8800 GTS temperature solutions

[Squidmaster]

I purchased an MSI 8800 GTS "OC" this summer. It works, but runs hot, which I read could happen. I tried installing the MSI utility from the MSI site, but when I loaded it up, it started beeping at me constantly and reading a temp of 255 degrees. Since my card's fan is working and I do not have a fire in my computer case, I decided to ditch that program and grab RivaTuner instead.

The problem is that I've never used a fan speed utility of any kind. If I changed fan control from "auto" to fixed", the slide bar is roughly 1/8th of the way from the leftmost 25% marker. Where do I want to set this to be sure I'm increasing the fan speed and not doing something dangerous?

If it helps, the "feel" of this heat problem can be described by the fact that I've had to remove the side panel on the case to avoid World of Warcraft video slowdowns in some cases due to the temperature of the video card. Once I do this I have no problems whatsoever, but obviously I want the fan to do the work and not have my case open all the time.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Denithor]

Well, even 100% fanspeed isn't dangerous so set it to a point that it cools better and isn't too noisy and leave it alone.

BTW is this a G80 or G92 GTS? What temp does Rivatuner report for the card at idle?

 

[Squidmaster]

It's a G92. Rivatuner reports the card at 52-54°C while I'm sitting here on the desktop with only the monitor and my browser running. For what it's worth, here are the other settings:

Core clock \ ROP domain: 675MHz
Core clock \ shader comain: 1728MHz
Memory clock: 972MHz

I could set the fan to 100 I guess, but I'm also worried that taking it out of auto mode will remove the dynamic adjustments, and that seems like a useful thing that I wouldn't want to lose.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

I have mine set @ 60%, and the noise ain't too bad. Load temps are around the mid 50's or so. I'd say do a little experimenting to see what your noise tolerance is. Also, there's a checkbox to force the settings at startup; recommend ticking that.

<Edited for clarity>

 

[Squidmaster]

So you do you set it at 60 statically, and remove the ability for the system to adapt to changes? Can't both happen at the same time?

 

[RockinZ28]

You can set it up manually with Rivatuner to do different speeds depending on the temp. Like if it's 40c, 50%, goes to 50c, 60% etc. That's basically what auto control is doing, but you can set things specifically to your desire.

I don't use that though. I just leave it on auto for the desktop. Then I use the rivatuner launcher to do an overclocking profile and fan speed profile when I launch a specific app. Some games aren't nearly as demanding as others, so some can be fine at 50%, while others like Crysis where I'm pushing the card to the limit I do 90%+, and then as soon as the app closes it goes back to normal clocks and fan speeds.

You should be easily able to tell your fan speed is changing when you set it at 100%, unless other things are just ridiculously loud in your case as well. I find I can't hear it above anything else at about 60%, which I used to just have it set to on startup, 85+ is very audible if you're not using anything with sound and don't have closed headphones on.

 

[Squidmaster]

I experimented with manual fan speed changing while in WoW and it made an immediate difference, but I can't really figure out how to tell the program to do it specifically in different situations. Are there instructions I'm missing?

 

[RockinZ28]

http://www.vaguetech.com/users...g/tutorials/rivatuner/
This should help you out a lot if you read a little. I like using the launcher for games, can just push a button or execute fan speeds and oc's along with the app.