VGA getting HOT!

[code_red]

HP pavilion
Athon 64 3800+ 2.4ghz
2 gigs ram
500w cooler master extreme psu
EVGA geforce 7950gt ko 512
antec expansion slot vga cooler
80mm case fan
sound blaster audigy se

I was running ATI tool to check my temp at idle and in game. Idle my graphics card was running at 48-50c. While playing COD4 I alt+tabbed out and my temp was reading 92c! I also used nvidias tool to manually change the fan speed. I set it all the way up and there wasn't any change. Could my heatsink and fan on my card be bad? Is there anyway to test this?

[=98=]

Nope. Those temps are fine. The load temp is a tad high, but nothing disturbing.

Thermal slowdown limit is 100c+ i believe.

GPU's can take a lot more heat than CPU's.

[Hellsent 2.0]

Haha thats not bad compared to my laptop..My laptop can play all on high bf2 and after a while it shuts down the laptop...so i wanted to see the temps...looked in the nvidia thingy and started playing bf2 at medium, and it was 97c and it shuts down at 110c...no wonder running it on high it was shutting down and i could smell burnt plastic...

[looqas]

Clean the fan well and you'll see a marked drop on the temps.

[code_red]

Whew! I've read quite a bit on it and a few people said you should get worried if it reaches above 90c. I will clean the fan and see what difference that makes.

Also...
Does anyone here have any experiene with Ati Tool? I was thinking of overclocking a little. When I tell it to find the max mem clock it says "your core is overclocked" But, I haven't changed anything. It does the same when I tell it to find the max core, only it says my memory is overclocked. How long should you run the artifact scan? I ran it until it reached a little over 90c on the temp monitor... do I keep going? Thanks for helping a noob.

[=98=]

If your touching 90c's with stock, don't overclock

And when you press "find max...", it finds the highest core and memory frequencies by increasing it, and then checking for artifacts. However, it's not always that great. On mine, it used to keep going until it crashed my 8800gts :p

[code_red]

If your touching 90c's with stock, don't overclock

And when you press "find max...", it finds the highest core and memory frequencies by increasing it, and then checking for artifacts. However, it's not always that great. On mine, it used to keep going until it crashed my 8800gts :p

I won't overclock if it gets too hot. I was going to try and get my temp down first. I don't want it to crash my card . Maybe I won't try it.

But, do you possibly know why it's telling my it's already overclocked? I hit the default button and it still says it.

[looqas]

Because that KO version is factory overclocked to begin with.

What I've read Evga makes pretty aggressive factory overclocking on their OC brands so They usually don't have much headroom left anyway for you to improve. The good thing is that that the OC is guaranteed by the manufacturer so high default temps are really not your concern if you happen to burn the card, since you get a replacement one. On the other hand there's the warranty hassle plus the distinct smell of something burnt hanging in your room

[code_red]

Because that KO version is factory overclocked to begin with.

What I've read Evga makes pretty aggressive factory overclocking on their OC brands so They usually don't have much headroom left anyway for you to improve. The good thing is that that the OC is guaranteed by the manufacturer so high default temps are really not your concern if you happen to burn the card, since you get a replacement one. On the other hand there's the warranty hassle plus the distinct smell of something burnt hanging in your room

Hmmmmm... I didn't realize it was factory overclocked. That makes sense. I took the front cover off my crappy HP case last night also cleaned the fan on the gfx card. While not doing anything my temp was still reading 48-50c. But, I played COD4 for about 3 hours. After about half an hour or so my temp was around 68c. When I finished my temp was 88c. I guess that helped a little bit. I might get a couple small fans to rig in there to help the air flow.

oh, I meant to ask. Is 16 amps good enough to run a video card? My card recommends 20, it think.

[looqas]

If 16A is all your PSU can provide on the 12V rail then you might run into instability issues.

But if you have like 16A + 16A rails (labeled something like this on the PSU) then it's ok. It's just for certificate issues but in reality they are connected as a single rail. But even in this case your tops still might be something like 25A on 12V rail no matter. The max wattage/amperage has to be stated says clearly on the PSU.

Like I have a PSU where I have seemingly 4 independent rail 16A+16A+16A+16A = 64A. BUT in reality and in specifications 52A is the top you can draw upon from the 12V rail(s).