Radeon 5870 Temperatures, advice needed

[WildThane]

A couple of weeks ago my computer went black screen and the video card fan went to high, thinking things were only dirty I cleaned and blew out everything however the problem has continued and happens about every day. I am an avid FPS player and this problem only has happened while playing BF3, while playing BF3 the card temp will climb up to 83/84c and hold at that point, at idle it will run around 39/40c. I tested the temp while playing Half-life 2 and the temp held around 68c.

Now comes the second part my monitor went out 2 days ago it was a 24 inch Samsung SyncMaster T240 Resolution 1920 x 1200 so I reverted back to an older 23 inch Resolution 1920 x 1080, after going back to the older monitor and while playing BF3 my video card temps have dropped to around 70/74c. I have plans to replace my monitor with something equivalent to the samsung I had.

Now the Questions is, is my video card going out or could it have been something to do with the Monitor going out and making the video card work extra hard and if it is the card what would you recommend going to I would like to stick with amd, I see there is a new 7970 that recently just came out but I don't really want to spend that much money, what about this 7950 that is due around the end of the month from what I can find would that give a reasonable performance boost over my 5870.

 

[Termie]

Do you have any idea what went wrong with your monitor? What do you mean "it went out"? Does it simply not turn on?

I agree 84C is a bit hot for a 5870 in normal operation, although it's not extreme. 74C is much more reasonable. Neither temp suggests that the card is broken, however. I don't know anything about negative interactions between monitors and video cards, but I suppose it's possible that something was going wrong with the signal between the two that could have caused your GPU to overheat and your monitor to short out. The resolutions are close enough that it shouldn't have pushed your card that much harder than your old 1080p monitor.

I would test the card a bit more with your older monitor to make sure it doesn't break that one too. No need to replace it if things work fine for a while. The 7970 would be a big boost from the 5870 (about 50% faster: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/28.html). But it's a lot of money to spend if you weren't actually looking to buy a new video card at this point. And honestly, the 7950 won't be a substantial enough upgrade to make it worthwhile (will be ~$450 and only about 33% faster than your card).

 

[WildThane]

As to the question you ask about the monitor, upon starting the computer it will make it all the way to the log in with the normal stuff popping up on the screen once it makes it to the log in you have about 3 seconds and it will go black screen, I found an article with a link to a YouTube video of someone with the same problem I was unable to find that same article however here is a link to the youtube vid with the same problem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOX81yHQHAI Sadly I don't remember the exact Purchase date nore can I find the receipt for warranty purposes.

 

[KingFatty]

As to the question you ask about the monitor, upon starting the computer it will make it all the way to the log in with the normal stuff popping up on the screen once it makes it to the log in you have about 3 seconds and it will go black screen, I found an article with a link to a YouTube video of someone with the same problem I was unable to find that same article however here is a link to the youtube vid with the same problem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOX81yHQHAI Sadly I don't remember the exact Purchase date nore can I find the receipt for warranty purposes.

Are you handy with a screwdriver and soldering iron? That problem looks like what happens when the capacitors have suffered from bursting or swelling.

You can order replacement capacitors for cheap, or just buy a "kit" like the following:
http://lcdalternatives.auctivacommerce.com/Repair-Kit-Samsung-T240-LCD-Monitor-Capacitors-P1660354.aspx
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-T240-Repair-Kit-LCD-Monitor-Capacitors-/110713515672

I replaced the capacitors on one of my two samsung 204B monitors using more robust/higher rated capacitors, and the monitor actually performs better than the other (the backlight comes online faster than the non-modified monitor).

You could still sell the monitor to someone willing to fix it, but it would probably not fetch much money in it's broken state compared to fixing it yourself.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Your video card temps around 70 are good now. Not sure why the minor resolution change would cause such a dramatic temp difference. Were you using DVI for both?

 

[WildThane]

Yes using the same DVI cables/connections on both, Good news on the monitor my wife did an on line registration when we purchased it samsung is going to warranty it, more money to upgrade the video card...