GTX670 Heatpipes VERY Hot

[flexy]

My wife still has an old Asus GTX670 Direct CU II (which is totally fine for her since she doesn't play anything else but SWTOR and Civ). This, by the way, is a tank of a card and it's just awesome with the backplate and everything.

Yesterday one of the fans started to make a horrible noise and stopped working...so I took the card apart, cleaned dust off etc. it and also applied new layers of Arctic MX4, I think I did a good job with the TIM.

I put it together again but the one fan (the left one looking into the case) is still not working.

I thought to myself this is likely not a big deal since cooling even with the one fan not working should be ok, especially since I have a sidefan in the case blowing right onto the card.

I had it run Heaven Benchmark for a few and I saw temps in the low 70s, nothing to worry about at all. ("Worry" for me with GTX GPUs would start at about 85C...)

When she played SWTOR, I can usually hear it because the game (and especially Farcry 3) really makes all fans spin up, so I checked temps again using MSI Afterburner while she played SWTOR, and temps had been 75-77, not "cool", but also totally normal IMHO.

However, the heatpipes of the card were SCORCHING hot, the entire card "radiates" heat if you put your hand near it. Now I am unsure whether to worry or whether this is supposed to be. I mean I know how heatsinks/heatpipes work and logic would say, especially after the new MX4 job, that hot heatpipes are actually a good thing and that it shows the cooler does its job taking heat away from the GPU?

Now, should I be worried?

Edit: The airflow in her current case is sub-optimal due to a very crappy 120mm exhaust fan which hardly blows any air.. I just ordered an Arctic F12 to replace this one, and an Arctic F9 Silent which I will try to fit on the card in place of the broken ASUS fan. I didn't want to bother ordering the two "original" (ie: fake) Asus fans from Alibaba since they seem overprized to me and I dont want to wait a month from China. The entire card right now goes for €40-€60 used so spending $20 on fans for an ancient card would be silly. This is why I want only some cheap replacement 90cm fan and ghetto-mod something. This is also the reason I am not even bothering with a "proper" aftermarket cooler. Anyway still sorta puzzled about these very hot heatpipes.

Edit 2: "Logic" then again says that if temps in Afterburner look right (say, if they stay below 85C), I don't need to care about the temps of heatpipes or the cooler, because, well, it's about taking heat away off the GPU, right?

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

My wife still has an old Asus GTX670 Direct CU II (which is totally fine for her since she doesn't play anything else but SWTOR and Civ). This, by the way, is a tank of a card and it's just awesome with the backplate and everything.

Yesterday one of the fans started to make a horrible noise and stopped working...so I took the card apart, cleaned dust off etc. it and also applied new layers of Arctic MX4, I think I did a good job with the TIM.

I put it together again but the one fan (the left one looking into the case) is still not working.

I thought to myself this is likely not a big deal since cooling even with the one fan not working should be ok, especially since I have a sidefan in the case blowing right onto the card.

I had it run Heaven Benchmark for a few and I saw temps in the low 70s, nothing to worry about at all. ("Worry" for me with GTX GPUs would start at about 85C...)

When she played SWTOR, I can usually hear it because the game (and especially Farcry 3) really makes all fans spin up, so I checked temps again using MSI Afterburner while she played SWTOR, and temps had been 75-77, not "cool", but also totally normal IMHO.

However, the heatpipes of the card were SCORCHING hot, the entire card "radiates" heat if you put your hand near it. Now I am unsure whether to worry or whether this is supposed to be. I mean I know how heatsinks/heatpipes work and logic would say, especially after the new MX4 job, that hot heatpipes are actually a good thing and that it shows the cooler does its job taking heat away from the GPU?

Now, should I be worried?

Edit: The airflow in her current case is sub-optimal due to a very crappy 120mm exhaust fan which hardly blows any air.. I just ordered an Arctic F12 to replace this one, and an Arctic F9 Silent which I will try to fit on the card in place of the broken ASUS fan. I didn't want to bother ordering the two "original" (ie: fake) Asus fans from Alibaba since they seem overprized to me and I dont want to wait a month from China. The entire card right now goes for €40-€60 used so spending $20 on fans for an ancient card would be silly. This is why I want only some cheap replacement 90cm fan and ghetto-mod something. This is also the reason I am not even bothering with a "proper" aftermarket cooler. Anyway still sorta puzzled about these very hot heatpipes.

Edit 2: "Logic" then again says that if temps in Afterburner look right (say, if they stay below 85C), I don't need to care about the temps of heatpipes or the cooler, because, well, it's about taking heat away off the GPU, right?

You are correct in your thinking. Heat pipes are supposed to be hot (so that the chip isn't), though the failed fan isn't helping the matter. That'll cause the heat to be in the pipe instead of in your case/ambient air. Note also that the 6xx series wasn't terribly efficient compared to more modern chips, so it's gonna generate a lot of heat.

Anyhow, don't sweat it if the GPU temps aren't terrible.