[R9700Pro] What causes this?

[amoeba54]

I've been having problems like this for months now. They start up and then go away after I re-seat the card.

Just last night I re-pasted the heatsink with some Arctic Silver 5 (light amount as recommended). After putting the card back in my computer this problem started happening. The card does feel hot to the touch but not "burning" as would cause my to worry.

The problem gets worse when I hit 16-bit color depth (first pic). The problem is pretty non-existant in 32-bit except for when playing movies (second pic). With movies, the codec doesn't matter (DivX and QT had the same prob).

I have had these problems over many installs of Windows XP w/ SP1 and numerous versions of the official Catalyst drivers.

Here they are:

Desktop in 16-bit color depth

Media Player Classc in 32-bit color depth

What might be causing this to happen?

Thanks from a newbie poster.

 

[McArra]

9700Pro has a big gap between the heatsink and the core, so you may need a bigger cap of Artic Silver to fill the gap. It seems like overheating to me, moreover when the heatsink isn't as hot as it was before putting AS. Try that and tell us how it works.

Wellcome to the forums 😉

 

[VIAN]

Well, first, welcome to the forums.

Now, did you try another video card?

Did you overclock?

If another video card works, and you didn't overclock, then the problem must be in the card itself.

Putting more AS5 may worsen cooling, it's not good to put too much on, many people have removed the shim and just did it that way, but it's all up to you.

 

[amoeba54]

I haven't o/c'd this card, but it is used.

Here's an idea:

I know paste takes some time to break in. The problem seems to be going away (i haen't rebooted) now that I've been up for almost two days straight. Do you think it's temps then?

I'm thinking of getting a Vantec Icerberg 4 for it to make sure I can cool well enough.

 

[McArra]

Try filling the gap with a little more of AS before going for a new cooling.