m15x 7970m upgrade temp, improper pasting, thermals?

Hi, after my 5870m died i decided to upgrade. After much researching i decided to go the 7970m route, i took the plunge and bought one off of ebay.

I went with a "refurbished" card from china which i should've known was a mistake, regardless it came and after filing down the xbracket and installing it worked for a few weeks till one day the laptop black screened and that was that. I don't know whether it was the card or incorrect thermals, i wasn't doing anything intensive with it.

Now i have my second card (from a more reputable source) which seems to be in better condition, however after installation i am getting the same temp readings and performance as the first, which appear to be inconsistent from what i have read it should be.

idle at 37C

When running univalley benchmark, at 73% load with fan at 4500rpm, my temp continues to increase to and over 80C after 5 minutes.

With Fur mark at 98% load up past 85C within a minute.

xbracket screw sockets filed to 2.5mm

thermal pad placement as per the tutorial with picture floating around these forums.

Using arctic MX-4 TP

Please i would very much like to not burn this card and appreciate any help, thank you.

 

Buying refurbished cards from china basicially translate to -> Broken GPU pointed heatgun at for 5mins.

The temps seem pretty normal to me. The issue you're facing is likely an airflow problem. If you take your notebook on your lap and don't block the vents, are the temps still 80c?

 

Yea, it's elevated on a table and the air intake is unobstructed.
The air outlet seems clear and the fan seems to function properly.

It's hard because i can't find what the load of say, the univalley benchmark is in relation to normal game loads, but it is worrying to see it keep climbing past 83C without stopping over such a short time.

 

How well is the thermal paste spreading? Could be bad contact. There is also a vbios for the 7970m that undervolts it enough to make it run cooler without losing much in performance. I used to have a 7970m in mine but it died on me after a couple of months. Mine ran cool and I had the undervolted vbios but it still managed to die on me.

 

It seems to be spreading fine, i'm going to redo it all again tomorrow just to be sure. I'll have a look at undervolting, i hope this one doesn't die too. Thanks for the help.

 

Here's a link to the modified vbios files but you need to get a subscription to the site in order to download them.

https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/1329-amd-7970m-modified-vbios/

 

Kinda not surprised given that it is a 100w card with a cooler that was only meant for 75w but one question that wasn't asked is how hot is the climate where you live as that can be a big factor. In some countries where it is hot and humid getting good temps can be a lot hotter especially when there isn't much or no air conditioning (it is what it is). Pull the cooler and take a look how the thermal paste is as well if the cooler is sitting right as with some coolers the heat pipes are an issue being blocked slightly by the coils on some cards.

 

I'm in Australia, whilst it is summer at the moment the times i have tested it, it has been around 26-27c. Though i agree and expect ambient temp will increase it. On closer inspection it appears the copper pipe is touching the edge of one of the coils, i imagine this probably doesn't help, though it doesn't appear to be pressing extremely hard. Thanks for the reply.

here are pictures of it
https://ibb.co/jneVT6
https://ibb.co/jyEx86

 

That really shouldn't be a problem.

 

Notice that the paste does not cover the corners of the die facing the chokes? It's probably due to those heatpipes obstructing the heatspreader, thus preventing it from sitting evenly over the die. This may also cause uneven pressure on the opposite corners of the die (the ones facing the MXM interface pins) because the heatspreader is basically applying force at an angle over the die. This can crack/chip the die corners. I should know, I chipped a couple of die corners because of this (including my 7970M).

 

Alright, how can i tell for sure and what can i do to fix it?. Thanks for the reply.