GeForce 780 Ti Temps

[BlargKing]

Just a bit of background, this is my 2nd 780 Ti. My first one died 6 months ago inexplicably, but thankfully was still under warrenty from EVGA so they sent me a replacement. The specific card model is a EVGA 780 Ti Superclocked edition, with the reference PCB and cooler. I don't know what it is, but this card doesn't seem as good as my first cooling wise. My old card didn't break a sweat playing older stuff like Half Life 2 and Garrys mod (it would stay under 60 C) but this card seems to get pretty hot no matter what I do. Even those lightweight games send my card up into 75-80 C temps and have the cooler fan screaming away. I never heard the fan on my old card unless I was running Heaven benchmark.

 

So what could it be? Was my old GPU a lucky extra well binned chip? Is this card of a poorer binning, or are most 780 Ti's like this?

 

As a final example, playing Overwatch on high settings @1080p brings my GPU to 83 C, meanwhile my laptop playing Overwatch on high @1080p on a 960M barely breaks 65 C.

 

I dust my PC frequently, so the cooler isn't clogged up. Perhaps I should put new thermal paste? I have a tube of MX-4 laying around.

 

Thanks!

[Skiiwee29]

Try re-pasting it. Since it is an older card, the paste is probably old and potentially dried up. 

[jhurst117]

those seem like normal temps for a 780ti anything over 85c is worrying

[scottyseng]

2 minutes ago, BlargKing said:

-snip-

I remember the old 780 Ti (EVGA Classified) in my brother's PC running around the same temps. My friend bought the GPU (My brother upgraded to a 1060) and I changed the thermal paste just cause. They really do cake it on the GPU. I would change it anyway.

[BlargKing]

Just now, legacy99 said:

Try re-pasting it. Since it is an older card, the paste is probably old and potentially dried up. 

I know its an older model but it was mint-in-box when it was sent to me 6 months ago...unless it was sitting on a shelf and dried up still?

[Skiiwee29]

2 minutes ago, BlargKing said:

I know its an older model but it was mint-in-box when it was sent to me 6 months ago...unless it was sitting on a shelf and dried up still?

Yea, the card was likely on a shelf in the warehouse for a while before being shipped. It only takes like 20 minutes to disable, apply new paste and reassemble a card anyways so not much time wasted to test. 

[BlargKing]

5 minutes ago, legacy99 said:

Yea, the card was likely on a shelf in the warehouse for a while before being shipped. It only takes like 20 minutes to disable, apply new paste and reassemble a card anyways so not much time wasted to test. 

Yeah. I'll probably do it tomorrow (Im out of rubbing alcohol to clean the old paste). IMO its worth it to replace OEM paste anyways since the MX-4 doesn't dry out (supposedly).

[TrigrH]

Just now, BlargKing said:

Yeah. I'll probably do it tomorrow (Im out of rubbing alcohol to clean the old paste). IMO its worth it to replace OEM paste anyways since the MX-4 doesn't dry out (supposedly).

yes MX-4 is a good choice for a GPU die.

[BlargKing]

Just now, TrigrH said:

yes MX-4 is a good choice for a GPU die.

For applying paste, should I follow the CPU application method? Or is there a different method since the paste is going directly onto the GPU?

[TrigrH]

Just now, BlargKing said:

For applying paste, should I follow the CPU application method? Or is there a different method since the paste is going directly onto the GPU?

nope, u wanna use a LOT more a shape like this over the die:

[BlargKing]

Just now, TrigrH said:

nope, u wanna use a LOT more a shape like this over the die:

Okay thats good to know. I would hate to send my GPU into a meltdown because of lack of paste. 

[TrigrH]

Just now, BlargKing said:

Okay thats good to know. I would hate to send my GPU into a meltdown because of lack of paste. 

in ur case the die is the inner silver square:

 

[BlargKing]

Just now, TrigrH said:

in ur case the die is the inner silver square:

 

gotcha. The vram and vrm use thermal pads right? Are there any replacements for those that offer better thermal conductivity or are thermal pads all pretty much the same?

[TrigrH]

Just now, BlargKing said:

gotcha. The vram and vrm use thermal pads right? Are there any replacements for those that offer better thermal conductivity or are thermal pads all pretty much the same?

don't touch the thermal pads at all, some will stick to the cooler some will stick to the board, doesn't matter cos u just put the cooler back down and everything lines up.

[BlargKing]

1 minute ago, TrigrH said:

don't touch the thermal pads at all, some will stick to the cooler some will stick to the board, doesn't matter cos u just put the cooler back down and everything lines up.

Alright.

[BlargKing]

17 hours ago, legacy99 said:

Yea, the card was likely on a shelf in the warehouse for a while before being shipped. It only takes like 20 minutes to disable, apply new paste and reassemble a card anyways so not much time wasted to test. 

Okay I took the cooler off the card and sure enough the thermal paste had almost completely dried up and turned into almost a powdery material. I cleaned off the GPU and heatsink and applied some MX-4. I played some Overwatch and the temps are down from 83-84 C to 79-80C so about a 4 C improvement, but the main thing is now the fan isn't screaming at full tilt its only going 60% speed so I'm going to adjust my fan curves to see if I can lower the temps even further. 

[Skiiwee29]

5 minutes ago, BlargKing said:

Okay I took the cooler off the card and sure enough the thermal paste had almost completely dried up and turned into almost a powdery material. I cleaned off the GPU and heatsink and applied some MX-4. I played some Overwatch and the temps are down from 83-84 C to 79-80C so about a 4 C improvement, but the main thing is now the fan isn't screaming at full tilt its only going 60% speed so I'm going to adjust my fan curves to see if I can lower the temps even further. 

Excellent. Unfortunately this does happen with older cards

[sgloux3470]

17 hours ago, BlargKing said:

Okay thats good to know. I would hate to send my GPU into a meltdown because of lack of paste. 

The rule of thumb with thermal paste is that too little is awful, too much doesn't make a difference as long as it's non conductive. (if it's conductive you just have to be careful not to spread it EVERYWHERE.)

[BlargKing]

Adjusted my fan curves. At 70% fan speed my gpu holds steady at 70 C running full tilt.