What are your crossfire temperatures, Air and Water cooled?

[IceShock]

Hey there guys,

I picked up my second 7950 few weeks ago, iv ran a few benchmarks and what have ya, haven't really had time to play games until tonight, apart from a odd spot of world of warcraft here and there which I play windowed mode, so It only uses one graphics card anyway, which is nice cool and quiet the way I like it (I like to have ULPS enabled when im not using my 2nd card, why have it running?!), my one card runs fan speeds around, 30% (which is still inaudible) and gpu core sits nicely at 67-70c with a custom fan profile I use.

Now I just fired up crysis 3 for the past two hours, (thank god I have headphones on), and both my cards got a lot hotter than any benchmark iv ran so far obviously because of the length of time iv been playing the game, and after about 20 mins, my top card was around 80c and fan speed of 60which sounds like a leaf blower, and bottom card around 70c and a fan speed of 30% which is pretty much inaudible as its the speed I have set with my custom fan profile as I mentioned.

Now, one of the definite factors of the high temp of the topcard in my sitation, is definitely because theres only about 0.75CM between both cards. but on the other hand as a plus side, I never have ever used a side panel on my pc nor do I have a top panel (roof) panel on my case, don't ask me why, never have done in 14 years, I just like my air to exhaust out on its own accord nice and quietly. (granted I cant stand a can of beer on top of my case)

So my first question Is, is 80c a safe temperature for a 7950 overclocked to run at on air? (maximum I saw was 84c though, but averaged at 80c)

Secondly, how much of a difference would it be having a different motherboard so there is more of a gap between the cards so the top one could draw more air? any of you out there ever replaced your motherboard just so that you have more air drawing into the top cards fans?

Thirdly, what are crossfire 7950 temps water cooled? and how big of a radiator do you run, and do you run your cpu on the same loop etc?

Fourth question, does the money spent on water cooling justify having a nice and quiet rig playing even the most demanding games? as I haven't really overclocked my cards anything too drastic, even when I tried crysis 3 with no overclocks, was still hitting 80c.

Thanks

 

[shankly1985]

I can tell you that it makes a massive difference having the GPUs spaced far apart.
My 290s on old asrock z68 extreme 4 board was right next two each other about pcie Lane between them. Top GPU would hit it's max 94c after couple mins playing.
Bought new board with 4x pcie 16x lanes and now have one in top slot 16x and other in bottom 8x and now both cards max out about 70c

On my old xfx 7950s this wasn't a issue they both ran very cool right next to each other.

 

[IceShock]

it really made that big of a impact on temperatures?

My mobo only has two pci-e slots, and it does suck positioning wise, had to ditch my sound blaster x-fi and get a sound blaster Omni external sound card, but tbh, I actually cannot tell the difference, maybe one or two things but hardly noticeable at all in sound quality, would defo recommend to anyone in same position as me in that situation!. also the vapour-x takes up 2.5 slots, so theres half a slot between the two, but by looking at it, doesn't actually seem that bad spacing wise, but with that said, im guessing its so close that all its doing is dragging hot air up from the card below and exhausting it, and in the same process trying to cool its self, hence the high temps and and sounding like a hair dryer

heres a picture of the spacing between my cards, like I said it doesn't actually look that bad compaired to some iv seen before now.


I would like to know the results of anyone who went water cooling after testing air though please, or anyone who just runs air, and how silent they run there rig and how big of a rad and fans etc?

Edit, and I know my fan behind my cpu cooler isn't running, and tbh since I got the case like I said in opening post, iv never used the side panel once, don't know why I even installed case fans, never used them once yet as I have no side panel and roof panel on my case just a bare chassis

Thanks

 

[shankly1985]

Yeah made massive difference. The top card isn't sucking in the hot air from the bottom as much, when there spaced apart.
Its this plus blocked air flow that effects Multi-GPU's

With having them spaced so far apart my temps are like running Single GPU more then Crossfire. In-fact I get reduced Temps playing games with Crossfire on lol

Before

Spoiler

Fan mod - didn't do jack for me tried out and in take.

Spoiler

This was the only choice I had to reduce the temps and works superb, both cards now run temp wise like single GPUs.

Spoiler

Temps before and after
Before
Heaven 4.0 - 94c

Spoiler

After Heaven 4.0 - 70c

Spoiler

 

[LtMatt]

Around 80-85c depending on the game played and if i use vsync or not, coupled with what fan settings im using. 290P reference crossfire, 10% overclock.

 

[thefogo]

With my two 290 PCS+ cards the too card hit the high 70s with the fan howling along at 85% or do. The cards were almost touching so it wasn't ideal and I took one out.

 

[LtMatt]

With my two 290 PCS+ cards the too card hit the high 70s with the fan howling along at 85% or do. The cards were almost touching so it wasn't ideal and I took one out.

That's not too bad considering the cards were on top of each other.

 

[thefogo]

My ears disagree

 

[Uncle Petey]

With watercooling, you'll be looking at anywhere around 35-55°C under heavy load depending on rad space/ambient temp/clockspeed/voltage amongst other variables.

I personally think it's worth it, but obviously not strictly necessary.

 

[AgedIdiot]

Running 2 x 7950's on an Asus Saber V77 board.

Started , air cooled, with an Asus 7950 - Way too noisy under load !

Cannot remember what temps it ran at - left fan on auto (silent at idle but under , game, load became unacceptably noisy)

Decided to water cool both cpu and gpu - no longer noisy (Triple rad)

Added a gigabyte 7950 and for a time ran crossfire with Asus water cooled and Gigabyte Air cooled . I found the Gigabyte cooler ran much quieter than the Asus Top one but , again , it got too noisy for me under load so decided to water cool that as well.

Upped the pump to a D5 & added a single 120mm rad .

Now lovely and quiet. Temps are 28/29c on idle and 45c max under load. ( I run the 3 120mm rad fans on PWM linked to the cpu fan header - the gpu's are not therefore independently cooled - but have had no problems )

Was it worth the expense to water cool? For me - YES but it was not the temps that worried me it was the noise. However from what others have posted , it is clear that a lot of people do not find the air coolers too noisy (even under load ) and if your of that school of thought.....

Just to add that I have got to give a big '+' for the enjoyment of building a water cooled machine; might be a an expense but lots of fun (and occasional anxiety) and with the tubing and lights a windowed side panel suddenly has real appeal.

 

[IceShock]

wow shankly1985 nice results from having such a huge space between the cards, I doubt could fit a motherboard that all in my case though lol, and if I did my bottom card would be sat on the floor of my case lol.

45c under load for water cooling :O I think im drooling now, I might have to get saving my pennies

 

[snips86x]

wow shankly1985 nice results from having such a huge space between the cards, I doubt could fit a motherboard that all in my case though lol, and if I did my bottom card would be sat on the floor of my case lol.

45c under load for water cooling :O I think im drooling now, I might have to get saving my pennies

This is my dilemma!!

I really want to go crossfire, but need the ££ to buy an entire loop!!

 

[pgi947]

When I had my 7970's (MSI oc ref) on air they would float around the mid 70's, on water the high 30's, breaking low 40's under a big oc.

 

[BaDBoY_uK]

Rig in sig

During BF4 clocked at 1010MHz
Top card - hot enough to form Plasma at 6000K
Bottom card - 60degC

Unclocked and undervolted
To card - 80 max
Bottom - 60 max

 

[IceShock]

Hey guys, iv got another question iv just been thinking about now.

You know how the top card is the primary card, and like I said I like to use ULPS, so that when im on games like wow in windowed mode, its nice and quiet as I only need 1 7950 to run it. is there any way I can use the bottom 7950 as my primary one as it has more air flow to it and the top one being the one switched off, as the second one runs cooler when both are enabled, so the second one will have a much better life span being able to run cooler, and just use my top hot noisy one when its needed in crossfire?

Thanks

 

[LtMatt]

Hey guys, iv got another question iv just been thinking about now.

You know how the top card is the primary card, and like I said I like to use ULPS, so that when im on games like wow in windowed mode, its nice and quiet as I only need 1 7950 to run it. is there any way I can use the bottom 7950 as my primary one as it has more air flow to it and the top one being the one switched off, as the second one runs cooler when both are enabled, so the second one will have a much better life span being able to run cooler, and just use my top hot noisy one when its needed in crossfire?

Thanks

Good question. Not that im aware of.

 

[shankly1985]

Hey guys, iv got another question iv just been thinking about now.

You know how the top card is the primary card, and like I said I like to use ULPS, so that when im on games like wow in windowed mode, its nice and quiet as I only need 1 7950 to run it. is there any way I can use the bottom 7950 as my primary one as it has more air flow to it and the top one being the one switched off, as the second one runs cooler when both are enabled, so the second one will have a much better life span being able to run cooler, and just use my top hot noisy one when its needed in crossfire?

Thanks

Its a good question and something I have never tried. But tbh when cooling is good both cards should be around the same temps each other.

 

[IceShock]

hehe, it is a good question aint it? does anyone know the answer to this?

 

[JamesM]

Two 7990s in quadfire, core temps rarely reach 42 degrees while gaming.

1200 core, 1700 memory and 1.3v

I don't tend to run quadfire often though, just for benches etc

CPU is also in the loop, AMD 8320 at 4.8GHz. All cooled with 2 360 radiators and the system is on an open test bench so heat in the case isn't an issue.

 

[TonyTurbo78]

Top 7950 gets to max 65c
Bottom 7950 gets to max 58c

Using custom fan profile which never exceeds 60% to keep them at those maximums. Had to use a custom mod in the side of my trusty case to cool them, both cards are really close on this board and overclocked quite high for 24/7

It's not much of a looker, but boy she does a good job