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 Desktop GPU, how hot is too hot? 
 
 
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Old 26-08-2007, 08:50 PM
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Desktop GPU, how hot is too hot?
I've noticed that when I'm working my desktop machine fairly hard graphically (This is a windows box - 7900GTX whilst I wait for my Mac Pro) that my gpu sits around 65-70c...

Lately since I've started using a 30" with a 24" off the card I've been developing graphical glitches that I can capture in a screenshot.

How hot is too hot? The card isn't especially dusty and the fan seems to be working fine. Case temp is 46c and CPU 48c.

GPU at idle is around 46c.
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Old 26-08-2007, 08:57 PM
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If the GPU overheats it will cause a shutdown. bios usually have a fail safe tolerance level.
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Last edited by meinrosebud; 26-08-2007 at 09:10 PM.
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Old 26-08-2007, 08:59 PM
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GPU? CPU yes but I don't think the GPU.
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Old 26-08-2007, 09:36 PM
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"Too hot" is when you start getting artifacts on the screen and/or crashing. Temps of 65 - 75 deg are normal for what is a high-end, millions of transistors GPU.

Try underclocking the GPU, and/or pointing a desk fan at the card to see if it's not properly cooled

JB
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Last edited by Byrd; 26-08-2007 at 09:38 PM.
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Old 26-08-2007, 09:56 PM
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on my Powermac i have a 6600 256Mb Graphics card and that easily reaches about 60-70 degrees when under load.
But if your getting issues then maybe you need some better cooling for the graphics card.
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Old 26-08-2007, 10:11 PM
Hi Matt!

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Byrd View Post
"Too hot" is when you start getting artifacts on the screen and/or crashing.
Exactly. There's no 'bad' number.

I've had intel boxes crash at 40 degrees and AMD boxes run stable for 5 (and counting) with an idle over 70.

If the box isn't crashing and you're not getting funky artifacts and graphics, don't worry about it. Every sensor is different and there's no hard and fast rule as to how hot is too hot.
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Old 26-08-2007, 10:47 PM
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Well I was getting funky glitches on the screen which was the problem. Hasn't crashed yet but the screen was getting unreadable. Strangely most of the corruption was with 2d stuff. I ran it with the case off and it got a bit better. Turned the machine off for an hour and it was ok when I started it again. So far so good. I've had the card for ages now and I didn't have any problems with heat in summer last year.
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Old 27-08-2007, 08:22 AM
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jerrah: these things get thick with dust, or the thermal paste could have dried up, so it'd be worth taking out the card, giving it a shot of compressed air and cleaning then reapplying thermal paste to the card.

JB
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Old 27-08-2007, 08:46 AM
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Maybe you could install a replacement fan for the card if it has one on there already. One that shifts more air so cools it down more.
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Old 27-08-2007, 08:53 AM
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Get one of the Zalman VGA coolers -- for $35-odd, you get a bigger, quieter and more reliable fan, and a set of RAM heatsink stickums. Best thing you can do for any modern videocard, I reckon.

You can get the RAM stickums separately (from places like PC Case Gear), people don't realise how hammered a videocard's RAM chips are, and the extra cooling does actually help a lot.


B.
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Old 27-08-2007, 09:22 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brains View Post
you get a bigger, quieter and more reliable fan
The stock heatsink is pretty big.

Byrd: I'll give it a go.
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