GPU "Sometimes" Hot at Idle

The title says it all. Basically it seems like my GPU will sometime idle between 42-46 and other times it will idle at 51-57. Does that make any sense? It shows almost 0% usage on the MSI Afterburner program. It's almost like it has a mind of it's own and will stay cool when it wants to.

Anyone know why this is happening? I normally wouldn't worry about anything like this until it gets serious, but the only reason I bring it up is because the fan is loud at times when its not even being used!

The GPU is a Radeon 6850 MSI card, I'll have to look up the model number if you need it.

Any help would be great! And I hope everyone had a good Christmas! :)

Is it clean?
Does the room temperature change?

Erick Aguilar said:

Is it clean?
Does the room temperature change?

It is very clean, in fact it is so clean it looks brand new. The room temperature does not change much at all it is normally around 72 degrees Fahrenheit. The case is very 'cool' if you will, it has 3 230mm fans that keep it very cool all the time.

I am wondering if it being used by some program and is for some reason not reporting it on the MSI program. Is that possible?

essenbe said:

Have you considered contacting MSI? I would not think that card should get that hot at idle. I have a 6950 that hardly ever gets that hot while gaming although I'm not sure it's a fair comparison. My 6950 has the windforce fans, 3 fans on it. It seems to me that is too high a temp at idle.

That's a good Idea, hadn't thought of that. However, I'm not sure if it's still under warranty. I can't really remember how long I've had the card. I recently upgraded to the 3770k and have a lot of thermal paste left, maybe I can re-apply some on the card. I'll keep you updated if I can contact them tomorrow.

I thought i had the same problem wile ago, but i found out its normal with my system specification,
i had problem with high temperature of the cpu and some time gpu, my cpu is core i7 which can temper up to 100oc and ATI5470.
I have ASUS X45JE which it's fan with normal work is hot enough to warm up my tea:). i have got used to it so will you

Solarstarshines said:

are there any flash programs or processes runing?
My Gpu reacts soon as I bring up facebook on firefox besides those temps are not horrible
also have you updated drivers in the last few weeks ?

when was the last time you dusted and did a stern cleaning might be choked up

It looks pretty clean, but like I said above, maybe I'll redo the thermal paste with some Arctic Silver. And as far as drivers go, it has been about a month since it was last updated. But has been doing this as long as I can remember.