Does replacing the stock TIM on a reference 680 make a difference in temps? (edit:No)

[Ferzerp]

I have some AS5 and some NT-H1 lying around. The fan noise on my upper 680 gets on my nerves quite a bit. Does replacing the paste make any difference at all on these things?

edit: Tried it. The difference is little to nothing. 1 or 2C at most, but that could just be noise and ambient differences.

 

[5.0inaYota]

It won't help the fan noise, but it may lower your temps. What are your temps anyway?

 

[The_Golden_Man]

I highly doubt it. I've even seen people getting worse temps after changing TIM on GPU's.

Upper card will always run about 10c hotter than the bottom one.

These cards have a radial fan drawing the air out the back? If so, you could try to make custom fan profiles using MSI afterburner or PrecisionX. Try to up the fanspeed on the bottom one a bit. This way there will be less hot air raising to the upper one. Experiment with this a bit..

 

[Ferzerp]

It won't help the fan noise, but it may lower your temps. What are your temps anyway?

Lower temps means that it requires less fan speed which directly translates in to less noise.

 

[Ferzerp]

I highly doubt it. I've even seen people getting worse temps after changing TIM on GPU's.

Upper card will always run about 10c hotter than the bottom one.

These cards have a radial fan drawing the air out the back? If so, you could try to make custom fan profiles using MSI afterburner or PrecisionX. Try to up the fanspeed on the bottom one a bit. This way there will be less hot air raising to the upper one. Experiment with this a bit..

I have a gap in between them, but I have a non-reference one on the bottom. It sits around 10-15C less than the upper one at full load (ASUS Direct CU). I'd love to swap them, but the DirectCU is a 3 slot card, and it doesn't work at all without a gap.

Usually, it can stablilize the temps around 75C on the top card, but the fan is ramped up pretty high. I'm not going to change the fan profile and let it go even higher though.


edit: just saw I had 25-30C, that's nuts. I meant 10-15C.

 

[5.0inaYota]

Lower temps means that it requires less fan speed which directly translates in to less noise.

I get that but I don't think you are going to lower your temps enough to make a difference in how loud the fans are. (at least not by re-applying TIM)

 

[The_Golden_Man]

I have a gap in between them, but I have a non-reference one on the bottom. It sits around 25-30C less than the upper one at full load (ASUS Direct CU). I'd love to swap them, but the DirectCU is a 3 slot card, and it doesn't work at all without a gap.

Usually, it can stablilize the temps around 75C on the top card, but the fan is ramped up pretty high. I'm not going to change the fan profile and let it go even higher though.

Ahh... That was a really bad setup for cooling All the hot air from the DC II is dumped directly in the case, raising to the upper card, which draws all that hot air into it's radial fan.

If that ASUS card was a 2 slot card like the ASUS GTX 670 DC II (I have two in sli) you could just switch the cards and it would solve your problem.

As it is now, you should consider selling that ASUS card and getting one more reference GTX 680 card. Or else I'm afraid you just have to live with that noise

 

[The_Golden_Man]

Another thing, do you have a side case fan blowing on the cards? If not, I can tell you right now it will make wonders for you. Getting fresh air in-between the cards is a very good thing. Especially for your setup.

A 120mm fan running at 800 - 1000rpm and blowing straight at the cards will do wonders.

 

[Ferzerp]

The difference in 60 and 70% fan speed on these things is a huge amount of noise. Right now, it crosses that noise threshold right before the temp stabilizes, so even a reduction of 3 or 4C at the same fan speed and load would greatly reduce the noise level.

They're nearly inaudible until 63% or so, and then ramp up in volume very, very quickly.

 

[Ferzerp]

Ahh... That was a really bad setup for cooling All the hot air from the DC II is dumped directly in the case, raising to the upper card, which draws all that hot air into it's radial fan.

If that ASUS card was a 2 slot card like the ASUS GTX 670 DC II (I have two in sli) you could just switch the cards and it would solve your problem.

As it is now, you should consider selling that ASUS card and getting one more reference GTX 680 card. Or else I'm afraid you just have to live with that noise

When I had two reference cards it was even worse actually. It also happens on non-SLI games when the lower card is completely idle.

 

[The_Golden_Man]

When I had two reference cards it was even worse actually. It also happens on non-SLI games when the lower card is completely idle.

Does it happen also when your running only that reference card installed? If, so there could be something wrong with the TIM. Do you have a normal gap between the cards (Two slots)?

 

[blackened23]

Don't expect miracles. Most people doing it improve temps by 2-4C if there is any change at all, certainly nothing amazing.

 

[5.0inaYota]

Well give it a try then, but I agree with The Golden Man, a fan blowing on the cards would probably help more. I have a 670 so I am not as familiar with the 680, but my 670 isn't really that loud (to me anyway) even with my fan maxed at 80% under load. My 560SC 2GB card was louder.

 

[Ferzerp]

It's in a corsair 600t case with a mesh side with the two slots at the video card level populated with fans already.

 

[5.0inaYota]

Well if you already have fans blowing on the cards, reapply TIM and see what happens I guess. With that ASUS card blowing heat up into your other 680 I don't think it will help too much but it's worth a shot IMO.

 

[The_Golden_Man]

Funny it's just as hot when the bottom card is in idle mode. If the configuration has a normal two slot spacing between SLI slots, upper card should be nice and cool when not in SLI.

 

[5.0inaYota]

Good point didn't catch that one. I would reapply the TIM for sure if it were mine in that case.

 

[hokies83]

Well if your replacing the tim might aswell spend another 20 mins doing this..
No more heat in your case 15c min temp drop..

You can no longer hear anything from the gpu.

 

[Ferzerp]

Tried it. It made little to no difference. Maybe 1 or 2C at the most.

 

[slackingoff7]

Well if your replacing the tim might aswell spend another 20 mins doing this..
No more heat in your case 15c min temp drop..

You can no longer hear anything from the gpu.

Something looks familiar there :-D.

Anyways, reapplying TIM using doesn't help too much. Different TIM makes a little difference of 4 C and how you apply it makes a significant impact. Many manufacturers have gotten their act together and apply it decently.

 

[5.0inaYota]

Tried it. It made little to no difference. Maybe 1 or 2C at the most.

Talking about reapplying the TIM? I was afraid it wouldn't help to much, but it was worth a try. If there is enough room to do so I would swap that ASUS card to the top (even though there won't be any air space between the cards if it will fit) just to see what happens to your temp on the other 680 when it is on the bottom.

 

[Ferzerp]

The 3 slot Asus DirectCU cards will hit 98C if there is no gap. Can't do it that way. I'd much prefer that it were the top card because it's faster.

 

[5.0inaYota]

So you have tried it? Or you could just take out the ASUS card and see what the temps are on the reference card alone. What brand is that reference model anyway? Whats your ambient room temp?

 

[thescreensavers]

Well if your replacing the tim might aswell spend another 20 mins doing this..
No more heat in your case 15c min temp drop..

You can no longer hear anything from the gpu.

how about the memory? Usually they are cooled somewhat

 

[hokies83]

how about the memory? Usually they are cooled somewhat

That 92mm fan does nothing but cool the memory / Vrms there temps have dropped way down.

The stock heatsinks memory / Vram cooling is pathetic ..