6870 high idle temp?

[MRAB54]

I decided to wipe off the default thermal goo on my 6870 and put some arctic silver on there. Of course, I forgot to check what temps I was getting before hand but I'm thinking it was low 40's at least. Now, I'm idling at 52 C which seems pretty high. I would have remembered if I was idling that high before.

The fan says its running. Is there any way I just didn't put it back together correctly? Or maybe I just didn't get good coverage of the chip... Probably going to have to crack it open again.

 

[requiem99]

Mine idles 38-40C in a average temp room. I would guess you did something wrong, unless you have bad case cooling or you are in a very warm room.

 

[Slava]

It depends how hot in your room. Yesterday, my temperature was at about 50-52C idling. Now, today its cold outside and inside room. It is 38-41C.

 

[Flyinfinni]

I idle around 50C on my 6850. I think its just my ambient temp is generally over 80F (up to 84). Even my 5750's idled around there.

 

[requiem99]

I idle around 50C on my 6850. I think its just my ambient temp is generally over 80F (up to 84). Even my 5750's idled around there.

That's a fairly high ambient temp, what I would consider a hot room. My computer room is usually pretty warm (to me) at around 75F.

 

[Flyinfinni]

Yeah, well, in the desert it costs a fortune to keep a room that cool. I keep my AC set at 78F, but with 2 fairly high performance computers in this room, its just warm When my wife and I are both gaming, the temp in here can get as high as 85. Just no way to really keep it lower without blowing the bank on AC :-P I guess it doesn't feel near as hot when its over 100F outside though.

 

[W.Feather]

That's a fairly high ambient temp, what I would consider a hot room. My computer room is usually pretty warm (to me) at around 75F.

thats cold ! ... i have a typical ambient of 85-89(live in FL lol, AC cant keep up with all the PC's)

anyhow, in the 85-89 ambient i was in i was idleing up in the 54c range or so on an XFX 6870....so as said depening on what your ambient is that may not be bad.

 

[requiem99]

I was saying around this time of year with the gas heat keeping the house 72-74C the PC room is always a bit warmer because of the volume of running hardware despite having the heat vent closed off... during the summer about the same story because we like our air conditioning.

 

[MRAB54]

I was saying around this time of year with the gas heat keeping the house 72-74C the PC room is always a bit warmer because of the volume of running hardware despite having the heat vent closed off... during the summer about the same story because we like our air conditioning.

I've got a room temp of 70. I pulled it apart again and it looked like a near perfect coverage of the chip. Then I got worried arctic silver may be conductive because there are a few resistors close to the chip - I don't think I got any goo on them. Anyways, I wiped it all off and put some cheapo white thermal paste and now i'm idling at 56-57 .

I'm really not sure what the deal is but I guess I'm going to put the arctic silver back on. I did add another case fan at the same time, maybe that screwed up the air flow...

 

[Flyinfinni]

The AS5 is conductive, but if you are careful, it won't get on those (I think they are actually capacitors, but doesn't really matter ;-) I put AS5 on mine as well a I had to take the heatsink off anyway. Its been slowly dropping in idle temps as well as the AS5 cures- remember- its gotta set before you get optimal temps. It started at ~53C idle, and now its down to 49-50C.