, 2009

My 8800GT used to go over 100C on some games with the fan at 100%, after I installed my aftermarket cooling it never goes over 60C fully overclocked and fully passive, average load temps are in the low 50's.

Just remember to make sure your fan speed is where it should be and you will be fine.

tinymouse2 · Dec 3, 2009

@Special7

I'm not letting the fan go below 40% ever again. Poor little GPU =( *I get emotionally attached to things costing more than 100 squids*

Twister60 · Mar 3, 2010

Poor little GPU =( *I get emotionally attached to things costing more than 100 squids*

Same! Every board I've ever killed/has died gets mounted on the wall/display case. I try to respect the dead.

Zap · Mar 4, 2010

petteyg359 said:
I've read that most GPUs come with Shin Etsu stock, so replacing the TIM might actually make it worse.

Most of the higher end graphics cards that use full coverage reference coolers use Shin Etsu MicroSI, so yes you would have a tough time improving on it, and I've read many forum threads where people made temperatures WORSE on these cards.

tinymouse2 · Mar 4, 2010

I'm not replacing anything on it =P
Interestingly although the 260 max temp is meant to be 85 degrees I've found sources that my model can get up to 105 degrees. If so then this temp is only about 5 degrees over the limit (the sensor when I took the pics was saying the temp was 15 degrees lower than it actually was)
Just wondering if anyone knows which temp should be my max.

jason4207 · Mar 4, 2010

I think you can go pretty high (~100*C), but it will shorten the life-span of the card if you run it that way all the time. The card will throttle itself if it gets too hot.

Why are you so certain you damaged the sensors on your card? I've never heard of that happening before.

I honestly don't think you did any real damage. If you mess it up you'll know it!

tinymouse2 · Mar 5, 2010

I don't think I have damaged the sensors anymore but at the time the card suddenly went from reading 15 degrees to low to reading about 19 degrees to low.
Also my card won't throttle itself at all as far as I can tell. For some reason I can't get it to overclock anymore so even when it's getting really hot it just can't underclock itself. Also I can get 712/1200 out of the card so I was pretty happy but I need to overclock my CPU to remove the bottleneck.

MadMan007 · Mar 5, 2010

Well, lesson learned, don't change the fan speed to a low setting

Why did you change it anyway? You'd have to have an very very quiet system for the fan at idle to be bothersome.

tinymouse2 · Mar 5, 2010

I run my CPU passively and I've replaced 2 of the fans on my case to get it as near to silent as I can. The only things I can hear in my compy at the moment are the hard drives (I've unplugged all of them except my boot drive) and my GPU fans.
I'm considering the Arctic Cooling GPU cooler for the 260
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=251

1 problem that I see is the fact that I don't have the same GPU style as I expected.

So that's my GPU but would the Arctic cooler fit on my GPU? Also it seems near silent

So it would meet all criteria for me.

CompuTamer · Mar 5, 2010

MadMan007 said:
Well, lesson learned, don't change the fan speed to a low setting Why did you change it anyway? You'd have to have an very very quiet system for the fan at idle to be bothersome.

I do have just that

Idle at 0% fan is nice. Just dropped the core clock to like 300 and the vram down to 600 for the idle powerplay profile.

Woah! Is the 260 able to get this hot?

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