Help cooling GPU's. Loads at >100C.

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meyerkev

Limp Gawd
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Jul 8, 2010
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So I have a brand new desktop, and when I run Furmark on my new system, the GPUs hit 97C within 90 seconds, and show no signs of stopping when I kill Furmark to prevent damage.

CPU: i7-2600k at stock (for now). Idles at ~40C, loads at ~62C.
CPU cooler: Cooler Master hyper 212 plus with 2 140mm fans in push-pull pointing towards the back exhaust fan
GPU: CFX XFX 6970's with 1 slot in between the cards. Idles at 57C, loads at I honestly don't want to know.

Case: Corsair 650D. 1 200 mm stock intake fan in front, 2 140mm Thermalright X-Silents intake on top, and 1 stock 120mm exhaust in the back.

Is there anything I can do to lower my temps? If I crank the fans manually to 100%, it'll load at ~95C, but that literally shakes the room I'm in and sounds like a jet engine, and if I take the sides off and point a 20 inch box fan at it on high, it loads at 97C.

Edit: After doing some research, I let it go to 100C. It took 157 seconds, and now my fans are running at 73% and sound like a small jet engine. Load temps after 10 minutes are 103C. Is this expected?

Further edit: 105 after 15 minutes
 
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Pictures of the setup? This is really abnormal....

If I crank the fans manually to 100%, it'll load at ~95C
Click to expand...

I have a xfx 6950 overclocked to 1000mhz/1350mem, it will do under 80 with furmark if I set the fan speed to something like 45%
 
alik4041 said:
Pictures of the setup? This is really abnormal....



I have a xfx 6950 overclocked to 1000mhz/1350mem, it will do under 80 with furmark if I set the fan speed to something like 45%
Click to expand...

IMG_0024.JPG
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Sorry for the blurriness. The only camera I have is my cell phone.
 
You're right, that setup with those temps is a little odd. In the spirit of troubleshooting, if this were my system I would start by swapping the top intakes to exhaust and setting vid card fan settings back to auto. Also, what is your average ambient temperature?
 
mhenley said:
You're right, that setup with those temps is a little odd. In the spirit of troubleshooting, if this were my system I would start by swapping the top intakes to exhaust and setting vid card fan settings back to auto. Also, what is your average ambient temperature?
Click to expand...

Average ambient temp is between 60 and 65F. (Well, now it's about 85, but that's because I've been dumping Furmark into a small room for the last hour.) Give me 5 minutes to switch the fans.
 
We'll have this problem solved before morning hopefully ;)

I would try running one card at a time. Please post the temperatures of the different setups. Also, you might want to try testing with an open case.
 
When the fans are blowing at 100%, does the exhaust feel anywhere near ~100C? There's a slight chance the temperature reading is wrong. Can you provide SS of the temps?
 
alik4041 said:
When the fans are blowing at 100%, does the exhaust feel anywhere near ~100C? There's a slight chance the temperature reading is wrong. Can you provide SS of the temps?
Click to expand...

Exhaust feels really hot. My MBP used to get up to 105C a lot, and it feels really similar.

SS = Screenshot?
 
Ok, so with bottom GPU in solo, top GPU removed, and the case side off, I hit 93C within about 2 minutes. When I put the case side back on, the temps dropped a little bit, but were heading back up when I killed it. (And if you want me to shrink or crop the image, tell me)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7295210/Furmark1.png
 
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And this is with the fan running at 100% or auto? If auto, this seems normal.
 
All these temperatures seem normal except for the crossfire. Take a look at this:

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...50-graphics-card-review-power-temp-noise.html

You're temperatures are definitely within range. If I were you, I would put the cards in the same slots as the crossfire setup, but I wouldn't enable crossfire. Just run them as single cards without the crossfire ribbon cable. This will test if it's just the card placement that's causing your increased temperatures. I'm willing to bet it is. Keep in mind, furmark is much more intensive than your other 3d games and I don't think any 3d game stresses anywhere close to furmark.

EDIT: By "running" them without crossfire, I mean stress testing with furmark and seeing the temperatures. I'm assuming you understood, I just wanted to clarify :p
 
Ok. About 5 minutes into CFX Furmark. One's at 101, the others at 94. And it sounds like a jet engine again as fans are in the 70's.

So basically:
Just the bottom card. Brilliant.
Just the top card. Meh.
CFX. It burns.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7295210/Furmark3.png With CFX enabled.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7295210/Furmark4.png With Crossfire disabled. Just using the top. Just after I took the photo, it jumped to 101, but is now at 97C.

I'm wondering if I should RMA that top card, because it's consistently running way louder/hotter than the bottom card, even in solo.
 
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Clearly airflow is a problem, but I'm trying to figure out if running in crossfire compared to stressing both cards independently makes a difference. Hence why you should install both cards and run two instances of furmark (one for each gpu). It's possible that just running crossfire itself is increasing the thermal output.

EDIT: Run the mentioned WITHOUT the crossfire ribbon.
 
alik4041 said:
Clearly airflow is a problem, but I'm trying to figure out if running in crossfire compared to stressing both cards independently makes a difference. Hence why you should install both cards and run two instances of furmark (one for each gpu). It's possible that just running crossfire itself is increasing the thermal output.

EDIT: Run the mentioned WITHOUT the crossfire ribbon.
Click to expand...

Question: How does one tell Furmark to use a different card? Do I need to open up one of my other monitors?

Also, at the moment, I'm running one 1920x1200 monitor. The plan is to run 3 in Eyefinity. Will this significantly impact heat/noise?
 
meyerkev said:
I'm wondering if I should RMA that top card, because it's consistently running way louder/hotter than the bottom card, even in solo.
Click to expand...

Have you tried placing that top card at the bottom? Maybe the airflow is better.
 
meyerkev said:
Question: How does one tell Furmark to use a different card? Do I need to open up one of my other monitors?

Also, at the moment, I'm running one 1920x1200 monitor. The plan is to run 3 in Eyefinity. Will this significantly impact heat/noise?
Click to expand...
My apologies, you can not. Let me see if I can find something similar. As I said, nothing stresses close to furmark. I'm wondering about RTHDRIBL.

EDIT: I don't think it will impact heat or noise as much as performance. And the performance hit will depend on AMD's drivers.

I'm really wondering if the cards are producing a tiny bit more heat just because of the fact that you're running crossfire. Would be interesting to find out.
I mean the only way to test this, would be to use a stress test that can test crossfire as well as run multiple instances of single card stress testing.
 
alik4041 said:
Have you tried placing that top card at the bottom? Maybe the airflow is better.
Click to expand...

Running Furmark, and so far the curve looks very similar to the other card in the bottom slot. That is just wierd, that switching slots would make such a huge difference of 3-4C and 20% fans.

Edit: holding steady at 54% fans, and 94C.

I'm wondering if switching one of the top fans to intake might help. Get some positive rather than negative pressure, and create a horseshoe flow for the CPU.

Also, my mobo does have a 3rd PCI-E x16 slot running in x1, but I can make it run in x4 at the cost of some USB ports. It might be worthwhile to run my two GPU's out of those two slots rather than the top two.
 
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meyerkev said:
How do you want me to test that?
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Same exact test you tested the first bottom card. Direct comparison to see if the card truly runs hotter. Your goal is to duplicate that test.

By the way, which motherboard do you have?
 
meyerkev said:
Running Furmark, and so far the curve looks very similar to the other card in the bottom slot. That is just wierd, that switching slots would make such a huge difference of 3-4C and 20% fans.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's definitely airflow...I've been looking at thermal comparisons of that case and it has decent cooling. But I think those hard drive cages really hinder it's ability. If there's anyway you could allow easier intake for the cards, it would probably save you at least 3-5C. As mhenley, keep those top fans as exhaust. It makes no sense to put those as intake since heat rises.

EDIT: Seeing from this, you can remove the hard drive cages. It doesn't look like you have too many had drives in there (from the picture). I'm hoping this give you a night and day difference as long as you remove a cage at the same height level as the cards' intake.

That top graphics card also looks REALLY close to your CPU heatsink.
 
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meyerkev said:
Also, my mobo does have a 3rd PCI-E x16 slot running in x1, but I can make it run in x4 at the cost of some USB ports. It might be worthwhile to run my two GPU's out of those two slots rather than the top two.
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I really think you'll take a huge performance hit. It's pretty simple at this point; find out ways to give the cards some air. Also, you need to do some real world testing. Have gpu-z recording temps in the background. I doubt the temperatures are that bad with games in crossfire.

P.S. 650d should have much better cable management ;)
 
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alik4041 said:
Yeah, it's definitely airflow...I've been looking at thermal comparisons of that case and it has decent cooling. But I think those hard drive cages really hinder it's ability. If there's anyway you could allow easier intake for the cards, it would probably save you at least 3-5C. As mhenley, keep those top fans as exhaust. It makes no sense to put those as intake since heat rises.

EDIT: Seeing from this, you can remove the hard drive cages. It doesn't look like you have too many had drives in there (from the picture). I'm hoping this give you a night and day difference as long as you remove a cage at the same height level as the cards' intake.

That top graphics card also looks REALLY close to your CPU heatsink.
Click to expand...

Ok, I can move the top cage out, but probably not the bottom cage over. I've also been hearing that the front fan is pretty useless, so if you know another good 200mm fan...

As for the heatsink, it's using 140mm fans on a 120mm heatsink, plus it sticks out a bit, so the angle looks odd. There's at least 3/4" between heatsink and GPU.
 
meyerkev said:
Ok, I can move the top cage out, but probably not the bottom cage over. I've also been hearing that the front fan is pretty useless, so if you know another good 200mm fan...

As for the heatsink, it's using 140mm fans on a 120mm heatsink, plus it sticks out a bit, so the angle looks odd. There's at least 3/4" between heatsink and GPU.
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How many hard drives are there? If it's only one then I would just get somekind of hard drive silencer and put it in the 5.25" drive bay. This will leave the whole system open for a good intake. If you're unsatisfied with the 200mm fan, you could probably set up 2x 120mm fans if it's anything like the top of the case. That's at least what I would do if I was going for airflow. I'm also wondering if you could possibly get better cpu temperatures if the fan was blowing air towards the top exhaust fans, but it would probably be negated by the heat coming off of the top card. Callin it a night!
 
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alik4041 said:
How many hard drives are there? If it's only one then I would just get somekind of hard drive silencer and put it in the 5.25" drive bay. This will leave the whole system open for a good intake. If you're unsatisfied with the 200mm fan, you could probably set up 2x 120mm fans if it's anything like the top of the case. That's at least what I would do if I was going for airflow. I'm also wondering if you could possibly get better cpu temperatures if the fan was blowing air towards the top exhaust fans, but it would probably be negated by the heat coming off of the top card. Callin it a night!
Click to expand...

3 HDD's. I'm okay with moving the bottom case as it basically goes

GPU........ F
GPU........ A
PSU HDD N
PSU HDD

so it forces all the air through the GPU's. Front of the case is pretty clearly designed for just a 200mm as the front grate is basically a big 200mm circle.

Mobo is ASUS P8Z68-V Pro.

Ran Furmark in CFX with cards reversed. With case sides off, stopped at ~95. With case sides on, hit 102, but was hovering 99-100. That one card definitely runs way hotter than it should though.

Re Game temps, given that I'm at .25 down here, I'll let you know in a few days.

Edit: Stumbled across a fan config that works. Top both exhaust, back is intake, and front is intake, while the CPU cooler is facing towards the front. GPU temps are at about 95C and holding. However, CPU load temps went up to about 66 at stock. I'm thinking I did a really bad job of applying thermal paste. Also, Corsair needs to release that side door fan panel NOW. Just taking off the side panel is worth 5C. Imagine what putting fans in there will do.
 
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meyerkev said:
3 HDD's. I'm okay with moving the bottom case as it basically goes

GPU........ F
GPU........ A
PSU HDD N
PSU HDD

so it forces all the air through the GPU's. Front of the case is pretty clearly designed for just a 200mm as the front grate is basically a big 200mm circle.

Mobo is ASUS P8Z68-V Pro.

Ran Furmark in CFX with cards reversed. With case sides off, stopped at ~95. With case sides on, hit 102, but was hovering 99-100. That one card definitely runs way hotter than it should though.

Re Game temps, given that I'm at .25 down here, I'll let you know in a few days.

Edit: Stumbled across a fan config that works. Top both exhaust, back is intake, and front is intake, while the CPU cooler is facing towards the front. GPU temps are at about 95C and holding. However, CPU load temps went up to about 66 at stock. I'm thinking I did a really bad job of applying thermal paste. Also, Corsair needs to release that side door fan panel NOW. Just taking off the side panel is worth 5C. Imagine what putting fans in there will do.
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I was going to suggest that back fan as an intake because you have way too many exhausts. You might not have applied the thermal paste correctly, but your cpu cooler needs to not be blowing air towards your rear intake fan. I would think you should try having both cpu fans facing the top exhaust fan.
 
zalman used to make a fan bracket that screwes into the pci card screw holders, u can then mount up to a 120mm fan over your GFX, i did this with my old 260 sli set up where my bottom card would get up to 95C after adding in a 120mm 80cfm fan over them load was 87c on the hottest card, still hot but within the acceptable range
 
Did some digging, found this.

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1037101356&postcount=593

Apparently there is a demand for side panel fans for the 650D, and they're working on mesh inserts for the windowed panel to allow 4x120mm fans. If you're not wanting to wait you could do a case mod on a solid panel and add a 250mm fan. http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5451/fan-279/250mm_Silent_Case_Fan.html?tl=g36c331s566 I have used that one in the past and the included bezel makes it easy covering up the not-so-perfectly-cut areas.
 
If your ambient room temperature is really as cool as you said, in the 60s, those x-fire temperatures are simply unacceptable. You can find people that will tell you that you're close enough to being within acceptable ranges, but that doesn't factor in the loud as hell fan noise.

Sounds like you need to be investigating aftermarket cooling for your cards mate. Problem is you won't have enough space for most aftermarket fans, but there are some water-cooling solutions that might work. Have you considered this?
 
have you tried to reapply the thermal paste on the cards? I've had temps drop about 5 degrees on my OCed 460GTX.
 
shantd said:
If your ambient room temperature is really as cool as you said, in the 60s, those x-fire temperatures are simply unacceptable. You can find people that will tell you that you're close enough to being within acceptable ranges, but that doesn't factor in the loud as hell fan noise.

Sounds like you need to be investigating aftermarket cooling for your cards mate. Problem is you won't have enough space for most aftermarket fans, but there are some water-cooling solutions that might work. Have you considered this?
Click to expand...

Well, since I had been dumping Furmark heat into a 12 ft * 11 ft * 8 ft space with low ventilation all night, it was more like mid-80's F at the time. Besides, I got it down to 95C on mid-50's% fans with a new fan config at that ambient temp (and my new 200mm fans arrive next week, so I can actually get some decent airflow over the video cards. 110CFM at 19.1 dB FTW), so it's not a jet engine running at 105C and still climbing anymore, which is really all I was asking for.

Besides, pretty soon, Corsair will release the fan side panel for the 650D, and I can have 4 120mm fans dropping cool air directly into the cards, instead of just the one 200mm fan running through the full HDD cages.

With that said, and keeping in mind that this is my first desktop ever, what would you recommend looking at?
 
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I'd say you are now doing about par for the course on an air cooled crossfire setup. To do any better would require after market air HSF's or water cooling. I had almost identical temps with my crossfired 5870's on the same MB/CPU as you but in a Rocketfish/LianLi case. Those things just got HOT. I went water and temps are now a joke ( load of 40C ).
 
40C load? Jesus...what are you using?

With respect to HSFs, I'm not sure that's an option for him because he's got 2 cards with virtually no space inbetween. I figure he'd have to go watercooled. The additional fans he's got coming may help a bit but they're probably not going to make a big change. What concerns me is he's hitting high temperatures within minutes. What happens when he plays a hardcore resource hungry game for 2 hours?
 
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