80 Degrees Celsius for gaming

[GrantMeThePower]

My GTX 680 heats up to 80 degrees during gaming. I played Tomb Raider last night for about 3 hours. Right away the card gets up to about 77 degrees. It goes between 76 and 80 degrees during the hours I played. I did see it hit 81 degrees once very briefly.

I just wanted to make sure that this is ok. The temps are generally low when I'm not playing games.

 

[Eureka]

Pretty sure the maximum temperature for those chips are way higher. The stock fans on Nvidia cards are usually set for noise rather than temperature control. Use your own fan profile in AB if you want it to run cooler.

 

[amenx]

Reference cooler? I've learned to avoid all ref based cards. Only cards with dual/tri fan coolers with heat pipes will do (MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, etc). Especially so with Kepler since it throttles at 70c (-13mhz) and every 5c afterwards.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Not okay. Those cards throttle beyond 70c. Unlike yesterday years cards, modern cards are not meant to run at 80c, ever.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Had a Evga gtx670 FTW and honestly just hated how loud it got to keep at about 70 cel during load,needed like 75% fanspeed to keep at about that and that is most likely cause of that cheap pos heatsink.

Used to always go reference but not anymore,went back to using my TF3 7850 and the fan noise at 45% fanspeed is virtually not there and that's keeping it at 60 cel max load....

 

[GrantMeThePower]

I am not running a reference cooler. This is the Gigabyte card with the WF3 fan.

I'm surprised that you say they throttle at 70 degrees...I monitored the card with MSI Afterburner and saw no throttling at all. Wouldn't it show a decrease in core speed if it was throttling?

Where are you finding that information that it throttles and that anything over 70 is unsafe?

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Not okay. Those cards throttle beyond 70c. Unlike yesterday years cards, modern cards are not meant to run at 80c, ever.

Sure they are, and my BIOS removed the overly protective Kepler throttle so it doesn't throttle at all over 70C. Look at the max temp for Kepler, it is 98C. As long as it doesn't get that hot it is fine. Those cards are meant to get hot, the stock fan profiles on reference cards routinely keep the cards at 80C or above. They would have tuned the cards fan profiles differently if 80C was an issue.

Anandtech review showing a reference GTX 680 at launch getting very close to your imagined "dangerous" temp levels.

 

[Eureka]

I am not running a reference cooler. This is the Gigabyte card with the WF3 fan.

I'm surprised that you say they throttle at 70 degrees...I monitored the card with MSI Afterburner and saw no throttling at all. Wouldn't it show a decrease in core speed if it was throttling?

Where are you finding that information that it throttles and that anything over 70 is unsafe?

It's a slight throttle. Your boost is lowered past 70°C... but it's going to be like a 25-50 MHz drop.

 

[nightspydk]

That is a bit over the edge. I know it's prolly new, but just to make sure, have you cleaned it. The exhaust to be precise. That's about 10 deg.

So that fits quite well.

Have you removed the obstacles on the case for the exhaust.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Yeah, I just installed it from new. Doubt there is any dirt or dust, but i'll give it a cleaning.

My case is an HTPC case so it may not have great ventilation.

Should I set a custom fan profile? Is there any good instructions on how to do that?

 

[GrantMeThePower]

It's a slight throttle. Your boost is lowered past 70°C... but it's going to be like a 25-50 MHz drop.

Yeah, I probably wouldn't have noticed that slight of a throttle.

Worst case scenario, I can't keep it under 70, that isn't too bad of a throttle, right?

 

[nightspydk]

No something is wrong if that thing doesn't level around 70 deg C to be precise.

Clean it first.

 

[Eureka]

Yeah, I just installed it from new. Doubt there is any dirt or dust, but i'll give it a cleaning.

My case is an HTPC case so it may not have great ventilation.

Should I set a custom fan profile? Is there any good instructions on how to do that?

Go to AB, on the right side of the fan slider is a cog icon (the fan settings), IIRC. You should be able to just set the profile in there.

I usually do mine as an on/off thing. Keep it at minimum up to around 50C (for desktop usage) and then ramp up to 100% by 70C (I don't care about noise during gaming).

 

[nightspydk]

If the card exceeds 70 deg C the fan allready kicked in 100 %

I know the card man and like I said before it's been thet a long time.

 

[GlacierFreeze]

Yeah, I just installed it from new. Doubt there is any dirt or dust, but i'll give it a cleaning.

My case is an HTPC case so it may not have great ventilation.

Should I set a custom fan profile? Is there any good instructions on how to do that?

Custom fan profile is kind of a bandaid on a gash. Not the right solution if you don't have enough case ventilation. See if you can duct more fresh air to the card or if you can't do that, take of the side of the case then recheck temps. That will likely answer your question. Similar temps? Then maybe gpu heatsink isn't making good contact.

 

[amenx]

I am not running a reference cooler. This is the Gigabyte card with the WF3 fan.

Verrry unusual for that card to run anything above 70. The GB-WF are probably the coolest cards around. Somethings amiss.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_680_oc_edition_review,10.html

I'm surprised that you say they throttle at 70 degrees...I monitored the card with MSI Afterburner and saw no throttling at all. Wouldn't it show a decrease in core speed if it was throttling?

Where are you finding that information that it throttles and that anything over 70 is unsafe?

Discussed on forums all around.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2262199

Not unsafe, nor is it a major issue imo. 13mhz at 70c and every 5c after is not that big a performance crippler, maybe an inconvenience to benchers trying to squeeze the last 3dmark point out.

Case cooling, ambient temps OK? Could even be a lousy TIM job at the GB plant. I've seen such in some past cards I've had.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Custom fan profile is kind of a bandaid on a gash. Not the right solution if you don't have enough case ventilation. See if you can duct more fresh air to the card or if you can't do that, take of the side of the case then recheck temps. That will likely answer your question. Similar temps? Then maybe gpu heatsink isn't making good contact.

I'll try tonight with the case open. I have a feeling this is the issue. Its an older HTPC case that was not really meant for a gaming computer's heat output. It basically is just two small (60mm) fans on the back with the PS fan, CPU fan and GPU fan. That's it.

 

[Eureka]

I'll try tonight with the case open. I have a feeling this is the issue. Its an older HTPC case that was not really meant for a gaming computer's heat output. It basically is just two small (60mm) fans on the back with the PS fan, CPU fan and GPU fan. That's it.

That's probably it. The WF3 swirls air around, you need a way of moving that air out of the case.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

That's probably it. The WF3 swirls air around, you need a way of moving that air out of the case.

Is it hard to add a "custom" fan? Like, could i just cut a hole in the top of the case and screw a fan in? Or maybe on the side?

I can try running it with the top of the case off and seeing what happens first.

 

[Eureka]

Is it hard to add a "custom" fan? Like, could i just cut a hole in the top of the case and screw a fan in? Or maybe on the side?

I can try running it with the top of the case off and seeing what happens first.

Run it open and with a table fan first. If temps decrease dramatically, then it's definitely your case.

What case do you have? Maybe we can find a solution for you... or just get a better airflow case.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

I have a Silverstone Lascala 10-M (http://www.anandtech.com/show/1542)

It has two 60mm rear fans and one 80mm front fan. I had to remove the front fan because of the noise. The design is piss poor and even with a new "silent" fan, it was too noisy during quiet parts of shows and movies because of the design where it pulls air through the front panel very loudly.

 

[Eureka]

Well, there's your problem. Try it with a table fan on the open case and I bet temps will drop 10°C.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any "TV stand" cases that actually cool well. I'll have to look at the chassis but you could probably mod out the 80mm fans to 120-140mm fans.

You may just have to live with 80°C performance... I believe max temp is around 100°C for these chips anyway.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Maybe I can work something out. I might be able to mod the side or top with a fan. I tried changing the 60mm to something like a 120, but the way it is set up with the bracing for the case, it wasn't really possible.

My other option is to just run it without the top of the case on at all. No one sees anything but the front where i have it set up.

 

[alcoholbob]

lol I used to SLI GTX 285 SSCs. They ran at 100-105C regularly. 80C is fine.

 

[imaheadcase]

80c is fine, SLI GTX 580s run at that constantly when in games.