Windows 7: Video Card Warm to Touch

Last week the metal part of my video card was almost hot to touch. My computer had been beeping and this appeared to be the problem. A fan was installed in the area and the card is warm now and my occasional beep still persists. Is the video card metal part supposed to be even a bit warm or should it be just room temperature? Thanks,

Hi, if you have been using your GPU it will start to heat up, it's those pesky laws of physics again.

You use your GPU a fair bit just by having windows Aero enabled so there isn't an easy way to avoid this.

To monitor your GPU temperatures I would recommend using Nvidia's own software available from NVIDIA DRIVERS 5.05.54.00 but other third party solutions may be easier to use.

As long as your GPU doesn't break it's critical temperature (usually 100ºC) you won't have a problem with the graphics card directly but may find that other near by system components suffer slightly but I wouldn't worry about this too much.

If this becomes a major problem then I would recommend some sort of heavy duty cooling system such as water cooling but it shouldn't be necessary in this case.

Oli

Thanks for the help. I will try the Nvidia software you suggested.

bigmck, are you sure you have'nt got a short somewhere , i have just had a feel at the backplanes of my cards and both are cold to the touch, we know the laws of physics dictates that generating electrickery generates heat but i dont think that naturally the backplanes get hot

The backplate (where the monitor plugs in) is not warm. It is when I take the cover off and touch the metal top of the card. How would I determine a short? Would changing slots do me any good?

ah i see ,i got my wires crossed there, i thought it was the backs you were refering to , it depends on the speed con fig of the slots mine both run at 16x but some ,the top one runs at 16x the bottom runs at 8x , you could give it a go and see if you notice any temp difference

Graphics Cards are designed to withstand high temperatures up to 80°C at least. mine gets very hot in summer, I can't even touch the heat-sink and it's definitely working fine. I thinks the beeps you have are caused by another problem. When do they happen? at startup or under what workload ?
I would also check the bios for warnings about CPU overheating and fan failures.

You really shouldn't be touching the card, unless it's the fan or heatsink.

The beeps from the motherboard actually tell you what is wrong. You need the manual for it to tell you as each BIOS is different from each company.
However the graphics cards do get quite warm. Mine after I have been playing MW2 online for 2 - 3 hours gets so warm that it gets uncomfortable to hold on to for any length of time. It makes my bedroom quite toasty in winter time (no need for heaters when you have a good graphics card). It is fine and normal for the card.

Try using Evga's precision to control your fan speed. EVGA Precision 1.7.1 download from Guru3D.com Video cards get hot. I had a XFX 9800 gt running at 75c and put in a support ticket inquiring about the max temp on the card before artifacting would be expected, I was told 115c that is 239 degrees Fahrenheit.My 260 runs around 58c during extended game play which is 136.4 degrees F so it will be warm to the touch if not even a little hot. Here's your product page with manual you may want to give it a read. about beep codes if they are provided. http://www.ecsusa.com/ECSWebSite/ECS...keyword=671T-M Also if it has Award bios you can search for their beep codes. Some programs that are used for motoring heat will also beep once they have reached or exceeded a set temp. Also please remember to ground yourself by touching the outer metal part of the case before touching any internal parts. Fabe