7970 Keeps Overheating.

I was playing guild wars 2 last weekend. Getting between 50-70 FPS on medium settings with a 7970 GPU, 12 gigs of ram, and a 3610QM. This performance seems quite bad to me but it may be due to optimization problems.

But thats beside the point. My GPU steadily rises in heat as I play. It has been quite hot in my room so maybe that is the problem? It basically starts in the high 70s when I turn the game on and then steadily rises into the 90's in about 30 minutes.

Twice after turning the game off my screen would freeze up. I could still hear my friends on Skype but my screen was completely frozen, no mouse movement would show up or anything. Does this mean my GPU was overheating?

I overclocked it a bit on the first day or two without many problems but it wasn't as hot out on those days. Even with no overclocking the temps steadily rise into the 90's. Additionally my MSI afterburner now seems messed up. I cant change any of my settings on it, my previous overclocking proviles don't show up, so I basically cant overclock anymore, and its been displaying weird numbers for temps and useage...

I don't know what to do... I'm not a super tech savvy person. The base performance of the machine seems much lower than what it should be. This is the second best GPU money can buy for a laptop and it can't even run Guild wars 2 without hiccups on medium? I mean the performance is decent but I get hiccups of 30 fps every 10 minutes or so, and now these temp problems are making it even more of a struggle... Do I really need to play games on low with this $1600 laptop?

 

i am assume its the p150em or 170? did you check the paste or any loose screws on heatsink?

 

To find out for sure, test it in a room with decent temperature. Overheating does exist but just make sure before we can draw a conclusion.

 

I've had this problem as well. I just yesterday repasted with IC Diamond 7 and am getting far lower temperatures. Before I repasted I too was getting temps up towards 90. HOWEVER, I feel like this problem is somewhat related to the Enduro issue. Because your card's utilisation is fluctuating so much, the fan doesn't throttle appropriately (or at least that's the problem I was getting) and as a result temps increase quickly and substantially. I reckon all these things will be ironed out in the next few driver releases. Might be worth repasting your GPU with some IC 7 or Gelid Extreme (I think that's what it's called) to be safe. People are saying Gelid does wonders as well. Repasting seems to have stopped the problem for me. My max temp playing now is 80. And then it will hover around that and go back to 79. Sometimes it'll even make it's way back down to 78 or 77 and this in games with 99% GPU utilisation.

EDIT: I also reverted back to the stock drivers that came on the CD and that has helped as well.

 

Man... has sager issued any kind of statements regarding the enduro issue? I'm not a tech savvy person... I really probably don't have the know-how to safely deal with these problems myself... Really frustrating to know that there are so many god **** problems with this setup.

I've never built a computer before so honestly I don't think i should repaste it. I guess if it becomes a more serious problem I will contact a professional.

I opened my window so its a bit cooler in here now and the temps are down to 82-83 playing other games where they used to climb to the 90s. It hasn't climbed yet, but I will keep you guys posted. Thanks for helping out.

Not sure if this is relevant, but MSI afterburner keeps showing these weird spikes where GPU useage goes to 200% and the temp goes to 500+... obviously this isn't the case, but should I be worried about this or is it just a software issue?

 

It could be an airflow problem as well, the ait intake vents are on the bottom of the computer so make sure you dont have those blocked in any way. Always play on a flat surface like a desk. If you've already been doing that get something small about an inch think and put the back of the notebook on top of those to give it more air flow. If you see that help temps consider getting a notebook cooler.

 

To cover all issues here I will add this.. Guild Wars 2 is still in beta right?? The game is hardly optimized to run in the first place. So I would think judging your laptops performance versus a game in beta would be rough.

 

To sum up what others have suggested, try doing it in this order:

1. Try it in a room with AC on. If it still overheats...
2. Check that the vents all over the bottom of the laptop aren't blocked and make sure the fans are working. If it still overheats...
3. Open up the bottom cover and check that the radiator fins, copper pipes, etc. are not badly misaligned with the heatsink seated properly (almost no play). In this step, make sure the screws are all in place as well. If it still overheats...
4. Check the thermal paste to see if it looks sloppy or maybe there wasn't enough. Many swear by Gelid and IC7. If you see that it needs to be redone, do that. If it still overheats...
5. Call your vendor and explain all the steps and tests you did. Tell them you believe your card is defective.

 

Guild Wars 2 was definitely not optimized during the last beta weekend. There was a problem where the graphic card would be over-stressed and heat up during character creation if you didn't have v-sync enabled. I have an older computer and I could only do character creation for a few minutes before it would crash, but it was fine in game. I'd assume that they'd fix this before launch.

 

Dont worry for your fps, even the GTX 670 ( desktop ) drop at 30 fps in wvw and big event with something like 40-50% utilization. And because of enduro you dont gain much fps for lowering your setting, so low/med/high/ultra is pretty much the same thing, you still gain some fps but not so much and you will drop to 30 no matter what setting.

I recorded some video last stress test/beta weekend
sPvP 40% utilization 40-45 fps all max setting 7970M GW2 - YouTube

Big Event 40-60% utilization 20-30 fps all max setting GW2 7970M tons of players - YouTube

So im pretty sure if we can get something near 90-99% utilization we will have 60 fps at max setting.

 

Thanks guys, as for utilization, afterburner said it was getting 80 to 90% utilization at the times when the heat was at 80-90. I remember I even left it on sometimes doing nothing in certain areas and it would heat up to 85+ as I was afk with 80 to 90% utilization.

As for the fans, I just propped it onto a 3/4 inch or so package of paper. I'll let you guys know how it works out.

Thanks again for all your help its really great for people like me who don't really know much.

EDIT: Just tried playing some skyrim and according to msi afterburner im in the high 90's and even spiked over 100 a couple times... is going on... I'm not even on max settings and useage was only at around 85% or so when I was over 100. Are these really the right numbers of could there be a problem with afterburner.

 

You can test it tomorrow during the stress test.

 

over 100c? you need to repaste that GPU. Mine was getting pretty hot out of the box, I repasted and my average gaming temps are 76c now.

 

76c??? what games and graphic settings are you using?

I am really happy with the performance of the laptop

I am getting 97-99% utilization in Crysis 2 and the temps are at 87-88 degrees. Is 87 degrees okay or is it too hot?? the room temp is around 25 degrees

 

Just got my 9170 with factory IC Diamond paste. I was getting 99% utilization in Diablo 3 last night but temps went up to 102.

 

Contrary to my previous post, I feel a number of these cards may be defective. Bloody AMD, they seem to be so slack with their QA process nowadays. Temps like that are absolutely unacceptable.

 

How hot exactly is your room? What are the idle temps?

I would recommend repasting. Get some IC Diamond and do it yourself. Do the foil tape mod as well. If this doesn't work then there is definitely something wrong with your GPU.

Also, try turning on turbo fans (Fn+1) to see whether it is the fan profiles messing up.

 

Which notebook cooler do you recommend? I will be using my laptop on my lap a fair bit.