GTX 480 SLI idle temps

An Exception · 24 Oct 2010 at 21:17

Razor Time said:
Do the temps equalise more with the side of the case off? If so its an airflow problem within the case.

No it isn't an airflow issue, he's switched the cards around and they run at different temps in each configuration.

Razor Time · 24 Oct 2010 at 21:25

Ejizz said:
No it isn't an airflow issue, he's switched the cards around and they run at different temps in each configuration.

Oh well its the cards then. My 480's run are slightly different temps and they are on water. I have reseated a few times and every time the result was the same. I came to the conclusion that one gpu runs hotter than the other one.

GJ02 · 24 Oct 2010 at 21:26

happened to me with my 5870's
i put it down to dust inside the card on the sensors
and your not really going to get every gpu running the same temp are you ?

Phoenixdancer · 24 Oct 2010 at 21:28

high temps is what you get for buying 2x 480GTX's without watercooling them

or for just being silly enough to buy them when AMD is about to make them worth a lot less

GJ02 · 24 Oct 2010 at 21:30

by the look of his sig money is no object and will possibly get some nice ati cardS on release,

An Exception · 24 Oct 2010 at 21:34

^^^
If I remember correctly the guy used to work in law, and gaming is how he likes to spend (Literally

) his retirement...

Flanno · 24 Oct 2010 at 21:46

This shouldn't really turn into a discussion on how people spent their money or if they have an OCD complex. Absolutley nothing to do with it.

I will try the suggestion about removing the side panel. Seems the best one so far. I honestly think it's the airflow in the 600T. You have a single 200mm fan cooling 3 drives and expected to cool both GPU's. And you have a single 200mm exhaust, and a H70 in push/pull exhausting. I bet if I had this rig in a Fortess FT02 or HAF-X the temps would drop big time as the card would be fed air directly. I may go down that route. My initial worry was the cards were not working as expected but they are. That's why I started this thread.

Regarding heat/noise - not a problem. I knew what I was letting myself in for. And noise is not as bad as I though. The heat means no radiator has to be turned on. And as for Phoenix's comment about being silly enough to buy these cards- Well of course I knew ATI were coming out with new cards but I will never go back to ATI as the drivers eventually drove me nuts. Ok up to 10.5 and 10.7 with 10.8 profile gave me better crossfire performance, and benches were beter then the gtx 480 sli combo I have. But gameplay suffered. Lots of issues. Even if Cayman blows away the GTX 480, unless ATI drastically improve their drivers then there is no way I will go back.

Thanks for the advice people

RichardH754 · 24 Oct 2010 at 21:47

Sometimes my idle temps are higher, as sometimes the cards don`t clock into their power saving mode!

Must be after a certain game has been on, not sure

RichardH754 · 24 Oct 2010 at 21:48

Thats why I am reluctant to go back to ATI, but that new AA they have has got me tempted!

An Exception · 24 Oct 2010 at 22:02

Flanno said:
Well of course I knew ATI were coming out with new cards but I will never go back to ATI as the drivers eventually drove me nuts. Ok up to 10.5 and 10.7 with 10.8 profile gave me better crossfire performance, and benches were beter then the gtx 480 sli combo I have. But gameplay suffered. Lots of issues. Even if Cayman blows away the GTX 480, unless ATI drastically improve their drivers then there is no way I will go back.

Just some advice for the future, avoid tri or quad-fire/sli if your worried about driver compatibility.

setter · 24 Oct 2010 at 22:07

Flanno said:
Absolutely. Double checked.

I don't want to void the warranty by removing the cooler. It's possible the thermal paste is not spread properly but if I have nothing to worry about, I don't think I will look into that just yet.

Just to confrim since I swapped the cards around they are at 58 and 51 idle which seems fair enough. I am only using the nvidia drivers to control fan speeds so maybe the temps could be lower. I have seen people boasting on other forums of their clocks idling in high 30's on air and I don't know how this is possible even. I'm assuming they are running aggressive afterburner fan profiles to achieve this.

Yep, thats true. But, evga's warranty service is very picky, theyre a firm i try to avoid after rma'ing a motherboard to them, working board, they use their famous dust excuse to turn down a lot of genuine rmas theese days, their famous warranty isnt worth the paper its printed on.

RavenXXX2 · 24 Oct 2010 at 22:08

RichardH754 said:
Thats why I am reluctant to go back to ATI, but that new AA they have has got me tempted!

So you would go to AMD for MLAA which produces worse IQ than standard AA, your 480 SLI not very good with AA lol.

An Exception · 24 Oct 2010 at 22:11

^^^
Will we not be seeing an AMD banner soon in your sig Raven?

RavenXXX2 · 24 Oct 2010 at 22:17

Unfortunately no, I suspect that the 6970 will not be much faster than my OC 480, so I'm sticking with it, that and I rate the Nvidia CP over CCC and the better power management options, game profiles ect.

AWPC · 24 Oct 2010 at 22:40

Do not worry about the warranty as the stock GTX480 HSF just pulls off no seals to break on my Asus.

First thing I did when I got mine 6 months ago was remove the HFS & clean the GPU paste as there is way to much on there. Then I put on some AS5 & the temps went down 7-9C immediately.

Since then I bought a Gelid Icy VGA cooler and mine now idles @ 43C. Under full load its under 70C @ all times + also silent @ all times. The stock HSF is unsuitable for temps due to it being a very poor design. 3rd part HSF's show you how much when they reduce temps by over 20C you know something is wrong with the stock Nvidia design

If you can find them buy some Gelic Icy or Zalman VF3000 for GTX480. Either will be silent & offer more overclocking headroom (not that you will need it.........).

Razor Time · 24 Oct 2010 at 22:55

RichardH754 said:
Thats why I am reluctant to go back to ATI, but that new AA they have has got me tempted!

Why? You have the ability to run games upto 64xAA and MLAA is worst IQ than normal AA. You should be running most of your games with 32xCSAA with two 480's as the hit is about the same as 8xAA.

An Exception · 24 Oct 2010 at 23:17

^^^
He can't do that in GTA4 though...

Razor Time · 24 Oct 2010 at 23:22

Ejizz said:
^^^
He can't do that in GTA4 though...

No but he can run upto 64xAA in nearly everything else.

Flanno · 25 Oct 2010 at 15:51

AWPC said:
Do not worry about the warranty as the stock GTX480 HSF just pulls off no seals to break on my Asus.

First thing I did when I got mine 6 months ago was remove the HFS & clean the GPU paste as there is way to much on there. Then I put on some AS5 & the temps went down 7-9C immediately.

Since then I bought a Gelid Icy VGA cooler and mine now idles @ 43C. Under full load its under 70C @ all times + also silent @ all times. The stock HSF is unsuitable for temps due to it being a very poor design. 3rd part HSF's show you how much when they reduce temps by over 20C you know something is wrong with the stock Nvidia design

If you can find them buy some Gelic Icy or Zalman VF3000 for GTX480. Either will be silent & offer more overclocking headroom (not that you will need it.........).

Thanks. Good advice.

Flanno · 25 Oct 2010 at 15:52

Ejizz said:
Just some advice for the future, avoid tri or quad-fire/sli if your worried about driver compatibility.

I wasn't worried. It worked fine as proven in some benches I posted a while back. The problem I was having was GSOD even with a 1 ATI card. Drove me mad eventually.