Hot GPU but why?

[mafal54]

Okay I have a problem, I have a GTX 470 but the zotac amp! version wich should cool very well. My Idle temp is at 50°C. When the Card was new it had like 35°C.

I don't really know why the Temps are that high now the card is cleaned and dust free.

[Dave :)]

Have you properly cleaned your case fans and case for dust?

[mafal54]

Yes, I cleaned everything with Air pressure from a compressor.

[Helltech]

You should avoid using an air compressor as 1) the pressure could be way to strong 2) unless you have a liquid trap (and even if you have a liquid trap) it can send small amounts of water onto your hardware. You should use a can of compressed air, or a vacuum with the right attachments.

Anyway, is the fan ramping up as it should be? Maybe the inside of the card (that wasn't reachable) is dirty, might be time to take it apart, clean it out, reapply thermal paste and see how that works for you.

[mafal54]

"reapply thermal paste" I thought of that too and made a thread to hear what the others think about that, but alomost everyone said it woundn't be worth it. I have a liquid trap and can controll the presure.

[killerx525]

Have you overclocked the card? By the way, the 470 does run incredibly hot.

[Helltech]

"reapply thermal paste" I thought of that too and made a thread to hear what the others think about that' date=' but alomost everyone said it woundn't be worth it. I have a liquid trap and can controll the presure. [/quote']

Reapplying the thermal paste wouldn't be worth it, no. But since you will be taking the card apart to thoroughly clean it you would have to reapply thermal paste after you "break the seal".

[mafal54]

Have you overclocked the card? By the way, the 470 does run incredibly hot.

No I didn't overclock and I know the 470 runs hot but I have custom cooler "http://www.zalman.com/global/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=407" so it should be okay.

[killerx525]

Have you overclocked the card? By the way, the 470 does run incredibly hot.

Apart from that, i'm not really sure why.

[Frestylezz]

Did you attach a second monitor since the 35° idle by any chance?

That DOES increase the temps by quite the amount on some cards (my 560Ti went up by 20°, even though my 680 doesn't feel anything.)

[27-bit]

You should avoid using an air compressor as 1) the pressure could be way to strong 2) unless you have a liquid trap (and even if you have a liquid trap) it can send small amounts of water onto your hardware. You should use a can of compressed air, or a vacuum with the right attachments.

Anyway, is the fan ramping up as it should be? Maybe the inside of the card (that wasn't reachable) is dirty, might be time to take it apart, clean it out, reapply thermal paste and see how that works for you.

a soft brush would be a good idea for cleaning the fan and heat-sink from dust.

[mafal54]

Did you attach a second monitor since the 35° idle by any chance?

That DOES increase the temps by quite the amount on some cards (my 560Ti went up by 20°, even though my 680 doesn't feel anything.)

Yes I did that could be it, but the usage is still low 2-3%?

Edit: Just tired without the second monitor didn't changed.

[Fordox]

It can be the thermal paste. if it is bad thermal paste that its using, it could have dryed out.

but older cards get less efficient over time. but this is quite an extreme case.

[mafal54]

So I will try it with the thermal paste, seems that it's worth a try.

[Hexicate]

I cleaned out and re-applied the thermal paste to my HD 6970 a while back and it decreased idle temps by 10 degrees and load temps by 15~20.

Thermal paste might not be the issue for some, but Artic Silver 5 certainly solved mine. Try it out if you have some good paste, its worth a try.

[Brian]

You should avoid using an air compressor as 1) the pressure could be way to strong 2) unless you have a liquid trap (and even if you have a liquid trap) it can send small amounts of water onto your hardware. You should use a can of compressed air, or a vacuum with the right attachments.

Anyway, is the fan ramping up as it should be? Maybe the inside of the card (that wasn't reachable) is dirty, might be time to take it apart, clean it out, reapply thermal paste and see how that works for you.

I'm glad to see someone else aware of the problem with compressed air and moisture. Vacuums should be used carefully near electronics however as they can produce a healthy amount of static electricity during operation.

+1 for the soft brush for cleaning.

[Brian]

It can be the thermal paste. if it is bad thermal paste that its using, it could have dryed out.

but older cards get less efficient over time. but this is quite an extreme case.

More likely the card has an issue than thermal paste causing a sudden 15*C jump in temp. Unfortunately. :(

*Unless of course the card has been subject to some physical trauma, leading to a disconnect of the TIM from the chip...

[Brian]

I cleaned out and re-applied the thermal paste to my HD 6970 a while back and it decreased idle temps by 10 degrees and load temps by 15~20.

Thermal paste might not be the issue for some, but Artic Silver 5 certainly solved mine. Try it out if you have some good paste, its worth a try.

Please be careful when using AC5 or any other conductive/capacitive thermal paste, especially on graphics cards! The slightest slip or missed smudge can fry your card.

[Charlie]

Its your thermal paste, since its been a while since you have been using it over time the paste will dry up completely and loose its efficiency, I cleaned out my Zotac GTX 550ti few days ago and now my idle temperature is around 32 - 34 with load temperature around 71 - 74 earlier it was giving an idle temp of around 45 and load temperature touched 85 degrees.

[star102]

Well its probbally the thermal paste since its costum cooler you aplied it bad or the standard paste wasn't good.

[mafal54]

Well its probbally the thermal paste since its costum cooler you aplied it bad or the standard paste wasn't good.

It's a preinstalled costum cooler on almost every "zotac AMP!"version

[fsx1997]

Did you attach a second monitor since the 35° idle by any chance?

That DOES increase the temps by quite the amount on some cards (my 560Ti went up by 20°, even though my 680 doesn't feel anything.)

@mafal54 that is the reason why it is so hot for your gpu. I have notice the same thing as you. I am using a gigabyte 6870 OC edition which should in theory run pretty cool as well. However it currently idels at 60 - 63°C depenting on my room tempetature. It use to only be around 40°C until i added 2 additional monitor to it. So you can try to disconnect one of your monitor and see if the temperature goes down. My 6870 can go as high as 96°C when running furmark but when gaming (maxed at 100%) it's still 70+°C

[azeotrope]

It may be more than just bad cooling performance. Download a GPU monitoring program like GPU-Z and keep and eye on your core and memory clock speeds. Hardware acceleration inside a web browser, flash hardware acceleration and even aero effects can cause the clocks to scale up, causing your card to run hotter at "idle"

[EYCEthebest003]

You said you added another monitor. That is almost definitely the cause. Try removing the second monitor temporarily and see if temperatures improve.

As stated above, adding a second monitor will typically increase temperatures by 10-20 degrees on cards that aren't top-tier. Adding a second monitor to my gtx 570 (even with a twin frozr iii cooler) increased temps by around 15 degrees.