GPU temps...

[railven]

Not sure if I should post this here or the PC gaming thread, but it seems more appropriate here since it is GPU heat.

GF and I have been playing Tera, this game for whatever reason burns our cards hot.

Her card hits 75c and mine hits 72c (course I crank up the fan a tad more, to about 45%.)

What do you guys consider safe temps for our cards (GTX 680 + HD 7970.) This game definitely has something weird with it.

I dropped all my settings to lowest and my temps still hovered in the ~65c range.

Just don't seem right, especially for an Unreal engine based game.

 

[mple]

Did you OC?
What are your ambient temps?
Case airflow? Fan placement on PCB? (Axial vs Radial)
Brand of cards? Maybe the heatsink needs to be reseated with new TIM.

To be honest, mid 70s isn't totally alarming. My old Fermi cards hit mid 80s on air.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Try monitoring your GPU usage/clocks when your playing the game. And 75C is pretty cool for the reference cooler. Id consider mid 80s with the GTX680s very hot, mid 70s normal and under 70s VERY cool for stock cooling.

 

[railven]

Did you OC?
What are your ambient temps?
Case airflow? Fan placement on PCB? (Axial vs Radial)
Brand of cards? Maybe the heatsink needs to be reseated with new TIM.

To be honest, mid 70s isn't totally alarming. My old Fermi cards hit mid 80s on air.

Her:
+75 offset, not a big OC.
ambient temps, I'd guess in the ~70s Faren, warm day, rained but cool air flow.
Case fans: about 5, rear 2x intake, 1x panel intake, 1x chimney exhaust, and 2xfront intake.
EVGA Ref GTX 680

Me:
1125/1575 OC (max on CCC)
same ambient temps, however mine has a little less air flow than hers.
case fans: 1xpanel intake, 2xfront intake, 1xrear exhaust
Sapph Ref HD 7970

I highly doubt it's our setup, I've played other games that ran my card cooler at similar loads.

 

[railven]

Try monitoring your GPU usage/clocks when your playing the game. And 75C is pretty cool for the reference cooler. Id consider mid 80s with the GTX680s very hot, mid 70s normal and under 70s VERY cool for stock cooling.

That's the thing, while I'm not monitoring her PC as closely as mine, load never gets high.

Here are two screen shots I took, first one is lowest settings, and look at the temps and GPU load:
EDIT: Note, both screen shots have MSAAx8 forced through CCC and Vertical Sync forced through D3D:Overrider [I had such low GPU load I could get away with 4xSSAA and still stay +50 FPS, but then the card would hit 90%+ load and it climbed into the 80Celsius range without increasing the fan profile and turning it into a jet engine.]

Here is a second pic with all settings on high and some time elapse to let the card kick in, temps climbed into the 70s:

Considering the cool room temp, that just doesn't seem right for a game to load only ~30% of the GPU yet warm it the hell up like that.

 

[mple]

I'd say it's a combination of a mild OC + reference cooler + high settings + inefficiently coded game.

What's the fan profile on your GPU set up as? I typically run a 1C-1% profile for my GPU fans.

 

[railven]

I'd say it's a combination of a mild OC + reference cooler + high settings + inefficiently coded game.

What's the fan profile on your GPU set up as? I typically run a 1C-1% profile for my GPU fans.

My HD 7970 has been relatively quiet for the games I've been playing. Even Trine 2 which got hot didn't make my GPU fan become too audible, but this one does.

I use stock fan profiles on both cards. Cranking up my fan to 50% makes it very audible, but it keeps the card nice and cool (<60c in Tera.)

Guess it's time to buy that after market cooler I've been eyeing haha. Her card, I'm a tad more concerned since she doesn't like me monkeying with her rig much. Some how that noise in my other thread went away after I taped the pumped a bit (hasn't come back yet, cross my fingers.)

I must be super paranoid the last few days...seems like I'm looking for something to break just so I can run out and buy new pieces haha.

I loaded up WoW, max settings 8xAA, GPU load about 67%, temp was 65c, 60 FPS. Not as high of a load as in that second pic, but definitely twice as high as the first pic and same heat.

Just weird...

 

[Jaydip]

The reference cooler on Gtx 680 is good but not great.My older Asus DC II cooler on 580 worked much better.Also I miss the smart cooling option on Asus smart doctor.While playing D3 it reaches around 70 degrees compared to 54-56 degrees on 580.

 

[Rambusted]

I don't believe 75c is that hot. I have to take the side off my pc and point a house fan at it to get mine to stay under 72.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I wouldnt even look at the temps until it was 90C+. Until then its just nitpicking.

 

[blackened23]

You sure about that since the GTX 680 begins downclocking at 70C in 12-14mhz increments ?

I've gone through extrodinary efforts to remain below the throttle threshold , its interesting that you don't care, very interesting.

OP: are you using high AA settings or override AA/AF/Etc? That will raise temps a good chunk, although GPU usage % will increase accordingly as well. I can say on my part, I don't get such high temps in tera online with vsync on.

 

[ShintaiDK]

You sure about that since the GTX 680 begins downclocking at 70C in 12-14mhz increments ?

I've gone through extrodinary efforts to remain below the throttle threshold , its interesting that you don't care, very interesting.

My GTX 680 doesnt downclock. Not even at 85C thats the highest I can get it to.

 

[blackened23]

My GTX 680 doesnt downclock. Not even at 85C thats the highest I can get it to.

lol, so you weren't even aware of it...nice. All 670s/ 680s downclock at 70 and 80C in 12-14mhz increments, and 10-15mV increments beginning at 70C. Sorry....this is a fact. You should pay attention with the MSI afterburner onscreen overlay display during games. Go into your msi afterburner settings , enable the OSD to display during games, have it show your gpu clocks. All 680s do this, apparently you weren't paying attention.

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sa=X&...,cf.osb&fp=d1ed2093efbd31cc&biw=1998&bih=1084

 

[ShintaiDK]

lol, so you weren't even aware of it...nice. All 670s/ 680s downclock at 70 and 80C in 12-14mhz increments, and 10-15mV increments beginning at 70C. Sorry....this is a fact. You should pay attention with the MSI afterburner onscreen overlay display during games. Go into your msi afterburner settings , enable the OSD to display during games, have it show your gpu clocks. All 680s do this, apparently you weren't paying attention.

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sa=X&...,cf.osb&fp=d1ed2093efbd31cc&biw=1998&bih=1084

Really? Topped at 80C. 1084Mhz from start to end. No throttle at all:

 

[blackened23]

I'm about 99% sure GPU-z reports your max boost as reported by the driver and thats it. Your card can and will downclock. Use MSI afterburner like I said and use it during a game like crysis 2. - Enable MSI afterburner or precision X in game overlay with the gpu clockspeeds enabled in the OSD and monitored.

Anyway, your card does downclock at 70C. Unless you apparently have the worlds first and only GK104 that doesn't throttle at 70 and 80C. I guess congrats are in order.

 

[Jaydip]

Mine does downclock at around 75 degrees,but it does in 13Mhz increments.Also if I set the max power target and up the voltage a bit it doesn't seem to downclock.

 

[BD231]

Don't bother with aftermarket cooling, just turn on v-sync and your high temp issue is resolved.

 

[OCGuy]

70s are fine.

 

[Rambusted]

Don't bother with aftermarket cooling, just turn on v-sync and your high temp issue is resolved.

I am at work and cannot test this, but is that a known fact? My 6870 runs very warm, so much so that when ambient temps are high in my den I take the side off and point a fan at it. At my low 1360x768 resolution everything I play runs way over 60 fps, I am going to try this later.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Using vsync not only keeps temps and power consumption down when its not needed. But also removes tearing

 

[Rambusted]

I know it stops screen tearing which I do like, I just didn't want the vsync to shift my framerate between 30 and 60 so I leave it off. But at 768p with my core i5 and 6870 I am comfortably over 60 on most everything I play. My card gets into mid to high 80's routinely in tribes ascend and ss3 so its worth a shot.

 

[exar333]

I'm about 99% sure GPU-z reports your max boost as reported by the driver and thats it. Your card can and will downclock. Use MSI afterburner like I said and use it during a game like crysis 2. - Enable MSI afterburner or precision X in game overlay with the gpu clockspeeds enabled in the OSD and monitored.

Anyway, your card does downclock at 70C. Unless you apparently have the worlds first and only GK104 that doesn't throttle at 70 and 80C. I guess congrats are in order.

This.

My GPU actually has a max boost of 1231mhz, but I really only consider it 1215 because that it the max throttling boost I have seen in the 70-80C range (card has not hit 80's per the logs).

Edit: Core/Boost can go much higher if there is 0 tessellation