7970 running hot?

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N_L

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I have a MSI 7970 Be edition which is overclocked from the get go, core clock 1050 memory clock 1375. I have a fan curve set up in MSI afterburner 1c=1% and while gaming, in this case Hitman Absolution fan and temperature were constantly around 80 degrees Celsius. 79-81.

Is this too high or still considered normal? It really seems strange to me to be that high at 80% fan for a month old card, even my old 4870x2 which was hot on default ran cooler with fan turned up like that...

I also have a flicker problem for which I'm considering RMAing the card so if this is too hot it just might be the push I need to send it back.
 
i have 3 of the same cards they would hit 80-90c load temps. do this use afterburner and reduce the vcore on my cards i can run the stock 1050 clock at 1.125 v core and that drooped my temps to the low 70s. i really think the picked to high of a stock vcore. since then i have put 3 ek wb on them and my temps are 38-41c load:)
 
Nice about ek wb, I'm planning on getting another 7970 down the road so maybe I'll get that too but right now I need to make sure this is all ok. My CPU even with big heatsink and cooler was at like 60-70 at load (same time during game) so I don't know if that's a lot too. (i5 3750k).

My core voltage in AB is 1256 and memory voltage is at 1500, never really messed around with it and want to be sure what I'm doing before changing so can you tell me which of these 2 to change? First one to 1125? And what do I look for to see if there are signs of trouble beside smoke coming out if something went wrong? :p

P.S. Raising 2D clocks now, someone suggested that fixes flickering because its too low, let's see how that works out opposed to underclocking that fixes it.
 
While that does seem a bit toasty, 7970's are toasty chips in general, especially at GHz edition speeds. I wouldn't be concerned with it as stated, but it does seem that you might have some room to improve your case airflow which will help you out a bit. If you use that card as an inner card in crossfire, my guess is you'll have heat issues with it unless you increase your case airflow.

For me, with a pair of 7970s, all I had to do was turn up my case fans from slow to medium and I picked up a 10c drop on the inner card along with a 20% drop in fan speed when bitcoining...
 
Here's pic of my case inside and from area where it's at. I know cables are mess but they're out of the way and ones inside I never look at and ones on outside I've been moving a lot so haven't gotten around to tidying up.

8OtasGo.jpg

wBZCeqC.jpg


Fan on heatsink blowing toward exhaust one on the back, ones on top aren't connected because they make noise and I'm not sure if I should have them on even. Soundcard is below graphics card and just noticed little thing that moved out of place next to it is dust guard.
Not sure what else I can do except fix top fans and turn them on if that will help.

P.S. There was another fan below cables but removed it because it also was off and with all the fans around it didn't want it on.
P.P.S. If I use underclock method instead of higher 2D clocks card runs few degrees coler (very few)
P.P.S. Reducing voltage did pretty much nothing.
 
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These cards are rated past 90°C. Your temps are fine, if you're worried you can set a more aggressive profile than that. While it does seem a little on the toasty side, I've seen higher heat before.
 
Well I just did OCCT test for half an hour and temperature was 90-95 degrees Celsius.. If that's not bad I don't know what is.

Also during CPU test my i5 3570k was under heavy load at ~70 temp, OCed from 3.4 to 3.8, is that a lot?
 
Do you have any intake fans? You didnt mention any nor can i see any in the picture.
 
N_L said:
Here's pic of my case inside and from area where it's at. I know cables are mess but they're out of the way and ones inside I never look at and ones on outside I've been moving a lot so haven't gotten around to tidying up.

[SNIP]http://i.imgur.com/8OtasGo.jpg[/IMG]
[SNIP]http://i.imgur.com/wBZCeqC.jpg[/IMG]

Fan on heatsink blowing toward exhaust one on the back, ones on top aren't connected because they make noise and I'm not sure if I should have them on even. Soundcard is below graphics card and just noticed little thing that moved out of place next to it is dust guard.
Not sure what else I can do except fix top fans and turn them on if that will help.

P.S. There was another fan below cables but removed it because it also was off and with all the fans around it didn't want it on.
P.P.S. If I use underclock method instead of higher 2D clocks card runs few degrees coler (very few)
P.P.S. Reducing voltage did pretty much nothing.
Click to expand...

Get the two top fans spinning and you should see an immediate difference.

If not.... Adding a fan on the back of the upper hard drive cage (assuming there's no hdd's int hat upper one) would do wonders for card temps, as it'd have cold intake air being pushed across the card. That or increasing your output from the top fans would be your best bet.

Eureka! said:
These cards are rated past 90°C. Your temps are fine, if you're worried you can set a more aggressive profile than that. While it does seem a little on the toasty side, I've seen higher heat before.
Click to expand...

If he's at 90c, then his fan profile likely has him dialed up to 100%, and to me, that's a bit too high to be comfortable for long term usage as the card isn't capable of removing anymore heat than it already is...

N_L said:
Well I just did OCCT test for half an hour and temperature was 90-95 degrees Celsius.. If that's not bad I don't know what is.

Also during CPU test my i5 3570k was under heavy load at ~70 temp, OCed from 3.4 to 3.8, is that a lot?
Click to expand...

OCCT is not a good real world test of your card's cooling as it uses the cards in ways that games never will...

70c is sustainable on the CPU but of course, it'd be nice for it to be lower.
 
Domini said:
Do you have any intake fans? You didnt mention any nor can i see any in the picture.
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I do not, going to open my case again, connect different fans, see where they go and what I can do.
David_Schroth said:
Get the two top fans spinning and you should see an immediate difference.

If not.... Adding a fan on the back of the upper hard drive cage (assuming there's no hdd's int hat upper one) would do wonders for card temps, as it'd have cold intake air being pushed across the card. That or increasing your output from the top fans would be your best bet.



If he's at 90c, then his fan profile likely has him dialed up to 100%, and to me, that's a bit too high to be comfortable for long term usage as the card isn't capable of removing anymore heat than it already is...



OCCT is not a good real world test of your card's cooling as it uses the cards in ways that games never will...

70c is sustainable on the CPU but of course, it'd be nice for it to be lower.
Click to expand...

I'm gonna turn them on now and see how it goes. They were making weird noises last time even after cleaning and oiling so I might replace them. Problem about left one is I think it will blow air toward one that's being pulled out which in turn will go down toward graphics card.
I think i do have an HDD there but I can move it bottom (spread them around so the heat wouldn't affect each other, 2 HDDs and SSD). Now if I put a vent there were will the air be coming from because that area has HDDs which will generate heat, maybe remove case "door" that covers it all? I honestly never even open it but if it improves the airflow I'll remove it.

The fan weren't 100%, they follow temperature 1:1 so 95c was 95% which is still crazy. I know OCCT isn't realistic and in same test where I saw the results game ones were kinda the same as mine but OCCT got me worried because it was 10 degrees higher.
Seen here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5458/the-radeon-hd-7970-reprise-pcie-bandwidth-overclocking-and-msaa/2

Do you have any recommendation for test? I've got some games installed including Metro, TOmb Raider, Witcher 2, BF3 etc all very demanding and I have logitech g15 and MSI afteburner has lcd mod that shows me temp there so I can follow it closely.

Room temperature is in mid 20s I guess. I have no cooling device whatsoever and temperature outside was in mid to high 20s today (all celsius)
 
N_L said:
I'm gonna turn them on now and see how it goes. They were making weird noises last time even after cleaning and oiling so I might replace them. Problem about left one is I think it will blow air toward one that's being pulled out which in turn will go down toward graphics card.
I think i do have an HDD there but I can move it bottom (spread them around so the heat wouldn't affect each other, 2 HDDs and SSD). Now if I put a vent there were will the air be coming from because that area has HDDs which will generate heat, maybe remove case "door" that covers it all? I honestly never even open it but if it improves the airflow I'll remove it.

The fan weren't 100%, they follow temperature 1:1 so 95c was 95% which is still crazy. I know OCCT isn't realistic and in same test where I saw the results game ones were kinda the same as mine but OCCT got me worried because it was 10 degrees higher.
Seen here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5458/the-radeon-hd-7970-reprise-pcie-bandwidth-overclocking-and-msaa/2

Do you have any recommendation for test? I've got some games installed including Metro, TOmb Raider, Witcher 2, BF3 etc all very demanding and I have logitech g15 and MSI afteburner has lcd mod that shows me temp there so I can follow it closely.

Room temperature is in mid 20s I guess. I have no cooling device whatsoever and temperature outside was in mid to high 20s today (all celsius)
Click to expand...

If the fans are making noise, just replace them. They're not very expensive (and probably didn't like you oiling them).

As for proper airflow, remember that hot air rises. Therefore, the 3 fans near the CPU need to be blowing OUT of the case in order to draw the cool air in from the intakes in the lower part of the case. If the top fans are blowing in, you're essentially creating an oven.

For purposes of figuring out your airflow, OCCT might be your best bet for the sake of consistency.

I wouldn't worry about the intake fan so much right now - get your outbound fans working properly up top and that could take care of the issue. On the top part of my P193, I don't have any intake fans and I can keep a pair of 7970s under 70c under full load.
 
David_Schroth said:
If the fans are making noise, just replace them. They're not very expensive (and probably didn't like you oiling them).

As for proper airflow, remember that hot air rises. Therefore, the 3 fans near the CPU need to be blowing OUT of the case in order to draw the cool air in from the intakes in the lower part of the case. If the top fans are blowing in, you're essentially creating an oven.

For purposes of figuring out your airflow, OCCT might be your best bet for the sake of consistency.

I wouldn't worry about the intake fan so much right now - get your outbound fans working properly up top and that could take care of the issue. On the top part of my P193, I don't have any intake fans and I can keep a pair of 7970s under 70c under full load.
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An intake fan would still benefit so it can blow cool air to the card, but i completly agree with turning the other 2 fans on. If they are noisey then buy quieter fans, it may push slightly less air but it will be silent.
 
First of here are some pics and my ideas and you guys can tell if it's a good way to go:
hdd rack from other side: http://i.imgur.com/EsOH2ha.jpg
space between gpu and sound card: http://i.imgur.com/aqWExB4.jpg
potential fan place: http://i.imgur.com/ejddKue.jpg

Ok so I tried putting that fan to serve as an intake but as you can see in the background it might not be the best idea, there's no direct place to get air from and 3 HDDs are there which will be making heat on their own so taking that are.. Plus as you can see in last pic I can't really fit it there, no way to screw it in place.

So I figured I should put it back at the bottom right where it was to serve as an itake because that's how it was meant to be, get cool air from front side while one next to cpu pulls it out and two on top also pull it out. Both are exhaust vents, so I'm gonna turn them both on now. Speed isn't an issue about them, all are 120mm but some weird sound, like if i touch the fan few times while it's running it stops, also noticed when I faced it toward me (really close) I could barely feel it, are they really that weak?

And I wanted to put sound card down but that's not a slot for it, I think it's a slot for another graphic card and you can see how much space there is, nothing I can do unfortunately :\

Gonna do it all now, tidy up the cables and see how it goes, will report soon.
 
I have ran 3 6970s and 3 7970s in tri fire for years and the 7970s were good even at the mid 90s!!!!! Heat isnt your issue.
 
Cosmos 1000 case is poor in airflow design. That being said, please get you an intake fan on the bottom there. It'll help.
 
I would start by doing what someone recommended and lowering the voltage.

Stock voltage on most aftermarket 7970s are ridiculous, at ~1ghz they push volts that most cards can do 1175-1200mhz with. Shouldn't be an issue to drop that 1.256 way down to like 1.13, which will lower temps a bunch :)

They are hot and loud either way, my 7970 @ 1125/1.17v hit 84c on an open bench and one was louder then my dual 6870s were(heck, louder then my dual 4870X2s were too I think!). Replacing stock TIM dropped it to 78-79 and throwing a modded H70 on it dropped it way down to high 40s at the same clock/voltage.
 
Those are nice temperature gains to gain from replacing the stock TIM. I'm looking for cheap ways to improve temps of my 7950 for high OCs, what paste would you recommend I use? I am buying a high-end CPU cooler (Dark Rock Pro 2), will the thermal paste from that be suitable/effective for using on my 7950? I also have some Cooler Master paste that I got with my Hyper 212 3 years ago, will that be any good? I assume the DRP2 TIM will be better?

I'm also looking into getting thermal pads and some more fans to improve overall airflow.
 
Gumbi10 said:
Those are nice temperature gains to gain from replacing the stock TIM. I'm looking for cheap ways to improve temps of my 7950 for high OCs, what paste would you recommend I use? I am buying a high-end CPU cooler (Dark Rock Pro 2), will the thermal paste from that be suitable/effective for using on my 7950? I also have some Cooler Master paste that I got with my Hyper 212 3 years ago, will that be any good? I assume the DRP2 TIM will be better?

I'm also looking into getting thermal pads and some more fans to improve overall airflow.
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I just used some old nasty AS Ceramique from the back of my junk drawer since that's all I had left lying around. Dropped about 5c.

Unless you go with top tier stuff like Liquid Pro/Ultra, most basic TIMs are within 1-2c anyway. Probably anything will be better then the hard gunk it comes with, and they also use way too much.
 
<Puck> said:
I just used some old nasty AS Ceramique from the back of my junk drawer since that's all I had left lying around. Dropped about 5c.

Unless you go with top tier stuff like Liquid Pro/Ultra, most basic TIMs are within 1-2c anyway. Probably anything will be better then the hard gunk it comes with, and they also use way too much.
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Hmm. So the DRP2 stuff might even be better. And tell me, you applied it as you would a CPU? Tiny amount in the middle and let the heatsink pressure spread it out?
 
N_L said:
I have a MSI 7970 Be edition which is overclocked from the get go, core clock 1050 memory clock 1375. I have a fan curve set up in MSI afterburner 1c=1% and while gaming, in this case Hitman Absolution fan and temperature were constantly around 80 degrees Celsius. 79-81.

Is this too high or still considered normal? It really seems strange to me to be that high at 80% fan for a month old card, even my old 4870x2 which was hot on default ran cooler with fan turned up like that...

I also have a flicker problem for which I'm considering RMAing the card so if this is too hot it just might be the push I need to send it back.
Click to expand...

While I understand those temperatures seem troubling. Those video cards are designed to handle that much heat output. The video card will shut down or start throttling if you reach a certain threshold.
 
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