New game makes my PC overheat...

[RedPhoenix]

when you say "heats up" how hot are we talking?

[AmberStarfire]

Hot enough to fry eggs on? 

[Beorning]

Hot enough to fry eggs on? 

Exactly. 80 C after a few minutes of playing...

[Oniya]

Exactly. 80 C after a few minutes of playing...

And what kind of processor do you have?  (There are a couple that are known to run hot, but that sounds excessive for most.)

[Beorning]

I have Intel i5. It usually stays around 40 - 60 C.

[Oniya]

I have Intel i5. It usually stays around 40 - 60 C.

Yeah, that's where that processor is supposed to be.  Keeping the fans clean is good overall maintenance, but it really shouldn't be hitting 80C.

[mia h]

Keeping the fans clean is good overall maintenance, but it really shouldn't be hitting 80C.

Popping the cover off you PC and giving it a decent vac, once in a while never hurts. The amount of dust that gets inside can be horrific, particularly if you've lots of fans.
Just need to be sensible and make sure the PC is disconnected from the power and had a chance to cool down before you stick the hoover nozzle inside it, that don't touch any if the internal components, the vac is going to have enough suction to pick up the fine dust without you having to touch anything sensitive.

[Cassandra LeMay]

Popping the cover off you PC and giving it a decent vac, once in a while never hurts. The amount of dust that gets inside can be horrific, particularly if you've lots of fans.
Just need to be sensible and make sure the PC is disconnected from the power and had a chance to cool down before you stick the hoover nozzle inside it, that don't touch any if the internal components, the vac is going to have enough suction to pick up the fine dust without you having to touch anything sensitive.

I have no idea if it's true or not, but I also once heard that it is a good idea to hold the main fan inposition while vac-ing out a PC. I was told spinning of the fan started by the strong air flow of a vacuum cleaner can generate an electrical charge, but I may well remember that wrongly. It was years ago and just something someone mentioned in passing.

[The Dark Raven]

I have no idea if it's true or not, but I also once heard that it is a good idea to hold the main fan inposition while vac-ing out a PC. I was told spinning of the fan started by the strong air flow of a vacuum cleaner can generate an electrical charge, but I may well remember that wrongly. It was years ago and just something someone mentioned in passing.

It's best to do most of the vaccing while your computer is off/idle.

[midnightblack]

I have no idea if it's true or not, but I also once heard that it is a good idea to hold the main fan inposition while vac-ing out a PC. I was told spinning of the fan started by the strong air flow of a vacuum cleaner can generate an electrical charge, but I may well remember that wrongly. It was years ago and just something someone mentioned in passing.

Vacuuming implies a strong friction of dust particles and the likes against plastic surfaces, so you can strip some electrons here and there. If this happens around the muzzle of the vacuum cleaner, there is a risk (which I personally do not know how to quantify right now) that the build-up will discharge through the hardware of your computer. Some people suggest that, instead of vacuuming the dust, you should blow it out with compressed air (making sure not to fling into oblivion one or two vital capacitors from your motherboard in the process). Anyway, for the peace of mind of anyone interested, I found this guide about grounding a vacuum cleaner. I never tried it personally, but I did use the tips from that website in other circumstances and found them pretty reliable.

As for Beorning's question, turning down the resolution and graphics options will probably solve all issues. Maybe you'll be surprised, but you can run very recent games in very safe conditions for your hardware on video cards that are 5 years old or more, if you are willing to skip the flashy graphics  . I'd argue that if the game is all about looks, it's not worth your time anyway.

[The Dark Raven]

Vacuuming implies a strong friction of dust particles and the likes against plastic surfaces, so you can strip some electrons here and there. If this happens around the muzzle of the vacuum cleaner, there is a risk (which I personally do not know how to quantify right now) that the build-up will discharge through the hardware of your computer. Some people suggest that, instead of vacuuming the dust, you should blow it out with compressed air (making sure not to fling into oblivion one or two vital capacitors from your motherboard in the process). Anyway, for the peace of mind of anyone interested, I found this guide about grounding a vacuum cleaner. I never tried it personally, but I did use the tips from that website in other circumstances and found them pretty reliable.

As for Beorning's question, turning down the resolution and graphics options will probably solve all issues. Maybe you'll be surprised, but you can run very recent games in very safe conditions for your hardware on video cards that are 5 years old or more, if you are willing to skip the flashy graphics  . I'd argue that if the game is all about looks, it's not worth your time anyway.

I think B did this already and is still having issues....

[firepyre]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I took a look, and there seems to be a fairly important point that has been missed.

Putting the memory aside for a moment, you should know that the way graphics cards are numbered isn't as straight forward as it might seem. The recommended card, a 5850 is a high end card, from the generation before yours. The 6700 is a intermediate model. Unfortunately, a 5850 probably has significantly better performance than your card, hence, I suspect, your issues.

Even if you were to upgrade the RAM, it's unlikley this would solve your problems.

[Oniya]

I think B did this already and is still having issues....

He did - from the initial post:

Initially, I thought it was a matter of me running the game with the highest graphics settings. See, another present I got for Christmas was a new monitor with default resolution of 1920 x 1080. When I ran the game, it automatically conformed to the monitor and set its resolution to 1920 x 1080, too. So, at first I thought: sure, I'll just downscale the graphics quality and the game will play okay.

It... didn't help.

Seriously: I set the graphics to 1280 x 720, the lowest setting possible. I also lowered the FPS rate to 60. And it doesn't help! The PC keeps overheating.

[firepyre]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I took a look, and there seems to be a fairly important point that has been missed.

Putting the memory aside for a moment, you should know that the way graphics cards are numbered isn't as straight forward as it might seem. The recommended card, a 5850 5770 is a decent card, from the generation before yours. The 6700 is an entry level model. Unfortunately, a 5850 5770 probably has significantly better performance than your card, hence, I suspect, your issues.

Even if you were to upgrade the RAM, it's unlikley this would solve your problems.

Managed to get the numbers mixed up a bit, but the point stands. Here's your card side by side with the minimum one for comparison(hopefully I got the right one this time ): http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-Radeon-HD-6700-vs-AMD-HD-5770/m9272vsm7752

That said, I would expect your graphics card to be overheating rather than your cpu. Hmm. Where are you getting your temp from?

[midnightblack]

Oops, I missed that somehow in the first post. Anyway, some programs do give quirky readings of the temperature. Maybe you should try running something like SpeedFan in the background while playing for a little bit, log some temperature plots and fan speeds over your hardware and see who the culprit is.

[The Dark Raven]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I took a look, and there seems to be a fairly important point that has been missed.

Putting the memory aside for a moment, you should know that the way graphics cards are numbered isn't as straight forward as it might seem. The recommended card, a 5850 is a high end card, from the generation before yours. The 6700 is a intermediate model. Unfortunately, a 5850 probably has significantly better performance than your card, hence, I suspect, your issues.

Even if you were to upgrade the RAM, it's unlikley this would solve your problems.

Truth, thought RAM could help in the interim as the graphics card is probably more expensive.

[Beorning]

Hmm. Okay then, is there some sort of free utility I could use to measure the graphic card's temperature? It is possible that the card is not coping with the game - although the Can You Run It website claims my GPU should be enough to run the game...

Drat. If the GPU is the reason for the overheating problem, then I won't be able to pursue a refund in good faith :( After all, I *knew* the recommendations for the card before purchasing the game...

BTW. Do you guys know what card is considered a reasonably high-end GPU these days?

[Nessy]

I've used HWMonitor (CPUID) in the past to monitor temps. By past i mean within the last couple of years.

[firepyre]

Hmm. Okay then, is there some sort of free utility I could use to measure the graphic card's temperature? It is possible that the card is not coping with the game - although the Can You Run It website claims my GPU should be enough to run the game...

Drat. If the GPU is the reason for the overheating problem, then I won't be able to pursue a refund in good faith :( After all, I *knew* the recommendations for the card before purchasing the game...

BTW. Do you guys know what card is considered a reasonably high-end GPU these days?

Temp monitoring app:
https://camwebapp.com/

Regardless of what the website tells you, in very untechnical terms,  your card is about 25% slower than the minimum recommended card. While it's true that that doesn't necessarily stop the game from running outright, it does mean your card is probably going to be running at full load, all the time, just to keep up. Throw in suboptimal cooling, as it's a lower end card, and it 'd hardly be surprising if it was overheating, or experiencing some other kind of crashing issue.

As for what is considered reasonably high end, that's a tough question to answer. Toms hardware does a decent hierarchy chart though that ROUGHLY groups them into tiers.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

They also keep a list of the current best value graphics cards, which is a decent guide if you're thinking about buying a new card, but aren't great with hardware.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gpus,4380.html

[midnightblack]

BTW. Do you guys know what card is considered a reasonably high-end GPU these days?

It would be a good idea to first indicate your motherboard model and your power source (I couldn't see them with the rest of the specs). These are important because you want the new graphics card to actually fit inside and you want to be able to provide enough power for it to work properly. If you acquire a high-end monster with three coolers, keep in mind that it may be very noisy. Those 4 gbs of RAM might also be an issue. I think you will need at least 8 if you plan to go into very recent games. Whether or not you need more for the future is something that I don't really know. I have friends with 12 gbs of RAM and they say it's complete overkill for gaming purposes.

Lastly, don't throw your money away without some thorough searching. Some cards are ridiculously expensive and provide features that you don't actually have use for. Most knowledgeable people that I know recommend an nvidia chipset. I think the top of the line stuff is in the 970 gtx series, but I'm way behind myself on modern hardware. I can ask around for you, if need be.

[Eikichi]

Hmm. Okay then, is there some sort of free utility I could use to measure the graphic card's temperature? It is possible that the card is not coping with the game - although the Can You Run It website claims my GPU should be enough to run the game...

Drat. If the GPU is the reason for the overheating problem, then I won't be able to pursue a refund in good faith :( After all, I *knew* the recommendations for the card before purchasing the game...

Before you do settle on the GPU being the issue. I would point out that this is PC gaming we are talking about. Sometimes bugs that create issues for certain set-ups slip through the cracks. My advice would be to first see is anyone with a similar issue. As it could be an issue with the game and not your hardware. If nothing stands out as being similar to your own issue then it's safe to assume that it's an isolated case and more than likely a GPU issue.

As for monitoring your GPU and seeing if certain processes are overheating I recommend OCCT or OpenHardWareMonitor. The latter is best since the former should only be used if you have advanced knowledge of the GPU and it's limits. As if used improperly you could blow your GPU.

[Nessy]

If you do go the new GPU route, a couple of things to note about the prices shown on tomshardware, the RX480 is closer to around $200 now than 330 for the 8GB. It actually runes a little hotter and and uses more power than the 1060. For the 4GB you can often go under $200. This isn't a guess. I actually purchased mine for 215. It's not perfect but it's "high-end" in that it can run games very well at 1080p. For 4K you'd want to look at something higher end but also a fair amount more. If you're more of a 1060 fan and looking at around 200-300, then 1060 it is. 

Once you start going up you're looking at GTX 1070 ~$400+ or GTX 1080~$700.

The others are right though, before you drop funds on a GPU  try to find out if it really is the GPU or not a driver problem. My card had a nasty little mouse corruption problem they fixed with a  later driver, for example. My rig is almost 5 years old, and will be completely replaced in about 12-18months... the new GPU has really made a difference though, and I came from a 6950 which was not a cheap or power performer... just too old for driver support.

[Beorning]

Hm. If it is a driver problem, then I can't do anything about it... I really downloaded the latest drivers published for my card. So, what else I can do?

As for buying cards: how do I check if my powersource is enough and if the card fits my motherboard? Also, what is 1080p and what role does GPU RAM play?

GPUs are so complicated :(

[Oniya]

1080p means that your display uses 1080 lines to display, and displays them all for each frame 'progressively'.  Contrast this to 'i', or 'interlaced' where the display alternates odd lines and even lines between frames.  (Interlacing is what they used to use on older TVs, and could occasionally cause intermittent flickering with particular target graphics.)

GPU RAM is memory that is dedicated to processing graphics and rendering graphics.  It's memory that your computer will use for these tasks before accessing the additional RAM on your motherboard, or your virtual memory swap-file.  If you're a person who doesn't use graphic-intense programs, then you won't see much difference, but when you get into high resolution games, then you will see a definite difference in performance.

[midnightblack]

Hm. If it is a driver problem, then I can't do anything about it... I really downloaded the latest drivers published for my card. So, what else I can do?

As for buying cards: how do I check if my powersource is enough and if the card fits my motherboard? Also, what is 1080p and what role does GPU RAM play?

GPUs are so complicated :(

Knowing the motherboard model would help. If you don't know it, no longer have its box or cd with drivers but you are using Windows 7, then you can find it in Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Information. It should be right in front of you, under a label like System Model or the likes. For the power source you probably need to poke your nose around it until you find a label from the manufacturer with its specs.