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First time SLI setup.. overheating?

A

amk320

n00b
Joined
Apr 27, 2010
Messages
50
Howdy,

Long time reader, first time poster here. I just finished up a new system and think I have an issue with one or more of my video cards. Both are GTX 260's.

I've never run an SLI set up before, but it seems now that when I'm gaming, something in the machine is getting uber loud to the point where the PC sounds like it's about to take flight. I have reason to believe this is one of my cards. Specifically, the fan on the one that isn't getting any airflow because the fan is right up against another card.

But this only started recently, after more than a week of running the PC without the issue. Could the top card be overheating somehow? Can anyone recommend a temperature sensor or some other way a newb could find out?
 
You shuold try out msi afterburner, you can have it set up to view both gpu fan speeds with a nice curve.

Just google msi afterburner
 
I would think the sound is natural, as when you're running SLI you're getting double the sound and noise output as opposed to a single card. If you feel it's getting much to load then definitely check the temps on them.

GPU-Z, EVGA Precision, Msi Afterburner are some good software to pick from if you want to view your temps. These programs(with the exception of GPU-Z) will allow you to manually control the fan speed on your cards too.
 
Yeah, that's what it was. What's a safe temp. for the top card? Under load, it looks like they're running at 80c / 60c top/bottom respectively. The top's fan was running at max, if I turn it down to a tolerable level that card approaches 85+ which seems concerning.

EDIT -

Any good tips for optimizing an SLI setup for a first-timer?
 
Last edited:
amk320 said:
Yeah, that's what it was. What's a safe temp. for the top card? Under load, it looks like they're running at 80c / 60c top/bottom respectively. The top's fan was running at max, if I turn it down to a tolerable level that card approaches 85+ which seems concerning.

EDIT -

Any good tips for optimizing an SLI setup for a first-timer?
Click to expand...

If you can, get some air space between them and use an extended SLI bridge to connect your video cards.

For example this is the optimum spacing to let your cards 'breathe' in SLI.
Image_02T.jpg
 
My board (EVGA P55 SLI) has the 16x and 8x slots right next to each other. The bottom one is x4. I could space them out, but I'd take a performance hit, no?
 
3far4shot said:
At x4 you will be taking a HUGE performance hit, yes.
Click to expand...

Fixed that.

The hit on performance on the P55 main boards with the 4x slot is three-fold:

1. The 4x slot only runs at version 1.1 PCIe speed. That's the equivalent of 2x version 2.0.

2. The slot connects to the processor via a shared DMI connection, which adds overhead and constricts data throughput.

3. On many P55 boards with extra features, those v1.1 PCIe lanes are already tapped for other features that don't come with the chipset. This can reduce your available lanes even further.
 
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