hey everybody, this is my first post on this forum. it's unfortunate it has to be under these circumstances. let me give you some background info on my system, and then we'll get our hands dirty.
i just built my first system in late july/early august. i've been a huge "fan" of computers ever since my now-best friend and college roommate was flabbergasted i didnt know what "copy and paste" was around 1995 or 1996, whenever it was i was starting middle school.
now i'm a junior in college and a computer science major, and i've been using computers heavily ever since. i admittedly don't do much reading about computers online or off outside of my classes, this is the first forum i've joined that isn't related to everything honda, engines, or turbocharging.
apparently when i said "background info on my system" i meant "insight into my life story." but i digress...
the system:
athlon64 3200+ venice (stock heatsink & fan)
msi k8n neo4/sli "diamond"
kingston hyper-x 512x2 ram
leadtek 6800gt pci-e
seagate barracuda 160gb hdd
antec neopower 480watt psu
lian-li pc-61 case
nothing is overclocked, and everything is up to date in terms of drivers, etc.
the problem (eventually):
my gpu runs hot. apparently really hot. i hadnt noticed the problem until recently, but its gotten up to a constant 85 degrees celcius when playing farcry (for only 17 minutes) with everything on the highest settings. i havent gotten any artifacts while playing, but that seemed high so i started looking online and have seen people quote much lower numbers than that with the same card.
other temp stats:
the cpu runs between 36 and 39 Celcius at idle, based on many factors that i'll save a lot of time writing and you'll save a lot of time reading if i just say "because of the status of the environment of my apartment."
at load, it can get up to 45, but i havent seen it get up there in at least a week. temps have been going down outside now that fall is finally setting in. lately the highest i've seen is a constant of 43.
the gpu idles at 57-59, usually settling for 58.
the motherboard sees 34-35 idle, 38 at full load.
this is with all the fans on high (intake fans on bottom front of case, cpu fan at full).
ok, so the hot gpu is a problem, but it hasnt been giving me any problems that i know of other than worrying about it. i ordered some Ceramique after reading about arctic silver 5 and then finding a couple comparisons of the two, etc etc. i also ordered one of those $5 pci slot heat-expelling fans because, well, its 5 bucks. some people say it works wonders, some say it doesnt do a *insert censored word here* thing. either way, i figured i'd give it a shot because it seems like there is a heat pocket inbetween the graphics card and the bottom of the case.
now, a few new developments have been popping up.
1. the gpu hasnt gotten above 83 C that i've seen through the nvidia provided logger. it gets that hot when i play farcry or fable: the lost chapters (cant remember what settings i chose, they werent the highest just to get my bearings straight. only played it one time so far).
2. ok, so no problems when the gpu is at its hottest, BUT i have come into another problem. i play battlefield 2 (not online, our broadband sucks) with the 64-bot mod. i play it with 1280x1024x32 at 60 hertz (dunno if it covers all those options in game, but thats what i use for all games) with everything on high except lighting on medium, 4xAA 8xAF.
when i run those settings, the gpu only gets up to 72-73 Celcius, which led me to believe the gpu was not working its hardest, so i upped the resolution (had it on 1024x768 for a while). still the same temps.
on the bigger maps (the bigger of the single player playable 16-person maps) the game can run into significant problems with framerate, i can only assume it loves the 64-bots.
so here's the problem i'm now experiencing: on a map i usually dont have much of a problem with unless a hell of a lot is going on explosion wise, i've had the game freeze, and the computer restarted immediately thereafter. this only happened once, and it was like the 3rd map i'd played (maybe 20 minutes of game time, total).
another time, on the same map, the game froze and i ended up back in windows several seconds later. this was the first map i had played.
my question is this: does this sound like a gpu related problem? or could it be a ram or cpu related one? i really dont have a clue, this is my first time troubleshooting a problem like this. i havent experienced this or any other problem in any other game i've played on this computer (half-life 2, fable, farcry, ghost recon, lego star wars, doom 3, bf1942, prince of persia warrior within until i realized how *censored word* it was without a controller). the longest i've played a game was probably doom 3 for several hours, which is on the highest settings possible for a 256MB video card i believe.
somewhere i read a review for the Ceramique thermal grease, probably on newegg, from someone with a similar setup and temps as my system. he seemed to have a lot of success with it, with very impressive temp drops. i'm not expecting anything massive, but hopefully it'll help at least a little with the temp problem.
hopefully i didnt forget anything, and hopefully this isnt too much to read. i appreciate any insight or help that anyone can offer. thanks for reading
Matt
i just built my first system in late july/early august. i've been a huge "fan" of computers ever since my now-best friend and college roommate was flabbergasted i didnt know what "copy and paste" was around 1995 or 1996, whenever it was i was starting middle school.
now i'm a junior in college and a computer science major, and i've been using computers heavily ever since. i admittedly don't do much reading about computers online or off outside of my classes, this is the first forum i've joined that isn't related to everything honda, engines, or turbocharging.
apparently when i said "background info on my system" i meant "insight into my life story." but i digress...
the system:
athlon64 3200+ venice (stock heatsink & fan)
msi k8n neo4/sli "diamond"
kingston hyper-x 512x2 ram
leadtek 6800gt pci-e
seagate barracuda 160gb hdd
antec neopower 480watt psu
lian-li pc-61 case
nothing is overclocked, and everything is up to date in terms of drivers, etc.
the problem (eventually):
my gpu runs hot. apparently really hot. i hadnt noticed the problem until recently, but its gotten up to a constant 85 degrees celcius when playing farcry (for only 17 minutes) with everything on the highest settings. i havent gotten any artifacts while playing, but that seemed high so i started looking online and have seen people quote much lower numbers than that with the same card.
other temp stats:
the cpu runs between 36 and 39 Celcius at idle, based on many factors that i'll save a lot of time writing and you'll save a lot of time reading if i just say "because of the status of the environment of my apartment."
at load, it can get up to 45, but i havent seen it get up there in at least a week. temps have been going down outside now that fall is finally setting in. lately the highest i've seen is a constant of 43.
the gpu idles at 57-59, usually settling for 58.
the motherboard sees 34-35 idle, 38 at full load.
this is with all the fans on high (intake fans on bottom front of case, cpu fan at full).
ok, so the hot gpu is a problem, but it hasnt been giving me any problems that i know of other than worrying about it. i ordered some Ceramique after reading about arctic silver 5 and then finding a couple comparisons of the two, etc etc. i also ordered one of those $5 pci slot heat-expelling fans because, well, its 5 bucks. some people say it works wonders, some say it doesnt do a *insert censored word here* thing. either way, i figured i'd give it a shot because it seems like there is a heat pocket inbetween the graphics card and the bottom of the case.
now, a few new developments have been popping up.
1. the gpu hasnt gotten above 83 C that i've seen through the nvidia provided logger. it gets that hot when i play farcry or fable: the lost chapters (cant remember what settings i chose, they werent the highest just to get my bearings straight. only played it one time so far).
2. ok, so no problems when the gpu is at its hottest, BUT i have come into another problem. i play battlefield 2 (not online, our broadband sucks) with the 64-bot mod. i play it with 1280x1024x32 at 60 hertz (dunno if it covers all those options in game, but thats what i use for all games) with everything on high except lighting on medium, 4xAA 8xAF.
when i run those settings, the gpu only gets up to 72-73 Celcius, which led me to believe the gpu was not working its hardest, so i upped the resolution (had it on 1024x768 for a while). still the same temps.
on the bigger maps (the bigger of the single player playable 16-person maps) the game can run into significant problems with framerate, i can only assume it loves the 64-bots.
so here's the problem i'm now experiencing: on a map i usually dont have much of a problem with unless a hell of a lot is going on explosion wise, i've had the game freeze, and the computer restarted immediately thereafter. this only happened once, and it was like the 3rd map i'd played (maybe 20 minutes of game time, total).
another time, on the same map, the game froze and i ended up back in windows several seconds later. this was the first map i had played.
my question is this: does this sound like a gpu related problem? or could it be a ram or cpu related one? i really dont have a clue, this is my first time troubleshooting a problem like this. i havent experienced this or any other problem in any other game i've played on this computer (half-life 2, fable, farcry, ghost recon, lego star wars, doom 3, bf1942, prince of persia warrior within until i realized how *censored word* it was without a controller). the longest i've played a game was probably doom 3 for several hours, which is on the highest settings possible for a 256MB video card i believe.
somewhere i read a review for the Ceramique thermal grease, probably on newegg, from someone with a similar setup and temps as my system. he seemed to have a lot of success with it, with very impressive temp drops. i'm not expecting anything massive, but hopefully it'll help at least a little with the temp problem.
hopefully i didnt forget anything, and hopefully this isnt too much to read. i appreciate any insight or help that anyone can offer. thanks for reading
Matt
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