GPU Temps and Fan Speed for NVidia

[Darsithis]

Greetings,

First thread here! All right - I've got a HAF case with a large 120mm fan in the top, the side, the front, and the back. The top, front, and sides draw in, the back vents. Main heat producing components:

- i7 950 quad core
- Nvidia GeForce 480 GTX OC. I am pretty sure it is PNY
- 750w self-regulating ANTEC TruePower for gaming. Ya know, you gotta have da juice

So under any other game, and I mean ANY other game, my video card's GPU will peak around 75 - 80c, with my CPU's cores around 65c at most. I'm a cold-type of guy, and prefer my ambient temperature to be around 68F or 20c. However, with WoW, whenever I see water or grass in the area, my GPU goes nuts and I will hit 95c easily if I don't manually ramp up the fans to around 80%. If I'm in an instance that doesn't have a lot of grass or water (most Cata heroics or raids), I don't have an issue and it sits between 80 - 85c depending on ambient temperature.

I'm just finding with WoW I have to manage my fans myself, a lot. Is this normal? Is 90 - 95c too much for a the 480 GTX? I can't get a clear answer - a hardware review said 100c, but 90 - 95c is way close to that point, and I don't know if they were discussing my specific card or not.

[OhpUldum]

Most techs will paint a broad stroke and say 100c is a breaking point for a GPU. Even 90c to 95c is high.

Going to play the simple card here and suggest a few things.
1) Dust out the computer - Making sure all fans are cleared of any dust bunnies.
2) Update the nVidia video card driver to the latest beta driver.

Then see if the issue persists.

Also we need to know what case and additional cooling you have. Might just be a lack of airflow.

[Darsithis]

http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CD4Q8wIwAQ

Exact case I have with all of the fans. I vacuum the case out every month, using compressed air to clean the fans while running the vacuum to remove the dust that comes out. Then I put everything back together.

It's very perplexing that WoW is the only game that just destroys the internal temperatures of my computer. Even sitting on the character selection screen can make it jump over 90c and trip the alarm.

I could try faster intake and vent fans. They're actually quite slow. So slow...

[Cantii]

That case actually has 3 200mm fans (front and side for intake, top for exhaust) and a rear 140mm fan. Bigger fans will rotate more slowly than smaller fans but will push the same amount of air. The HAF 932 is an excellent case, I don't think airflow is your issue. If you think it will help at all, try inverting the top fan as an intake instead of exhaust, you may notice a difference in overall temperatures.

Your i7 950 is running quite hot, are you using the stock cooler? If so, then I suppose that's alright, but if not -- then something is wrong.

Also, the GTX 480 has extremely poor architecture and implementation, making it run extremely hot anyway (the GTX 400 series all around are like this).

[Darsithis]

That case actually has 3 200mm fans (front and side for intake, top for exhaust) and a rear 140mm fan. Bigger fans will rotate more slowly than smaller fans but will push the same amount of air. The HAF 932 is an excellent case, I don't think airflow is your issue. If you think it will help at all, try inverting the top fan as an intake instead of exhaust, you may notice a difference in overall temperatures.

Your i7 950 is running quite hot, are you using the stock cooler? If so, then I suppose that's alright, but if not -- then something is wrong.

Also, the GTX 480 has extremely poor architecture and implementation, making it run extremely hot anyway (the GTX 400 series all around are like this).

So aside from the drivers, it could just be bad cooling architecture. Yeah, I didn't remember the fan sizes...just remembered they were big. This is my work laptop

I'm gonna try reversing the fan on the side by the video card along with an update and see what happens

[Cantii]

So aside from the drivers, it could just be bad cooling architecture. Yeah, I didn't remember the fan sizes...just remembered they were big. This is my work laptop

I'm gonna try reversing the fan on the side by the video card along with an update and see what happens

Reversing the fan on the side would pull air away from the GPU... you don't want that =V Reversing the top fan will help your CPU temperatures, though, but would create a lot of positive pressure, making your single exhaust fan work harder. Though, the decision is yours.

[Darsithis]

More investigation:

http://www.geeks3d.com/20100407/gefo...g-your-system/

This might be the exact issue: I run with two monitors. It's as if the base speed just isn't enough to handle the heat the card uses, so as it increases % per C, it's still never enough .

[Cleetuss]

i had the same problem with my gpu last night, but as i've been told GPU's will run alot hotter than CPU's it's not odd for them to chill at 70 celcius while gaming

---------- Post added 2011-10-15 at 08:56 AM ----------

More investigation:

http://www.geeks3d.com/20100407/gefo...g-your-system/

This might be the exact issue: I run with two monitors. It's as if the base speed just isn't enough to handle the heat the card uses, so as it increases % per C, it's still never enough .

when you play with dual monitors change your foreground max fps to 60 and your background max fps to like 20 this will make while your playing, perfect, then when you're jaming on your other monitor wow on your main screen will be rocking 20fps and it wont throttle your GPU so much, this only just happend to me last night haha

[FlawlessSoul]

More investigation:

http://www.geeks3d.com/20100407/gefo...g-your-system/

This might be the exact issue: I run with two monitors. It's as if the base speed just isn't enough to handle the heat the card uses, so as it increases % per C, it's still never enough .

Doesn't seem to be directly related to your issue. It lists an increase in clocks, but no mention of GPU load. Your card may not even be affected by the original bugged BIOS, considering it was over a year ago that the problem was "resolved". You could always test whether your card is affected, by the bug or even if the second monitor is adding load to the GPU, with MSI Afterburner running, and adding/removing your second screen.

Ensure that when you're running WoW, you have vsync on and the maxfps setting set to your refresh rate (60, usually).

Other than that, update drivers as always, etcetera.

[Darsithis]

Ensure that when you're running WoW, you have vsync on and the maxfps setting set to your refresh rate (60, usually).

Well, whattya know? That was the issue, all along. I had turned off the max and min, and I turned off VSYNC. Or perhaps it's not on by default. Whatever it is. Now it's running around 75c instead, and hasn't exceeded 85c at any point (max 82). CPU is running around 58c, a little lower than I had thought it was.

[FlawlessSoul]

Well, whattya know? That was the issue, all along. I had turned off the max and min, and I turned off VSYNC. Or perhaps it's not on by default. Whatever it is. Now it's running around 75c instead, and hasn't exceeded 85c at any point (max 82). CPU is running around 58c, a little lower than I had thought it was.

Glad it helped. I always run with vsync (on everything, I use D3DOverrider to force it which works on 99% of games (There are a few DX11 ones that don't like it). Mostly because I can't *stand* tearing, but also partly because of this issue - a card can overwork itself to death, almost (Ohai, Starcraft 2 menu screen).