# [SOLVED] Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating



## Dysnomia (Dec 31, 2009)

My friend sold me this computer less than a year ago, so I'm not so sure of the specs, but I know it has an nvidia geforce 9800 gt, and for the past few months the card has been idling at high temps of about 70 - 75 C, and when playing Word of warcraft, (the only game it oddly overheats while playing usually) It gets as high as 115 C. When it gets that high the game will stutter for about 30 seconds to a minute, and it'll go down to about 100 C and slowly climb back up, and then keep repeating the process. 

Airflow is good in the case and I clean out all the dust in the case about twice a week. The power supply is a 550W which should be sufficient for the rig. I've also tried EVGA precision to pump up the fan speed but that didn't really make much of a difference and tried underclocking the card with the sliders, but that really didn't make much of a difference either. 

Any other suggestions? I really wanna try everything I can before I have to buy a new card. =/


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## Markgg88 (Jan 7, 2011)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

550W is not sufficient for a 9800GT, you need 650W. What's the brand and model of the PSU? If the GPU is a few years old, you may need to redo the thermal paste on it.


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## Dysnomia (Dec 31, 2009)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

The power supply is a BFG tech 550 watt fan controlled ATX12V, is what it says on the side anyway. And the video card is about a year old, give or take a month.


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## Markgg88 (Jan 7, 2011)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

BFG PSU's aren't top quality, I reckon this is the issue especially since you keep the case dust free regularly. But 70C while idle seems overly excessive. Did you check if the fan is spinning properly?


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## jonathan68 (May 9, 2002)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

the 9800 gt's do have a trend on running a little warm but 70c is a little to much for Idle, I have two of them running in my current rig and they hold around 54C at Idle. I have found that the fans do not like speed up very well on them as the temp goes up. I am running MSI Afterburner on my rig to keep my fans at 55% while Idle. without MSI afterburner my fans will stay around 35% all the time and stay around 70C - 75C on mine.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

A "good quality" 550W is good for a 9800GT but BFG are not good quality.
Do you have or can you borrow a good PSU to try?


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## Dysnomia (Dec 31, 2009)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

Fans are all working properly.

and no I'd have to buy another PSU, gaahh


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## Dysnomia (Dec 31, 2009)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

What I found odd though is that it only overheats during world of warcraft, which I run around medium specs, and it isn't the most graphically demanding game, I was playing crysis on full blast for a few hours and the card did not overheat and I didn't get stuttering issues.


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## Dysnomia (Dec 31, 2009)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

But yea it still is idling at such high temps, nevermind.


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

I think a reapplication of thermal paste on your GPU would solve your problem. I too was told to upgrade my Gigabyte ODIN 585w PSU to a Corsair 750w due to my card also running a tad hot. Did that and the temps stayed the same. I'm not saying that the PSU upgrade won't help it's just another alternative if the card is old. My GPU was a HD4870 that uses more power than the 9800gt and my 585w handled it fine, it's just you feel better rather having too much power than too little.


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## Dysnomia (Dec 31, 2009)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

I have no idea how to take apart the card to do that -_-


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

YouTube - How to Apply Silver Thermal Compound to 9600GT GPU


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## Dysnomia (Dec 31, 2009)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

Thank you, I'll buy some thermal paste later and see how it goes.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

Even if the thermal paste resolves your problem you still need to replace the PSU with a quality unit to avoid further problems and probable hardware damage.


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## Dysnomia (Dec 31, 2009)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

I'll get to that within the next few weeks if I can get some spare money. Things have been tight lately.


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## Dysnomia (Dec 31, 2009)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

Any recommendations on what PSU I should purchase keeping price in mind?


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## Markgg88 (Jan 7, 2011)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

A PSU must never be something to skimp on, we can only recommend top quality PSU's.

Since Tyree said a good quality 550W PSU should be good for 9800 GT, I found a 620W SeaSonic PSU for a decent price:

Newegg.com - SeaSonic S12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply


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## Dysnomia (Dec 31, 2009)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

So I opened up the card, put some new thermal paste on, and cleaned a bit of dust out of the gpu heat sink that I missed, and now the temp doesn't go above 60C when I'm playing, and is only at about 45C when idling. I'll look into getting a new PSU within the next week or two. Thanks for all the help!


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## Markgg88 (Jan 7, 2011)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*

Glad to hear it!


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## alekthefirst (Jan 3, 2012)

*Re: Nvidia geforce 9800 gt overheating*



jonathan68 said:


> the 9800 gt's do have a trend on running a little warm but 70c is a little to much for Idle, I have two of them running in my current rig and they hold around 54C at Idle. I have found that the fans do not like speed up very well on them as the temp goes up. I am running MSI Afterburner on my rig to keep my fans at 55% while Idle. without MSI afterburner my fans will stay around 35% all the time and stay around 70C - 75C on mine.


i also use MSI Afterburner, but too me i cant get the GPU temp. under 65 even if i have fan speed at 75 %


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