Overheating/airflow help.

[comradepogue]

I'm having a strange problem: some DX10 games make my graphics card exceedingly hot. Most DX9 games - even those that stress my GPU pretty well, like GTA IV and Crysis - run just fine, at around 75c under load. Little toasty, but nothing dangerous.

However, games like STALKER: Clear Sky and Empire Total War make the heat shoot way, way up. 89c for Clear Sky, and when I tried Total War last summer, a blistering 90c!

So, alarmed at this, I made sure that there were no cables under my GPU fan. The SATA cables rest against the heatsink but don't block any vents or the fan. I can't help that - the SATA ports are right under my GPU. It also looks like a brigde heatsink - South, I think - is pressing against the side of the GPU heatsink.

I intend to move all unused cables from where I have them in coiled beneath my optical drives in the empty bay to beind my motherboard. My case has two fans: a rear 120mm exhaust and a top 80mm intake. There's mounts for fans on the front, but they aren't worth anything without cutting the case as they draw in barely any air, and I'm uncomfortable with case modding.

I have my GPU fan set at 80% via eVGA Precision. My card idles between 45-48c.

My question is, what could be causing the overheating and could I help the problem by reversing the rear 120mm fan to intake? I tried reversing the top 80mm fan, but that made my optical drives very, very hot.

I reversed the top 80mm to exhaust, so both fans are now exhaust and the temprature difference is negligible. As for the front fan, it's really too much effort to mount with too little reward. A 2c difference isn't worth the trouble of tearing my case apart again. 87c is still too hot for a card to be running under a DX10 load.

The cords coiled beneath my drive bay are well out of the way of the top fan. The case is inherited from my brother's build, so the back bracket covers are removed - thos steel plates that cover PCI slots you pop out with a screwdriver.

EDIT: Forgot to list my card. eVGA GTS 250 1GB. The card is not overclocked.

 

[Smoove910]

As a rule of thumb you should intake through the front, exhaust out the rear/top. I would highly suggest installing a 120mm in front for an intake. If you cannot see a difference in temps, maybe a better fan is in order. Rear should be exhaust, same with the top. I've added pics of my case with proper airflow.

Also to note: I had to cut the grill in front of my 120mm intake to allow for unrestricted air flow. Maybe this is your problem as well... (Food for thought!)

 

[comradepogue]

My front has mounts for two 80mm fans, and yes, I DO need to cut the grill. But I'm very, very uncomfortable doing this. Both my fans are now exhaust, but I haven't noticed any difference.

There's a vent mounted on the side of the case but I don't want to remove it and mount an 80mm intake fan, since I'm concerned about creating a vacuum, since it would blow right into the path of my rear 120mm fan.

This same case was fine temp wise back in 2007 when I first got it - my 8800 GTS 640 never got this hot. My motherboard is new and longer than my previous one, however, so to mount my graphics card, I had to move my HDDs. One is above the card and one is below.