Graphics Card overheating issue

[ShezA 176]

Guys,I have an ATI X800Pro running on a AMD64 3000, 1 GB RAM. I use the latest Omega drivers and Tray Tools. I have set up the profiles so that FS2004 runs on AA6/AF16, 1280x960, O/C 540/520, and I live in a tropical warm weather country (although the room has aircon).When I am running FS I sometimes have the computer hang suddenly. I recently had a look at the hardware monitor and I noticed that the GPU temperature spikes up just before this event. My usual GPU temp is around 50-55 degs C (warm climate) but during this event the temp goes to 65-73 degs C! It appears that at this point the card shuts down and freezes the comp. Interestingly the Environment temp continues to stay stable.The issue is I cannot isolate why this event occurs because the circumstances within FS that this occurs are not uniform. I have seen that it has occured when in view mode and panning the outside of the aircraft. However, on long flights I have seen this occur even in cockpit mode. It appears to be an event in FS where the GPU undertakes an operation which causes it to go into intense activity thus overheating it. No other program does this.Any ideas what might be happening?Shez

[Guest allcott]

Overheating pure and simple. You're asking the card to run at its hardest - outside of CAD/CAM nothing pushes a graphic card harder than FS. What you have done is o/c the card based on normal use, not FS. Solution is de-overclock or add cooling. It might just be the fans are clogged but if you look at temperature `spikes` in CPU and GPU they always seem to follow similar patterns - sterdy climb, than surge which triggers the shutdown. The reason is that, to a certain extent the fans can compensate for increased heat generation, until they reach 100% capacity, then after that the increase in temperature is both rapid and steep. So either you must remove the source of the heat, or increase the source of the cooling.Allcott

[ShezA 176]

Thanks Allcott, I guess you are telling me what I suspected. I think the overclocking might need to come down first of all. Then let's work from there.Shez

[Guest archtx]

Shez:What has worked for me in the past (I had the fan fail on the Video Card) is to take the side of the computer case off completely and aim a cheap desktop fan into the computer. It performed great like that, although a bit of a messy situation. For sure check and make sure your video card fan is running properly.

[ShezA 176]

I checked the fans and everything is working well. I did notice that the sound card was set too close to the video card so I moved it to another slot to give the video card more air to breathe.I did some adjustments and found that by reducing the AA from 6X to 4X seems to have helped in bringing down the temps. Maybe this reduces the load on the GPU?Shez