Totally uneven heat in Crossfire 5870s

[TitusPullo]

I have two Radeon 5870s running in CF.

Top card is a Gigabyte 1GB RAM 5870, bottom is a Sapphire 2GB 5870 Eyefinity edition. My motherboard is the Gigabyte EX-58 UD5, which has the two PCI-e slots very close to one another.

Last night I played Dragon Age 2 in 1920x1200 at MAX settings, and the game caused the PC to power down without warning after 5 minutes of play.

I ran AIDA64 and realized that the top card, the Gigabyte, was reaching peak temperatures of 90C and even as high as 95C.

Meanwhile the bottom card never seemed to go above 50C. At idle, the top card floats around 62-65C, and the bottom card hovers around 42-44C. My drivers are Catalyst 11.2.

The CPU, while overclocked (Core i7 920 @ 3.5GHZ), never exceeds 49-51C.

I have no clue how to solve this problem... it seems like the Crossfire setup is not working, and that the top card is doing all the work. The bottom card has the fan locked at 20% and the top card the fan is at 60%. Even when I crank it up to 90% the temps hit 90C.

Am I looking at a cooling problem or a Crossfire problem? Performance in other games (Civilization 5, Company of Heroes) has increased in CF mode compared to with just the Gigabyte alone.

If it is a cooling problem I don't see how I can add more fans... it's either reduce performance, replace the cards with a faster single card solution or water-cool.

If it's CF, I am not sure how to fix it?

 

[Nintendesert]

Have you tried reversing the cards and seeing if its an issue of placement and airflow caused by hot air being pumped onto the top card from the other card or other components?

 

[TitusPullo]

Have you tried reversing the cards and seeing if its an issue of placement and airflow caused by hot air being pumped onto the top card from the other card or other components?

The bottom card is an Eyefinity card, and thus has no DVI ports and cannot be the primary graphics source.

The bottom card has fans that point down at the bottom of the case. The way it worsens the heating of the top card is that it's PCB is positioned so close to the fans and plastic heatsink/fan grill covering the the top card.

 

[sgrinavi]

The bottom card is an Eyefinity card, and thus has no DVI ports and cannot be the primary graphics source.

The bottom card has fans that point down at the bottom of the case. The way it worsens the heating of the top card is that it's PCB is positioned so close to the fans and plastic heatsink/fan grill covering the the top card.

Can you physically reverse the cards? put the bottom card in the top slot and the top card in the bottom slot?

FWIW I had the same problem with my 4870's back in the day... I ended up with an aftermarket cooking solution, but whichever card was in the top slot always ran hotter 15-20 degrees hotter

 

[TitusPullo]

Can you physically reverse the cards? put the bottom card in the top slot and the top card in the bottom slot?

FWIW I had the same problem with my 4870's back in the day... I ended up with an aftermarket cooking solution, but whichever card was in the top slot always ran hotter 15-20 degrees hotter

No, if I put the Eyefinity card in the top slot, I get a no video signal message. I was told it's because the top slot is where the PC is looking for signal.

If I make the Eyefinity card my main card, I guess I would have to use a Displayport to HDMI adapter, and pick which mini Displayport at random to plug into?

 

[Seero]

focus testing on the problematic card without Xfire.

 

[TitusPullo]

focus testing on the problematic card without Xfire.

It runs normally without Crossfire, and without the 2nd card below it.

Temps do not exceed upper 70s, low 80s max. No crashing either.

 

[TitusPullo]

My question is, could this be a Crossfire configuration problem, where the top card is working too hard, and the bottom card is too cool and not doing enough? If it did more might it balance out the temperatures?

OR is this PURELY an issue of cooling?

 

[SlowSpyder]

My top card is much warmer too. The top card may have to use more resources since it is actually displaying the video?

 

[nwo]

focus testing on the problematic card without Xfire.

Actually, I would recommend doing the exact opposite. Try running only with the card that runs cooler to see what temps you will get. Or, try switching the two cards around in CF to see if maybe their HSF are the cause.

Edit: Also check to see if you are putting equal load on both of the cards. For example, in Crossfire, you could be putting 100% load on your primary card and only 30-50% on your secondary card which would be a very good explanation why the temps are so much lower on your second card.

 

[TitusPullo]

Edit: Also check to see if you are putting equal load on both of the cards. For example, in Crossfire, you could be putting 100% load on your primary card and only 30-50% on your secondary card which would be a very good explanation why the temps are so much lower on your second card.

I have Catalyst 11.2, but the Crossfire control does not appear to offer a way to alter the load on each card.

Aim I missing something here?

 

[nwo]

I have Catalyst 11.2, but the Crossfire control does not appear to offer a way to alter the load on each card.

Aim I missing something here?

Never used crossfire or SLI myself, but I have seen a bunch of screenshots posted where GPU usage per card is clearly shown for multiple cards.

 

[veri745]

90-95C is not overly hot for a video card; most cards have a max temp in the 110-115C range. Is the card overclocked?

It also doesn't seem unusual to me for the primary card to be hotter, since it's doing most of the work.

 

[TitusPullo]

90-95C is not overly hot for a video card; most cards have a max temp in the 110-115C range. Is the card overclocked?

It also doesn't seem unusual to me for the primary card to be hotter, since it's doing most of the work.

Edit: Oh and the card is not OC'd.

The problem is not the pure numbers involved, it's that the PC shuts down during the middle of playing Dragon Age 2.

I can duplicate this problem, and have done so twice, and notice the max temps pushing 99-100C.

What is more, when I restart the PC, and enter BIOS, several times the display dies out and the monitor reports "NO DVI SIGNAL." I assume this is because the card is running so hot.

I never saw a whisper of a problem before I started running Dragon Age 2, but the games I was playing before were not as graphics heavy (Starcraft 2, Dragon Age Origins, Civilization 5).

 

[bryanW1995]

civ 5's graphics come and go, so that game is definitely a poor heat-death stress tester. how did the setup run DAO? Is DA2 really that much more demanding on the gpus?

 

[Arkadrel]

Edit: Oh and the card is not OC'd.

The problem is not the pure numbers involved, it's that the PC shuts down during the middle of playing Dragon Age 2.

I can duplicate this problem, and have done so twice, and notice the max temps pushing 99-100C.

What is more, when I restart the PC, and enter BIOS, several times the display dies out and the monitor reports "NO DVI SIGNAL." I assume this is because the card is running so hot.

I never saw a whisper of a problem before I started running Dragon Age 2, but the games I was playing before were not as graphics heavy (Starcraft 2, Dragon Age Origins, Civilization 5).

you need newest drivers... i believe it was fixed with them. the crashing for ati cards *was* a common issue with dragon age 2... i think its 11.4 that fixes the issue.




http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2150106

AMD Catalyst™ 11.4 early preview – “Mjölnir I”

AMD Catalyst™ Driver 11.4 early Preview Features:
· Delivers performance enhancements for the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 Series & Windows 7.
· Includes enhancements to the AMD Catalyst Control Center™
o New task based Display Management controls
§ Simplifies the configuration of displays and display settings
o New Eyefinity setup group
§ Setting up an Eyefinity group has never been easier
o New branding (based on system configuration)
§ AMD based platform – AMD VISION Engine Control Center
§ Discrete AMD GPU with Intel CPU – AMD Catalyst Control Center™
o AMD Catalyst update notification (found within the Information Center)
§ Please note this functionality is not yet enabled, but will be in a future AMD Catalyst release
§ This feature will be used to notify users that new AMD Catalyst software packages are available

· Fixed cases where Dragon Age 2 would hang in DirectX11 on ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series products.

 

[TitusPullo]

UPDATE.

OK, so I downloaded the 11.4 preview drivers, installed them.

This SEEMED to stop the problem, I played like 30 minutes into the game. For at least an additional 20-30 minutes, I left the game idle at the character creation screen.

No problems. Then about 35 minutes in, I experienced the same problem.

It begins with sound cutting out, then my USB keyboard and mouse both go dead (the LEDs on them die). In the previous crashes, the PC shut itself down literally seconds after this partial power failure.

This time, the game continued to play out, stuttering slightly, but I could no longer access anything as my inputs were all unpowered.

Pressing the power-off button resulted in Windows 7 initiating a shutdown, and revealed the system tray icons and messages. The tray showed my Internet (wired) disconnected and no USB power to my battery backup unit, which failed to initiate.

So, it now appears I have a power shortage. My PSU is the acclaimed Corsair TX850W, with 850 watts of juice. It has never skipped a beat before, but I am guessing this is too much??

On reboot, my AIDA64 sidebar gadget showed GPU temps frozen at the point of the crash, which were about 105C for the top 5870, and 86C for the bottom 5870.

I thought 850W was sufficient for a 5870 CF setup. I also run two Caviar 1TB HDDs and two Blu-ray drives, and again my core i7 920 is OC'd on air to 3.5GHZ.

Should I get a new PSU??

 

[Seero]

850Watt is enough for crossfire unless your OC everything or it is broken(defective). Try to max out the fan and see if it still crashes, maybe the thermal paste isn't done right. I don't own 5870 but 86c is hot, 105 is too hot. Check with the manufacturer for RMA details and return it if necessary. Under normal circumstances, your video card should not get to 105c even under extreme stresses. In fact, at 105c, the video card should throttle, but at that temp, even electricity flow may be impacted, and therefore your system becomes unstable.

Depending on your hardware knowledge, maybe you can redo the thermal paste before RMA. Driver may be causing the video card to experience extra load, but even so it should not over heat like that.

 

[Morg.]

105c is bad.
redoing paste before RMA is bad (they could see it)

The only reason you have issues is airflow.

Fix your airflow, test again ?

Like, attach a 80mm or something on the two boards, check what it does.

For temp throttling, there could be a setting somewhere.

I've seen an XFX 5770 @ 103°C it didn't hurt it much but it was throttling. (furmark) So your 105 may not be "that" bad, but could as Seero said have more impact than expected.

As a summary, fix your airflow. (just take any fans you can find, and make them blow on the card, preferably around the gpu area, from the side. It will not "fix" your temps, but it can take off a few degrees normally.

Also you could look into non-reference fans.

And, please OC your CPU a bit more, it's a pity to hear of an i7@3.5ghz

 

[4ghz]

80c for a single 5870 sounds hot. I run a single Sapphire 5870 2gb at 1010 core 1.25 volts to power 3 monitors in eyefinity and it maxes out playing Dragon Age 2 at 66c 46% fan speed. I don't understand why your bottom 2gb card can't be used as the top card. It was suppose to come with minidisplay port to dvi adapters wasnt it? Mine came with 2. Or does it just not show anything when used as the top card with the dvi adapters?

 

[james1701]

Odd question, but do you have the updated crossfire profiles installed? My top card hits 81C, while my bottom card hits 78C while playing a games.

 

[snarl]

When I was running a similar cross fire configuration I dramatically improved the Heat Issue for the Top card with a little "Ghetto" Mod. I sliced up some 1/8" to 3/16" Thick Sections of Vacuum Hose (Approx 1/2" Dia., Hose) and made a "Wedge" I then proceeded to Gently insert the wedge between the two cards forcing (Very, very carefully) a Gap between the two cards. This takes some careful experimentation as you do not want to damage the cards or the motherboard by prying to hard so proceed at your own risk. I now had a nice 3/16" Gap between the cards, the rubber hose would prevent them from closing up as the Fans spins up and will not transmit vibration as much as a solid wedge. I then placed a 120mm Fan at the end of the Cards feeding Fresh Air as well as the Side fan on my case. Overall this dropped Temps very well, I cannot recall exact numbers (I have a different motherboard now with space between the cards) but I think Temps on the Top card dropped 10C or better.

 

[TitusPullo]

850Watt is enough for crossfire unless your OC everything or it is broken(defective). Try to max out the fan and see if it still crashes, maybe the thermal paste isn't done right. I don't own 5870 but 86c is hot, 105 is too hot. Check with the manufacturer for RMA details and return it if necessary. Under normal circumstances, your video card should not get to 105c even under extreme stresses. In fact, at 105c, the video card should throttle, but at that temp, even electricity flow may be impacted, and therefore your system becomes unstable.

Depending on your hardware knowledge, maybe you can redo the thermal paste before RMA. Driver may be causing the video card to experience extra load, but even so it should not over heat like that.

So I did a test -- removed the Eyefinity Radeon 5870 and ran Dragon Age 2 with the single Gigabyte 5870.

GPU temps maxed out at 52C.

WOW. Big difference. Of course I had to reduce graphics settings to "High" and disable anisotropic filtering and the other high-end occlusion effects to get a fast frame rate.

But clearly it was the heat generated by both cards so close to one another.

My hardware knowledge is not fantastic, but I did build the PC myself. The problem is that this particular Gigabyte card is a NON-REFERENCE design that has a partially enclosed cowling with inclined fans, see pix (http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1811&pageID=8676).

This makes the bottom of the card reach somewhat lower than a standard reference 5870, such as the Sapphire Eyefinity.

So it very nearly brushes up against the PCB of the Sapphire card.

 

[Arkadrel]

that fan design on the gigabyte card needs space under it to draw ANY air, putting a card right below it might heavly effect how it draws in air (more so than cards that have the other type of fan)

how many PCIe slots do you have? is it possible to spread them more apart than they are now and still use the crossfire bridge?

otherwise you *could* try a ghetto fix with placeing some 80mm fans behinde the cards blowing air in the cards or something.

 

[Seero]

So I did a test -- removed the Eyefinity Radeon 5870 and ran Dragon Age 2 with the single Gigabyte 5870.

GPU temps maxed out at 52C.

WOW. Big difference. Of course I had to reduce graphics settings to "High" and disable anisotropic filtering and the other high-end occlusion effects to get a fast frame rate.

But clearly it was the heat generated by both cards so close to one another.

My hardware knowledge is not fantastic, but I did build the PC myself. The problem is that this particular Gigabyte card is a NON-REFERENCE design that has a partially enclosed cowling with inclined fans, see pix (http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1811&pageID=8676).

This makes the bottom of the card reach somewhat lower than a standard reference 5870, such as the Sapphire Eyefinity.

So it very nearly brushes up against the PCB of the Sapphire card.

I agree with what others said, if single card don't break 60c, then the card is fine, but air flow is not. I guess what happen is the 3rd bank can't be used so you put the 2 cards back to back. That means, the intake of the 1st card is taking hot air off the back of the second card.

Now the best solution now is the move the 2nd card to the 3rd bank if possible. Otherwise, make sure the side fan, if there is a fan, blow airs in, not suck air out. Otherwise get something like this and blow air right on top of the cards where those fans are. I heard that Afterburner has a feature of dynamically adjust fan speed based on temps, dig into that, otherwise, max the fan just to see if more fan flow solves the problem.