6800GT overheating

[orangat]

I moved my box to a room with subpar ventilation and had to swap my fan to a 80mm one (put it on another pc while I get another fan shipped), so cooling is compromised.

With the weather heating up, I experienced a few days of summer temps a couple days ago and SWAT4 hung on me. I started up a temp monitor and found the core temps never broke 82. I opened the case and put a desk fan on the side and everything was fine.

What irritates me is that the temps were still way within normal ranges but its still hung. I did a few experiments underclocking the card and it worked ok without the desk fan, but the weather has changed and the ambient temps dropped quite a bit.

One problem with Leadtek's design is that the fan is so weakass that I can hardly feel air moving out/in of the plastic duct.

Anyone having problems with 'hot' cards like the 6800GT/ultra in summer like weather?

 

[NokiaDude]

Doesn't the leadtek geforce6800gt have the big copper heatsink? Maybe it's time to dust it?

 

[BobDaMenkey]

It does have a big copper heatsink. Mine ran rather hot for quite some time, and eventually started to hang on me. I pulled the HSF and put some AS5 on the core, and new goup on the RAM, and it's been much better since.

I live in AZ btw, and it'll hit up to 86*C(rthdribl) when the ambient temperature is in the mid-high 90s*F.

 

[orangat]

Yes the copper hs is big and beefy but the fan is wimpy and quiet so it all evens out.

Its bloody annoying that it hangs at normal operating temps non-overclocked. I think the memory is the culprit but ambient temps have dropped so I can't really test by underclocking.

Bob, Did you just unscrew the 4 screws at the bottom?

 

[fstime]

Try expertool and increase the fan speed.

 

[slash196]

Got the same card, OC'd to 410/1110, and temps never clear 60, and I never have problems with games hanging.

 

[BobDaMenkey]

That's about all that is required to remove it. I also had to push some of those white clampy pin thingies up through the card, but it's really not a hard job. The only hard part about it is getting them back on, because mine were spring loaded.

Under normal full load the temperature dropped by about 10*C(CS:S, SWG, Sims2, ect), under rthdribl it dropped about 4*C. I haven't had any issues with the card since I did it, and am very very happy with it now