Sapphire Nitro+ RX470 Heat Issues

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NoyBoy98

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Aug 15, 2016
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So I've had this card in my new build and the build has been up for about a week now. Whenever I play Overwatch on Ultra settings, my card jumps up to 80-84*C. I would hardly say Overwatch is a demanding game and reviews I read have this card topping out in the low 70's on more demanding games.

My overall cooling setup is a little bare right now. I have 2 x 140's (stock fractal designs) in the front, and a Corsair H75 with the rad working in push/pull as my exhaust, all in a FD Define S case.

Will adding more or better case fans help my card temps? Thanks for the help guys.
 
Add another exhaust fan and make sure all the fans are blowing in the correct direction.
 
Could be problems with the card itself, perhaps the thermal solution on the card is not sufficient?
 
Something is wrong with your card OR your air flow. All my research says high 60's tops for a 470.

Based on what you posted, you only have 2x140 intake fans. I would add an outtake as Ocellaris suggested.

If your case offers a side-fan option in the video cards vicinity, I'd use it....

You just need to push air out somehow.
 
I'm going to deck out my case with a bunch of quiet AF120's and see how that goes. If it doesn't help, does Sapphire offer an RMA for things like this?
 
NoyBoy98 said:
Also, is there a burn in period for the GPU thermal paste?
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no.....it should be good from the start. i do believe you are allowed to remove their coolers for inspection and maintenance. Also are the fans running at a decent rpm when its hot? WAY to early to rma the card!
 
primetime said:
no.....it should be good from the start. i do believe you are allowed to remove their coolers for inspection and maintenance. Also are the fans running at a decent rpm when its hot? WAY to early to rma the card!
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Hey primetime,

The fans are definitely audible when the card hits those temps, so they're spinning at a high rate. I even tried playing with the fan curve to bring them to 100% at around 60* and the card still manages to hit the 80's. At this point I'm almost certain it's the air flow in my case. Luckily there's a fan mount at the bottom of my case too, so I can have a fan right next to the card as well.

Are Corsair 120's the best value right now in terms of noise to performance? I don't really want to splurge on Noctuas, especially since I'm not too fond of the colors.
 
You don't need to use all your available fan locations. 1-2 intakes and 1-2 exhausts are enough. After that it's just diminishing returns There is a video where someone tested fans vs temps and two intakes and one exhaust made the most sense. After that extra fans reduce temperatures by 1-2 degrees C. I would replace the TIM with something higher end, though, or just to make sure there are no problems there.
Overwatch can be demanding if your framerate is uncapped and settings cranked high. My 980ti runs at ~99% load playing overwatch.
 
NoyBoy98 said:
Hey primetime,

The fans are definitely audible when the card hits those temps, so they're spinning at a high rate. I even tried playing with the fan curve to bring them to 100% at around 60* and the card still manages to hit the 80's. At this point I'm almost certain it's the air flow in my case. Luckily there's a fan mount at the bottom of my case too, so I can have a fan right next to the card as well.

Are Corsair 120's the best value right now in terms of noise to performance? I don't really want to splurge on Noctuas, especially since I'm not too fond of the colors.
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take the side off for goodness sake......in an open air environment (or with a small room fan blowing air in) the card should not overheat at all. Anyways in a cool room with the side off in MOST cases the card doesn't need a fan blowing on it to just to test for over heating.
 
Koween said:
You don't need to use all your available fan locations. 1-2 intakes and 1-2 exhausts are enough. After that it's just diminishing returns There is a video where someone tested fans vs temps and two intakes and one exhaust made the most sense. After that extra fans reduce temperatures by 1-2 degrees C. I would replace the TIM with something higher end, though, or just to make sure there are no problems there.
Overwatch can be demanding if your framerate is uncapped and settings cranked high. My 980ti runs at ~99% load playing overwatch.
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I've seen multiple videos proving so, but I just ordered a 5 pack of Arctic F12 PWM fans so I might as well make use of some. Any little bit helps.

Will replacing the TIM on my GPU void the warranty? I have a tube of AS5. Is there a thermal compound you recommend?

I will try to cap my FPS around 100 or so. It currently plays around 130-150 on Ultra.


primetime said:
take the side off for goodness sake......in an open air environment (or with a small room fan blowing air in) the card should not overheat at all. Anyways in a cool room with the side off in MOST cases the card doesn't need a fan blowing on it to just to test for over heating.
Click to expand...

I'm honestly thinking of just doing a re-haul and re-setting my AIO block too. I have a 6600k and at 4.3ghz and 1.265v I feel like it hits 80*c way too easily under stress (OCCT, Intel Burn, and Prime95). I've seen people with better results using an Evo 212, so I think once the fans come in (tomorrow), I'll reseat and reconfigure everything because I think the overall temp in my case is just bad.

I will mention that the card gets loud even with the side panel off if that helps.
 
I'm not sure of the warranty - I think it depends on the manufacturer. There's probably a sticker on one of the screws, if it matters to them. Anyway - try to research that, as I'm not sure of it.
I used to use AS5 and it worked well for me on gpus and cpus. After the syringe I had dried up I bought some Thermal Grizzly Cryonaut. It's one of the best performing TIM's (or at least it was when I bought it) but it's price/peformance is bad... There are some cheaper TIMs that are within a couple of degrees from it, I think AS5 is one of those and I'd just use that, if I had some lying around.
As for removing a side panel - I tested that with my Corsair 600t, two 200mm intakes, three 120mm exhausts. Removing the side panel actually made the temperatures worse, probably because that made the "wind tunnel" effect disappear.
I would try capping fps at a comfortable level for you. Even with a 60hz monitor there may be a reason to have much higher framerates - for me there is a difference between 60fps and ~120fps in the way the mouse responds in something like CS:GO. But having higher framerates for no reason is probably just wasteful.
 
I would agree with what primetime mentioned earlier. The easiest and quickest way to find out if the case cooling is your problem is to try running the computer during a stress situation, like gaming, with the side panel off. If the temps are where they should be with the side panel off, proper cooling and fan placement will fix the problem guaranteed.
If however, the problems with heat continue with the side panel off, you're going to want to look into an RMA for the card. Best of luck!
 
lol im actually wondering what the temp is inside the room! If its above 75F inside the room that can be a factor. Some pictures could help as well.....I dont have a lot of fans but maybe mine just blow a lot more air. I broke my primary exhaust fan last time i cleaned my case and IT STILL NEVER OVER HEATS!. Course i took the side off when that happened.
 
Case fans are delayed a day (will deliver tomorrow), but I did try capping the max FPS in Overwatch settings and that seems to have fixed the issue. I did some research and it looks like a lot of people are having this issue with Overwatch (even on the menu screens!). So I set the max FPS to match the refresh rate of my monitor and temps are now max out at 71*C and fans are barely audible.

Now I'm hoping that these extra fans will keep the temps down on my 6600k. I only have it at 4.3ghz @ 1.265v and it hits low 80s within 15 mins of Prime95 using an H75 cooler. I'm seeing people online getting much lower temps at 4.5ghz on air alone :mad:.
 
The fans have an arrow that tell which way that the air is blowing. Make sure that you have them properly installed. If you have the arrows set to blow at each other on the AIO water cooler then that will be a problem. If you have all the fans in the case set so that everything is sucking air into the case, then you have no exhaust.

I've seen pros mess it up when speed installing their stuff from excitement. :)
 
It is crazy to think that high end Nvidia card 1080 runs cooler than < average AMD card. I was so sick of their heat/high temperature issue with r390x that i finally decided to drop those and get 1080.
 
Okay, so here's an update on my cooling situation.

- I traded out the Define S for an NZXT s340. As beautiful of a case as the Define S is, I don't think it's worth having if you don't stick a custom water cooling rig in there. With a baby on the way, it wasn't going to happen anytime soon. It could just be me, but I felt like the front fans were too far to make a good impact at quiet fan speeds. The front fans in the s340 are much closer to the meat of my rig. It's like that super hot model you pick up at the bar. Initially the experience is exciting, until you find that you need to pump more money into it to keep you happy ;).

- I traded out all of the non-PWM fans and the two PWM fans on my Corsair H75 for 5 Arctic F12 fans. Got a pack of 5 on Amazon for $20. They're not the best on the market, but they perform better than the stock fans that came with both the Define S and s340 at the expense of one premium fan. I have two fans on the rad in push pull mounted on the front of the case, another fan above the rad pushing air in, a rear exhaust and top exhaust.

I'm now able to maintain low to mid 60's on both my RX470 using Valley benchmark and mildly OC'd 6600k (4.3ghz @ 1.265v) using IBT and Prime95. I know I can get the temps 2-4* cooler, but it isn't worth the extra noise and I've set the fan curves so that they reach tolerable noise at full load. I'll try for a better OC on my 6600k once I shell out for a Kraken x61.

- Another thing that helped was frame capping my Overwatch settings. Overwatch is such a card hog!

So in the end I saved $20 on my case, and have decent air flow from 5 PWM fans that only cost me $20. Thanks again folks for all of the help!
 
Koween said:
So, the problem, basically, was not enough airflow inside the case?
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In short yes, LOL. But with this being my first build in 10 years and not ever having to deal with air flow in between (Mac user), I learned a lot from this experience. It's actually addicting. I just wish I had the cash flow to tinker more.

Next project...sleeving my PSU cables.
 
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