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My video card is overheating. HELP!

Apr 8, 2011#1

Dave

Because of where my computer sits now, my video card has begun to get very hot lately. It's an NVidia 9800 GT. WHat can I do to cool it down?

Apr 9, 2011#2

PatrThom

In no particular order:

-Make sure your computer is not located in front of a heat vent and that it has plenty of room to breathe around it
-Make sure the fan on it is still spinning (at its full speed!) when in operation
-Make sure the heat sink is still mounted securely on the card
-Try not to mount another card up against it (if there are more cards in there)
-Check to see if any of your other fans are not spinning OR are blowing the wrong way
-Consider installing a slot cooler or possibly even mounting a small(ish) fan inside the case to help out the GPU fan
-Check your GPU drivers. They may be out of date or they may be set to run the fan really low or the GPU really high
-See if you're running the Folding@Home client (or equivalent) on your GPU.

Odds are pretty good that airflow is restricted or the fan is shot, but the other ones are still possible.

--Patrick

Apr 9, 2011#3

Dave

PatrThom said:
In no particular order:

-Make sure your computer is not located in front of a heat vent and that it has plenty of room to breathe around it - Check
-Make sure the fan on it is still spinning (at its full speed!) when in operation - It's spinning but how can I verify that it's spinning at its full speed?
-Make sure the heat sink is still mounted securely on the card - Hmmm. I'll have to look at this as I'm not sure. I tend to not mess with stuff like that.
-Try not to mount another card up against it (if there are more cards in there) - No other cards in machine.
-Check to see if any of your other fans are not spinning OR are blowing the wrong way - Which way should they be blowing? I set up a fan to blow OUT that was blowing IN.
-Consider installing a slot cooler or possibly even mounting a small(ish) fan inside the case to help out the GPU fan - Tried to get one of these. $15 and I can't get the damned thing to fit.
-Check your GPU drivers. They may be out of date or they may be set to run the fan really low or the GPU really high - Already updated drivers. Have to check and see if I can change the settings.
-See if you're running the Folding@Home client (or equivalent) on your GPU. - No idea what the hell that is.

Odds are pretty good that airflow is restricted or the fan is shot, but the other ones are still possible.

--Patrick

See answers.

Apr 9, 2011#4

PatrThom

Did you look for something like this?

I know it's not common, but it does happen. Little buggers get into everything.

--Patrick

Apr 9, 2011#5

Shakey

How hot is it getting? Video cards usually run at temps much hotter than cpu's.

Apr 9, 2011#6

Dave

Shakey said:
How hot is it getting? Video cards usually run at temps much hotter than cpu's.

I looked at the specs for this specific GPU and what I got was:

80 - 90C is normal running.
115C is overheated.
127C is shut down/melt down/slag.

I was running from 90-100C with little going on. I'm now running 60-70 without too much work, 80-90 when running WoW.

So I think turning around the fan helped immensely.

Apr 9, 2011#7

Shakey

Looks like that did it. If you can get a slot cooler to work, I'd bet that would help a lot also. Air can sit stagnant under a video card pretty easily now.

Apr 10, 2011#8

PatrThom

Dave said:
So I think turning around the fan helped immensely.

Some fans (usually ones near the bottom of the case) are supposed to blow inwards. They bring in fresh (presumably cooler) air near the bottom of the case, draw it over the HDDs and shove it towards the CPU and expansion slots. The CPU/GPU fans then chew it up and heat it, then convection sends it upwards where it is exhausted by the upper fans (with the possible exception of the PSU fan). Most cases are designed to guide air along this path, but if you reverse a fan, you might spoil the air path or stagnate the flow.

tl;dr: More fans are not automatically better. It depends on how they are arranged.

--Patrick

Apr 11, 2011#9

Shakey

PatrThom said:
tl;dr: More fans are not automatically better. It depends on how they are arranged.

--Patrick

Very true. The problem with a lot of cases is that they use the same airflow design today as was used 15 years ago when video cards didn't create much heat at all. They also weren't nearly as long and wide as a case. It seems like a lot of the video cards that aren't designed to take up 2 slots and vent the air directly out the back have a lot of hot air building up below them, unless there is a fan on the side of the case.

Apr 11, 2011#10

PatrThom

You are right on the money, Shakey. So many (non-Apple) cases are designed to mount the motherboard in such a way that the GPU heatsink and fan (when installed) are actually beneath the card itself, putting the hottest parts of the card away from the area of greatest airflow. This means that some cases need more help venting hot air than others. This is also why your case should be one of the most thoroughly-researched parts in any new build, since it is one of the three parts* which will probably be kept the longest.

--Patrick
*Motherboard and PSU being the other two.

Apr 11, 2011#11

Dave

PatrThom said:
You are right on the money, Shakey. So many (non-Apple) cases are designed to mount the motherboard in such a way that the GPU heatsink and fan (when installed) are actually beneath the card itself, putting the hottest parts of the card away from the area of greatest airflow. This means that some cases need more help venting hot air than others. This is also why your case should be one of the most thoroughly-researched parts in any new build, since it is one of the three parts* which will probably be kept the longest.

--Patrick
*Motherboard and PSU being the other two.

In my case the fan is below the card itself. So it's a design flaw. Whee!

Apr 11, 2011#12

Chibibar

Dave said:
In my case the fan is below the card itself. So it's a design flaw. Whee!

It is not a flaw, it is a feature!!

Apr 11, 2011#13

Dave

Chibibar said:
It is not a flaw, it is a feature!!

Some feature. I just replaced the thing last year when I couldn't really afford to do so.

Apr 11, 2011#14

Chibibar

Dave said:
Some feature. I just replaced the thing last year when I couldn't really afford to do so.

Well, you know those tricky company. They want you to replace your card every year! how else are they gonna make money?
On a similar note, I saw a really nifty liquid cooling system case that is pretty rad (it glows!)
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1309&ID=1480

Apr 11, 2011#15

PatrThom

Pretty much all PC graphics cards are built that way. Mac ones are, too...it's just that the motherboard is mounted the other way around in Macs (rotated 180°) to compensate.

--Patrick

Apr 11, 2011#16

Dave

And only $400 to guard my $200 video card! BRILLIANT!

Apr 11, 2011#17

Chibibar

Dave said:
And only $400 to guard my $200 video card! BRILLIANT!

Capitalism at its finest eh?

Apr 11, 2011#18

SpecialKO

PatrThom said:
Pretty much all PC graphics cards are built that way. Mac ones are, too...it's just that the motherboard is mounted the other way around in Macs (rotated 180°) to compensate.

--Patrick

How did that little modification make it into Macs and not PCs? I'm as pro-Mac as any Mac user, but that doesn't seem like a particularly radical thought.

Apr 11, 2011#19

figmentPez

SpecialKO said:
How did that little modification make it into Macs and not PCs?

Legacy hardware support. Macs get to design things however they want, but PC makers have to build things so that they fit in old cases and work with older setups. The BTX form factor would have fixed some of these issues, but it never caught on.

Some PC cases have tried mounting the mobo in different places, but they're few and far between.

Apr 11, 2011#20

Shakey

They really should just come up with a whole new design and say to hell with legacy support. The majority of components are built into the motherboard now anyways. Unless they come up with a way to rein in the size and amount of heat those video cards pump out, it's just going to get worse.
Added at: 15:42
The idea that these cards can operate at 100c boggles my mind. You could boil water on that!

Apr 11, 2011#21

figmentPez

Shakey said:
They really should just come up with a whole new design and say to hell with legacy support.

Unfortunately cheap beats out effective. More makers and users care about price than about optimum heat management.

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