Hey folks
Was hoping to get some advice from everybody regarding a problem I'm having with excessive heat:
I recently bought a 6970 to add to my two unlocked 6950s to be able to drive my Eyefinity resolutions - however, I am running these with a Maximus Extreme motherboard (2600K CPU), and the temps I'm getting on these cards are scary to say the least.
Running at 80%+ fan speed (and clocked to 1100 volts, 800MHz, 1250 MHz), the bottom card is hitting 90C, the middle maxing at around 93C and the top getting to the low 80s (load temps, obviously )
Now, I believe one of the big problems is with the Maximus MB not allowing for any breathing room between the three cards - as far as I see it, I have three options, and I wanted to get opinions on which would be the best:
a) Today I ordered a P67 WS Revolution board from Newegg, for the sole reason that it has 4 PCI-E slots, which will allow me to space out the cards better, and improve airflow - this one could end up saving me money, since I will probably sell the Maximus for more than I paid for the WS - however, I'm not convinced that spacing out the cards better will make a huge difference.
b) Sell the two unlocked 6950s, and buy one 6990 (will likely have to pay in about $200 for the honor). If I do this combined with (a) above, the entire "upgrade" will end up only costing me about $100 though
c) Water cooling - been meaning to do this for a while, but it seems like it will be super expensive cooling 3 GPUs, let alone adding a CPU into the loop. I have absolutely no equipment for the loop, so I estimate it will set me back about $500, which is pretty scary.
So - I guess the question is which of those three scenarios would work best - do you folks think that just switching to the WS revolution might bring my temps down to tolerable levels - I'm worried that it will be a downgrade, although honestly, I don't really utilize all the bells and whistles of the Maximus board anyhow.
Any advice, ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated.
Was hoping to get some advice from everybody regarding a problem I'm having with excessive heat:
I recently bought a 6970 to add to my two unlocked 6950s to be able to drive my Eyefinity resolutions - however, I am running these with a Maximus Extreme motherboard (2600K CPU), and the temps I'm getting on these cards are scary to say the least.
Running at 80%+ fan speed (and clocked to 1100 volts, 800MHz, 1250 MHz), the bottom card is hitting 90C, the middle maxing at around 93C and the top getting to the low 80s (load temps, obviously )
Now, I believe one of the big problems is with the Maximus MB not allowing for any breathing room between the three cards - as far as I see it, I have three options, and I wanted to get opinions on which would be the best:
a) Today I ordered a P67 WS Revolution board from Newegg, for the sole reason that it has 4 PCI-E slots, which will allow me to space out the cards better, and improve airflow - this one could end up saving me money, since I will probably sell the Maximus for more than I paid for the WS - however, I'm not convinced that spacing out the cards better will make a huge difference.
b) Sell the two unlocked 6950s, and buy one 6990 (will likely have to pay in about $200 for the honor). If I do this combined with (a) above, the entire "upgrade" will end up only costing me about $100 though
c) Water cooling - been meaning to do this for a while, but it seems like it will be super expensive cooling 3 GPUs, let alone adding a CPU into the loop. I have absolutely no equipment for the loop, so I estimate it will set me back about $500, which is pretty scary.
So - I guess the question is which of those three scenarios would work best - do you folks think that just switching to the WS revolution might bring my temps down to tolerable levels - I'm worried that it will be a downgrade, although honestly, I don't really utilize all the bells and whistles of the Maximus board anyhow.
Any advice, ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated.