GPU Overheat, can I still play games?

[Tears2Roses]

Hey. I was playing CoD MW3 yesterday, and I overheated my GPU. I could smell a burning plastic smell, and within 5 seconds of smelling that my computer was off (literally, I hit the power bar.) I didn't catch the temperatures when I could smell burning plastic, but they must've been high. The GPU fan was running at full, which is bothering me. Anyhow, I looked inside the case and the card looked fine. Nothing looked burned or scorched or discoloured. Maybe it wasn't the GPU but I'm 99% certain that it was. I looked at the GPU fan and noticed it was dusty, so I took the card out and removed the fan(with the heatsink) and cleaned it out. I cleaned the CPU fan too. Everything is now working and installed correctly. However, the GPU fan still clicks. It had been clicking before I cleaned it. The fan blade is loose, and taps the heatsink when there is an uneven dust layer. I think a bearing(or whatever is holding the fan) is wore. I was unable to tighten or do anything with the fan itself. Also I think the GPU fan stopped turning when I could smell smoke. Anyhow, my question is this: Can I still play games? I would want to play MW3, (however I was playing on lowest settings with max fan speed(the fan was clicking) when the GPU overheated...) Minecraft, SWBF2, and maybe TF2/and various strategy games (civ 4 to name one.) My biggest concern is that while playing minecraft my temps climbed to 60C in less than 30 seconds (yes I know minecraft is resource intensive, that was the point.) Would I be able to play and not overheat if I underclocked my card? I could use Afterburner to do that. I just enjoy playing my games and I do not care for visuals that much. Anyhow, in all honesty, I dont want a fire, so I could give up games. But before I do that I just thought I would ask GT what your opinions were and what I should do. Currently my GPU is idling at 43C, and the fan is not clicking. I think thats 5C cooler than before, so cleaning the fan did help. my CPU/etc. temps (acording to speed fan) are between 20-45C, so thats good too. My card is the Nvidia GeForce 9500 GS. It has a really cheap fan on it (imo) for cooling. The fan blade itself is about 2-3 inches diameter , the heatsink is about 7 inches long, and all of it is roughly a quarter inch thick. Hopefully this helps you guys come to a conclusion.

offtopic:

Hidden/Spoiler:

On a side note I was sweating like CRAZY trying to clean the fan and put the screws back in. I thought I would (faint) at one time. However, I did clean the fans, and it is all installed correctly and running fine. I used my vaccum to blow air (it blows are very "gently" so I did not hurt anything) through the heatsink and as a result I ate dust . But yeah, everything is installed correctly and dust bunny free, so I feel good

/offtopic

[Marth8880]

You could purchase a new heatsink and/or fan for your GPU.

http://URL Shorteners are disallowed on Gametoast. Use direct links only./NrMwn3

[Teancum]

Yep, that's what I would do, too. Take a look at this video if you've never done it before. While you're at it i would go down to the GPU, clean it, use QUALITY thermal paste, reassemble. See the video for more detail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s79LgytSJRI

[Tears2Roses]

Alright, I will do that or I will get a new GPU. For now should I be OK to play games?

[Marth8880]

I don't think playing any older games such as Battlefront would cause any real problems. Download and install MSI Afterburner; it has a GPU temp, fan speed, etc. monitor as an in-game overlay (like Fraps, but more than just FPS); plus, if your card supports it, you can underclock it to lower its temperature! More info on Afterburner can be found here.

Yep, that's what I would do, too. Take a look at this video if you've never done it before. While you're at it i would go down to the GPU, clean it, use QUALITY thermal paste, reassemble. See the video for more detail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s79LgytSJRI

Yep. I (as well as most everyone) recommend Arctic Silver 5.

[Teancum]

Alright, I will do that or I will get a new GPU. For now should I be OK to play games?

You absolutely, positively should not burden your GPU if you're having fan noise or overheating. Get it fix.

In other words, no.

[Cerfon Rournes]

Yep. I (as well as most everyone) recommend Arctic Silver 5.

I used IC Diamond thermal paste.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_produ ... id=0391498

Hidden/Spoiler:

[quote]IC Diamond 7 Carat Thermal Compound maximizes thermal heat transfer between the CPU core and heatsink by taking advantage of diamond's superior thermal conductivity. Purified synthetic diamond has a thermal conductivity of 2,000-2,500 W/mK compared to 406-429 W/mK for pure silver. Diamond's five times better thermal conductivity compared to silver makes it a superior heat transfer material for cooling high performance CPUs and is electrically non-conductive and non-capacitive.[/quote]

[Tears2Roses]

Alright, I will do that or I will get a new GPU. For now should I be OK to play games?

You absolutely, positively should not burden your GPU if you're having fan noise or overheating. Get it fix.

In other words, no.

Ok. Is CoD to much for the GPU on lowest settings? I will monitor temperatures and framerate for one game and see what the mins/max are.

[Twilight_Warrior]

Let's put it this way:
Play games now, burn out GPU permanently, can't play games for a long time until it's replaced which costs a moderate amount of money.

OR

Don't play games now, fix GPU for significantly less money than a replacement, play games for a long time later.

[Tears2Roses]

Well I think I actually may be ok, for now. here is the benchmark results and video options in MW3:

Hidden/Spoiler:

video options:
screen res: 1600 x 1024
specular/shadows/ambient oclusion: off
texture res/quality: low
screen refresh rate: 60
no anti aliasing/other filtering.
Bullet impacts: on
everything I missed was turned off or low.

Min GPU temp: 44C
Max GPU temp: 57C
Min framerate: 65
Max framerate: 92

Fan speed: 100%
Core and shader clock: 550 mhz (default in Afterburner, I did not adjust the clocks.) This is a single, 5 minute benchmark ingame multiplayer.

I want a new computer/gaming rig tbh. I would purchase a GTX 550 Ti online, and the gaming system itself (bottom right spec) costs $1400. So $1600 (over estemate) for a gaming rig. The tower would probably cost less because I wouldnt be buying speakers/keyboard/mouse/AMD card( the GTX 550 supports VGA for my monitor ) THe only reason I havent done this yet is I dont have a lot of money and my parents dont feel like buying it now.

So to sum everything up, I guess if im careful, and monitor what I do, I will be fine. My current system isnt bad its just old for playing BF3/resource intensive activities. ( I will not touch BF3 until I upgrade my system or replace fan. )

Current system specs:
MS windows vista home premium 64 bit SP2
Intel core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @2.40 ghz
4 GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 9500 gs
300 watt power supply
and I don't know which motherboard but thats probably irrelevant. So yeah, I should be fine.

[Twilight_Warrior]

So... you ask us if you can still play games... more than one of us has told you that it's a bad idea... and then you go ahead and play games, anyway.

Why did you make this topic, again?

[Tears2Roses]

I wasnt sure if I should use my GPU or not, and a general discussion helps me come to a consensus. I haven't been playing a lot of games, in fact I just touched MW3 to do a quick benchmark. The point was to confirm or deny whether or not I should use my GPU and steps I could take to make it work better. I probably wont play any games as I will be busy on my farm anyhow so yeah. thanks for the fast replies everyone!

[Teancum]

Yeah, again -- don't play any modern games at all. Maybe a few minutes wouldn't hurt, BUT a few minutes ALWAYS turns into a half an hour or more, which will do permanent damage (if it's not already torched as it is).

[Tears2Roses]

Yeah, again -- don't play any modern games at all. Maybe a few minutes wouldn't hurt, BUT a few minutes ALWAYS turns into a half an hour or more, which will do permanent damage (if it's not already torched as it is).

Couldnt have said it better. I will not be playing modern games. In fact I will be modding more so now than before. expect some weird project in the distant future.

EDIT: My friend gifted me portal 1 and 2 since it was on sale on steam!! (and I asked him too, lol. And I absolutely could not turn down that offer, $8 for both games compared to 30). I have a question though, will I be able to play those ok? AFAIK the games are not resource intensive and I know they are really good.

EDIT2: well I should've looked at www.canyourunit.com before posting the above edit. Anyhow, both games require a minimum 128 mb of video memory and my card is 512mb so I should be fine.