Strange Overheating Issue HD 7870

[RevOne]

Greetings folks

I picked up this XFX HD 7870: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...bb3r-_-Video+Cards+-+AMD/ATI-_-XFX-_-14150605

Just finished installing it (I'm using the latest Catalyst 13.4 WHQL drivers), everything seemed to go smoothly... until I go to test it. At idle, I checked the temps using HWMonitor and things looked beautiful - 28°C. I thought "Great! Gonna have a good time overclocking this puppy." The temp reading was the same in the Catalyst Control Center.

However, using Furmark for the first with the GPU fresh out of the box (no OC'ing at all), the temps jumped up to 91°C in a matter of two minutes or so.
Naturally, I killed Furmark before it got any higher, before it killed the card.

I've checked both fans and they're going strong. I turned the fan up manually to 100%, ran Furmark again and before I knew it, I once again went from ~28°C idle to 85°C within moments of starting the test (until I had to manually quit Furmark again).

I'm using a Cooler Master Elite 430 case w/ 4 120mm case fans and an Antec Kuhler 620 on the CPU. My fan configuration is: Top = x1 fan, exhaust (will be adding a second one to the top when it gets in later this week); Bottom = 1 x Fan, intake; Side Panel = 1 x fan, intake; Front 1 x Fan, intake. The Antec 620 has only one fan, running exhaust on the back of the rad.

My XFX HD 6850 with only one fan on it (the card I just removed) would typically top out at no more than 68°C, and idle in the mid-30's.

Anyone have any ideas where I should start checking? I'm pretty sure that if I remove the cooler, it voids the warranty.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Domini]

How about temps in games? Furmark pushes cards to thier limits so these temps dont surprise me.

 

[coffaholic]

Yea, I honestly stopped using Furmark ages ago. The load it puts on the card is so unrealistic that I don't see much use in it. I usually let 3dmark run in a loop for a while, run heaven a few times, and if all is well after that, I fire up a demanding game to look for any anomalies. If all is clear after that (no driver crashes, crash to desktop, etc) then I'm happy.

 

[RevOne]

How about temps in games? Furmark pushes cards to thier limits so these temps dont surprise me.

Thanks for the feedback Much appreciated.

I think I'm going to be leaving Furmark alone from now on.

After about 2 hours of Battlefield 3, the highest it hit was 78°C; which is of course still hotter than my last card, but I guess it's to be expected for going from a 6850 to a 7870.

After about an hour of Batman: Arkham City, I saw it get as high as 84°C, which is a bit too high for my tastes.

For having (now) 5 case fans, two of which are focused on helping to keep the GPU cooler; and two fans on the card itself, I was hoping for a little bit better performance out this card than this. I've spoken to someone else with the same exact card, and he's said that his had never gone above 80°C and would typically hold out at around 70°C. Some folks in reviews report the card usually topping out at around the 75°C range, even while OC'ed under load. However, there are also enough customer reviews for this card on Newegg that have users reporting the same temps as I've been receiving, that I can't see mine being a special case. It's a shame too, because XFX is charging more for the cards that come equipped with these "Double Dissipation" coolers, and if I had to base my experience on this card alone, they perform worse than most cards with single fan solutions. They claim it's supposed to be so much cooler than the reference design, but I can't see the reference cooler regularly sitting in the 90°C+ range and people being okay with that.

Yea, I honestly stopped using Furmark ages ago. The load it puts on the card is so unrealistic that I don't see much use in it. I usually let 3dmark run in a loop for a while, run heaven a few times, and if all is well after that, I fire up a demanding game to look for any anomalies. If all is clear after that (no driver crashes, crash to desktop, etc) then I'm happy.

Thanks! I'm downloading 3DMark and Heaven as I type this. I'll give those a shot and report back my findings.

Also, I've contacted XFX Support and opened a ticket to ask if they thought what I was experiencing was normal. I actually hit 97°C on the last Furmark test I tried, and I had to cut the benchmark for fear that I was going to exceed 100°C. Might just have gotten the bad luck of receiving a faulty part out of the bunch.

 

[silkstone]

You might want to look at using Trixx to make a custom fan profile. 84 seems kinda hot for a pitcairn chip.
My Tahiti LE only reaches 71 in Heaven overclocked and overvolted and it's known to be a particularly hot card with a single fan cooler..