What exactly makes my GPU hot when playing games

[AdrianCC100]

I have a 560TI and I noticed that different games push it harder than others. Why? For example, a cheap little indie game that I just purchased pushes my GPU to 80c which I think is pretty hot. While FF14 which is graphically superior only pushes my card from 55c-60c which I consider normal. Can someone explain to me why that is? Like why a high graphical game runs lower temps than a game with minecraft like graphics?

[Ripox]

Optimization.

[proteen]

Optimization.

Pretty much this. Also, games like Minecraft have to render an immense amount of individual objects (depending on what your level looks like of course).

[Baracuda]

My 560ti never runs higher than 55, wow on max takes less effort than D3 on low it seems though.

[AdrianCC100]

My 560ti never runs higher than 55, wow on max takes less effort than D3 on low it seems though.

Water cooled? I don't have my system water cooled. If not, may I ask how many fans you have and what case? I have a HAF 912 with 3 intake fans (2 in front, 1 on the side) and 3 exhaust fans (2 on the top and 1 on the back) My idle temp when just searching the web is 30c.. So when I play games, it gets pretty hot.

[Smeeh]

Check if said indie game has a vsync or frame limiter option and if not set it in the nvidia control panel.

[Kymei]

Final fantasy takes my card to the highest I have recorded to this day, which is 75C. That is with Vsync on and the high desktop preset with FXAA on.

[vesseblah]

For example, a cheap little indie game that I just purchased pushes my GPU to 80c which I think is pretty hot. While FF14 which is graphically superior only pushes my card from 55c-60c which I consider normal. Can someone explain to me why that is? Like why a high graphical game runs lower temps than a game with minecraft like graphics?

99% certainly vsync. The Indie game runs at uncapped framerate while FFXIV is locked to vsync.

[isntyourname123]

WoW heats up my 580gtx(evga stock speeds) as much as Crysis, Battlefield 3, skyrim, tomb raider(2013) do but looks much more primitive. I think it has to do with the vast size of the game world being rendered. Keeping VSYNC on i get 60fps(some places 250fps vsync off). Using 50% of my gpu processing power. But still manages to run up too 60c. Using MSI Afterburner I 'overclocked' the gpu fan so it runs at 80% all the time. Like others have said dont worry to much about temps below 90c. People have fixed gfx cards that have bad solder points by sticking the card in a oven at 150f (65c) to re-melt the solder. It dose nothing to the actual gpu processor.

If your GPU starts to over heat it will ramp up the fan and start to sound like a hair dryer. If it keeps heating up after that and you start to see artifacts like random triangles(gpu overheating reporting wrong triangle coordinate numbers) or static looking random colors(Vram over heating causing bad color values) then just exit the game and let the gpu cool down. The card might also cause the computer shut down if it gets too hot. Worry less about the game your playing and more about the dust in the case. Also some cards just run stupidly hot no matter what your playing. Geforce FX 5900TI or Geforce 7900gt. I have had both of those cards and both died a early death. My geforece 420, 5200fx, 6600gt, 460gtx, 580gtx all have run fine.

[Cows For Life]

You should try Furmark lol.

[Faithh]

FF14 Final Fantasy 14 right? Well I tried that benchmark months months ago and I didnt see anything except a cpu bottleneck on my 2600K back then. Even with a huge OC, still a cpu bottleneck all because of horrible optimization no wonder the GPU would never reach its max load. Since that game is an MMO (not totally sure), the cpu bottlenecking will be bigger than in a benchmark really and obviously lower gpu loads.

A gpu on a load of 50% would never run as hot as a GPU at 99% load, period. Minecraft 2 with a 560ti it's easy to get that GPU to 99% or that indie game. Also use vsync, it's kinda obvious you don't use it in your games since Minecraft 2 pushes your gpu to 99%. Don't understand why people just disable this really, yes it caused a lot of issues etc but something like adaptive vsync doesnt cause any issues and works perfect.