Geforce 6800 GT Overheat?

[DanCanovas]

My graphics card is strangely running at about 79-80 degrees in game. is this too hot and any ideas about whats causing this? im sure it has never been this hot before

[UberRN69]

Well, you have it clocked pretty high, and I'm assuming your using a stock HS. So I would say that's definately within the normal range. You also might want to blast some air in the heatsink and clear any dust build-up.

If you are still using a stock heatsink, you might want to try a 3rd party HS from Zalman or Arctic Cooling. otherwise at those clock speeds your going to "fry" your GPU out in 1 year or less

[DanCanovas]

I do apologise...its been a while since I was on but i dont have anything overclocked now.

[DanCanovas]

this is also with the side of the case off in a fairly chilly room

[betterdan]

My current 6800U and the 6800GT (both non overclocked) I use to have both run at about 80C when playing games. I thought that was about normal for these cards and I am experiencing no graphical problems or lockups.

[ynnek]

did u take the top plate off to reveal the heatsink? you'd be surprised how much dust hides under there.. even if you keep your case clean.

[SLippe]

Yes, take the face plate off and I bet your heatsink has a wall of dust. Mine was up about 10-15 degrees and that was the problem. Just blowing air with the face plat on will not do the trick. It's not your overclock, so much, as it is dust.

[dandano]

I'm with betterdan. 80 C doesn't seem excessively hot for a 6800GT. Of course you should dust, but unless you start seeing glitches in game, I wouldn't worry.

[snowmanwithahat]

the stock heatsinks on the 6800 GT's just suck by nature. they're small and aluminum, enough said

i ran mine at 400/1100 with the stock heatsink and it hit 89 C max, and even at stock speeds peaked at 84 C...... i'd say your temperatures are normal, because the fact is, is that the heatsink just sucks, i didn't even have dust in mine before i decided to swap it for this Zalman vf-700, because those temperatures just didn't seem good for my card.

[betterdan]

So with the Zalman what does yours idle at and what is max temp under load? How easy was it to put on?

Edit: Nevermind about the installation I just checked out a flash video of it's installation and it looks easy as hell. Maybe even Gib could do it.

[SLippe]

84' C is way high. My 6800 GT idled in the low 40's and when the dust blocked the heatsink under the cover, it would get into the mid 50's. Mine never hit 84' under load even. Only thing I can think of is, you must not have very good case air flow/ventilation. Plus, mine had the eVGA copper heatsink, but that wouldn't make a 30' difference.

[snowmanwithahat]

mine idled high, at about 65~70 C and peaked at 89C (400/1100) and now it idles around 50, and peaks at 73 C (overclocked to 400/1100)

and yes, i have good airflow, 2x80mm in, 2x80mm out, and 1 80mm blowing right on the video card through the window

[$n][pErMan]

80C under full load for a 6800GT OC'ed or not is about normal. DOnt sweat over it as long as it idles around 50-52C.

[betterdan]

The 6800 Ultra I have idles at about 56 and peaks about 80. It is set to slow the core down at 115C so it still has a ways to go but lower temps are always nice.
I have 2 coolermaster 80mm intake fans (about 24 cfm each I believe) in the front of the case and 1 80mm panaflo (47cfm) exhaust fan in back and the power supply fan.

[betterdan]

Ok I just took the back PCI slot bracket cover off that was underneath the 6800 U and it dropped down to idling at 53. I ran rthdribl for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes it use to go up to about 79 now it never went over 73. I guess I'll leave that slot cover off even though it will get dirtier inside the case with a gaping hole in the back (calm down Gib). Any suggestions what to use for a filter to keep out dirt but still get max air flow?

[j0j081]

I used to get those temps with no OC before I bought the Zalman.