Recently I noticed when replaying Wasteland 2 that after about four hours or so of play my computer would just shut down, turn off completely mid-game. This kept happening so eventually I opened my computer's case and discovered that my video card was VERY hot, as in so hot it could burn your hand, now I've seen my GPU get hot but never so much that the computer shut itself off. So I got this program called "Speccy" which enables you to check the temperature of your computer's hardware in real-time, and when playing WL2 lo and behold it was about 98 degrees and in the red. What was even weirder is that even when just running Windows it was still about 70 degrees.

So my first thought was motherfucking Unity engine, because well it's performance issues are well-known, but upon trying some other games running on other engines (Unreal engine 4 and so on) I noticed the same thing - getting too hot and shutting off the computer, so I guess that rules out Unity.

So people, do you think my video card is giving up it's ghost? Is it time to buy a new one before it dies for good? For everyone's info my card is a AMD Radeon HD 6970 2GB which I've been using for well over 5 years now.

EDIT: Also I have AC in my place so this isn't an issue with the Australian summer.

Well, 5 years is a long time for a graphics card. I've had several cards die on me after about 3 years, and I've seen that precise issue as well (overheating and then shutting down).

Have you dusted your card? Overheating can be cause by nothing more than dust clogging up the fans and air vents, as well as coating the circuits within. I use a compressed-air spray to clean all my electronics. You might at least try to take the card apart, clean it, and put it back together again, before deciding to throw it away.

Try to dust your pc out (with small brush and specific compressed air duster). Your whole PC and your GPU's ventirad. Make sure your venti is running also, if you have monitoring software you should be able to check ventilator's speed.

My first impression is your cooling for your CPU is bad...

Regardless, if it's not that then it's the fan(s) on your GPU aren't doing their job. You can probably fix it yourself if you have a little know-how. Alternatively you can force a lot more air through your computer case.

Reminds me... You might want to dust your entire computer using compressed air, it might help.

The idle temperature seems to be too high. According to reviews like this one (www.techspot.com/review/348-amd-radeon-6970/page12.html), the stress temperature ain't too bad.

Did you try to clean the fan yet? Dust could be a problem.

Yeah I've dusted, I even get the vacuum cleaner to do the CPU and GPU fans (for the hard to get dust build up), so it certainly isn't that.

Sniped double-tripple quadrupple sniped lol


Hi there!
Can you check if all the fans are working in your pc? (and ofcourse the gpu's)
It's important to have an airflow otherwise it will just remain hot and get hotter inside the casing. Mostly airflow from front of the pc to the back (going slightly up, or also up with fans in some cases).
Check if nothing is blocking (cables) and dust props.

I think it might be wise to remove your videocard and clean it by removing the plastic cover.
Use a good vaccuum cleaner or 'air blow can' to remove all dust.

Something seems to be definitely wrong. To give you an idea, I opened up my computer case and put it up against my air conditioning vent, so the cold air was blowing DIRECTLY into the computer and GPU, and it still was around 80 degrees.

EDIT: Fans seem to be good, I mean they're running like normal and don't seem to be slow or making unusual noises.

Do something for me, i assume the GPU card is out of your computer or you're using another computer for a little while; Still. While the computer is off and the GPU is cool enough to touch, touch the fan(s); See how freely it/they spin. If it's hard to spin (or doesn't at all), it needs cleaning or replacing. If it spins freely but you don't see it working while it's on (just turning the computer on for 2-3 seconds will let you know while you observe) then it needs replacing.

Alternatively in theory you can put new thermal paste on and new heat sinks, but it might be getting into too much trouble. I've worked with paste 2 times, the first on a RRoD on a 360 and it didn't work, and the other on a new computer while building it. Hmmm....

"Well over 5 years?" O.o AFAIK Radeon HD 6900 series was released on December 15, 2010.

Nah this is my only computer, but I'll try what you said in a sec.
Hmmm, well maybe less then... Time flies and all that, it was a top of the line card when I got it.

If dusting it doesn't work, then it could also be the thermal compound. You would need to take off the heatsink and clean off the old compound, then you can reapply some new compound. Some sources say you should do that every year, which might be overkill, but after 5 years I think it's definitely worn out.

Edit: Ninja'd by rtcvb32. I've reapplied compound a few times before, it's not too difficult, but I usually don't notice a huge difference unless it's really old.

Clean everything, check air flow and monitor the temperatures if you can. It sounds like you'll need a new one. After five years it can only be expected.

I had that happen with my reference 6870. Couldn't figure it out. You can try to get a new gpu heatsink for it and see if that helps. Custom ones do a pretty good job. Otherwise you're getting a new card. :P

Heating issues can't come out of the blue like this. It must be something to do with the heatsink of your GPU, or one or more of your fans not functioning properly. Check the system fans as well. A slowdown on their part can cause this as well. You should also see if anything is running inthe background while you're playing; since it can add to your temps.