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7970 BEDD Heat Issue

H

HonedFury

n00b
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Messages
11
Hey everyone,

I just signed up after googling about this and finding the best/most relevant information on this forum. Here's the deal:

I bought a XFX BEDD 7970 the other day (got it on Friday afternoon). I had been previously running an Asus 5850 that was OC'd up to 850/1250 at 1.08v from what I remember. This have me operating temperatures of ~72-75°C at a fan of 40-50%.

The 7970 is giving me temperatures of around 90°C when its being used (this is at the 1000/1425 clocks), same case, same room etc. Highest I got was 93 playing BF3.. I made a custom fan profile in afterburner and ramped the fan up to 100%, this gave me around ~85°C when gaming.. I got rid of that profile though as it was ridiculously loud. I tried OCing the card to see if it was working normally, got it to 1100/1575 (would freeze at 1125), custom fan profile would keep it ~90°C @60-80% fan.. got a few artifacts trying it out of Witcher 2 though so I have since rolled it back to the 1000/1425.

Ambient temperature is around 26-30°C in my room.

Is this card faulty? Should I try and get a replacement? I'm in Australia so I'd rather not have to send it back (interstate shipping...) but if it is actually dodgy (heat sink not set properly is the only thing I can think of..) then I'd probably want to invest in getting it swapped.. Cost me a ridiculous amount and is seemingly not really worth the investment at all..

Any advice on this would be great, thanks!
 
HonedFury said:
Hey everyone,

I just signed up after googling about this and finding the best/most relevant information on this forum. Here's the deal:

I bought a XFX BEDD 7970 the other day (got it on Friday afternoon). I had been previously running an Asus 5850 that was OC'd up to 850/1250 at 1.08v from what I remember. This have me operating temperatures of ~72-75°C at a fan of 40-50%.

The 7970 is giving me temperatures of around 90°C when its being used (this is at the 1000/1425 clocks), same case, same room etc. Highest I got was 93 playing BF3.. I made a custom fan profile in afterburner and ramped the fan up to 100%, this gave me around ~85°C when gaming.. I got rid of that profile though as it was ridiculously loud. I tried OCing the card to see if it was working normally, got it to 1100/1575 (would freeze at 1125), custom fan profile would keep it ~90°C @60-80% fan.. got a few artifacts trying it out of Witcher 2 though so I have since rolled it back to the 1000/1425.

Ambient temperature is around 26-30°C in my room.

Is this card faulty? Should I try and get a replacement? I'm in Australia so I'd rather not have to send it back (interstate shipping...) but if it is actually dodgy (heat sink not set properly is the only thing I can think of..) then I'd probably want to invest in getting it swapped.. Cost me a ridiculous amount and is seemingly not really worth the investment at all..

Any advice on this would be great, thanks!
Click to expand...

What kind of case are you using?

Do you have proper airflow int he case? specially with the BEDD since it pumps the heat into the case.
 
DASHlT said:
What kind of case are you using?

Do you have proper airflow int he case? specially with the BEDD since it pumps the heat into the case.
Click to expand...

Ah yeah sorry I didn't put any specs up. The whole thing is:

Antec 902 Case
Antec 850 W signature PSU
Asus P6TD Deluxe mobo
Intel i7 920 @ 3.4 GHz with a megahalems single fan push
3 x 4 gb, 3 x 2 gb corsair dominators @ 1340, CL8 (from what I remember; I compose music on the PC so I need a lot of ram for libraries etc)
1 DVD RW drive
3 HDD (2 in the middle bay, 1 in the bottom bay)
X-Fi titanium fatal1ty pro pcie soundcard

The 7970 sits in the topmost pcie slot, so there's nothing on its back, and there's a full inch or so (1 PCI and 1 PCIe) worth of space between that and the tiny sound card that sits in the bottom slot.

I have the two front fans just on low as they don't seem to aid any temperatures apart from the HD, big boy fan is on high, back case fan is on high. For reference, CPU gets up to like 58-60 max when running prime..
 
Just did a test; opened the case and put a sizeable fan in front of it, set the card profile to kick up to 100% fan if it gets over 80°C... so this keeps it at 80 during gaming at least, but is ridiculously loud, and the fan has to kick up to the 100% around every 10 seconds or so..
 
HonedFury said:
Ah yeah sorry I didn't put any specs up. The whole thing is:

Antec 902 Case
Antec 850 W signature PSU
Asus P6TD Deluxe mobo
Intel i7 920 @ 3.4 GHz with a megahalems single fan push
3 x 4 gb, 3 x 2 gb corsair dominators @ 1340, CL8 (from what I remember; I compose music on the PC so I need a lot of ram for libraries etc)
1 DVD RW drive
3 HDD (2 in the middle bay, 1 in the bottom bay)
X-Fi titanium fatal1ty pro pcie soundcard

The 7970 sits in the topmost pcie slot, so there's nothing on its back, and there's a full inch or so (1 PCI and 1 PCIe) worth of space between that and the tiny sound card that sits in the bottom slot.

I have the two front fans just on low as they don't seem to aid any temperatures apart from the HD, big boy fan is on high, back case fan is on high. For reference, CPU gets up to like 58-60 max when running prime..
Click to expand...

If you can, move the 7970 down 1-2 pci-e slots. Those X58's northbridge can get VERY VERY hot.

See if that helps your temps at all.
 
I've come to the conclusion that XFX didn't do much testing with their BEDD cards. I've been reading about overheating problems, cards with fans falling off straight out of the package, rattling fans, plus the shroud just looks "cheap" to me.

Sorry for your troubles, op. It might be worth investing in an aftermarket heatsink once those hit the shelves.
 
Sad to say it didn't help at all.. Tested it just playing Witcher 2 for like 10-15 minutes, by the end it got to 95°C at 100% fan and the normal BEDD clocks..
 
Haste266 said:
I've come to the conclusion that XFX didn't do much testing with their BEDD cards. I've been reading about overheating problems, cards with fans falling off straight out of the package, rattling fans, plus the shroud just looks "cheap" to me.

Sorry for your troubles, op. It might be worth investing in an aftermarket heatsink once those hit the shelves.
Click to expand...

Hmm true.. From what I've been seeing XFX just seem to generally do a shitty job. Should I call up the place I got it and see if I can get it exchanged? Would much rather just get a reference Asus or Sapphire and then aftermarket onto that..
 
Sounds like it will be short lived, send it back for exchange or deal with the problems.
 
Cool, thanks for the help guys!

Should I see if they'll swap for a different card and refund me the difference? It was like ~100 more than the reference ones. Or are the BEDD cards actually good when they work?
 
My BEDD runs BF3 at about 62c in my HAF 932, so I think you got a faulty card. That is with my card overclocked as well. The only thing that really gives me trouble is Furmark, but I was able to fix that by creating a custom fan profile.
 
You just got a bad card. I'd RMA it and try another one.
 
my BEDD runs cooler than that in a comparable case so you may have a faulty card. one possible scenario: if you are using Afterburner 2.2.0 Beta 10 and you hit the 'reset' button at any point, it will reset your voltage to 1.175V. this could be a problem if you have a 1.05V VID card and would cause high temps like you're seeing. that's a long shot, but thought i'd throw the idea out there just in case.

if you determine you have a faulty card just exchange for a reference card and save some money. these cards are nice for slightly quieter operation but not worth a price premium in my opinion.
 
Hm I unlocked the voltage in Afterburner, and tried reset just to see what it did; it listed it as 1.049 on the settings, but then when I ran Kombustor it said 1.17 in the kombustor side info panel. Still got up to 95 degrees before I aborted it.. Am definitely going to call them up tomorrow.

Thanks all for your inputs! I'll post again when there's news on the exchange/refund/whatever for closure's sake
 
Hey guys, just an update;

So I contacted the store and they said that they had heaps of people returning the cards when they were just poorly ventilated and to make sure that this isn't the case for me or they'll have to charge me a maintenance fee.

In order to check, I took the card out and put it back into the topmost slot where it has more room underneath it for the fans to suck air etc, and took out all of the pci case covers on the back. With the side off and a fan blowing on it from the outside as well (small desk fan), the card can run Kombustor at 80deg 100% fan.

I put the side back on and have since gamed on it etc and it seems to be staying around 78-83deg with a 50-70% fan during normal gameplay. So I guess it's ok..? I'm thinking I'll put another fan on the back of the case over the pci openings and just suck as much air as I can out of it..

Down the track if I get more for crossfire or just decide I don't want to put up with the sound anymore, this board can be used for a liquid cooling set up right? I think I read somewhere that the BEDD uses the reference board layout.?


But yeah.. bit of a strange and tedious story there isn't it
 
Did you actually tell them the truth? =.=
This is one of those cases where you need to just lie.
There's NOWHERE ON the card that says "requires well ventilated case."
This is the time where you need to get just as underhanded as the company you're dealing with.

Just tell them you have a lian li case with 4 case fans and ask for a RMA without the fee, and grab a reference card instead of the BEDD.
 
If you decide to keep it. I would remove the cooler and reapply tim on the gpu and fix the cooler so it is seated right. I have done this on a few cards and man did it work wonders. those cards sometimes get way too much tim and dont seat right.
 
I'm back on the ati wagon and I'm wondering if his previous card, driver settings or profiles had anything to do with the problem. I mean, even if your staying in the family, should you delete the drivers or do drivers identify the new card and accommodate the new tech and features automatically?

Sorry if my post sounds ignorant. I wonder ofter about residual drivers causing problems. I've returned cards in the past that I though were broken to find out later that after a fresh install of windows, they worked just fine.
 
@Falkentyne: Haha yeah I actually told them the truth, my bad.. But to send it in I would have to pay the interstate shipping there, then they'd test it "in their well ventilated case" and if it checks out within spec then they'd charge me a service fee, and charge me the shipping back.. :-\

But they did say that they're contacting their XFX rep about it to see if they think its within spec.. If it comes back that it is then I think I'll just keep it..

@purefun65: yeah I read about this somewhere (possibly here) but I wouldn't really know what to do with it procedure-wise.. And the back seals of the GPU heatsink have little stickers *warranty void if removed* so I was a bit iffy about it all.. I'm thinking that if I end up wanting more power etc then I might just invest in water cooling and crossfire it with a 7970/7990 (in a few years or whenever that would be necessary)

@Pkirk618: From what I know, you should generally uninstall the drivers whilst the old card is still in, then swap them and reinstall the new drivers. Otherwise you may have issues with it getting messy because you'd be putting in the card whilst the old drivers are still installed but not relevant etc
 
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