Is my 5870 running too hot? And how can I make it better?

[zorgberg]

I have a stock ASUS RADEON 5870, Idle temps are around 48-50 C

Ambient temps are 22-25 C

When running Phoenix with AGGRESSION=12 gets me around 350 Mhash/s but my GPU temp goes up to 90-91 C

Is this dangerous? I don't want to fry my card.

If this is too high what is a safe range and what are some things I can do to bring the temp down (add more fans? Open case? I don't want to water cool).

[zorgberg]

OK, So i got MSI Afterburner and set up a linear fan profile.

Now it seems to hold a pretty steady 79 C, is this a safe operating temp?

I plan on going on vacation for a week.  Someone will be at my house to check on it, but I just want to verify this a safe temp to run at constantly or if I need to cool it further.

[Unacceptable]

Go for temps of 70-75,as close to 70 as possible,if you want your card to last  

[zorgberg]

I do...that's exactly what I was wondering...thanks!

[ChanceCoats123]

70 is also right around the temperature I shoot for. I keep my fans at 100% in a room that's approx 80°F.

[zvs]

70 is also right around the temperature I shoot for. I keep my fans at 100% in a room that's approx 80°F.

my 5870's usually run around 65 or 66oC GPU, the VRM3 reading in gpu-z always seem the highest, from 5-10oC above GPU temp.  so, yeah, i try to keep it under 70o for GPU and 80o for VRM's.  

but going up to 80o GPU is probably fine, even long term.  i wouldn't want to go above 80o

my fans are running at 100%, but only because I have 4 backup fans now =p

ambient temp in room #1 where I have 2 5870's (my personal computer) is around 78o, ambient temp in room #2 (where i have everything else) can be up to 105oF during the day, it's about +5o outside temp.  i have the 5870's in there @ 1.063 volts, still get ~375mhash

ed:

oh, you can make it better by ditching the case or at least opening it up and directing a floor fan at it.  in my sauna room, i have a floor fan on every computer.   those old model $20 honeywells.. the new ones aren't as good... anyway, they use like 35W i think.

[check_status]

You can set the core clocks and the memory clocks individually. To keep the temps down near 70, set memory around 150-180, and the core clocks adjust between 725-900. Lower core clocks will help maintain temps you want but reduce hashing speed.

[unclemantis]

Turn it off.

[zvs]

I have a stock ASUS RADEON 5870, Idle temps are around 48-50 C

Ambient temps are 22-25 C

When running Phoenix with AGGRESSION=12 gets me around 350 Mhash/s but my GPU temp goes up to 90-91 C

Is this dangerous? I don't want to fry my card.

If this is too high what is a safe range and what are some things I can do to bring the temp down (add more fans? Open case? I don't want to water cool).

90-91 isnt too hot, as long as the VRMs are 90-91 as well (unlikely, i would bet they're in the range of 100-105)

i try to keep all my cards below 70o as well, but, honestly... a 5870, you could probably run it 24/7 at 80o and it'd still be working 2 years from now.

you should also be getting a higher hash rate, 350 is slow for a 5870.  i get 350 when i drop the voltage (and then the card runs under 60oC).  at "stock" voltage (varies a bit depending on manufacture, i think for reference cards it's 1.163 perf lvl 3??) unless you got a lemon, you should be able to do at least 975 core w/ 150 memory (128 worksize)


haha, i already posted to this.  at least my info is like *nearly the exact same!

[OneMINER]

70-80C is a good temp. You can run at 85C but that's really pushing it IMO.

The best thing you can do to lower your temps quickly is to get fresh air to the card's intake. Opening your case and/or pointing a fan that's blowing fresh air at the card's fan. An even better but more costly way is to get fans that create a lot of pressure and seal up the case as well as you can. Install mostly intake fans and increase the pressure of the case. That will cause more hot air to be blown out of the cards exhaust.

Never run your fans at 100% for extended periods. Fan failures are common and that's a big reason for it. If you are concerned about the fans life then I suggest 70-75% as a max. Better to preserve the resale value of the card and keep it mining for longer. You'll make more coins in the long run. Besides that, I don't think most fans push that much more air at the max speed. Creates a lot of noise but not much effect.

[Saturn7]

Remove the heatsink, clean of the crappy thermal paste.
Clean the gpu die with some solvent.
Apply something good like Artic Silver 5.

Did that to all my 5870's now they run at 68C with fan at 70%

Out of my 10 5870's I was shocked to find that 4 of them had barely any paste, and what was there was flaky and dry.

[Zanatos666]

Remove the heatsink, clean of the crappy thermal paste.
Clean the gpu die with some solvent.
Apply something good like Artic Silver 5.

Did that to all my 5870's now they run at 68C with fan at 70%

Out of my 10 5870's I was shocked to find that 4 of them had barely any paste, and what was there was flaky and dry.

Completely agree with this.  I have a 5870 and 2 5830's and removing the heatsink and putting new, better paste on helped immensely.  Also, if you can add some airflow, it doesnt hurt.  I have an open air 5870, running on one "OK" fan (other fan completely seized) with a small fan blowing on it.  OC settings are 950/300, I get ~430 out of it, and temps stay between 70-75.

[crazyates]

What core/mem speeds are you using? Undervolting those 5xxx cards are wicked easy, and really drop the heat significantly.

[zvs]

Remove the heatsink, clean of the crappy thermal paste.
Clean the gpu die with some solvent.
Apply something good like Artic Silver 5.

Did that to all my 5870's now they run at 68C with fan at 70%

Out of my 10 5870's I was shocked to find that 4 of them had barely any paste, and what was there was flaky and dry.

Completely agree with this.  I have a 5870 and 2 5830's and removing the heatsink and putting new, better paste on helped immensely.  Also, if you can add some airflow, it doesnt hurt.  I have an open air 5870, running on one "OK" fan (other fan completely seized) with a small fan blowing on it.  OC settings are 950/300, I get ~430 out of it, and temps stay between 70-75.

i've got one of those junk gigabytes with the 2 fan combo, one fan blew out...  i left the shroud there and ziptied a 120mm directly above the opening of where the 2nd fan was, it ran all day at 980/195 (about 440-445 mhash) and max it got to on Friday was 67oC.   well, that system only has 2 cards in it (1 card --empty pci-e slot---1 card, basically because that ziptied 120mm makes it take up about 3 slots) and there's also a honeywell floor fan blowing into it, but during the day it's 100oF + ambient in there too.....  well, maybe a bit under that today... high temp was 95o

oh, the second card was running a bit cooler too, maybe 100% from the lower ambient temps, but maybe some from that 120mm too

[Zanatos666]

Remove the heatsink, clean of the crappy thermal paste.
Clean the gpu die with some solvent.
Apply something good like Artic Silver 5.

Did that to all my 5870's now they run at 68C with fan at 70%

Out of my 10 5870's I was shocked to find that 4 of them had barely any paste, and what was there was flaky and dry.

Completely agree with this.  I have a 5870 and 2 5830's and removing the heatsink and putting new, better paste on helped immensely.  Also, if you can add some airflow, it doesnt hurt.  I have an open air 5870, running on one "OK" fan (other fan completely seized) with a small fan blowing on it.  OC settings are 950/300, I get ~430 out of it, and temps stay between 70-75.

i've got one of those junk gigabytes with the 2 fan combo, one fan blew out...  i left the shroud there and ziptied a 120mm directly above the opening of where the 2nd fan was, it ran all day at 980/195 (about 440-445 mhash) and max it got to on Friday was 67oC.   well, that system only has 2 cards in it (1 card --empty pci-e slot---1 card, basically because that ziptied 120mm makes it take up about 3 slots) and there's also a honeywell floor fan blowing into it, but during the day it's 100oF + ambient in there too.....  well, maybe a bit under that today... high temp was 95o

oh, the second card was running a bit cooler too, maybe 100% from the lower ambient temps, but maybe some from that 120mm too

Hahahaha, man have you been peeking in my basement?  Almost the same exact thing here.  Have a fan blowing on my Gigabyte 5870 with the one seized fan. Strapped a Kingwin 80,mm to the side with the downed fan. I  am using an extender on it, and running it open air, so its actually sitting upright. Keeps it around 71c.  On the same board I have an XFX 5830 whos fan seized, so removed it and the shroud, and strapped a 120mm to the front of it.  It stays about 60c.