Dusty Video Cards

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Sir Cumference

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To those that had dusty video cards, after you got rid of all the dust did you noticed any noticeable temp drops? My 7800GT goes into the 100-109 degree Celsius when ever I play a game. I know the fan works because it's spinning furiously. Its not enough to cool it down though.

It has to be the dust, but I want to know if there'll be significant changes. Not sure when the last time I cleaned out the case.
 
yes dust can DEFINITELY be a factor in cooling efficiency.
and that is WAY too hot for your card. i think the absolute max of the 7800's is right around 115*C. and you are right up on that. your max temp should be around 70-80*C, 80*C being plenty hot, when the card is under stress. do you have decent airflow in your case?
 
I have noticed with newer cards, that have the fins that are closer and thinner, instead of dust traveling down the card, it will all build up into a nice large clump right beside the fan... Overheating gets far worse... Clean the suckers out often....
 
Pretty much any game would bring the card to around 100 degrees C. Idle is usually around 66-70 degrees C. I dont even use the case side panel anymore. I usually remove it whenever I play a game (doesnt do much). The case is a Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-WW Black/Silver Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases. It's decent I guess, but the PSU cables are everywhere and there isn't much room to hide them. Man, I cant wait till I begin my new build.

I'll get some can of compressed air and clean this sucker and see how it goes.
 
To those that had dusty video cards, after you got rid of all the dust did you noticed any noticeable temp drops? My 7800GT goes into the 100-109 degree Celsius when ever I play a game. I know the fan works because it's spinning furiously. Its not enough to cool it down though.

It has to be the dust, but I want to know if there'll be significant changes. Not sure when the last time I cleaned out the case.

Yes cleaning did wanders on mine, I have the same card, 7800 GT :D... and I just posted this the other day, here: GX2 / Temps / Case Fans. Most of the post was to explain the reason why you should take out the card and air dust clean it, example of improvement is probably more of what you are looking for, hope you get more out of it after dusting.
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Proper way would be to take the Graphics Card out, or any other device you need to get dust out of. I just did the same with my computer, see I wasn't taking the Graphics Card out and blowing all the dust out of the cracks (or should I say, out of the holes, like the heatsink and fan. I seen a lot of dust bunnies fly out of it, just by doing one punch of that air :) ... So I hit it real good with several more blows, and lots more came out. So best thing to do, is take out the device you wish to dust blow, and keep the can upright, while tilting the card/device to where you need it. Be careful though, you might want to buy a wrist band that you can connect to the Computer Caseing, to keep the human body static from hurting your Graphics Card or any other device effected by Static Electricity.

Example of improvement: GeForce 7800 GT - Temperature I was getting without a good cleaning for I would say about 3 years, 67c - idle (I saw it peak past boiling point several times, while in play "couldn't play long "). I first cleaned my graphics card with just a Q-Tip (cause I couldn't find the straw to my air can), like took some dirt off the fan with the Q-Tip, it put my Temp to 57c - idle. I then finally found that straw to the air can, and blew out all that dust and dust wads from heatsink area and fan (basicly the whole card), now I'm getting 46c - idle, I had it peak to 77c today while playing a game. 100c is boiling point. So it's kicking like new again I hope your new card works great for you... what games do you play?
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Get to dusting,
Joshua Inman aka LuDawg
 
Yes cleaning did wanders on mine, I have the same card, 7800 GT :D... and I just posted this the other day, here: GX2 / Temps / Case Fans. Most of the post was to explain the reason why you should take out the card and air dust clean it, example of improvement is probably more of what you are looking for, hope you get more out of it after dusting.
------------------------------------------------
Proper way would be to take the Graphics Card out, or any other device you need to get dust out of. I just did the same with my computer, see I wasn't taking the Graphics Card out and blowing all the dust out of the cracks (or should I say, out of the holes, like the heatsink and fan. I seen a lot of dust bunnies fly out of it, just by doing one punch of that air :) ... So I hit it real good with several more blows, and lots more came out. So best thing to do, is take out the device you wish to dust blow, and keep the can upright, while tilting the card/device to where you need it. Be careful though, you might want to buy a wrist band that you can connect to the Computer Caseing, to keep the human body static from hurting your Graphics Card or any other device effected by Static Electricity.

Example of improvement: GeForce 7800 GT - Temperature I was getting without a good cleaning for I would say about 3 years, 67c - idle (I saw it peak past boiling point several times, while in play "couldn't play long "). I first cleaned my graphics card with just a Q-Tip (cause I couldn't find the straw to my air can), like took some dirt off the fan with the Q-Tip, it put my Temp to 57c - idle. I then finally found that straw to the air can, and blew out all that dust and dust wads from heatsink area and fan (basicly the whole card), now I'm getting 46c - idle, I had it peak to 77c today while playing a game. 100c is boiling point. So it's kicking like new again I hope your new card works great for you... what games do you play?
------------------------------------------------

Get to dusting,
Joshua Inman aka LuDawg

Great post
icon14.gif
thanks. Now I'm more eager to clean this card up. I really do hope I get significant improvements :D.

Right now I'm playing COD4 and NBA 2k9. Well, its more like I'm unable to play because the game keeps crashing an hour in! And I still continue to play lol. I was playing CS, CS:S, etc but my friend changed his steam account password. Im thinking of getting the Valve Complete Pack though. Played WoW, but Im done with that. Play BF2 rarely now. Overheating + getting my *** kicked made me drop the game for a bit. It's fun but it takes time getting use to and I consider myself an avid FPS gamer. A funny thing about BF2 and my video card is that when I first got the game, I was able to play it on Med-High settings with the 7800gt. I think I stopped playing for about a year. Went on one day, and my computer couldn't last 10-20 minutes or so before problems occur. So it definitely has to be a dust issue.

I guess im not much of a gamer anymore since I've kinda slowed down on games the last year or two. Once I start my new build (or clean out this video card) I might just get back into it.
 
i use a centurion 5 and get pretty good airflow through it. i added a 120mm in the front bezel and have really good wire management, though. you can run your psu cables down the back side of the drive cage and tie them off so they dont restrict flow from the front.
 
Sir Cumference, CS and CS:S those were my games in the day (I still play CS:S off and on)... I'm trying to get back into it though (it's fun to play with friends, and I lost track of them awhile back, net was down and such), if you're interested lets get together and play CS:S when you get it back going. Now I'm more into Team Fortress 2... I wish BioShock (that's a nice game) had Multiplayer :( Haven't tried BF2 or WoW... I have CoD 2 (I play it every now and then.

Hit me up on MSN (Windows Live Messenger), not sure if you can call it MSN anymore :p

rehab_ludawg@hotmail.com

I'm trying to get a clan going again, but first I'm working on a website.
 
Sir Cumference, CS and CS:S those were my games in the day (I still play CS:S off and on)... I'm trying to get back into it though (it's fun to play with friends, and I lost track of them awhile back, net was down and such), if you're interested lets get together and play CS:S when you get it back going. Now I'm more into Team Fortress 2... I wish BioShock (that's a nice game) had Multiplayer :( Haven't tried BF2 or WoW... I have CoD 2 (I play it every now and then.

Hit me up on MSN (Windows Live Messenger), not sure if you can call it MSN anymore :p

rehab_ludawg@hotmail.com

I'm trying to get a clan going again, but first I'm working on a website.

Sure, If I ever buy CS again, I'd be interested. Probably not until im done with the build. I do want to try TF2 though. Looks really fun. Bioshock looks great too.

I did a semi clean today. Didn't use any compressed air though. I basically blew all over the card, being careful not to release any saliva haha. It did the trick though. Went from 68-70 C idle to the low 60s idle. Under load, went from 100+ C to 82-84 C. I can actually play COD4 now though I only played about 20 minutes. Next up will be NBA 2k9. See how that goes...

I will be doing a more thorough, correct cleaning later :laughing:
 
i use a centurion 5 and get pretty good airflow through it. i added a 120mm in the front bezel and have really good wire management, though. you can run your psu cables down the back side of the drive cage and tie them off so they dont restrict flow from the front.

By the way, is it possible if you can snap a picture? I would like to get a good look at how you did yours. thanks
 
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