Will my graphics card be safe at these temperatures?

So I recently got a HD 6970 Lightning for an early Christmas present and thought I'd do some mining with it when I'm not really using the computer for anything and just listening to music etc. after having to buy a cable adapter for the power supply to connect to the graphics card properly I realised all this time I hadn't had my fans connected being the noob that I am to hardware generally, I found out that with the new graphics card I'd have to get a SATA to Molex connector but I was wondering if it was safe to mine without my tower fans on for now? I have two very big ones that work great when switched on but when they're off I get worried about the amount of heat coming from the graphics card I have no choice but to keep the fans off right now to keep the graphics card running because I don't have the connectors on my power supply to link it all up properly.

Is this normal? I got out CPUID Hardware monitor and it tells me now it's running at around 82 - 84 degrees, when I touch the graphics card it feels pretty hot so of course being paranoid I wonder if this is a good idea because I don't want to melt a graphics card that cost £200 when it was entirely avoidable.

Quote from: Lethn on December 01, 2012, 09:58:14 AM

I wonder if this is a good idea because I don't want to melt a graphics card that cost £200 when it was entirely avoidable.

Are you even sure it is worth mining with that?

Unless you pay like $0.07 per kWh or less, you will likely be losing money on each hash -- thanks to the halving we just passed.

lol I'm not really mining for profit, just for fun, something to do whilst I work on my other stuff because otherwise my computer is just sitting idle, I'm actually going to be working for a living you see Tongue

To be bother worth mining, you will need at least a 7970, as they can underclock really well,
and plus the 28NM also much much higher hash rates.

They would just surpass that, also since its winter now, it can replace your heater.
My 7970 + 6870 alone heats my room up into I actually start sweating.
So it can be perfect for the on coming winter times.

And heater and gpu both outputs heat, but one makes money, and one doesn't.

Quote from: Lethn on December 01, 2012, 10:31:05 AM

Lethan try undervolting. Download msi afterburner.
And go as low as your voltage goes.

Some cards can drop nearly 15% or so which is huge!
Also if you can drop your memory down too.

I have a wattage meter, and I dropped the memory on both cards,
I notice a 60 watts decrease, and a voltage drop doubled that.
Which is quite the money saving. Cutting to 25-30% off the electric price!

Also mine alternative crypto-currencies and switch between them,
searching for the highest profitability rates
http://coinotron.com/

Right now LTC is 200% mining profit! So if you mine LTC with a ati card you'll be making over 200%.
Switch immediately to LTC mining on coinotron.

Now once you follow all these steps, your card will be profitable.
You also want the most BTC possible?

So its best you do that.

Thanks for that lightlord, I'll try it and see what happens, I just want to make sure my card doesn't melt though, that is all I'm worried about, is it fine at the temperatures I listed? I've been running it a little bit longer again and it's at 90 degrees now.

Quote from: Lethn on December 01, 2012, 10:38:42 AM

90 degrees+ Starts to get dangerous in the long run.
I have seen sources that AMD admits to its card that it can run indefinitely at 90 degrees
for up to two years or so. I heard this from a computer expert, and he has 20 years of experience.
But I don't know where he got that info.

AMD card has a limit of 105 Degrees, and once it hits above that, it starts to melt, or burn out.
Do note, that 105 is rated at its limit, and usually the limit is a safe limit.
So it may survive at 115 degrees or so for a day and completely burn out.

There is a formula online, though I would have to go and dig them out,
but above 85+ degrees life expectancy drops like a stone through the ground.
And its exponential.

I would highly recommend running them below 85 to avoid this drop of in life expectancy,
and to decrease the chance of a failure.

If you follow my steps above, and drop the memory and voltage,
you should cream off 10-15 degrees and get 80-75 degrees.
Which is smooth sailing.

When my card hits 85+ I usually start reacting to it, and
dropping its clocks so it stays below that.

I once made a mistake, and I was doing a run test,
and 30 mins later I came back and found out one of my cards
was running 110 degrees was about 10 months ago.

I literally pulled out the power plug *Not.

But cleaned out the dust, change the voltage, drop the over clocks, etc.
And got it much lower.

Do note that some cards can overclock insanely much and still under volt.
When I got my 7970 I was unbelievably shocked at what it did.
It god over clocked literally.

It went from 900 to 1180 stable 24/7 and I mange to drop the voltage from 1174 to 1156 Roll Eyes

Now I don't know how that's possible, But 7970 is the best card I ever had in my experience.
I have since dropped it to 1000 and dropped the voltage to 1061 from 1174.
Which is up from 900. And I wrote all the numbers down and found out that
1000 is the most efficient possible to mine at, at the top of the curve.

The more you overclock the power usage goes up in bigger steps.
You need to find the gold spot of your card,
and hit it there.

Drop your card to below 85 degrees and your good.

In that case I just need to get the connector for my fans and it should be fine then Cheesy

thanks for the information sometimes I'm actually quite glad I'm so paranoid.