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90*c in SLI

RobHague

RobHague

RobHague

Associate
Joined
26 Jun 2008
Posts
438
:eek:

I am starting to think I got unlucky with my case, graphics card and motherboard combination :rolleyes: -figures.

I have gotten a few DirectX/NVIDIA Driver crashs while playing Battlefield 4 and 3DMARK (on loop). I just had a look at my temps with MSI Afterburner and......

GPU 1, Max 63*c
GPU 2, Max 90*c

FML.

This is the motherboard I have which as you can see does not lend itself to spacing out SLIs. If I move the card to the bottom, the bottom card is pushed up against the bottom of the case with no airflow. So it simply reverses the problem. It also renders the bottom SSD bays unusable, and blocks the BIOS LED debug and reset/power buttons.

The case I am using is an NZXT H440. 3 Fans at the front, one at the back. The standard fans. Plus a H105 pushing out at the top. CPU temps seem pretty good. I have not seen anything over 57*c with my stock 5820K.

But dat 90*c graphics card......

Idle temps are not much better either. The one graphics card sits at about 37*c and teh other 57*c. I was under the impression that MSI designed their 970's with the TWIN FROZR V to enable SLI close together.

Another issue I have with moving the card down to the 3rd PCI-E is that it apparently shares half its bandwidth with the top slot? O.o So will run at 8x/8x instead of 16x/8x hmmmm.

Maybe SLI was a bad idea. Should have gone for a single 980 ._.
 
Try it in the 3rd slot. 8x/8x is no problem with PCI-E 3.0

A 27C difference between the cards is pretty extreme though, I would expect closer to 15C.
 
Custom cooled cards sandwitched together are going to bake. Stick the cards in slots 1 & 3. Setup a custom fan profile in AB as the H440 isn't exactly one of the best cases for airflow.

Problem solved.
 
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It's not really a problem solved as such, since putting it in the 3rd slot blocks off Debug LED, BIOS reset and power etc. It's also pressing up against the foot of the case (the metal PSU cover) and depriving me of access to the SSD holders.

Lastly, its only 8x and shares bandwidth with the first slot. So I go from 16x/8x to 8x/8x. I guess that's not such a big deal though.

I knew the H440 wasn't the best airflow out there, but I wasn't really looking for a wind turbine. Just to be able to run at standard temps.

Anyhow, I have moved the card to the bottom slot, totally ruined my cabling but :/ whatever.

EDIT: Ok something very odd happened. They are now both within a few *c of each other but they are both running hotter together lol. Early days, but I just ran BF4 for about 40mins and Afterburner topped at 79*c for one and 77*c for the other. It's strange because before one card was basically sitting quite low, not even hitting the mid 60s much.
 
My cards are pretty much next to each other with an nic between them and I'm not seeing above 78c while running fire strike.
 
As with someone who had asked this question before for the same case; you need to jerryrig a sidefan to blow out of the case.

Also, replacing the stock fans with static pressure ones might help a few C's. Non-reference cards are not meant for SLI in cases like this, but if you want to go for it, jerryrig a sidefan or keep your case open.
 
Your initial results for GPU temps show 90C on GPU2. Is that the bottom card when in slot 2? Cause the card with access to all the air around in should have much lower temps.

It is possible that one of the cards has the cooler incorrectly attached and that is why you have stupid temps. Have you tried each one separately to test for this?

Something I would advise ever H440 owner to do is to remove the mesh strips that run along the top and side panels - or at least the non visible ones. It makes a huge difference to how much airflow and lowered my water temps a decent amount.

WP8r1Dd.jpg

AVJ6VD5.jpg

They simply unscrew and come off so if you don't like it you can put them back. Also it might be worth getting some different fans as I found the stock fans rather lackluster. I replaced all my rad fans with these and found temps dropped more. Personally I also remove fan filters from my cases as they cause the same issue they are meant to prevent.
 
You'd think GPU 2 would be the bottom card but no it's the top. I don't get the logic either, I only know because I checked the control panel and it told me my monitor was hooked up to GPU 2.
 
I have the same setup as you, H440 and MSI Gaming in Crossfire, which means you should have no problem getting the temps down on your cooler 970's.

It's not simple task to cool these cards, but here’s what I've done so far.

You have to use slots 1 and 3, I've tried everything to keep them cool in 1 and 2 but it just isnt possibly. I benched to find out the difference between X16 X16 and X8 X8 and strangely enough I get 1/2FPS more in X8 X8 config, so dont worry about dropping down from X16 X8.



Secondly you have to remove both SSD drives and drive bays, this
gives a small gap between the second card on the PSU metal cover.

Third, do as above and remove the metal mesh in the sides of the top and front cover.

Fourth get yourself some very good case fans which move a lot of air, I have 3 Artic SP120's on mine.



Fifth, get yourself a fan inside the case with also good static pressure to blow air between the cards on under the second card like so:





GPU-Z does show the GPU's the wrong way round, I'm still not sure why this is. With intense GPU games where 100% usage is used most of the time, you'll have no option to game with the front cover off. Pain in the arse, but I still love this case, looks the business.

 
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You mentioned that when you cooled down the hot card (by moving the cooler one down) the cooler one heated up (i.e. 90/63 to 73/74 ish)

Sounds like in SLI, the hot card was throttling due to heat, so the 2nd card was waiting for the first card. Now, they are both working at 100% load.
 
Check each card's temps individually and then it if that is fine it's as simple as adding as much airflow as possible.
 
The temps seem to be a bit more stable now. I tried some 3DMARK and Battlefield 4. I seemed to hover around 80*c. One thing I also did was turn my PSU to "Normal" because its fan does not spin unless its load exceeds a certain amount and its an AX860 so it hasn't been lol. So now the fan on that is spinning.

I changed the fans on my H105 out from the LED ones to some performance ones too. I took out the unused HDD bay plates as well.

I was playing the new borderlands just now for about an hour and Afterburner shows GPU 1 as hitting 75*c and GPU 2 as hitting 72*c.

Thanks for the pics and advise too Born_2_Kill_83. Very thorough. Also that SB between your GPUs looks great :D I want it now. I was looking at it before, knowing I didnt really *need* it but with the red EMI shield and LED lights.... yum.
 
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