XFX 6970cf Question

[exodust]

Hello,

I recently purchased two XFX 6970 which are now in CF. I noticed, like my previous cards the 460 in SLI, that one card is about 20 degrees higher than the other. To alleviate this in the 460s, I purchased a 120mm SLI bridge connector and it brought the cards to within +/-5-10 degree difference as opposed to 20.

With the 6970s, at first I only had the regular CF cable and I noticed the 20 degree difference (avg 39/55). I purchased a long CF bridge connector and installed it today. There is no difference. Both cards run at the same temperature as before. The distance between the two made absolutely no difference. Because I was closely monitoring the cards, I also seemed to have noticed the idle underclock of both cards. I understand that while in DESKTOP mode the cards will automatically underclock but what I've seen so far is 500/250 mhz. Now normally I'd like to believe that it should be 880/700. I never seen such a dip in graphic card speed during idle mode in desktop. Is this normal?

The other quirk I've noticed is the FANs. Ever since I increased the distance between the two cards on two different PCI-E slots, the fan at startup will do it's usual speed-up very fast and than calm down. HOWEVER, it won't stop that cycle now. I can constantly hear the fans speeding up to excess of 40% back down to 20% of fan speed over and over.

To eliminate the problem I preset in MSI Afterburner to 40% at startup. But I still wasn't sure if this was a problem or not without MSI Afterburner?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

SPECS:
I7-940 @ 3.8ghz
Asus Rampage II Extreme
Corsair 750 TX
6 gigs Corsair Ram
2x6970 XFX
300gig Raptor

 

[Dmac122383]

What kind of case do you have? Maybe try adding a fan or two to the side panel to blow fresh cool air onto your cards. Or if you have the room look into some aftermarket gpu coolers. I'm in the process of adding another 6970 to my set up and thinking I'm going to go with 2 Artic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus II. I'm just looking around the internet for other people with crossfired cards and the coolers in my game (CM 690ii advanced) To see about fitment.

Try to post pictures of your case to see if anyone can recommend a cooling solution.

 

[exodust]

I have a 140mm fan below blowing into the lower 6970 as well and a 120mm in the front bay across from the CPU heatsink. The top had 3 120mm blowing in. It's a positive airflow system in a corsair 800d case. The back near the CPU is the only exhaust at 140mm fan that's quite powerful.

 

[Dmac122383]

Your cards are downclocking into 2D mode while on the desktop, thats completely normal. I had the same question when I first got my 6970.

I'm not a pro when it comes to cooling and fan positions but maybe you can try changing a few fans around and seeing if there is a difference. I would try changing your top fans to exhaust and see if that helps remove some of the hot air your gpus are creating. And if you do change the top fans to exhaust try putting some intake fans on your side panel to provide the gpus with fresh cool air, and then the top exhaust fans will pull that hot air out.

 

[zechs3]

Check your power connections, when no 6/8 pins are connected the fans blow at 100%. Idk.

My few days trouble shooting my crossfire problems has been extremely informative.

I have noticed that having afterburner installed before and after drivers installations can be problematic. You may want to uninstall it when installing fresh drivers. My clocks were a little funky at first.