GTX 280 VRM Temps

[ChthonicDepths]

What is considered "safe" for 280 VRM temps?

I ask, due to the fact that Thermalright never fixed the problem they claimed they were fixing with their aftermarket cooler for the 280, and the plate with thermal pads does a miserable job at cooling the VRMs, which they knew was over-heating GPUs.

They pulled it originally and pushed back the release date last year, then re-released it, and it's still garbage. I checked around, and apparently I'm not the only having this problem, so it obviously was not resolved by Thermalright.

The sink does excellent at keeping the core cool, but as for the VRMs, they're hitting temps upwards of 80C+ when under heavy load from something such as Crysis, and even upwards of 70C with TF2. The friggin' stock cooler (which I no longer have, unfortunately) did a far better job.

Will the VRM's just simply fry at some point at those temps?

Any other coolers out there worth it to replace this junk? I've been checking, but I'm not really seeing anything for the 280 right now.

Thanks.

 

[rincewind]

80c is not a problem for the vrm's, although I don't see more than 70c when gaming on my heavily oc'd GTX260 (it's wc, but vrm's are cooled by the swiftech 'unisink' with a medium speed yate blowing over that end of the card). You should be fine, just don't run furmark for long periods

 

[ChthonicDepths]

80c is not a problem for the vrm's, although I don't see more than 70c when gaming on my heavily oc'd GTX260 (it's wc, but vrm's are cooled by the swiftech 'unisink' with a medium speed yate blowing over that end of the card). You should be fine, just don't run furmark for long periods

Thanks for the response.

Wouldn't running something such as Crysis for long periods of time stress the GPU similarly? I've actually never bothered with anything such as Furmark in all my years of building gaming rigs.

I've seen some varying responses (the few I can find) regarding VRM temps and what VRM can/is meant to handle in regards to heat. Are you certain that 80C+ is "safe"?

You never see anything above 70C being water-cooled, but I never see anything much above 55C with the stock 280 housing/cooler. Then again, you're OC'd, so it probably balances out. I have a "spare" 280 right now I was going to throw into my wife's system, but she's not running anything that needs more than the 8800 GTX she's currently running, which is still a beast.

So, I switched to the 280 with the stock cooler for now, due to being uncertain as to whether or not the VRMs would burn out at temps that hit 80C+ (I've seen upwards of 93C with Crysis! ; generally mid-80's, and that seems a bit extreme to me).

Some seem to think the VRMs can handle those temps, but I've also seen others who bothered with the garbage Thermalright sink having been told that similar VRM temp issues they were having were way too hot. I'm knowledgeable regarding hardware, but certainly no expert regarding these things.

Just keep in mind, I'm an extremely hardcore gamer, and my system is on a lot of hours during the day in general as well for graphic art/web work. Not looking to move into water-cooling just right now either, but don't need VRMs spontaneously bursting into flames, hah hah . So, I have to be certain about this, because seeing those VRM temps was a shock . Heh.

 

[rincewind]

93c in Crysis does seem rather high, did they reach equlibrium or just keep rising? I'm pretty sure the vrm's are rated for 125c, but lower is always better for longevity and peace of mind.
Ditching the Thermalright makes sense, it seems to do a worse job. Really I found the stock cooler worked very well - it just couldn't keep the core itself cool enough when overclocking past moderate levels (without intolerable fan speeds). I'm running 810/1620/1296, which does push vrm temps up considerably.
Furmark will indeed load the GPU considerably more than Crysis, gives the card a damn good thrashing....and makes my card look awfully slow compared to the 4870 it replaced.

 

[ChthonicDepths]

93c in Crysis does seem rather high, did they reach equlibrium or just keep rising? I'm pretty sure the vrm's are rated for 125c, but lower is always better for longevity and peace of mind.

Exactly... longevity is definitely of major concern. It seems to "level-off" probably around 80C, if I remember right, occasionally peaking into the 90's at certain times. But even mid-80's, especially compared to around high 50's/low 60's with the stock cooler, seems a bit high to me and makes me worry about the longevity of that GPU.

Ditching the Thermalright makes sense, it seems to do a worse job. Really I found the stock cooler worked very well - it just couldn't keep the core itself cool enough when overclocking past moderate levels (without intolerable fan speeds). I'm running 810/1620/1296, which does push vrm temps up considerably.
Furmark will indeed load the GPU considerably more than Crysis, gives the card a damn good thrashing....and makes my card look awfully slow compared to the 4870 it replaced.

Well, that's the problem... I no longer have the original housing/cooler for that 280, so I've been using the other 280 since my wife can still keep gaming with the 8800 GTX. So, I've no way to really ditch the Thermalright, unless this 280 dies and I switch the other back into this housing. Hoping that wont happen, so I'm trying to find something else to replace Thermalright, but there's nothing I'm really finding of any quality.

I did recently move back to the Antec 1200 case (from the HAF 932, which just makes a mess of airflow), which allows me to have a fan mounted internally, front-to-rear airflow, directly over the GPU from the VRM-end. Perhaps that would help a little, but I'm not thinking all that much.

Wish there was a better aftermarket cooler available to replace this Thermalright...