I recently installed an OCUK 970 GTX (the one with the nvidia stock cooler) into my mini itx rig. The card is a perfect form factor as it automatically compartmentalizes my case and stops GPU heat rising up onto the CPU. Its also a fits the blower style profile as it dumps all the heat out the back. However, I just need a bit of reassurance regards the temp under load. A graphically intensive gaming session or Unigene bench will make the card sit at 79-80 degrees with the fan at 80%. 80 degrees on my 560ti caused my whole system to crash. Virtually no heat is rising into the case and my CPU sits at between 55 and 58 when playing a heavy CPU/ GPU intensive game such as il2 CLOD (TF patches) even though the card is at the afformentioned 80. Is this normal for a stock cooler? I'm happy in that the cooler is doing its job admirably regards exhausting the heat the card is producing however is this a 'normal' temp in the first place? I'll include a couple of build pics as reference, Cheers for any help.
What case is that you using, I'm unfamiliar with it. I'm wondering it your gpu is a little starved of air being that close to the bottom and I am also wondering if the bottom fan is actually hindering and not helping, have you tried running with out it. I just swapped my older ITX gear out of a CM120 into a CM110, a smaller case with only one fan and everything is actually running cooler and much quieter which I was amazed by seeing as it's that much smaller and has 2 less fans. Are there vents adjacent to the gpu when the side panel is on?
The case is an Ncase M1. https://www.ncases.com/ I am thinking of ditching the lower fan as well. There are no gpu side vents however the case is completely vented at the bottom with Demciflex filters fitted. I just ran the Unigene Valley bencmark (High setting, 1920 x 1080, 8x AFF) and it returned a temp of 66 Degrees. Heaven was run at the same settings on Ultra to reach 80.
It's a nice looking case, it's a shame they didn't continue the side panel venting downward to give the gpu more chance of getting air. Or maybe when they were designing it they found venting the bottom was conuter productive, who knows.
Crapbag, did what you suggested and removed the lower fan. Temps actually remained the same though the cpu temp was 5 degrees cooler probably because no hot air is being forced into the upper chamber. So cheers for that, one less fan is always a bonus. Thanks to Corky as well. 80, though warm, sounds like its fine. Its also still, importantly, reasonably quiet.
The 970 and 980 are designed to keep the card as quiet as possible at up to 80°C aren't they? So if the game is relatively undemanding and the card can keep the GPU cooler at a much lower fan speed then it will, but it will allow the core temperature to rise to 80° and then ramp up the fan as required to keep it there. Maybe I'm misunderstanding how it works, this is just from observation of my 980 which is wearing the same cooler. The only time you need to worry is if the fan is spinning at 100% and the temp is higher than about 85°C, because it shouldn't do that
