GeForce 6800 GT high temps?

[mitchie]

I've had this Leadtek 6800 GT for over a year now and its been great. Recently, though my system has started to crash when playing 3D shooters (HL Episosde 1 is the main culprit, although there have been others). I've tried ratcheting down my AA, Anisotropic and resolution to no avail. According to the latest Forceware drivers (91.31), my GPU core is idling in the high 70s to low 80s. I'm no expert, but that seems excessively high. and this card is NOT overclocked. I've given the case and GPU fans a thorough wipe down in case dust bunnies were causing the overheating but no luck.

Ambient temp is reported to be 57 in case that is relevant. Do these temps seem high? Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

 

[ojingoh]

yea the 6800gt i had started getting scary high temps.

i had to clean the fans and heatsink. it gets an amazingly high amount of crap stuck in it. i was getting thermal warnings in wow (not a very hard game for a 6800gt) -- at 90c lol -- and after i cleaned all the crap out of the fans it was back down to 55c at load.

get a can of air and a screwdriver.

 

[Captante]

The GPU fan could just be running out of gas & slowing down as a result... you could try grabbing a replacement cooler for it & see if it helps, although as I recall my PNY 6800GT used to idle around 60-65c so that temp isn't as bad as it seems.

Edit: The maximum for this card is a scorching 120c! :Q

 

[mitchie]

ojingoh, i'll give that a try. What will I need the screwdriver for? To remove the entire heatsink or just the fan cover?

 

[Ike0069]

Low 80's is not that bad for a 6800 GT, but it could be lower. But I don't think that's your issue.

I'd say your main issue is you case temp. 57C is incredibly high for a case temp! Assuming the 57C is real, that has to mean your CPU is at an absolute minium a few degrees above that and likely 10C or more which would put it appraching 70C, which could easily be the cause of your crashes.

Try playing the games with your case door open or removed and see if that helps. Maybe set a small table fan to blow into the case and the see what your case temps are.

 

[poohbear]

w/ stock cooling mine was about 65c idle & 80s-90s only under load. I got myself an accelero cooler and temps are now 42c idle and 58 load. unbelievable difference. just shows how crap the stock cooling is (mine is a BFG OC)

 

[BobDaMenkey]

I have a 6800GT from Leadtek, in AGP flava. The cooling solution while massive and copper has one of the worst fan designs possible, with a small mesh cover over the fan to get mashed up with dust n crap. It idles around 55*C, and will load up to 80*c. If I don't clean the heatsink and fan grate in over a month I'll start getting crashes, because the card gets too hot.

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: mitchie
ojingoh, i'll give that a try. What will I need the screwdriver for? To remove the entire heatsink or just the fan cover?

K.... I assumed when you said you cleaned the card, you had already done this!

Remove the fan cover & dust beneath it before trying anything else.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Clean it. Its probably the dust piled up over the year.

 

[ojingoh]

good to hear! yeah i was freakin out when it happened, couldnt have happened at a worse time. raid on the verge of wiping in bwl, WTF IS THIS BEEPING !!11!!!!

 

[JRW]

I had the same problem when I had a 6800GT, over time the temps started getting ridiculously high ,but taking the heatsink cover off and cleaning underneath brought it back down to normal temps.

 

[Kromis]

Isn't the 6800GT notorious for having high temps?

 

[CKXP]

if you plan on keeping the 6800gt for awhile longer you might want to invest in a after market cooler....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186133

it's fairly cheap and made a big difference in temps when i mounted one on my Leadtek 6800gt