Idle vs Load vs Extreme Load

alcoholbob

Diamond Member
May 24, 2005
6,390
469
126
Computer in the sig.

According to eVGA Precision my GPU1 temp is 52C and GPU2 temp is 46C at idle with the fan speed at 29.

Now I typically will turn up the fan speed to around 50 when gaming.

What I've noticed:
Settings at 1080p Very High/Maximum Settings.
After heavy gaming (Crysis, Warmonger) for about 15mins.

GPU1 temp is about 85C-90C, GPU2 temp is about 75C-80C

Reload and turn on 8xAA
GPU1 temp hits 95-98C, GPU2 temp is about 80-85C.

Reload and turn on 16Q AA, 16x AF
GPU temp hits 100-105C, GPU2 temp is about 80-85C.

This is insane!

Two Questions:
1) Is it just due to more work that has to be done that the temps are shooting up so high?
2) Is there anything strange about the load temps vs idle, or is this just due to to the overclocked cards? (my temps are essentially doubling during gaming with with double the fan speed).

I'm running in a large case (Coolermaster Cosmos) with good airflow and the cards are separated by 2 slots. I would say the ambient temperature is typically around 65F (18C).

Now I certainly could just set Precision tuner to auto-fan speed and on full load it will run around 80C for GPU1 and 70C for GPU2, but it would default to 100% fan speed during gaming and that's just ridiculously irritating. Even if I applied Dynamat Extreme & Dynaliner (the case already has some acoustic foam built-in) I'm pretty sure there's absolutely no way of shutting up most of that fan noise.

Think I should just man up and use headphones, or is there something better I can do? Additionally, anyone think my temps are odd?
 

Denithor

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2004
6,298
23
81
As AA goes up so does the workload on the card & the temps follow.

Top card is running significantly hotter because it's pulling hot air off the card below instead of relatively cooler air from inside the case (which is what the lower card is using).

Anything you can do to space the cards further apart or maybe add a front fan to move fresh air between the cards will help.

Also speed up those fans somewhat, 70% or so should still be tolerable during heavy gaming (your speakers should drown the fans out). Set up the fan profile so the fan speeds up as temp increases rather than just setting it manually each time you want to game.