New Video Card

I haven't been happy with my current video card. It idles at around 60C which is way too high for my liking. It's a EVGA GeForce 7950GT. Under stress, I would often find that it would reach up to 90C. I've even seen it spike a few times over 100C. The worst was around 110C. Unreal.

It gets a lot of good reviews (which is why I bought it). However, in hindsight, I wish I had been more thorough. At first I thought the heat sink needed to be remounted, but after reading more reviews on the card, it appears many have a problem with it idling at around 50-70C.

So I'm going to get rid of this junker, and I've just bought a new EVGA 8800GT (I can't spring for the 9800).

What does everyone think? Right move? Will it solve my cooling problems?

Other info:

My CPUs idle at 33C and 38C. The fans were all cranked up to max.

Here's an example of others:

7950GT Review

Somehow I suffered through an extended session of Quake 4, after which I popped out to the desktop and found GPU temps of 89°C for GPU 1 and 85°C for GPU 2—much better than on the open-air test bench. I also did some additional testing by running a graphics demo in a window on the desktop as I worked one morning. The demo didn't take advantage of SLI, so only one GPU was active, but its temperature climbed slowly to as high as 102°C before reaching an apparent equilibrium and staying within the 100-102°C range.

[edit on 14-6-2008 by Sublime620]

[edit on 14-6-2008 by Sublime620]

Those were know as hot running cards.

That said, your 8800gt has so much more graphics abilities, you will soon fall in love.

You may find:
Games run better-haver higher frame rates
You will discover you can turn up resolution as well as eye candy,

Awesome. That's what I was hoping to hear. I couldn't figure out why it was running so hot. At first I thought it was because we didn't have A/C. Then we moved and got A/C and it was still idling at 60C. I hate to exit out and see it running at over 100C.

Hoping the 8800 will treat me much better.

C0bzz here. Can't be bothered to log in and I lost my password that's stored in cookies.

Yes, 8800GT should be cooler. Hottest mines got is 85 degrees C with the fan at about 37%.

Okay:

New GPU appears to idle at 56C. A little high. Does wayyy better under load, but still idles too high for my taste. I should have plenty of good airflow (I have the Tsunami Dream case if you want to double check).

Anyway, do you think I should get some PCI fans? I saw one that suggested having a fan on either side (one blowing directly on the front of the GPU, and the other pulling the hot air towards the power supply and out the back).

What do you think?

[edit on 20-6-2008 by Sublime620]

It never is easy, is it.

It seems the answer is, it depends-doesn't it always.:shk:

it seems that the fan can be controlled-the speed-I presume from the driver.

Stock, it runs the fan@29% and idle temps seem to be 50-60 Degree's C (really)

Try upping the fan speed to say, 50% and seeing

Try upping it to 75-90% while gaming.

There are aftermarket coolers for your vid card.

That said, don't do that, it is VERY easy to make a $300 doorstop

Btw, you can also open the case and point a box fan at the vid card while gaming-yes, seriously.

I have 7900GT and I need to do that when I play Crysis, or it goes into thermal stress.

Hope this help and now, the ATS Dancer's:









[edit on 6/20/2008 by mrmonsoon]

[edit on 6/20/2008 by mrmonsoon]

reply to post by mrmonsoon


Down to 45C with that advice. I can't believe I didn't think about changing the stock fan speed. :shk:

*Edit:

I did have it maxed out on the 7950GT though.

[edit on 21-6-2008 by Sublime620]

The ATS dancers and i are happy to have helped.

Just let us know if we can help in the future.

I wouldn't bother with upping the fan. The cards are designed for it. I've had my X850XTPE upto and over 115 Degrees Celcius, heavy gaming for two years. No artifacts, no problems (that were heat related). It's now in another computer and cooking itself away in there.

8800GT would sound like a hair dryer with the fans increased. Aslong as it's under 90 degrees I'd be happy. If the fan stays at 30% and gets above 90 you may have a problem with a crappy BIOS for early 8800GTs where the fan is STUCK at 30%.

[edit on 23/6/2008 by C0bzz]

Originally posted by C0bzz
I wouldn't bother with upping the fan. The cards are designed for it. I've had my X850XTPE upto and over 115 Degrees Celcius, heavy gaming for two years. No artifacts, no problems (that were heat related). It's now in another computer and cooking itself away in there.

8800GT would sound like a hair dryer with the fans increased. Aslong as it's under 90 degrees I'd be happy. If the fan stays at 30% and gets above 90 you may have a problem with a crappy BIOS for early 8800GTs where the fan is STUCK at 30%.

[edit on 23/6/2008 by C0bzz]

Does increasing the fan increase the noise, yes it does.

Do new cards -stock- idle at about 50C and run up to 100-115C before they hit thermal limiting, yes.

Now, that said, you are ALWAYS better having tempos as low as possible for any given componet/situation.

It will allow more overclocking-if u do so.

It will alllow the card to run happier and live longer.

Think of it like this, if you run a car at max engine temp all the time how long will it last???

Now, what if you put in heavy duty oil/water/air cooling, while running all out. Yep, it will last longer and may even make more power.

reply to post by mrmonsoon


/Agrees

My old card got pretty hot, and it actually overheated a few times and crashed out. I would often get framing and low FPS.

If I could have it running at 20C I would do it. I'm not cranking up the fan during idle. I have it set for 50% - just like monsoon advised. I don't even really need to crank the fan up while it's under stress (it doesn't even reach 80C).

I'm very happy with the upgrade. The 7950gt was good to me, but it just ran way to hot.

Well all I know is there is only two things that are extremely sexy and hot!

Hot busty brunette with blue eyes and the fastest graphics card to date!

reply to post by mrmonsoon


It will rarely let the card live longer. They are designed to run at these temperatures and there's no indication running a card hot but WITHIN themal specifications will shorten life span.

Creating extra noise to get it a few degrees cooler will not influence performance, nor life. If you're getting crashing and slow performance, then you're obviously OUT of thermal design and then you're OVER heating, and the GPU is scaling itself back in order not to kill itself - THEN I would suggest changing fan speeds.

But if it's fine how it is, no crashing, quick, completely stable, and within thermal design, then there is no reason to increase fan speeds, unless you're overclocking. If you like it at 50%, so be it. I just don't see the need to.

[edit on 24/6/2008 by C0bzz]

cob, you may do as you please with your equipment.

That said, you are painfully dead wrong.

The cooler computer componets run, the better.

I stand by, as long as noise is acceptable, more fan speed/fans to keep things cool is ALWAYS a good thing.

Please google some good hardware sites and you will see they are always looking for better cooling for cpu's/gpu's and such.

[edit on 6/24/2008 by mrmonsoon]

reply to post by mrmonsoon


I don't know why he's arguing about it. It's a widely known fact that heat is hardware's enemy...

[edit on 24-6-2008 by Sublime620]

All the Geforce 7 series are pieces of crap. I RMA'd mine 7900 twice before I gave up and bought a 8600. Average temp was around the same as the OP. Within a YEAR my first card had failed and within a few months of getting the second card that one TOO also started to fail..... I'm so glad they fixed that issue.

Let me make it more clear.

If your temperatures are NORMAL, your clocks are NORMAL, then why use ABNORMAL fan speeds? Go look up Intel documents or speak with a electronic engineer. People buy new fans because they're overclocking - new fans allow the computer to keep cool at higher clocks while also covering the memory (something that stock coolers rarely do). Likewise, people who want a ultra quiet PC may also change out the fans.

And yes, I will run my hardware at stock fan speeds because there is no reason not to. I do not have a #ty case, I do not have dust everywhere, my card is NOT defective, and I am NOT overclocking. If you up speeds in this situation, then it's paranoia. I stand by that if everything is normal, then adding fans and upping fans is simply a waste of time.

[edit on 25/6/2008 by C0bzz]

Personally, I'll stick with the Radeon video cards. I've used both Radeon and GeForce cards through the years, and the GeForce always run hotter. I haven't had any problems with the Radeons, and the new HD Pro series is really sweet.

reply to post by C0bzz


Heat Kills Hardware

The rule of thumb to remember is that the more computing power your PC has, the more heat it will generate.

What you need to know is that hot components can fail and ultimately wear out much faster than components cooled to reasonable temperatures. To keep your system running well, you have to watch the temperature.

The cooler your hardware runs, the longer it will last. That 7950GT of mine would run at 70C idle and up to 110C when under stress. That would significantly shorten the life of that card.

So I run this new card at 50% fan speed. It's quiet and it keeps the card at a respectable level.

Agree?