6950's getting toasty on air

[ViviTheMage]

Now that I have my xfx crossfired 6950's on air again, I forgot how hot they get, LOL.

MY bottom GPU is OK

My Top GPU temps are

gpu temp - 94C
GPU temp1 - 94C
GPU temp2 - 108C
GPU temp3 - 99.5C
vreg - 79.8C

I am using the XFX bios to 6970, as well as a light, light OC of 840/1250

Is there a better heatsink I can get for these things? Or just go back to stock bios and stock clock speeds?

The fan doesn't help a whole lot, same temps at 100% fan speed and 60%

 

[ViviTheMage]

seeing as I crossfire, I am thinking I might get this :

ARCTIC COOLING Accelero XTREME Plus VGA Cooler

and these VR001


but I am noticing that the VRM heatsinks are permanent adhesive ... that's bad, what else can I do to avoid using that?

Reading a review here : http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/arctic_cooling_accelero_xtreme_plus/5.htm

 

[Wag]

I have tri-crossfire unlocked 6950s and you're right, it can get bit toasty on a game like Metro with all the features turned on.

That said, my 2600k system is relatively stable o/c'ed to 4.8GHz even when all 3 cards are doing their thing.

This is all done with air cooling- $30 cpu heatsync/fan, stock GPU.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Haven't oc'd my CPU...pretty sure the ddr3 1600 stuff from gskill is crappy to OC with. Everytime I bump 200mhz it locks up.

Think I should get that cooler x 2?

My system locks up after bitcoin mining for a day or 2. My theory is temps.

 

[Wuzup101]

Have you tried to use MSI afterburner to play with the fan speeds? I have a pair of the same video cards that are overclocked higher than yours. With stock fan settings they get HOT. The stock fan settings (while quiet) suck for cooling. I have mine set so that the cards hover in the high 60s to low 70s while at full load (IE: bitcoin mining or furmark type stuff). I will say that they are LOUD (hence why I don't bitcoin mine on a normal basis). For gaming, with headphones or speakers they are fine.

I would suggest playing with the fan profiles before you spend money on aftermarket hsf units. That being said - I do really like that hsf... if they weren't $60 I might buy a pair!

 

[ViviTheMage]

Auto is good, at 40%~ fan speed, it cools the same as if it was 100%, so the fan doesn't do a whole lot, just gets louder.

I have a NH-D14 noctua, as well as 2 top fans, and 1 200mm fan pulling from the front...so I have adequate fans really. These things just blow at keeping themselves cool.

I also reseated them after I pulled my water cooling blocks off, to see if an shin etsu pate would help, nope.

Any recommendations on those after market coolers

 

[Zargon]

still got your water blocks vivi?

i have heard good things about the accerlero, zalman has a solution too, and the thermaltake shaman I think it is too, but I think its too big to use with xfire

I dont know if the accerleros will fit in xfire.

you might want to atleast downgrade to the unlocked shader bios that runs less power through the cards?

 

[Chaosblade02]

If you are going to Xfire that many cards and OC them and now figure out that you need an after market cooler to bring them down then you would have been better off just Xfiring a few of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...pk=6970%20IceQ

Comes with stock overclock and a way better cooler than stock. I got 2 of these on the way. Someone I know IRL has 2 of these Xfire and they don't run any hotter than 70c on load after a few hours gaming. Top card runs maybe 3C hotter, and this is in a Mid tower, if you got a full size tower they would probably run cooler.

if you have to spend an extra $50+ dollars on each GPU you got for after market cooling, then you may as well try to find one just a small bit more and has a better than stock cooling system already built in.

And did I read that right and you Quad Xfire 6950s? You would have been better off getting 4 of those 6970 IceQ turbos. I was originally going to just Xfire 2 stock sapphire 6970s, and figured I may as well just buy the ICEQs that come stock OCd, and have better than stock cooling for only about $20 more each.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

you have 4 cards in a system? how do you have space for that Arctic Cooling cooler? Those require 3 slots (including the slot your card is taking) for cooling. It's pretty insane.

BUT, the cooling potential is amazing. I'm saying this with experience for my 4850 only, but it's been VERY cool since slapping on an Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo. I can run the fans nearly silent (well let's just say my Noctua D14 runs louder), and I get ridiculously good cooling EVEN at load. Compare this to the stock cooler that sounded like a jet engine.

 

[Jovec]

Or just go back to stock bios and stock clock speeds?

I would try this if only to get a reference point. Bench/play your favorite games too at stock because you might find stock X-fire performance suitable too.

 

[Athadeus]

Just remove the stock heatsink, do a better job of applying your own better thermal grease, and remount it as tight as possible.

 

[ViviTheMage]

If you are going to Xfire that many cards and OC them and now figure out that you need an after market cooler to bring them down then you would have been better off just Xfiring a few of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...pk=6970%20IceQ

Comes with stock overclock and a way better cooler than stock. I got 2 of these on the way. Someone I know IRL has 2 of these Xfire and they don't run any hotter than 70c on load after a few hours gaming. Top card runs maybe 3C hotter, and this is in a Mid tower, if you got a full size tower they would probably run cooler.

if you have to spend an extra $50+ dollars on each GPU you got for after market cooling, then you may as well try to find one just a small bit more and has a better than stock cooling system already built in.

And did I read that right and you Quad Xfire 6950s? You would have been better off getting 4 of those 6970 IceQ turbos. I was originally going to just Xfire 2 stock sapphire 6970s, and figured I may as well just buy the ICEQs that come stock OCd, and have better than stock cooling for only about $20 more each.

I run 2 per rig, 2 separate rigs.

Any benchamrks on that block/6970? Maybe I WILL sell my 6950's for those.

Just remove the stock heatsink, do a better job of applying your own better thermal grease, and remount it as tight as possible.

I already remount with shin etsu paste.

I might be more curious about the 6970's that were linked in this thread. I'd rather sell mine, and get those if they prove to be better cooling.

 

[sandorski]

Thermalright Spitfire

 

[Shmee]

are you using an unlocked 6950 bios, or a 6970 bios? the latter will alter voltages and clocks, which have been causing trouble for some users. (seems to be the major cause of unlock problems)

What I did was to:

1. backup bios from one card
2. edit it with RBE to unlock shaders
3. flash it to one card at a time with winflash, restart, verfify, repeat
4. go to CCC to allow +20% power usage in overdrive (both cards!)

overclocking will be done manually with software next, probably afterburner

not sure if that will help the temps that much though, my clocks are stock, and I only have 2 cards. I can see that one card gets about 20 C hotter when idle lol, 60C vs 40.

 

[badb0y]

Thermalright Shaman is probably the best Video Card cooler on the market, the only problem is you can't Crossfire/SLi with it unless you have 4 slots of space between the PCI-E lanes.

Yes you need 4 SLOTS of clearance between the 2 cards to Crossfire/SLi them.

 

[Wag]

Haven't oc'd my CPU...pretty sure the ddr3 1600 stuff from gskill is crappy to OC with. Everytime I bump 200mhz it locks up.

Think I should get that cooler x 2?

My system locks up after bitcoin mining for a day or 2. My theory is temps.

I don't o/c ram either (@ 1066), you don't really need to. I o/c mainly my CPU to 4.8GHz, unlocked my 3 6950s and raised the voltage, that's about it. Plenty fast enough.

 

[peonyu]

Someone else mentioned reseating the heatsink. I know you said you did that, but in my case when I had a heat issue with this card it was because the stock heatsink was not making full contact with half of the GPU. It turned out that the problem was the TIM that AMD put on the memory was so thick, that it was literally pushing up half of the heatsink away from the GPU. I had to take the TIM off and stretch it out to two times its normal length to get it to fit properly...That might not be your issue but if your card has a TIM on the memory its worth checking out, it added 15c to my temps overall before I "fixed" it.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Yeah, the block needs to work in xfire, haha.

 

[netxzero64]

have you tried making the bottom card as the main card?

my previous setup was a GTX 260 SLI, I made the bottom card as the main and the other as the slave... temps very much were improved

 

[ViviTheMage]

How can I switch them easily?

 

[netxzero64]

I just put my DVI cable on the bottom card.. I didn't do much of a technical bla bla..

 

[ViviTheMage]

It didn't just work ... not sure what I need to do first...turn off xfire or something?

 

[netxzero64]

don't you have a setting on which card will be the primary?

 

[ViviTheMage]

At first glance of CCC, no.

Screen resolution also only shows 2 monitors, not the 2, unused DVI connections.

 

[happy medium]

ok, what motherboards do you have? If you have 3 pci-e 16 slots just run them in the first and third slot and turn off xfire.

If you dont have 3 pci-e slots............... your screwed, unless you buy a better heatsink.