Graphics card way too hot

[TankError144]

okay, so im in a bit of a pickle. ive had my card for a few months now and its idle temps have only been up to about 33-35C. there is plenty of airflow and the room temp is low. yesterday, after playing fallout 4 for a bit, i noticed how loud my fans were and also the enormous amount of heat coning out of my system. the game had been closed out for about an hour at that point and i went into afterburner to check its idle temps. they read @ 78C!! my system has never gotten that hot even under MAX load, and for it to be on idle was just bizzare. so i shut down my system to let it cool off and restarted it once it had, but to no avail. the idle temp began to raise very quickly. so i checked my drivers and software and they are all up to date. it is the next day and i have afterburner runing to monitor my temps, as of now it has been on for a about 20 minutes and is sitting firm at 47C, which still worries me because thats almost 15C hotter than usual. I am worried to play anything so i dont overheat my card. 

[Starelementpoke]

okay, so im in a bit of a pickle. ive had my card for a few months now and its idle temps have only been up to about 33-35C. there is plenty of airflow and the room temp is low. yesterday, after playing fallout 4 for a bit, i noticed how loud my fans were and also the enormous amount of heat coning out of my system. the game had been closed out for about an hour at that point and i went into afterburner to check its idle temps. they read @ 78C!! my system has never gotten that hot even under MAX load, and for it to be on idle was just bizzare. so i shut down my system to let it cool off and restarted it once it had, but to no avail. the idle temp began to raise very quickly. so i checked my drivers and software and they are all up to date. it is the next day and i have afterburner runing to monitor my temps, as of now it has been on for a about 20 minutes and is sitting firm at 47C, which still worries me because thats almost 15C hotter than usual. I am worried to play anything so i dont overheat my card. 

Um, 78C isn't that hot for a gpu under load. What's the gpu? That would help alot.

[Godlygamer23]

Have you changed anything in this system? Are the fans on the card rotating?

[Whorax]

I'm not troubleshooting expert, but first things first: are the fans all spinning?

[don_svetlio]

I'm fairly certain this is a repost of a thread for a few hours ago

[TankError144]

the card was idle at 78C not under full load, and yes the fans are spinning, and its an r9 290x

[Godlygamer23]

the card was idle at 78C not under full load, and yes the fans are spinning, and its an r9 290x

Which one in particular?

[TankError144]

Which one in particular?

its an MSI R9 290x Lite

[Godlygamer23]

its an MSI R9 290x Lite

Are all fans spinning in the case? Do you have proper airflow?

[TankError144]

Are all fans spinning in the case? Do you have proper airflow?

yes, i have all fans running and a full sized tower.

[t33to]

Are you on Crimson drivers now? I've heard reports that the first Crimson release increase temps on video cards. Try rolling back to Catalyst just to check? Might be worth a shot.

 

This is of course assuming all fans are spinning, there isn't a dead beetle or wads of dog/cat hair in your video card.

 

I presume the card is fairly new, in which case it's probably highly unlikely but possible that the thermal conductivity paste between the heat sink and the gpu has worn out. I've seen this occur a few times in my life to not rule it out, but it's such a pain in the ass to fix.

[TankError144]

Are you on Crimson drivers now? I've heard reports that the first Crimson release increase temps on video cards. Try rolling back to Catalyst just to check? Might be worth a shot.

 

This is of course assuming all fans are spinning, there isn't a dead beetle or wads of dog/cat hair in your video card.

 

I presume the card is fairly new, in which case it's probably highly unlikely but possible that the thermal conductivity paste between the heat sink and the gpu has worn out. I've seen this occur a few times in my life to not rule it out, but it's such a pain in the ass to fix.

the card is refurbished, and i have no pets, i do have crimson, but it has the update that fixed the card melting issue.

[t33to]

the card is refurbished, and i have no pets, i do have crimson, but it has the update that fixed the card melting issue.

 

Definitely do a virus/malware scan, and insure nothing is actually using the GPU when it's supposed to be idling. That's your first step.

 

If still no change, I'd suggest rolling back to the catalyst drivers just because you should never have too much faith in driver updates.

 

If still no change, you could try replacing the thermal compound or I'd return it. If it's a refurb it's likely the issue was only temporarily fixed. I used to own a 12 machine internet gaming center. We purchased 12 Geforce ti4200's that were all refurbs. They ran fine for a month and then all of them started artifacting and nothing we tried would fix them leaving us to conclude they were just bandaided.

[TankError144]

Definitely do a virus/malware scan, and insure nothing is actually using the GPU when it's supposed to be idling. That's your first step.

 

If still no change, I'd suggest rolling back to the catalyst drivers just because you should never have too much faith in driver updates.

 

If still no change, you could try replacing the thermal compound or I'd return it. If it's a refurb it's likely the issue was only temporarily fixed. I used to own a 12 machine internet gaming center. We purchased 12 Geforce ti4200's that were all refurbs. They ran fine for a month and then all of them started artifacting and nothing we tried would fix them leaving us to conclude they were just bandaided.

thanks! ill see if any of that works 

[t33to]

Yeah but be careful cos as I said in my case anti malware / virus software didn't detect that bitcoin miner as a threat and I had to find it myself. It's simple, use your task manager and see which processes are using CPU on idle and then have a look if there is any you don't recognize. My was named steam.exe but it wasn't genuine steam process.

 

^^ this guy. That's some sneaky shit man! I should check my own system after reading that.