# Highest safe temperature for graphics cards?



## runevirage (Apr 24, 2010)

I was wondering what the maximum temperature of a graphics card can be with no chance of damaging the card. Today I was running 4x4 SSAA in a game and my cards peaked at 98 degrees C, which seems fairly high. They were at 100% load and 100% fan speed too. I heard they can go up to 120 degrees C without a problem but is this true?


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## mtosev (Apr 24, 2010)

which gfx?

newer nvidia cards have a max temp of 115-120C.


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## Hockster (Apr 24, 2010)

What card?

That's pretty high for anything other than a 470/480.


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## Mussels (Apr 24, 2010)

most cards will survive 120C or so, but not for extended periods of time.

Fermi aside, try and keep temps below 80C


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## runevirage (Apr 24, 2010)

These were GTX 275s. They normally peak at 85-90 but under extreme stress like the situation mentioned above they can go above 95. Just wondering if this was safe or not.


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## puma99dk| (Apr 24, 2010)

if you think temps are to hot, clean your card for dust, make your case airflow better or install a new cooler on it, together with the airflow ^^


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## DarkOCean (Apr 24, 2010)

runevirage said:


> I was wondering what the maximum temperature of a graphics card can be with no chance of damaging the card. Today I was running 4x4 SSAA in a game and my cards peaked at 98 degrees C, which seems fairly high. They were at 100% load and 100% fan speed too. I heard they can go up to 120 degrees C without a problem but is this true?



Those temps are definetly to high for 100% fan speeds .What case do you have ?
I think you dont have enough airflow or the video cards are full of dust or something are wrong in there.
Put some fans on the side panel if you can.


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## runevirage (Apr 24, 2010)

Case is HAF 932. Not sure if it's a dust problem, they've been running on the same temps since day 1.

Edit: So here's the Nvidia specs page, it says max temp 105. Does that mean the card will last as long at 105 as at any temp under 105? Or does it mean 105 is the sort of "breaking point" temp?


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## Mussels (Apr 24, 2010)

runevirage said:


> Case is HAF 932. Not sure if it's a dust problem, they've been running on the same temps since day 1.
> 
> Edit: So here's the Nvidia specs page, it says max temp 105. Does that mean the card will last as long at 105 as at any temp under 105? Or does it mean 105 is the sort of "breaking point" temp?



it means that at 105, it will operate. It wont crash or artifact, for example.

That said, it will likely shorten the lifespan of the card.


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## btarunr (Apr 24, 2010)

It depends on the GPU, really. Higher-end GPUs are made on higher-grade manufacturing processes, and can withstand up to 120C. For others it's typically up to 90C.


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## KainXS (Apr 24, 2010)

I have run cards at 105C over long periods of time with no problem, but its different from card to card, for example, one day I turned on my pc to see my 8800GT was doing 105C because the fan wasn't working on it and it wasn't dead, but my old 8800GTX did the same thing and died almost instantly.


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## Bassman_soundking (May 2, 2010)

wow, I hope my card doesnt run that hot. I have a small case. How do I find out how hot my card is during games or even at idle?
Haf 932 is about as much airflow as you can get I think


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## tianhui (May 2, 2010)

My Diamond 4870 idles at around 46-48C which seems okay for this particular card,
how do i figure out the safe load temperatures w/o actually frying out m'card?


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## DarkOCean (May 2, 2010)

Bassman_soundking said:


> wow, I hope my card doesnt run that hot. I have a small case. How do I find out how hot my card is during games or even at idle?
> Haf 932 is about as much airflow as you can get I think


Use gpu-z or msi aferburner.



tianhui said:


> My Diamond 4870 idles at around 46-48C which seems okay for this particular card,
> how do i figure out the safe load temperatures w/o actually frying out m'card?



Below 90 c is pretty safe for any gpu but y preffer to keep mine below 80c.


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## theonedub (May 2, 2010)

I let my GTX 275s get up to 84C Folding and there is no damage. The temps would be lower if the card was not being suffocated due to the SLI layout of my board.


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## Bassman_soundking (May 3, 2010)

My XFX GTS250 idles at 51* at 35% fan and at 46-47* at fan speed 50%
I installed that MSI afterburner.
Btw what does (folding) mean?


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## theonedub (May 3, 2010)

Folding as in Folding@Home (the scientific application) it loads the card to 100% and I run it 24/7. So far 84C temps don't bother them.


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## ToTTenTranz (May 3, 2010)

The first, "noisy cooler"-equipped 8800GT used to go up to 105º quite often.


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## Zubasa (May 3, 2010)

ToTTenTranz said:


> The first, "noisy cooler"-equipped 8800GT used to go up to 105º quite often.


I had a dead 9800GT with that cooler sitting right in front of me yesterday


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## OneMoar (May 4, 2010)

meh something bothers me about 100% fan and still haveing 90c+ temps check and make sure the cards can breath thats starting to get a bit warm


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## hat (May 4, 2010)

Try taking the cooler off, cleaning up the excess paste, and putting some of your own on... MX-2 is a great choice. That should make temps drop considerably.


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## Bassman_soundking (May 4, 2010)

hat said:


> Try taking the cooler off, cleaning up the excess paste, and putting some of your own on... MX-2 is a great choice. That should make temps drop considerably.



you can do that on a gpu?


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## OneMoar (May 4, 2010)

Bassman_soundking said:


> you can do that on a gpu?



/headdesk


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## a_ump (May 4, 2010)

lol of course you can. Though i'm sure you will need this answer as much as i do. Can thermal pads be re-used for memory and whatnot on the stock heatsink as long as they're intact? or would he(and i) need to buy new pads if we wanted to apply some MX-2 to our gpu's?


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## claylomax (May 4, 2010)

It really depends on room temperature. There is a big difference between gaming in the summer and the winter. I was playing Batman last December and it wouldn't trigger the fan on my 285 it was constanly at 40% and temps peaked at 83. Regarding the max safe temp for a video card, my old HD4870 idles at around 80 and peaks at 90 and still rocks.


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## Bassman_soundking (May 4, 2010)

claylomax said:


> It really depends on room temperature. There is a big difference between gaming in the summer and the winter. I was playing Batman last December and it wouldn't trigger the fan on my 285 it was constanly at 40% and temps peaked at 83. Regarding the max safe temp for a video card, my old HD4870 idles at around 80 and peaks at 90 and still rocks.



This may sound dumb. but the higher end cards run hotter?


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## dies900 (May 4, 2010)

Its a great idea to switch thermal paste! I did the same and even with not the best paste out there and still this zalman stg2 was better than the original one but if you have no experience whatsoever then ask someone to do it for or someone who could teach or assist you!


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## Bassman_soundking (May 4, 2010)

dies900 said:


> Its a great idea to switch thermal paste! I did the same and even with not the best paste out there and still this zalman stg2 was better than the original one but if you have no experience whatsoever then ask someone to do it for or someone who could teach or assist you!



my XFX has lifetime warranty, will that void the warranty?


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## hat (May 4, 2010)

Probably... but 90% of tpu doesn't care about warranty 

My temps just dropped a full ~10*c after taking my cooler off and applying MX-2 instead of that stock thermal gunk, using the same stock cooler. The base is horrible... too bad most stock coolers can't be lapped, heh


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## Bassman_soundking (May 4, 2010)

I love warranties! I bought this specific brand just for the warranty. I would rather buy another case fan and keep rest of pc cool and let it burn out and rma the card as opposed to void warranty.


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## Mussels (May 4, 2010)

a_ump said:


> lol of course you can. Though i'm sure you will need this answer as much as i do. Can thermal pads be re-used for memory and whatnot on the stock heatsink as long as they're intact? or would he(and i) need to buy new pads if we wanted to apply some MX-2 to our gpu's?



they can be reused, they just tend to fall apart rather fast, so be gentle with them.



Bassman_soundking said:


> This may sound dumb. but the higher end cards run hotter?



Not always. for example, they could make a card now as fast as last years biggest and baddest, and due to new tech it would run much cooler. also while the higher end cards do put out more heat, they tend to have better cooling to go with it - so the temps are roughly the same (putting failures like Fermi aside...)


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## Necrofire (May 4, 2010)

My experience has been that the higher end cards of that series (4870) idle high.

Do remember though that that temp is a safety limit, meaning that at that temp, things will be fine, it's within spec after all. And also remember that AMD/Nvidia are a little lax on the upper limits of stuff, since the cards are always able to clock at least a little higher, they can also take temps above 105C for some time too.

Idling 80s and getting into the high 90s is freakish to me, but it isn't dangerous.

For comparison, my 4850 idles at 45 or so, and the highest I've seen it is around 80C using furmark.


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## Mussels (May 4, 2010)

Necrofire said:


> My experience has been that the higher end cards of that series (4870) idle high.
> 
> Do remember though that that temp is a safety limit, meaning that at that temp, things will be fine, it's within spec after all. And also remember that AMD/Nvidia are a little lax on the upper limits of stuff, since the cards are always able to clock at least a little higher, they can also take temps above 105C for some time too.
> 
> ...



48x0 cards just had a shit idle, due to a flaw with the GDDR5 design... they couldnt idle the ram without causing flickering whenever the clocks changed.


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## hat (May 4, 2010)

I think they idle high because of poor fan settings... my fan ran at like 37% before I changed it. Also, fan profiles tend to play favorites with noise rather than low temps. My card would stay around that 37% and hit 77c folding... I set it to run at 70% now and it runs at 62c folding (after the change in thermal paste, hehe)


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## Necrofire (May 4, 2010)

Mussels said:


> 48x0 cards just had a shit idle, due to a flaw with the GDDR5 design... they couldnt idle the ram without causing flickering whenever the clocks changed.



That is absolutely true, my card used to downclock ram, and my second monitor would go crazy. Except I'm running gddr3 though. Something to do with the 48xx I guess.

What he should do is just get a 5xxx card, those things clock so damn low at desktop it's amazing.


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## Bassman_soundking (May 4, 2010)

hat said:


> I think they idle high because of poor fan settings... my fan ran at like 37% before I changed it. Also, fan profiles tend to play favorites with noise rather than low temps. My card would stay around that 37% and hit 77c folding... I set it to run at 70% now and it runs at 62c folding (after the change in thermal paste, hehe)



The fans are noisy and the most overlooked part by the designers. Its all about looks. 30% fan speed is the threshold b4 it gets audible beyond other fans 50% sounds loud any higher and it just pisses me off. The difference in cooling from 30-100% in only like 6*c as well.

To the op, it looks like my card and the 275 have the same fan size and design. That assumed that a card that is way more powerful will produce the same heat


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## claylomax (May 4, 2010)

Bassman_soundking said:


> This may sound dumb. but the higher end cards run hotter?



The HD4870 bios downclocks the core when idle from 750mhz to 500mhz, unfortunately the memory stays always at 900mhz increasing the temps and the power consumption; it can be reduced manually in the overdrive tab of the catalyst driver all the way to 450mhz if I recall, it cuts the power consumption by 30 watts and the temps by some 25c at idle.


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## Bassman_soundking (May 4, 2010)

My 6600 fan stopped and it kept working (still does) for 3 yrs. The fan-sink was always hot to the touch. I said when it fails I'll get a new card. I finally just bought a new one


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## entropy13 (May 4, 2010)

claylomax said:


> The HD4870 bios downclocks the core when idle from 750mhz to 500mhz, unfortunately the memory stays always at 900mhz increasing the temps and the power consumption; it can be reduced manually in the overdrive tab of the catalyst driver all the way to 450mhz if I recall, it cuts the power consumption by 30 watts and the temps by some 25c at idle.



You can also use some other program (like RivaTuner) to underclock it beyond 500/450MHz for Core/Mem. Then you can use the scheduler so that it underclocks when not in 3D mode and reverts to stock (or to your overclocked frequencies) during 3D mode. I've done that before already as a test but I'm not using it anymore lol. Although I'm still using the scheduler for fan speed management depending on the temps of the VRMs.


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## brandonwh64 (May 4, 2010)

Bassman_soundking said:


> my XFX has lifetime warranty, will that void the warranty?



NO it will not void the warranty. they say if you use a aftermarket cooler and need to RMA, that you have to put the original cooler on back to factory specs (with no missing pieces) to get a RMA. that's why with XFX cards you should keep the cooler in a plastic baggy with ALL screws and components it came with. as for changing the thermal paste, change it to whatever you want. XFX doesn't look at that unless you used something other than thermal paste to cool it LOL like cheese


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## entropy13 (May 4, 2010)

brandonwh64 said:


> NO it will not void the warranty. they say if you use a aftermarket cooler and need to RMA, that you have to put the original cooler on back to factory specs (with no missing pieces) to get a RMA. that's why with XFX cards you should keep the cooler in a plastic baggy with ALL screws and components it came with. as for changing the thermal paste, change it to whatever you want. XFX doesn't look at that *unless you used something other than thermal paste to cool it* LOL like cheese



http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=164465


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## brandonwh64 (May 4, 2010)

entropy13 said:


> http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=164465



LOL!!! that was a nice test they ran


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## naoan (May 4, 2010)

entropy13 said:


> http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=164465



I can't stop laughing at the things he came up to test


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## hat (May 4, 2010)

Bassman_soundking said:


> The fans are noisy and the most overlooked part by the designers. Its all about looks. 30% fan speed is the threshold b4 it gets audible beyond other fans 50% sounds loud any higher and it just pisses me off. The difference in cooling from 30-100% in only like 6*c as well.



wat

My 8800GTS's fan isn't audible over my single 120mm case fan at 60%, and at 70% I only hear it if I pay close attention to it, and at 80% it gets a bit loud. Also, if I lock my fan speed to 30%, the temp goes over 80c in F@H, if I lock it to 60%, it stays around 65c.


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## Taz100420 (May 4, 2010)

entropy13 said:


> http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=164465



one test I see they havent done was Vasoline. I ran outta paste once, temps were high and I had no money for thermal paste. I used Vasoline. Surprisingly it cools very well, 20 C idle and 45 C load on my 5000+. The good temps only last for like a month then they load was 50C and idle was 30C. I wanted to see how long it would last and it stayed at the last temps for awhile (~5 months) So if ya ever run outta paste and need a quick solution, Vasoline will work 

Btw, I have regular thermal paste on now lol


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## Bassman_soundking (May 4, 2010)

hat said:


> wat
> 
> My 8800GTS's fan isn't audible over my single 120mm case fan at 60%, and at 70% I only hear it if I pay close attention to it, and at 80% it gets a bit loud. Also, if I lock my fan speed to 30%, the temp goes over 80c in F@H, if I lock it to 60%, it stays around 65c.



My case fan sounds like 20 db maybe on high, gpu card has a different sound entirely too. only thing louder than my gpu fan on high is the stock cpu fan under load


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## BababooeyHTJ (May 4, 2010)

I had a similar issue recently and I always run Rivatuner. Anyways when I went back and took a good look as to what was causing that I noticed that the core voltage was at 1.6v which is obscene. A driver issue wouldn't surprise me.

I have a screenshot posted in the GTX280 Acellero thread.


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 11, 2019)

frank30fps said:


> hey there 9 years later



You may want to read this before you get banned.


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## eidairaman1 (Aug 11, 2019)

frank30fps said:


> ok sorry











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