70C load seems pretty normal for a modern video card. My Asus 4850 (single slot) goes to around 90C load.

https://www.techspot.com/review/103-asus-rade … 850/page10.html

problem is, around 72-73 this starts to hang, even now in the eve, when it's cooler, and with a not very extreme load, it reaches 68.5-69 degC while the cpu is idling - this is too close for comfort...

If it is a passive card add a fan. If t is not maybe add on of those blower cooler that adds a fan to the slot next to it.

My HD6670 never developed these problems, but I remember it not being an ASUS. Mine was a Club3D with 1GB DDR3.

My HD 6850 is idling at around 58 degrees Celsius (but admittedly with the side panel removed till I replace the existing case exhaust fan), so 72 seems to be on the high side.

Personally I was kinda (pleasantly) surprised by the performance of my HD 6670 DDR3 compared to my HD 5670 GDDR5 I had in my main rig back then.

I noticed it seems Club3D quit making graphics cards last year and all the info on their website about them making graphics cards seems to have disappeared 😵
I'm sorry to see them go, it seemed like a good brand.

But if it's not the GPU, maybe it's the memory or some other component? Have you tried underclocking it to see if it makes any difference?
Maybe you could also just remove the side panel of your rig for the time being 🤣! Works for me! 😁 😵

Had this happen to one of my cards and it is usually the result of a cold joint or a vrm issue but cards of this grade are so easy to cool. You can out just about anything on that card and it will get the job done, want a little retro in the mix consider a Zalman VF900 as it is all copper though the fan it has does suck which is why people do swap out the fan with something modern. Check the vrms and if any are Hot slap on a couple of cheap vrm or vram heatsinks then problem solved.

thanks for the replies :>

i was thinking about some other cooler too, but i dont have any idea yet on how to install another one in a well chosen position

the memory is at 1600mhz cl9 so its nominal, it was for some time running at 1333mhz because mobo does not like it, but temps were the same;

underclocking might be an idea, but then it gets even slower than it is now..

the side panel is removed for this reason exactly :>

as for zalman - how would i make it cover ram too? the current radiator is just bad, an aluminum based star of some kind that looks beveled; i cannot imagine how air should travel on that thing;