TRI GTX 280's

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Deleted member 109755

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Is it normal to have card number 1 be as hot as 105 C and start throttling when playing Crysis only? It runs great up until the point that it starts throttling, great FPS, nice load times, etc. The fans are at 100% at this point obviously and I"ve actually resorted to downclocking the GPU's as well and it helped some but card number 1 always gets real damn hot. Any ideas as to what I can do or is it a defective card? The other 2 GPU's only get as hot as 75-80C.

Thanks in advance.


System specs are as follows:

Intel E8400 OC'd to 4.05 Ghz Stable
XFX 790i Ultra
3x BFG Tech GTX 280 OC's
2x1 GB DDR3 1333 Corsair
1 VelociRaptor
Antec 1200 Case
 
In my setup, card #1 runs about about 10C or so hotter than the others, but it tops out at 90C in demanding gaming situations.
 
No that isn't normal. Sorry to say it sounds as if you got one of the bad ones.
 
Damn :(

I don't think this happened when it was a single card configuration though, now obviously having 2 more of them causes much more heat....but i didn't think that much. I think they're still under the store return policy so I'll see if I can take the one nuclear hot one back and see if I can get another one.
 
mmm it could
but this is one of the reason why i didn't do tri SLI gtx 280

I currently have GTX 280 SLI + a 9600GT as secondary display card
my top card with 70% fan speed top at 75 degress C

I tried to use a 9800GT to replace the 9600GT
the temperature could up to 85 degress C when in games
I can imagine with the third gtx 280
unless you have reallly good cooling..
the cards will be cooking.
 
P1000859-1.jpg
I had the same problem until i put a SCYTHE 120 ULTRA KAZE 3000rpm on the back where the three cards are to help airflow out:D
 
Also is that really necessary other than having major bragging rights!? And you should really respect your setup by tidying up the wires and posting it in the cable management thread!
 
jimbean21 said:
Is it normal to have card number 1 be as hot as 105 C and start throttling when playing Crysis only? It runs great up until the point that it starts throttling, great FPS, nice load times, etc. The fans are at 100% at this point obviously and I"ve actually resorted to downclocking the GPU's as well and it helped some but card number 1 always gets real damn hot. Any ideas as to what I can do or is it a defective card? The other 2 GPU's only get as hot as 75-80C.
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Highlighted the "red flag" here. It seems that the GPUs that get up to the 104-105C area and throttle are the bad ones. You should RMA that first card ASAP.
Mike211 said:
I had the same problem until i put a SCYTHE 120 ULTRA KAZE 3000rpm on the back where the three cards are to help airflow out:D
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It'd be much more beneficial to clean up the mess of wires in the front and put the fan in front of the GTX's so they get some cool air intake and blowing over them. These newer cards have no problem exhausting air.
 
You have a bad card and it needs to be RMA'd. Of the 3 GTX 280's I've bought 2 needed to be replaced with the same immediate 105C problem. That's 2/5 for me. :mad:
 
I run around 75-78c in Crysis and 60c in Warhead. These temps are on card one and two. Card three is consistently 20c lower than the top two. This is at a res of 1920x1080 with all settings on Ultra or Enthusiast depending on the game. As it has already been said, you sir have a bad card. :(
 
I originaly had a primary card reach the same 100c+ temps, but it is in no way normal. As a tempary fix I moved around the cards which worked great until I RMA'd it. Now my primary card never goes past 83c after prolonged gaming.
 
From what I've heard and read, temps 100+ is bad card and RMA time.

To slightly thread jack, 3x SLI 280s almost requires Watercooling it seems. Especially if you want to think about OCing them. I'm seriously wondering what going to happen on the next gen (the 12 month+ next gen not the die shrink).
 
LOL, yeah I pull 700watts when playing Crysis...it's ridiculous, and the RAM i wanted wasn't available locally and I hate ordering off the net so I went with what I could for the time being...whenever 2x2GB of OCZ DDR3 is available locally I'll get it. BTW I looked at my receipts and it appears as though I'm still under the store return period so I'll get up to Fry's and exchange it.... no need to go through the RMA process.
 
AthlonXP said:
I wonder how much your electric bill is??
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Assuming 0.10 $/kWhr gaming 8 hours a day 7 days a week, 30 days and him saying he's pulling 700 Watts, it's only adding 16.80$ to his electric bill. During the winter, that's "free" though as the heat is dumped into his house instead of running the furnace. Then again, if you just blew 1200$ on graphics cards and can't afford 20$ for the electricity then you need to rethink your budget. :p
 
jimbean21 said:
LOL, yeah I pull 700watts when playing Crysis...it's ridiculous, and the RAM i wanted wasn't available locally and I hate ordering off the net so I went with what I could for the time being...whenever 2x2GB of OCZ DDR3 is available locally I'll get it. BTW I looked at my receipts and it appears as though I'm still under the store return period so I'll get up to Fry's and exchange it.... no need to go through the RMA process.
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Good to hear you can get it replaced locally. Shouldn't take long to get it swapped out and check the temps on the new one.
 
I got it replaced today at Lunch so I'll be popping it in as soon as I get home and I'll let you know if it's the setup or the card...hopefully it was the card, though...i'm starting to think Tri SLI GTX 280's is overkill....
 
The best scaling is dual-gpu, but tri/quad offers more performance if you feel more is needed. :eek:
 
Tri looks cooler too :p

I am interested to see what the system will do without it overheating now...if it keeps having heat problems..i'm ditching the 3rd and sticking with regular ole sli..if that doesn't provide heat issues that is..
 
jimbean21 said:
Tri looks cooler too :p

I am interested to see what the system will do without it overheating now...if it keeps having heat problems..i'm ditching the 3rd and sticking with regular ole sli..if that doesn't provide heat issues that is..
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You could invest in a good WCing setup and then it would look even cooler, and be cooler! Not to mention you could probably OC them to at least 700 if not 750.
 
If you are going to run three of those together you need to setup automatic fan control in software. I have mine all idle at about 82% and under load they all run at 100%. This keeps them cool enough to idle at 51c to 54c and under load they get upwards of about 83 to 87c. They never go beyond that. You can play with the settings a bit to see what fan speeds work best for your cards. I created rules to govern the fan speeds automatically in the driver. When any game is launched they go full speed and when I exit any game they drop back to idle speeds.
 
The fans all run at 40% at idle, around 58 degrees or so, C. With the exception of the top card it always ran about 6-8 degrees higher at idle, and we all know it was at 105C under load. The fans automatically ramp up as well already
 
jimbean21 said:
The fans all run at 40% at idle, around 58 degrees or so, C. With the exception of the top card it always ran about 6-8 degrees higher at idle, and we all know it was at 105C under load. The fans automatically ramp up as well already
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Not for me. Occasionally I'd get artifacting in some games after prolonged gameplay.
 
That's bizarre, these are bfg tech GTX 280 OC's and they automatically adjust their fans without me ever doing anything to make it so...i wonder why that is
 
jimbean21 said:
That's bizarre, these are bfg tech GTX 280 OC's and they automatically adjust their fans without me ever doing anything to make it so...i wonder why that is
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All the modern cards do. However the fan control provided by ATI and NVIDIA isn't always enough. I've had this problem from time to time especially in multi-GPU configurations. Often the drivers are too conservative in regard to fan speeds and therefore is inadequate in some situations. With two Geforce GTX 280's or even one I don't have this problem. With three I do. I had experienced lockups and artifacts in some games until I setup fan control the way I outlined above. Now I can play all the games I want for hours on end without issues.
 
I see... well I'm happy to report that the new card works perfectly! No overheating issues at all (yet) I'm going to keep an eye on it and I'll report back any abnormalities but so far so good!!!!!! Tri SLI FTW, lol.
 
After hours of playing i saw no artifacting with fans on auto, i think i'm in good shape...i think my bench scores are a little off....i'm just under 20000 in 3dmark 06...seems like it should be higher.
 
LOL yeah i thought that might get your attention, i don't base my experience off my 3dmark score...
 
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