Graphics temp increasing....

[Jafo]

I have been noticing in games that I'm starting to have some lag even while playing single player mode. I checked my temp on both graphics cards and one is at 61 degrees and the other is at 71 degrees. I've never had any heat issues until the past couple days. Should I be worried? I know that the season is changing and weather is getting warmer, but I don't recall having this high of temperatures last year (maybe because I didn't notice any lag issues). I've started blowing air into the front of the case with an external fan to try to increase air flow to the case. Any ideas why all of a sudden added temp?

[screwballl]

the biggest cause of this is usually a few things... increased ambient temp of the room... I know my system go up a few degrees when it warms up as we generally keep the house about 72-76ºF in the winter and 78-80ºF in the summer. Dust getting into the system may be slowing down the fans slightly and also reducing airflow.
Take the computer outside and use a few cans of compressed air to blow the system out real good. I know on one system I need to completely take apart the cpu hsf to get all the critters in there (my XP3000+ system)

[Computer-Ed]

On the graphics card be sure you blow air through the fins. The HS design on the GPUs has a bad habit of letting dustballs form in the fins and blocking good air flow.

[Jafo]

I vacuumed out the dust on both cards, but the temp is still high. I'll get some compressed air and clean it again.

[onebxr]

What you might want to do is take the stock heat sink fan off, take it apart blow that out and then reapply some thermal paste on it. I replaced my HS on my 6800 gs and when I took the stock heat sink off the paste was almost completely dry.
-1

[stinger608]

Originally Posted by Computer-Ed

On the graphics card be sure you blow air through the fins. The HS design on the GPUs has a bad habit of letting dustballs form in the fins and blocking good air flow.

Very good point!!! They ARE real bad about little dust balls building up and completely blocking a large portion of air flow.

Also, a vacuum usually will not get all of the critters out of the system, compressed air is the best method, but, be sure to hold the can of air upright otherwise you will blow water into the system!!!!

[Quakindude]

There's a big warning with that procedure Onebxr. Stinger, IIRC, let me know a few months back that pulling the heatsink and fan assembly off a video card can ruin the spacing between the ram chips and the HSF assembly if you clean all that stuff off the ram chips. I personally didn't have that problem, but I did research it and found out that it definitely can be a serious issue.

For simple cleaning of video cards, you don't need to remove the HSF assembly. Just take the two cards out of the system and used canned air to clean them out. Look down the length of the heatsink fins to make sure you've gotten all the dust out. This time of year, you can have some very stubborn blockages due to pollen, the drier weather increasing dust, etc. Even new carpet in your house, especially if it's the cheap variety, can cause some pretty severe dust build up in a computer.

[One4yu2c]

That's a great point, and former staffer Drew found that out the hard way. Many stock heatsink assemblies utilize heatpads instead of paste, the installation compensates for the extra width. Once removed, you could end up not being able to make contact.

However, you should be able to remove the cover without actually removing the heatsink. This gives you the best access to any dust and gunk that may have built up inside. For example, when I reviewed the Cooler Master CoolViva Pro Videocard Cooler, I first opened and cleaned up the stock heatsink on the testbed's XFX 7800GTX. There was quite a bit of dust in there that seriously restricted the airflow (see pic below). Temps went down from 65C idle to 53C, and a whopping 115+C load to 84C.

[stinger608]

Originally Posted by Quakindude

There's a big warning with that procedure Onebxr. Stinger, IIRC, let me know a few months back that pulling the heatsink and fan assembly off a video card can ruin the spacing between the ram chips and the HSF assembly if you clean all that stuff off the ram chips. I personally didn't have that problem, but I did research it and found out that it definitely can be a serious issue.

For simple cleaning of video cards, you don't need to remove the HSF assembly. Just take the two cards out of the system and used canned air to clean them out. Look down the length of the heatsink fins to make sure you've gotten all the dust out. This time of year, you can have some very stubborn blockages due to pollen, the drier weather increasing dust, etc. Even new carpet in your house, especially if it's the cheap variety, can cause some pretty severe dust build up in a computer.

Yep, as I recall, one of the biggest issues about removing the heat sink was on the 7600 series of cards! Can't really remember the whole deal, and I think it was on just some brands, but better to be safe than sorry!!!
As One4 pointed out, you should be able to remove just the cover with one of them little jewelers Phillips screw drivers, as the screws tend to be very tiny, and get a better cleaning!!!!

[Jafo]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm going to get some compressed air during my lunch hour today, and I'll try that without taking everything apart first.