Is 60 degrees hot?

[J_Tweedy]

im running a Gigabyte 6800gt that idles at 60C and climbs to 70ish when in heavier use.
Ive got 6 fans altogether on my case, but i have heard that my type of case aint that great (it was pretty cheap-overclockers)

firstly, is this hot?
secondly, can i do anything using vsync to help this?
thirdly, what else can be done- would simply drilling a few holes in the case help? im a bit of a newb with this stuff.

 

[[Matt]]

6800 cards do tend to run pretty hot but 60-70 does seem a little warm. in a good case you should be getting around 50-70 depending on what the card is doing. Do you know what ambient temperature your case runs at?

 

[J_Tweedy]

about 34C, atleast it is now, and cpu at 35ish, up to 50 with use (razorlame mp3 encoding etc.)

the card did use to idle at about 56C when i got it (about 3mnths ago) and i havent done any overclocking or changed any fan speeds.
Do you reckon dust build up could be causing it? I havent used air on it yet. my room is on the dusty side, but just wondering how much difference dust can make? (if thats the problem)

 

[[Matt]]

Dust build up is possible. What CPU do you have btw and what cooling/thermal paste are you using?

 

[Dumb Dude]

Nah man, my freind has a 6800gt and it too idles at 60c. Nothing bad happens to his in terms or heat problems. We've played long hours of Counter Strike Source and all goes well. I wouldn't worry about those temps, they seem normal for the 6800's.

 

[frusion]

MY 6800ultra also idles around 58 - 61

 

[J_Tweedy]

cheers guys, just the fact that it has risen from what it used to idle at when i first got it, is the only worrying thing.
and i posted on here a while back about some problems i was having and some replies suggested that heat could be my problem. (i was getting major glitchy errors that fixed themselves when i installed the drivers again, but this could have just been giving the time for the card to cool down when i restarted the computer)

 

[J_Tweedy]

Dust build up is possible. What CPU do you have btw and what cooling/thermal paste are you using?

ive got a amd64 3200+ with the stock fan. No thermal paste- what is that?

 

[[Matt]]

Its the stuff that goes between the CPU and HS to transfer heat better... Stock AMD coolers coolers come with a silver thermal pad on the underside of the cooler to do that job. Everything seems normal in your case but i still say that better case cooling might improve things with the 6800GT and maybe some canned air to remove the dust to help. I like things running cool but if you're not getting artifacts then i wouldnt worry. My x800xt platinum runs nice and cool when idle at 33c

 

[J_Tweedy]

yeah, them atis do run much cooler. the thing is if i am getting artifacts i wouldn't know what to look for, so i could be. As i said i am a bit of a newb.
What, for example in halflife2 should i look for in terms of signs of possible problems?

 

[FieryGoose]

yeah, them atis do run much cooler. the thing is if i am getting artifacts i wouldn't know what to look for, so i could be. As i said i am a bit of a newb.
What, for example in halflife2 should i look for in terms of signs of possible problems?

Artifacts are basically little white dots where there not supposed to be or blotches, im not exactly sure cause i've never seen them, but i heard they're really obvious and even a n00b would notice them right away.

 

[Asus]

My 6800GT runs from 50-80C.
GFX cards tend to run hotter than CPUs.

 

[J_Tweedy]

sweet as, i sure am not as worried as i was!
I guess though when i want to start overclocking i will need to get some better cooling.

 

[[Matt]]

sweet as, i sure am not as worried as i was!
I guess though when i want to start overclocking i will need to get some better cooling.

Not always needed as the fan tens to spin faster the more the card heats up. Try overclocking the core and memory idependantly by 5MHz increments. The majority of 6800GT cards clock to ultra speeds with ease!!!

 

[J_Tweedy]

true that? i will try that- what kind of rpm speed should i be looking at do you know when i start overclocking?

 

[Vigilante]

my 6800 idles at around 50, and gets to around 60 in games. My dads 6800gt runs at about the same temps.

 

[Sgt.Zen]

6800 cards tend to idle around 50-70 depends on how much airflow you have in your case and how much dust has built up. My xfx 6800gt idles at 55-61 depends how cold my room is.

 

[gweedodogg69]

I had to take off my AMD 64 heatsink and processor cause the motherboard USB ports broke (tried everything to fix, format, bios flash, etc...) When I reinstalled the processor I used this HIGH silver based compound and now it runs ~5 degrees cooler . Instead of running around 35 the lowerst I've seen is 27.

 

[[Matt]]

true that? i will try that- what kind of rpm speed should i be looking at do you know when i start overclocking?

RPM speed is all fully auto on nvidia cards and i'm not aware of a way to control them from the desktop. As for overclocking you may aswell give it a go.

 

[J_Tweedy]

hey, sorry for reviving an old(ish) thread, but the idle temp of my gigabyte 6800gt is now 66C.
meaning it is steadily increasing- i have heard of this happening to the gigabyte 6800gt's, and thought it might be where the (probably shit) grease between the core and the heat sink has hardened or something.
Anyone else heard of this problem?
If so i might have to get some AS 5 or at worst, replace the heatsink completely.

 

[oD1Nz]

hey, sorry for reviving an old(ish) thread, but the idle temp of my gigabyte 6800gt is now 66C.
meaning it is steadily increasing- i have heard of this happening to the gigabyte 6800gt's, and thought it might be where the (probably shit) grease between the core and the heat sink has hardened or something.
Anyone else heard of this problem?
If so i might have to get some AS 5 or at worst, replace the heatsink completely.

Before you do anything drastic like removing the heatsink, I'd recommend trying other things first like cleaning up dust and tidying your cables. Keep in mind that removing the heatsink will void the warranty, so it might be a good idea to ask the shop you bought it from what they can do about it.

All that aside, a good general rule is: If it's stable it isn't too hot (Meaning if you're not seeing any artifacts or crashes, thing are fine).

 

[J_Tweedy]

yeah well sounds like a plan- does it matter if wires/cables are touching the top or bottom of the heatsink? I have some that are.

 

[J_Tweedy]

All that aside, a good general rule is: If it's stable it isn't too hot (Meaning if you're not seeing any artifacts or crashes, thing are fine).

Problem is tho, i do occasionally get problems, that go away when i restart my computer, suggesting heat may be a factor. A game like hl2 is totally unplyable when i get this proble, whereby there are black patches and huge glitches on the screen. Sound and everything else is normal.

This is kinda strange, cos even tho my idle temp is rising, the load temp is still low to mid 70s -quite common for 6800gts. (or so i thought), and when this problem occurs the temps are no more than normal.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers guys

 

[oD1Nz]

Problem is tho, i do occasionally get problems, that go away when i restart my computer, suggesting heat may be a factor. A game like hl2 is totally unplyable when i get this proble, whereby there are black patches and huge glitches on the screen. Sound and everything else is normal.

This is kinda strange, cos even tho my idle temp is rising, the load temp is still low to mid 70s -quite common for 6800gts. (or so i thought), and when this problem occurs the temps are no more than normal.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers guys

You'll want to follow this airflow guide: http://www.kefk.net/Hardware/Zentraleinheit/Kühlung/Airflow/Abbildungen/amd-airflow-1.jpg. Basically when you clean the cables you'll want to make sure there aren't any big "clumps" of them obstructing airflow.

Once you've done that and the card still doesn't work properly, you'll want to consider sending that card back. Cards should work "AS IS" out of the box, without any significant modifications to cooling setup (This is the case in New Zealand, I'm not sure how you consumers are protected in the US). Keep in mind that if you take the heatsink off, you void the warrenty and with it any chance of getting a working one.

 

[J_Tweedy]

im in New Zealand actually. Good old ascent.co.nz to thank for this one. haha