What to do when there is literally no space between two cards in crossfire

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addictedto60fps

[H]ard|Gawd
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Seeing as how 5970's are going for pretty good prices on ebay, I decided to sell my 5970 on ebay and get two 6970's and do crossfire. I ended up getting these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127554&cm_re=6970-_-14-127-554-_-Product

This is my very first crossfire setup with two cards. Much to my disappointment, when I put the two cards in my motherboard, there is literally no space (well, maybe a few millimeters) between the two cards. As a result, the cards really heat up and the fans get extremely loud to compensate for the high heat when I do crossfire gaming. I've seen one of the cards hit nearly 100 degrees Celsius, which is unacceptable to me, both the heat and the loudness.

In a scenario like this, is there anything I can do to keep the cards cool? I'd really like to keep both cards, as the performance from two cards is great. Are there any other brand 6970's that run cooler and can be put right next to each other with no space in between them and not cause heat/loudness issues?

Edit: Doh, I meant to put this in the AMD section, not the general video cards section. :(
 
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do you havea any sort of fan providing air to the cards?

with that small amount of space you have to make sure you have superb intake and exhaust fans for the case, even a 3rd fan to help the airflow would be needed.
 
The common trick is to take the big end of a zip and wedge it between the ends of the cards, and another close to where the power plugs are. This small gap creates quite a difference without stressing the slots
 
I haven't tried the zip/wedge thing yet, but I did take a look at all my fans inside my pc and I found that one of my fans wasn't working! I think the fan is fixed now and as a result, the temps/loudness of the cards is nowhere near as bad as before. Temps' are in 80's now and nowhere near as loud. I need to try some more games to make sure it stays that way, but so far so good! Thanks guys, as I may be able to keep my 2nd card now! :D
 
This is precisely the reason why I'm so picky when buying motherboards now... So many things to consider. Slot spacing, case design, etc...

I'm about to go SLI with two GTX 480's, one of which has an Arctic Accelero Extreme Plus (3 slot cooler). I just so happen to have triple spacing between my two PCI-E slots. When the cards are installed though, the card with the AXP sags so much (because of the cooler) that it actually touches the bottom GTX 480 on the corner where the power plugs are. I solved this by cutting a small strip of foam to wedge between the two cards.



I was wanting to put an AXP on my other card as well, but the slot placing on my motherboard doesn't allow triple spacing for the bottom slot without overhang. My case has a bottom mount psu, so yeah. Gotta wait til I upgrade and get a motherboard with the proper slot spacing for two 3-slot video cards... What a hassle...
 
Glad to hear your temps are down. Assuming you've got air blowing at the card intakes, If you wedge the cards apart a bit (zip tie trick, in my case I used a piece of a silicone cooking pad) I bet your temps drop another 5-10c. Even 2mm or so makes a huge difference.

I really hope AMD angles the back end of the shroud on the next series of GPU's..
 
Yeah, after this experience, I, too, am going to be more picky when it comes to motherboards. My temps seem ok for now, but will give the other suggestions in this thread a try if my temps get to unacceptable levels again.
 
CompuG##K said:
This is precisely the reason why I'm so picky when buying motherboards now... So many things to consider. Slot spacing, case design, etc...

I'm about to go SLI with two GTX 480's, one of which has an Arctic Accelero Extreme Plus (3 slot cooler). I just so happen to have triple spacing between my two PCI-E slots. When the cards are installed though, the card with the AXP sags so much (because of the cooler) that it actually touches the bottom GTX 480 on the corner where the power plugs are. I solved this by cutting a small strip of foam to wedge between the two cards.



I was wanting to put an AXP on my other card as well, but the slot placing on my motherboard doesn't allow triple spacing for the bottom slot without overhang. My case has a bottom mount psu, so yeah. Gotta wait til I upgrade and get a motherboard with the proper slot spacing for two 3-slot video cards... What a hassle...
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Do you have both sli bridges connected for looks?
 
Water cooling a viable option which i haven't seen anyone suggest it. a 120.2 should be enough for 2 6970's. I'll be looking at water cooling my single 6970 with a brother possibly sometime soon.
 
my solution was to buy a 2500k + msi p67 board - which has a large gap betwen slots :) Not the most financially sound idea though !
 
I have three MSI 6950s in an ASUS Rampage III Formula.

I know exctly what you are talking about.

What I did was two things:

1) I took hose washers and slid them between the GPUs. This gave some nice separation, good support and did not stress the connection to the MB.

2) there is enough room behind the end of the card in my case to place a fan. I bought a Sythe Slipstream SH 120mm fan which now blows air from front to back across the cards.

My cards run a 60% fan cycle during gaming and will only reach 75-70-65C from top to bottom.

I plan on watercooling at least one card in the very near future....probably the top one.
 
Hmm, ok, I'm getting a new problem now. When I'm playing games, my pc will randomly reboot. This never happened prior to installing my 6970's. Is it the heat from the cards that could be causing this problem?
 
yes the cards overheating could cause that issue. but check all your temps on the system as well. another thing you could do for air movement is get an eraser from a pencil and break it off right where the metal part is and stick it between the cards at the back corner.
 
I had the same problem with my MB, where my two 6970s would have no space in between. I instead used the 1st and 3rd PCI-X slot, and upgraded my window fan which helps alot with temps. I barely see 70c now, where it was hitting 80s easily before.

I think a side window intake fan to help cool these cards is a really big help nowadays.
 
addictedto60fps said:
Hmm, ok, I'm getting a new problem now. When I'm playing games, my pc will randomly reboot. This never happened prior to installing my 6970's. Is it the heat from the cards that could be causing this problem?
Click to expand...

Could be heat or power related. Keep an eye on your temps and voltages while gaming.
 
I have a 950 watt power supply. Temps seem pretty good - doesn't get as hot as it used to be. I tried underclocking my system back to its stock settings, and the resetting seems to have disappeared, so it might be overclock related. I'll need to run some more tests to make sure that's the problem.
 
Heat would cause artifacting, as would too high clock speeds.
Is your CPU or memory overclocked?

Something in the system in general is unstable.:D
 
Im Running 3 PowerColor 6970's ( Overclock edition 940 Core Stock ) in Tri-Fire, I have a Fan blowing directly in on the cards and i have 1 fan blowing across the cards and my temps under load are Card 1 75C to 85C, card 2 is in the low 80's, and card 3 is usually at 78C to 80C. All of these temps are really grerat considering the lack of space in between them.
 
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