Blogs Turning up the heat on GPUs

Accidents happen...

 

for me, it was GeForce 2 mx 200 - FX 5200 - x1650pro - x1950pro.
the only one of them I've had issues with has been the x1650pro. from day one I had trouble getting catalyst installed and the card would overheat sometimes (it had a stupidly small heatsink with a very thin 40mm fan on it). the fan eventually ceased right up and now takes an indecent amount of force to rotate, but a 92mm fan sitting over the heatsink fixed that.
my x1950 has been perfect though, with a zalman vf1000 cooler on it with the fan speed set to minimum (at max speed, it sounds like a hair dryer and I've yet to see the gpu break 45°C)

 

I got a X1300 Pro like that but passively cool it with a arctic cooling accelero S1 rev 2 in a HAF 932 and you'll get less than 40C constantly

 

Come to think, I might consider using that X1300 to power a second monitor. Any ideas on how to do so?

 

I put a massive Overclock on a Radeon 9550 once and that caused problems when I ran games at full settings (it was passively cooled too! ) I think I ended up putting the core to 337mhz and the memory to 422 mhz. Time eventually killed the card ( I eased off the Overclock since many games became unplayable) but other than that I have had no problems other than random blips with a GeForce 5950Ultra

 

I have a friend that went through a nvidia 8600Gt and then a 8800Gt, both were doing the same thing until I bought him an aftermarket pci slot cooler for just the card itself.
I think it's just his case is providing a dead spot in airflow where the graphics cards are.

 

I don't think you have had a bad run. There must be something 'unique' about your setup. Maybe the climate or even the indoor temperatures you live in or the type of PC cases you use.

For AAA gaming, I always recommend cases that are built for the purpose of having high airflow. Whether it is a watercooled system or not.

I am a hardcore gamer as well. However, the only time I have ever experienced a blue screen due to overheating, is when my 9800 GTX fan failed while gaming. Straight away I rebooted and checked temperatures for the GPU which was around 90 degrees even after it had time to cool down.It must have reached well over 100 degrees before the crash.

I usually recommend spacious Lian Li or Coolermaster aluminium cases with large intake air grills and more than one intake fan at the front intaking chilled air into the case. Aftermarket coolers on the CPU and GPU. I dislike cases with front doors and cases that only allow a single intake fan at the front.

 

What about southbridge then? It sits directly under the longer GPUs, and can also get seriously toasty in some cases...

 

I lol'ed =)

 

I guess it could have been, but the symptoms have been identical across so many boards and the first couple weren't overclocked. Pretty sure the GPUs were to blame.

 

If the problem has spanned across many different motherboards, then I would definitely have another look at things like the type of case designs you have been using, and the general airfow.

 

I found in high-end cards, the VRMs get very hot. The VRM temps on my GTX280 went crazy with the aftermarket Arctic Cooling heatsink.

Gone with water now, no longer any problems with high temps and noise. I've also made sure there's a nice breeze through the case to avoid hotspots.

I have found all the ATI cards I've ever had run too hot and easily overheat. Users turning up their fans is a poor solution. There's also the issue of the power circuitry on stock 4870s not allowing the GPU to hit it's max TDP. With PhysX games (and a small selection of other games) I've noticed the power consumption of my GTX280 has rocketed up - what if ATI release a similiar feature, will the drivers have to downclock the GPU for those games?

My GTX280 automatically turns itself off if any part overheats (VRMs/GPU), and that's been tested more than once by the pump being too low and turning off. I wouldn't like to try that with an ATI card. It's like the P3 vs. Athlon. The P3 turns itself off, but the Athlon just burns out.

Hate to appear like I'm bashing ATI cards, since I think they're pretty good. I especially like how ATI don't boast about the GFLOPS like Sony would. But ATI really need to get a lid on the heat, their heatsink solutions, and emergency procedures should the worst happen.

 

I must've been lucky, the only time I personally have had to replace a card was when Splinter Cell 2 wasn't compatible with my MX 4400

But my current ATi 4870 will happily run at 80*C at load, with no signs of instability.
One time, after I found the manual fan controls, it hit 91*C at medium load and still had no troubles, but I made sure that didn't happen again.
People say the HSF with the card is loud, but it can certainly keep it cool, at 60%, only loud music/gameplay will cover it up but it can keep the card @ 770/1100 below 60*C.

 

One on DVI and one on VGA? Or did I misunderstand you?

 

I mean one monitor on my HD4850 and the X1300 powering the other, is that possible?

 

You sure it's the video card? To swap video cards and the problem persist usually means it's another component. Is everything factory stock when you encounter these problems?

 

Yes, it's been with various rigs over the years. The first ones I ever had admittedly lacked proper airflow but even as I got more into hardware and had better cases it was still an issue, albeit a less frequent one.

 

I have seen many things cause that sort of issue. Sometimes the card overheating, other times the southbridge. One thing many overlook in terms of system stability though is power. A bad psu, underpowered psu are obvious, but how about the actual power coming into your system.

How is the house wiring, or the electrical current. Back when we were still using Via chipsets and Win98, people always claimed crashes were caused by Windows. The day I put in a quality UPS with a line conditioner, things changed. A short time later I went with a higher end board and psu as well. While most were crashing Windows I was running overclocked and as stable as Windows 2000 was for most.

Studies have shown that not only are systems more stable, but the parts last longer when there is clean, consistent power. Contrary to common thinking, power spikes, while bad, are not as common and damaging as people think and that power dips are a large cause of problems with hardware failing. Also keep in mind that if you have an ups, and it is underpowered, it can create issues for it is teh same as a power dip.

 

Interesting. I've never used a UPS before. Maybe I should get one.

 

Yup, it's perfectly possible. Should just be a case of popping both cards in, hooking up monitors and hitting the power button. They're both ATi cards (although since the X1300 is now considered 'legacy'... you'll be stuck running Catalyst 9.3 if you're playing with Vista...)