I've had the following computer for 16 months:
Antec P180 Case
Enermax 550w PSU
Intel E6700 CPU
2 x HIS ATI 1950XTX GPU in Corssfire
Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Music
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
For 13 months or so it worked fine. But now it seems to have gone to hell. The temps started rising and the CPU seemed to slow down. When I installed games, old games, the games would tell me my CPU did not meet the min requirements. Every program would take about 5 to 6 times its normal CPU load.
The tech I had come in told me that the GPUs were too hot and that I could not run both of them. He took one out and everything is fixed.
But how can there have been no problem for 13 months and then a problem?
BTW i didn't do anything to help with heat. I installed no extra fans, no thermal paste, no 3rd party fan speed programs etc... All my coolers are stock. The tech says that two 1950XTXs were too hot to have run without taking extra heat precautions - that I had no margin for error - when the system was first built. So it ran okay for awhile, but over time stuff degrades and now it is just too hot without adding cooling etc...
Does this make any sense? Should I have been adding cooling from the beginning?
I want to put my second card back in. But I don't really want to add fans or thermal paste or do anything complex for heat management. Are 1950XTXs hot cards? Should I just get a single new card then and that should solve heat issues and provide comparable power - say a 8800 GTS G92?
Antec P180 Case
Enermax 550w PSU
Intel E6700 CPU
2 x HIS ATI 1950XTX GPU in Corssfire
Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Music
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
For 13 months or so it worked fine. But now it seems to have gone to hell. The temps started rising and the CPU seemed to slow down. When I installed games, old games, the games would tell me my CPU did not meet the min requirements. Every program would take about 5 to 6 times its normal CPU load.
The tech I had come in told me that the GPUs were too hot and that I could not run both of them. He took one out and everything is fixed.
But how can there have been no problem for 13 months and then a problem?
BTW i didn't do anything to help with heat. I installed no extra fans, no thermal paste, no 3rd party fan speed programs etc... All my coolers are stock. The tech says that two 1950XTXs were too hot to have run without taking extra heat precautions - that I had no margin for error - when the system was first built. So it ran okay for awhile, but over time stuff degrades and now it is just too hot without adding cooling etc...
Does this make any sense? Should I have been adding cooling from the beginning?
I want to put my second card back in. But I don't really want to add fans or thermal paste or do anything complex for heat management. Are 1950XTXs hot cards? Should I just get a single new card then and that should solve heat issues and provide comparable power - say a 8800 GTS G92?