Video works great, but GPU overheats. Fan speed?

Hi. I am new to this community. I just came off of Ubuntu 10.04 as nothing could be updated and well…

I love MATE - worked out of the box!! I started gaming on Steam - All good.

After an hour or so, the monitor started going black/coming back. I checked the GPU (HD7970) and it was roasting. Is there a way to force a fan speed boost (as I used to with “aticonfig --…”) but stay with the OpenGL drivers? Or do I need to install the proprietary AMD ones?

Seems a shame to kiss off the driver that installed day one on MATE - they work VERY well - except the overheating problem.

Thanks in advance.


Part of my Xorg.0.log

[    21.432] (--) PCI:*(0:1:0:0) 1002:6798:1002:0b00 rev 0, Mem @ 0xe0000000/268435456, 0xf7e00000/262144, I/O @ 0x0000e000/256, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072
[    21.432] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[    21.434] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so
[    21.461] (II) Module glx: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[    21.461]     compiled for 1.18.3, module version = 1.0.0
[    21.461]     ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 9.0
[    21.461] (==) AIGLX enabled
[    21.461] (==) Matched ati as autoconfigured driver 0
[    21.461] (==) Matched ati as autoconfigured driver 1
[    21.461] (==) Matched modesetting as autoconfigured driver 2
[    21.461] (==) Matched fbdev as autoconfigured driver 3
[    21.461] (==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 4
[    21.461] (==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
[    21.461] (II) LoadModule: "ati"
[    21.461] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/ati_drv.so
[    21.461] (II) Module ati: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[    21.461]     compiled for 1.18.3, module version = 7.7.0
[    21.461]     Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[    21.461]     ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 20.0
[    21.461] (II) LoadModule: "radeon"
[    21.461] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/radeon_drv.so
[    21.466] (II) Module radeon: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[    21.466]     compiled for 1.18.3, module version = 7.7.0
[    21.466]     Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[    21.466]     ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 20.0
[    21.466] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
[    21.466] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so
[    21.466] (II) Module modesetting: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[    21.466]     compiled for 1.18.3, module version = 1.18.3
[    21.466]     Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[    21.466]     ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 20.0
[    21.466] (II) LoadModule: "fbdev"
[    21.466] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/fbdev_drv.so
[    21.466] (II) Module fbdev: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[    21.466]     compiled for 1.18.1, module version = 0.4.4
[    21.466]     Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[    21.466]     ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 20.0
[    21.466] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
[    21.466] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/vesa_drv.so
[    21.466] (II) Module vesa: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[    21.466]     compiled for 1.18.1, module version = 2.3.4
[    21.466]     Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[    21.466]     ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 20.0

According to this list you are supported by the generic driver.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver#Fully_supported

As far as I know, AMD proprietary drivers are still in beta. Have you seen this?

AMD/ATI owners read this before upgrading to 16.04