Guild Wars 2

I believe my GPU is overheating, which in turn eventually is causing my entire PC to freeze (upon which I have to manually turn it off and back on). My video card temperature goes up to 80-90 degrees Celsius while playing the game for just one hour.

Is this a normal temperature to reach when playing GW2?

PC Specs:
Windows 7 64-bit
AMD Radeon 7870 Sapphire Edition
Intel i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz
16 gb RAM

No, it’s not normal, it’s breaking point heat. You should open your case and see if the video card fan is working and probably clean out the computer anyway.

Well… I can already hear the “Heat Weenies” coming to say im wrong but this is “fact.” 80c on a GPU is getting warm but no where near “Dangerous” GPU’s are built to hold up to “95c – 100c” before you should really be kittenting your pants. i would pull the gpu apart check for dried up crusty “Tim” [Termalpaste] on the GPU itself next id check the fan as the above stated and check your case make sure all case fans are running and havnt come to a random stop! believe me this happens without people noticing! if its hitting 90c within the first hour yeah that’s a bit on the hot side for sure but 80c? that’s fine Im running SLI and my 760’s will somtime’s tap 75-80c which is COMPLETELY normal.

But to continue check those first couple things and also depending on your case the way the case fans are all positioned wether your not getting enough balance between positive/negative air flow could be a reason ambient temps can affect EVERYTHING inside a computer so maybe measure ambient temps usually a good case with good air pressure will sit anywhere from 5-10c above ambient room temp depending on your setup etc. some are as low as 2c above ambient ive seen on some peoples setups which is rad but yeah go through everything and give it a blow out with some compressed air would be my last resort if all that fails id RMA it.

Exiled was pretty spot on, for a GPU in a hot environment thats fine, after all, it is the summer. Now, if that was CPU temp, it would be another story.

Also as the above post states, try replacing the TIM to lower temps a bit, and just be sure the fans are spinning.

My 280X (7970) would run between 75c and 80c full load playing GW2 (everything on max).

I found that the GPU fan was not running at 100%, but instead 80-85% (to keep the db down on the noise levels). Also the Fan would no ramp up RPMs fast enough to combat the TDP.

Using MSI Afterburner to manually set the Fans trigger points, going 100% at 65c’s, I was able to keep my card at 70c’s full load with the changes done with MSI afterburner.

Granted, since I have pulled off the factory heatsinks and installed my MK-26 from Prolimatch and my full load temps are 58C’s now.

280x/7970 reference models usually go up to only around 85c in the regular variety of the worst gaming scenarios. That’s what mine did.

Radeon HD 7870 has no excuse to be higher than that. Especially if your Sapphire has one of those fancy double fan coolers, it should be hanging at the most 60 – 65 possibly up to 70 degrees.

We dont know his ambient temp, so we could speculate all day :/

What is your ambient temperature and what case do you have?

My R9 290Xs never get that hot no matter how hot my ambient is. If it’s not long term ambient exposure there could be quite a problem.

Also for the record if it’s the card itself, don’t do what any of these guys say (if it has anything to do with physically altering the unit) except for get in contact with the manufacturer and consult them. If it needs to be RMA’d, doing any physical adaptation to the graphics card WILL void the warranty.

Which means don’t do what Exiled Dbl said and pull it apart. I’d rather have it serviced or replaced by Sapphire at no cost to you.