8800GTS 512 Cooling

[Adam Weishaupt]

Does anyone else have this card? I have the XFX Alpha Dog, but seems like EVGA got the lion's share of early purchases due to the Crysis bundle. I got it for 299.99 after rebate right after release, which was good at the time, although now I'm wondering if Crysis plus the tiny factory OC might have been worthwhile. Oh well...

Anyway - I've found the card to be wonderful, particularly the cooling. I have not approached the high load figures of most benchmarks except when I force the card to grind to a halt trying to do 1600x1200 4x AA/16 AF with ultra effects, ultra textures in CoH using DX10 in Vista. I use HWMonitor to follow my temperatures, and Ntune matches whatever it reads exactly, so I'm assuming the readings are correct. I idle around 53 (49 if I run with the case open) and load around 65. I rarely if ever break 70. Does that seem normal? Most of the benchmarks I saw had high load topping out around 80-85. I have the P182 case with the wiring shoved into the rear of the mobo, and good airflow. I was going to move the lower chamber fan up to the middle to blow more air onto the video card, but now it seems unnecessary.

Also, how much difference in temperature are people noticing doing OC on this card?

 

[Adam Weishaupt]

Here are two reviews that differ widely in their temperatures. The Canucks one is the XFX, which I have, but I can't see how there's any difference between one stock cooler and another. I think the Canucks review might have been going a bit easy on the card by testing in CoH with DX9 - mine didn't slow down at all until I patched to DX10 and cranked to ultra.

http://www.techspot.com/review/79-geforce-8800-gts-512/page11.html

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...ts-512mb-g92-alpha-dog-edition-review-12.html

 

[honestjohn]

Does anyone else have this card? I have the XFX Alpha Dog, but seems like EVGA got the lion's share of early purchases due to the Crysis bundle. I got it for 299.99 after rebate right after release, which was good at the time, although now I'm wondering if Crysis plus the tiny factory OC might have been worthwhile. Oh well...

Anyway - I've found the card to be wonderful, particularly the cooling. I have not approached the high load figures of most benchmarks except when I force the card to grind to a halt trying to do 1600x1200 4x AA/16 AF with ultra effects, ultra textures in CoH using DX10 in Vista. I use HWMonitor to follow my temperatures, and Ntune matches whatever it reads exactly, so I'm assuming the readings are correct. I idle around 53 (49 if I run with the case open) and load around 65. I rarely if ever break 70. Does that seem normal? Most of the benchmarks I saw had high load topping out around 80-85. I have the P182 case with the wiring shoved into the rear of the mobo, and good airflow. I was going to move the lower chamber fan up to the middle to blow more air onto the video card, but now it seems unnecessary.

Also, how much difference in temperature are people noticing doing OC on this card?

Tested my EVGA card as soon as I bought it. The EVGA GTS 512MB has the fan set to 29% as the default and then ramps up to about 45% under load. Temps are 58c on idle and 78C-83C under load when really stressed playing something like Crysis or another really demanding title. However, when playing an average game, my temps max out at around 70c like yours, so your temps are absolutely normal in my opinion. I have been using Rivatuner since the day after I got my card and bumped up the fan speed to 60% and now I idle at 46c and under load I hover in the low 60c's. No noise penalty for running the fan at 60% either, at least to my ears.

 

[umgill45]

My card is tuned via riva tuner and it idles at 49C and loads at around 60C . Fans have 4 profiles in riva tuner and that is the main reason why noise and temps are perfectly under control. I think riva tuner is one of the best program I've come across and I've saved money from not buying an aftermarket cooler. Overclocking increases temps by another 2-3 C but nothing that would need extra cooling.

Speaking of CoH I ran it on DX9 with everything maxed and with AA on 16x and heavy rain enabled on a 4v4 comp. map ; it brought the card to its knees. However its good with 4x AA you get about 35 FPS that way.

i got it for 268CDN on ncix.com on boxing day and I think it is cheaper than the 8800gt's (card plus aftermarket cooler i.e) that run hot and seeing that almost everyone who has it has bought an aftermarket cooler. My card didnt o'clock that well but I'm still happy at 740/1001 ( iwas looking to touch 800) which is still ok. All in all really astisfied with this card.