KFA2 EX OC GTX 670 - Very high temps?

[Inaharry]

Hi,

I bought the SLI bundle from OcUK that has 2 x KFA2 EX OC GTX 670 cards and I installed everything yesterday. Since then, I tried Heaven 3.0 and 3DMark 11 and a couple of older games which were ok.

When I played Just Cause 2 in 3D, it ran for about 5 minutes before giving me a BSOD. Today I installed Max Payne 3 which came with the SLI bundle and using 3D caused it to crash once at the main menu before I'd started a game and again after about 4-5 minutes of gameplay.

After turning 3D Vision off, I could get Max Payne 3 to run normally, so I put it down to driver issues with the games. However, I've noticed that I can hear the fans really ramp up when playing any intensive game and not only feel the heat from around the PC, but also smell it getting hot. My case is a Corsair Obsidian 650D, it has a 200mm front intake fan, a 200mm top exhaust fan and a 120mm rear exhaust fan, so I would've thought they'd be enough.

I checked Afterburner and GPU-Z and both show the second card's temperature at around 73 degrees max, but the primary card runs at 99 degrees when gaming! At the desktop, the secondary card runs at 30 degrees and the primary card at 38-39.

I'm now worried about playing anything for more than around 5-10 minutes because I don't want to damage the card(s). I haven't overclocked them at all, they're still running at stock, (KFA2's default OC).

Is there anything I can do to try and bring the temps down? I've got a Xonar STX PCI-E card in the system which I could try removing in case it's obstucting airflow, or do I need to manually set fan profiles even though I'm not overclocking any more than the KFA2 default or are the KFA2 coolers just not very good?

 

[OptimaLnrg]

Welcome to SLI with non-ref coolers! !

Basically the cards cooler design chucks air all over the place, recirculating the warm air through each card, hence the temps.

Does the 650d have mesh panel on the side? I can't remember. If so you can set a fan to extract to lower temps.

Antec spot cool/some ghetto fan mounting maybe?

Other than that.. watercooling.

 

[spixelspixel]

What fan speed does the top card go to? Its normal for it to run hotter but shouldn't be reaching 99 degrees.

Setup a custom fan profile for it in afterburner

 

[Inaharry]

Basically the cards cooler design chucks air all over the place, recirculating the warm air through each card, hence the temps.

Maybe I shouldn't have believed the marketing for aftermarket coolers then....like this for the KFA2:

'Innovative cooling solution for lower noise and lower temperatures'

Does the 650d have mesh panel on the side? I can't remember. If so you can set a fan to extract to lower temps.

No, it's a windowed case.

What fan speed does the top card go to? Its normal for it to run hotter but shouldn't be reaching 99 degrees.

Setup a custom fan profile for it in afterburner

OK, here are some test results....

After powering on and sitting on the desktop, the temps are GPU1: 35 degrees, GPU2: 28 degrees. Both fan speeds are at 30% (1140rpm for GPU1 and 1110rpm for GPU2) on an 'Auto' profile.

After running Heaven 3.0 for one benchmark run, the temps are GPU1: 98 degrees and GPU2: 74 degrees. GPU1 fan speed was at 73% (2970rpm) and GPU2 was at 40% (1260rpm), again on 'Auto' profile.

If I remove the Xonar soundcard from between the two KFA2 cards, I get slightly lower temps on GPU1, but not by much and slightly higher on GPU2. GPU1 runs at 92 degrees , 63% (2580rpm) fan speed and GPU2 runs at 79 degrees, 45% (1620rpm) fan speed.

I tried your suggestion of taking the 'Auto' fan speed off and setting it to maximum, (75% 3030 / 3090rpm) and this will sound strange, but over 5 attempts to run Heaven 3.0, (with reboots inbetween), it crashed the app or hung and needed to be forcibly terminated each time, but was fine when 'Auto' fan speed was set....

The last thing I'll try tomorrow evening is to swap the cards around to see if the high temps stay with the card or position. When I first installed them, I tested them individually on Heaven 3.0 and noticed that one of the cards (currently GPU1 / the top card) boosted to 1202MHz on automatic settings whereas the the other card which is currently GPU2 / the bottom card 'only' went to 1150MHz, so I don't know whether that's why it runs cooler...?

I'm pleased with the Heaven results though using the OcUK settings on SLI, I'm getting a score of 3177 without any overclocking, (apart from the default, out of the box KFA2 OC).

 

[spixelspixel]

You would think at 98 degrees the autofan would be faster than 70 percent >_>

Really strange they would crash because you turned off autofan. I'd return the top card, keep the other and try a different 670 with it

I doubt that boost difference would affect temps much.

 

[Inaharry]

At 98 to 99 degrees, the auto fan reached 73%. With auto turned off, the maximum setting is only 75% anyway, so either that's the limit or it's the way that Afterburner perceives the fan speed.

I tried a load more tests last night...

With the side of the case removed, the temperatures do drop, but the top card is still around the very high 80s and that's without any card inbetween the SLI setup, so there's more airflow.

The only way I can get the temperature down is to have a single card running and then I can get it to around 60-62 degrees if I have the automatic fan speed off and set them manually to 65% at all times. As soon as the second card is added, the temps go back up into the 80s and 90s which is above the throttling threshold.

What's more worrying is that the crashes I mentioned last time aren't related to the fan speed setting because it now happens with the auto fan profile as well. It must've been a coincidence the other day.

Even with a single card, (it doesn't matter which one), if I run Heaven 3.0, it'll sometimes run for 30 minutes on a loop without any problems, but 80% of the time, I'll come back after 15 mins or so to find it's either frozen, (Windows is still running and shows that Heaven has stopped responding and needs to be closed when using CTRL-ALT-DEL) or a lot of the time, it's sitting at the desktop after a reboot. This is being logged in the Event Viewer as an unexpected shutdown, so it's probably a BSOD. This is the same problem I had after running Just Cause 2 for 10 minutes when I first installed the cards, but I don't know whether they're related or if it's just an instability problem with Heaven.....I didn't have this problem with my old 5870 though.

I'm considering getting an RMA for them because they're sold as an SLI bundle, but when used together, I can't get the temps even close to the 70 degree throttling threshold, (in my Corsair 650D anyway). They'd be fine individually though as long as the fan is kept at a high speed, (and under the assumption that the Heaven problems, even with a single card, are driver related or caused by something other than the 670s).

If I do decide to RMA them, should I still consider the Gigabyte Windforce? Everything I've read about them seem to indicate that they run at decent temperatures and the fans are fairly quiet. However, if I'm running them in SLI, will I end up with the same problem as the KFA2s because of the open design or should I be considering a reference design card which exhausts the heat out the back of the system?

 

[kitch9]

I was going to say set your side fan to exhaust but you haven't got one, so I'd say that's where your problem is.

You've no real way of getting heat away from those cards.

 

[Marine-RX179]

I was going to say set your side fan to exhaust but you haven't got one, so I'd say that's where your problem is.

You've no real way of getting heat away from those cards.

Yea. While leaving the side-panel open does help a bit, it is not effective as having a exhaust fan on the side-panel sucking the heat out...

 

[Inaharry]

Thanks for the feedback.

I've just found that Corsair sell a replacement side panel to the 650D which is mesh and can either have 1 x 200mm fan fitted or 4 x 120mm fans. If I buy one of those and have the fan(s) exhausting from the case, do you think I'd be able to get the temps below the 70 degree mark in SLI?

Also, would it be better to have 1 x 200mm fan fitted or 4 x 120mm? I'd prefer 1 x 200mm because of the lower noise and I've only got one spare fan connector left on my Aerocool Touch controller, but if the 4 x 120mm provide much better cooling, I'll find a way of going for that instead.

Or....should I still consider the Windforce or a reference card? I like the KFA2 cards because the default OC boost clock runs at 1200MHz, but if the Gigabyte or a reference card can reach this fairly easily with overclocking, then it might be worth me changing anyway, (if only to see whether it fixes the Heaven crashes and other stability problems....)

 

[kitch9]

You'll not get to 70C for both cards, but I reckon 80c for the top card would be doable once the trapped hot air is being removed by an exhaust. You have to expect higher temps with sli but 80c is well within spec.

I'd go with a single 200mm fan personally as it should provide plenty of airflow.

I'd have the fans set up like this:

Top case fan set to exhaust.
Back case fan set to intake.
Side case fan set to exhaust
Front case fan set to intake.

 

[arc@css]

I'd go with a single 200mm fan personally as it should provide plenty of airflow.

+1

Probably quieter as well, if that's of any importance to the OP.

 

[Inaharry]

You'll not get to 70C for both cards, but I reckon 80c for the top card would be doable once the trapped hot air is being removed by an exhaust. You have to expect higher temps with sli but 80c is well within spec.

Being within spec is the most important thing. At least I know the cards won't be damaged. The only reason I wanted to try and keep them under 70C was to avoid throttling.

I'd go with a single 200mm fan personally as it should provide plenty of airflow.

I'd have the fans set up like this:

Top case fan set to exhaust.
Back case fan set to intake.
Side case fan set to exhaust
Front case fan set to intake.

That's good, I've got a spare 200mm fan. Currently, I've got the back fan set to exhaust because I'm using a double fan Noctua heatsink and this is pulling cool air from the front intake fan and pushing it through to the back of the case, (where the rear fan is so that it can be exhausted). With this configuration and going by your suggestion of having two intake fans, would it better to set the top fan to intake instead of exhausting like it currently is?

Thanks for your help.

 

[OptimaLnrg]

Are you using an nhd14 cpu cooler?

I'm not really into air cooling so I'm not sure, but is it possible to mount it so the fans blow upwards? Because it's be best to go with the airflow kitch9 suggested (providing you get a filter for the rear fan).

 

[kitch9]

Being within spec is the most important thing. At least I know the cards won't be damaged. The only reason I wanted to try and keep them under 70C was to avoid throttling.



That's good, I've got a spare 200mm fan. Currently, I've got the back fan set to exhaust because I'm using a double fan Noctua heatsink and this is pulling cool air from the front intake fan and pushing it through to the back of the case, (where the rear fan is so that it can be exhausted). With this configuration and going by your suggestion of having two intake fans, would it better to set the top fan to intake instead of exhausting like it currently is?

Thanks for your help.

The cards don't "throttle" at 70c its just how they are designed to run. Reference 680's are tuned to max out at around 80c, once the card hits 70c it slightly lowers voltage so the fan doesn't have to run as quickly thus is quieter.

 

[Kaapstad]

Hi,

I bought the SLI bundle from OcUK that has 2 x KFA2 EX OC GTX 670 cards and I installed everything yesterday. Since then, I tried Heaven 3.0 and 3DMark 11 and a couple of older games which were ok.

When I played Just Cause 2 in 3D, it ran for about 5 minutes before giving me a BSOD. Today I installed Max Payne 3 which came with the SLI bundle and using 3D caused it to crash once at the main menu before I'd started a game and again after about 4-5 minutes of gameplay.

After turning 3D Vision off, I could get Max Payne 3 to run normally, so I put it down to driver issues with the games. However, I've noticed that I can hear the fans really ramp up when playing any intensive game and not only feel the heat from around the PC, but also smell it getting hot. My case is a Corsair Obsidian 650D, it has a 200mm front intake fan, a 200mm top exhaust fan and a 120mm rear exhaust fan, so I would've thought they'd be enough.

I checked Afterburner and GPU-Z and both show the second card's temperature at around 73 degrees max, but the primary card runs at 99 degrees when gaming! At the desktop, the secondary card runs at 30 degrees and the primary card at 38-39.

I'm now worried about playing anything for more than around 5-10 minutes because I don't want to damage the card(s). I haven't overclocked them at all, they're still running at stock, (KFA2's default OC).

Is there anything I can do to try and bring the temps down? I've got a Xonar STX PCI-E card in the system which I could try removing in case it's obstucting airflow, or do I need to manually set fan profiles even though I'm not overclocking any more than the KFA2 default or are the KFA2 coolers just not very good?

Have you thought about exchanging them for a couple of ref GTX 670s that dump the heat out the back of the case. If you want them overclocked you could do that yourself and save some money.

 

[Inaharry]

Are you using an nhd14 cpu cooler?

I'm not really into air cooling so I'm not sure, but is it possible to mount it so the fans blow upwards? Because it's be best to go with the airflow kitch9 suggested (providing you get a filter for the rear fan).

Yes, it's an NH-D14. It's normally possible to mount the cooler the other way, but I replaced the fans when I got it, so it might be too big to fit the other way around. This is a link to another thread where someone wanted to see some pics after I modified it, (when I still had the 5870 fitted). It should give you a better idea as to the orientation of the fans.

The cards don't "throttle" at 70c its just how they are designed to run. Reference 680's are tuned to max out at around 80c, once the card hits 70c it slightly lowers voltage so the fan doesn't have to run as quickly thus is quieter.

Thanks for that - Most of the things I'd read made it sound like the core is throttled down by a certain amount of MHz when you hit 70, 80, 85, 90 etc.

Have you thought about exchanging them for a couple of ref GTX 670s that dump the heat out the back of the case. If you want them overclocked you could do that yourself and save some money.

TBH, I'm becoming more and more tempted to do this because I've been testing loads of configurations over the last few days and something isn't right - I'm not sure whether there's some kind of issue running in SLI or whether there's a problem with the latest 301.42 Nvidia drivers....

To make sure there were no other things that could be interfering with the tests, I removed the soundcard so only the KFA2s were installed, I set the fan speeds to maximum (75%) using Afterburner or Precision X to make sure the temps stayed low and increased the power target etc.

I tried each card on it's own under a completely new installation of Windows and found the following:

At stock, 1 card would boost to 1228MHz at 58C and run Heaven 3.0 without any problems. It would also OC to +60 / 1288MHz before Heaven would become unstable. The stock speed on the other card would boost to 1163MHz and OC to +70 / 1232MHz at 54C.

It appears that each card is stable under Heaven 3.0 at stock levels and even with a fair OC, (considering these cards are pre-overclocked at stock). However, as soon as both cards are put into the system in SLI, at stock, Heaven 3.0 will crash or lock up after a short while. I even tried taking the OC off of my CPU to make sure it wasn't that, but it didn't make any difference. With the fans at max, the top card runs at 85C and the lower one runs at 60C, so it's not a heat problem.

I'd be quite happy to run these at their stock level and not OC'd, but I can't get them stable when they're together and as mentioned earlier, games will also crash or cause a BSOD.

At this stage, I don't know whether to return them under OcUK's satisfaction guarantee and just go for some reference cards like the EVGAs, (I was originally waiting for 4GB cards which are now available, so I could pay the extra to get them - I'm running 3 monitors although all of this testing was done with just one monitor attached), or whether to stick with the KFA2s because I don't know whether this is just a driver issue when running SLI.

Thanks again for all of your help and suggestions, I just need to make a decision before the end of the week when the 14 days are up. I don't mind trying to fix things if it's a common problem, but I don't know whether I've just been unlucky with these cards or not and my system hasn't been 100% stable in games or benchmarks since I installed them a week ago.

Does anyone else running SLI with KFA2s or any other GTX 670 have any similar problems using the 301.42 drivers?

 

[ohhbass]

Does anyone else running SLI with KFA2s or any other GTX 670 have any similar problems using the 301.42 drivers?

I am using asus dcuII cards (non-top) 670 in sli, I do have problems which may be driver related, but slightly different problems. I experience low gpu utilisation both in sli and single card, also my sli doesnt seem to work in heaven. Also i get big fps lag spikes. Im not happy with my 670 as they are

 

[kitch9]

Being within spec is the most important thing. At least I know the cards won't be damaged. The only reason I wanted to try and keep them under 70C was to avoid throttling.



That's good, I've got a spare 200mm fan. Currently, I've got the back fan set to exhaust because I'm using a double fan Noctua heatsink and this is pulling cool air from the front intake fan and pushing it through to the back of the case, (where the rear fan is so that it can be exhausted). With this configuration and going by your suggestion of having two intake fans, would it better to set the top fan to intake instead of exhausting like it currently is?

Thanks for your help.

Heat rises FAST, so keep top fan as exhaust.

 

[Mysterae_]

Inaharry, have you monitored your chipset temperatures?

I ask because looking at the layout of your motherboard (from your sig) the chipset is sandwiched between the cards. It's going to get a bit toasty with 2 cards dumping heat on it. I presume that chip does some control of sli, but not sure. It could be this is what is causing you problems as your cards are fine on their own. I'd imagine you have already updated your mobo's bios, there might have been some bugs ironed out. Perhaps Virtu is causing a conflict.

It's interesting that a lot of people are getting higher temperatures on the primary card in sli, even when orientated vertically or a considerable gap between. I returned my 2 670's because of high temperatures and thus the noise of the fans because they would drive too high. It was rock solid tho, no crashes what so ever, that's on a P67-UD7 mobo. I'm waiting on peoples thoughts on the EVGA SC 4gb before I think of a replacement.

I'm sure OCUK wouldn't sell a 670 sli bundle that had problems, but they can't factor in every single motherboard. I do think it's your motherboard that's the weak link here.

 

[Inaharry]

I am using asus dcuII cards (non-top) 670 in sli, I do have problems which may be driver related, but slightly different problems. I experience low gpu utilisation both in sli and single card, also my sli doesnt seem to work in heaven. Also i get big fps lag spikes. Im not happy with my 670 as they are

Sorry to hear that. That's even worse than what I'm getting!

Heat rises FAST, so keep top fan as exhaust.

Thanks, I will do.

Inaharry, have you monitored your chipset temperatures?

I ask because looking at the layout of your motherboard (from your sig) the chipset is sandwiched between the cards. It's going to get a bit toasty with 2 cards dumping heat on it. I presume that chip does some control of sli, but not sure. It could be this is what is causing you problems as your cards are fine on their own. I'd imagine you have already updated your mobo's bios, there might have been some bugs ironed out. Perhaps Virtu is causing a conflict.

It's interesting that a lot of people are getting higher temperatures on the primary card in sli, even when orientated vertically or a considerable gap between. I returned my 2 670's because of high temperatures and thus the noise of the fans because they would drive too high. It was rock solid tho, no crashes what so ever, that's on a P67-UD7 mobo. I'm waiting on peoples thoughts on the EVGA SC 4gb before I think of a replacement.

I'm sure OCUK wouldn't sell a 670 sli bundle that had problems, but they can't factor in every single motherboard. I do think it's your motherboard that's the weak link here.

I've just downloaded HMonitor. I had the fans on full to make sure that no problems were being caused by high temps. Here's a capture from a few minutes ago where Heaven froze / crashed on the first benchmark run, (at stage 10 of 26) when running in SLI. I can't see anything out of the ordinary as far as motherboard temps go....unless it's something else.

I noticed there's another BIOS update since I did mine a few weeks back, so I might give that a go as well....