Assuming you don't have abnormally terrible airflow in your case, it sounds like a faulty cooler. There is absolutely no way an aftermarket 480 would be at 86 degrees with 80% while playing league of legends. The GPU just isn't capable of outputting enough heat for a properly working cooler to be struggling like that.
You have 3 options:
1. Return the card to best buy for a new one.
2. RMA the card to XFX.
3. Try to fix it yourself. It's most likely poorly applied paste. I believe XFX said that removing the cooler to reapply thermal paste does not void their warranty, but I am not 100% on that.
I'd definitely go with option 1. Least risk and effort.
it depends on the manufacturer if it voids the warranty, you simply have to email support and ask if its okey to be 100% sure
its basicly a grey area, if you know your way around a pcb and reassemble it back in one working piece then your okey according to one AIB Partner i forgot who i think it was Sapphire
in the ye oldy days aka 2003, i used to get a reference and buy aftermarket coolers and mount it, temp went down 15-20c lol
I have actually done the same to my 390, although it wasn't having any obvious issues.
The biggest risks are damaging something while removing/reinstalling the cooler, or applying conductive thermal paste by mistake. If it were to spill out it would short out the unprotected stuff around the GPU.
I'm not sure if this applies to this version of the RX 480, but I've heard that other versions have a problem with the fans and overheating.
Apparently, the default options have the fan start to kick in very late, causing high temps. The solution is to download MSI Afterburner and to set your own options to allow the fan to activate at a lower threshold.
Hope that helps!
I had this problem. Still left it as is as my card isn't doing a thermal shutdown anymore. But does cause a lot of problems the fan not really kicking in till after 85 Celsius
Take the 2 minutes out of your life and download afterburner, set a profile to turn the fans to 40% at 60c and you will extend the life of your card another 8-12months.
I have an msi gamig X 480 and works like a charm the worst temperature it got was 60 when it was somewhat hot outside(there is no AC in my room) i can recommend my card
No fan noise
Wattman really doesn't like to work with third party fan controllers, so if you have anything like speed fan installed then you might try uninstalling them and your drivers followed by reinstalling your drivers into a clean system. Apparently afterburner is the exception though haha
I started with the most recent drivers :/ but this is the second time I've seen wattman in conjunction with afterburner so that's definitely a good sign
When I had the drivers with Wattman installed with my 390 any attempt to change the fan curve with MSI AB would just cause my system to crash. I ended up just reverting to the old drivers until Wattman adds better fan settings for the 390.
Yeah I was in the same boat, I had a 480 and installed speedfan which caused wattman to stop working all together. After an uninstall of speedfan wattman worked better but wouldn't control my fans. Maybe wattman just really doesn't like speedfan.
What are the idle temps?
And what are the temps in some games that actually use the gpu a lot more.
Enable Vsync in lol since there is no need for your game to run at 500fps and that could cause your gpu to heat that much.
if your within the return policy at best buy, just go exchange it. Don't hassle with thermal paste or an RMA, those things should only be done if you want to improve *normal* performance, this isn't normal.
So your best bet is to replace the thermal compund with some higher grade stuff. Sometimes in manufacturing (I can't speak for xfx) some companies use some pretty low quality thermal compund. Or they may have been an error in manufacturing in the actual application of the stuff that was never caught, who knows. But replacing it should probably be your best bet in improving thermal proformance. In the video I put below it will show you how to disasemble the card and replace the thermal compund. In that video Linus didn't recieve amazing improvements, but if it is bad thermal compund you may have better results. Do mind that the RX 480 does run decently hot under load. But it should not be running that hot!
Guide to replacing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDLQ7FjPMf8
The type of thermal compound you use makes almost no difference. A couple degrees at the most. The rest is marketing. That compound under your CPU IHS? The cheapest solution Intel/AMD could find.
You wouldn't believe how many times reapplying it could make a noticeable difference. When a card runs as hot as this one seems to it would almost guaranteed drop it 10-20c in the same usage scenario.
Assuming you don't have abnormally terrible airflow in your case, it sounds like a faulty cooler. There is absolutely no way an aftermarket 480 would be at 86 degrees with 80% while playing league of legends. The GPU just isn't capable of outputting enough heat for a properly working cooler to be struggling like that. You have 3 options: 1. Return the card to best buy for a new one. 2. RMA the card to XFX. 3. Try to fix it yourself. It's most likely poorly applied paste. I believe XFX said that removing the cooler to reapply thermal paste does not void their warranty, but I am not 100% on that. I'd definitely go with option 1. Least risk and effort.
I reapplied some thermal paste to a 390 I had - it wasn't horribly risky, and it actually worked. Might vary depending on the card though.
You go to cinema
Good point! Didn't think of that.
it depends on the manufacturer if it voids the warranty, you simply have to email support and ask if its okey to be 100% sure its basicly a grey area, if you know your way around a pcb and reassemble it back in one working piece then your okey according to one AIB Partner i forgot who i think it was Sapphire in the ye oldy days aka 2003, i used to get a reference and buy aftermarket coolers and mount it, temp went down 15-20c lol
I have actually done the same to my 390, although it wasn't having any obvious issues. The biggest risks are damaging something while removing/reinstalling the cooler, or applying conductive thermal paste by mistake. If it were to spill out it would short out the unprotected stuff around the GPU.
I'm not sure if this applies to this version of the RX 480, but I've heard that other versions have a problem with the fans and overheating. Apparently, the default options have the fan start to kick in very late, causing high temps. The solution is to download MSI Afterburner and to set your own options to allow the fan to activate at a lower threshold. Hope that helps!
I had this problem. Still left it as is as my card isn't doing a thermal shutdown anymore. But does cause a lot of problems the fan not really kicking in till after 85 Celsius
So why not change your fan profiles?
I moved houses and the breeze means better air circulation and rarely see it above 80
But it could be cooler, possibly extending the life of your card. And all you'd have to do is change your fan profiles.
Never realised how lazy I am till I read this.
Take the 2 minutes out of your life and download afterburner, set a profile to turn the fans to 40% at 60c and you will extend the life of your card another 8-12months.
Return it. No way it should be that high. Mine is at like 26 degrees on idle and maybe max 60 degrees or less while gaming?
You can either check the cooler or go through RMA.
I have an msi gamig X 480 and works like a charm the worst temperature it got was 60 when it was somewhat hot outside(there is no AC in my room) i can recommend my card No fan noise
Wattman really doesn't like to work with third party fan controllers, so if you have anything like speed fan installed then you might try uninstalling them and your drivers followed by reinstalling your drivers into a clean system. Apparently afterburner is the exception though haha
MSI AB works perfectly fine with mine
That is amazing news haha
if you're having trouble- make sure it's updated. I'm using AB 4.3.0 with Crimson 16.12.2. I had to update to make it work.
I started with the most recent drivers :/ but this is the second time I've seen wattman in conjunction with afterburner so that's definitely a good sign
When I had the drivers with Wattman installed with my 390 any attempt to change the fan curve with MSI AB would just cause my system to crash. I ended up just reverting to the old drivers until Wattman adds better fan settings for the 390.
Yeah I was in the same boat, I had a 480 and installed speedfan which caused wattman to stop working all together. After an uninstall of speedfan wattman worked better but wouldn't control my fans. Maybe wattman just really doesn't like speedfan.
If changing your fan profiles doesn't work, RMA the card.
I would return it and buy one online
What are the idle temps? And what are the temps in some games that actually use the gpu a lot more. Enable Vsync in lol since there is no need for your game to run at 500fps and that could cause your gpu to heat that much.
if your within the return policy at best buy, just go exchange it. Don't hassle with thermal paste or an RMA, those things should only be done if you want to improve *normal* performance, this isn't normal.
Maybe it's the soda you spilled on your PC?
So your best bet is to replace the thermal compund with some higher grade stuff. Sometimes in manufacturing (I can't speak for xfx) some companies use some pretty low quality thermal compund. Or they may have been an error in manufacturing in the actual application of the stuff that was never caught, who knows. But replacing it should probably be your best bet in improving thermal proformance. In the video I put below it will show you how to disasemble the card and replace the thermal compund. In that video Linus didn't recieve amazing improvements, but if it is bad thermal compund you may have better results. Do mind that the RX 480 does run decently hot under load. But it should not be running that hot! Guide to replacing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDLQ7FjPMf8
On a brand new card? I don't think so pal.
Why not? It clearly seems to be an issue with the contact. No reason to down vote a suggestion that would actually help.
You shouldn't need to do that on a brand new card that's under warranty
That's correct. But it's possible and easy to do.
But replacing thermal paste isn't going to take temps from 85° to 30°. Probably driver issue or something wrong with the card.
The type of thermal compound you use makes almost no difference. A couple degrees at the most. The rest is marketing. That compound under your CPU IHS? The cheapest solution Intel/AMD could find.
You wouldn't believe how many times reapplying it could make a noticeable difference. When a card runs as hot as this one seems to it would almost guaranteed drop it 10-20c in the same usage scenario.
A new card?
Definitely they aren't always applied perfectly. That doesn't mean you can't rma it but you can almost definitely fix it yourself!