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adding 2nd xfire card makes 1st card very hot.

hobib_ali

hobib_ali

hobib_ali

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Joined
26 Jan 2010
Posts
2,008
Hi

Ive bought 2x7970s, when i installed the cards the 1st primary card reaches temps of 80+

This concerned me very much, so as a tester I removed 2nd card and now on a single card the temp is perfect, 30 on idle and never above 60 on full load.

I saw on you tube that a reviewer said that running cards on xfire actually divides the heat between the 2 cards making them even cooler?

Not with me, I have plenty of space on a cooler master cosmos sport case and a big 50 inch fan on the side of the case.

The only thing I can think of is both the cards sit right next to each other and as a result cannot cool due to the limited space. My mobo a gigabyte ud7 has pci e slots literally right next to each other.

what are my options other than returning 1 card?
 
How could 2 cards, with double the amount of heat equal lower temperatures?

It is always going to be hotter, are they reference cards? Do you have a gap inbetween them? That's a very big fan you got there. :p

The airflow might be great at the side, but ideally you want good cool air coming into the front of the case more as the cooler the air that your gpus suck in the lower the temps will be.
 
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It's obviously going to be hotter with 2 cards, the top card is being blocked by the 2nd card and not getting as much air flow, plus the 2nd card generates heat of its own.
 
how do those 7970's exhaust, i.e. are they designed to dump heat into your case or out the back of it? To be honest this is a common problem when you sandwich two powerful cards so close together, one of the cards ends up unable to 'breathe'. Its one of the reasons I prefer watercooling.
 
BluSky said:
how do those 7970's exhaust, i.e. are they designed to dump heat into your case or out the back of it? To be honest this is a common problem when you sandwich two powerful cards so close together, one of the cards ends up unable to 'breathe'. Its one of the reasons I prefer watercooling.
Click to expand...

well before I had 2x 5970s in which they had vents on the end of the cards so the air would be sucked in thought the cards and out the other end, out of the cards.

these ones have dual fans on them, no vents so the air is sucked in from the top of the card, which also means the 1st card has no air to suck in,

If I knew this before hand I would have bought refrence cards which have vents on the end and the top bit is sealed, these open dual fanned cards are good when its just by its self but crap when they run in xfire.

Damn, I havnt even visually seen a difference in running in xfire or not, this is causing my room to go hot, and also I have taken off the side panel from the case as the big fan just blows the hot air back in the case.

If I had a mobo that just had pcie instead of the extra pci slots then it would og been ok,now the cards sit next to each other and start to boil.

Theres nothing I can do to stop the heat.
 
Defy Belief said:
How could 2 cards, with double the amount of heat equal lower temperatures?

It is always going to be hotter, are they reference cards? Do you have a gap inbetween them? That's a very big fan you got there. :p

The airflow might be great at the side, but ideally you want good cool air coming into the front of the case more as the cooler the air that your gpus suck in the lower the temps will be.
Click to expand...

Nope, no gaps between the cards, its only like a couple of mm, so I have put in a plastc pen so the cards are very slightly bent for air to get inbetween the cards.

I can remember that some1 saying running 2 cards divides the heat as they dont work as hard.

need to think of somthing before my 7 day return window expires.
 
You've put a plastic pen on something that's hitting 80+ degrees?

Whoever told you that is a moron, why would you buy a CF setup in the hope of the cards not working so hard, isn't the point of CF to gain more power? Surely you want the cards to their maximum potential.

You either have, return it and stick with one.

New mobo.

Sell the current one and buy 2 reference cards, but it still will be quite hot and likely to be more noisy.
 
So you're now bending the cards and putting strain on the PCI-e socket?
I hope you want to either brake your motherboard or brake the PCI-e connectors on your cards because that is what will happen bending them like that.

On another note, what resolution do you play at?
If 1080p or less you do not need 2 7970s, just 1 7970 plays almost everything maxed out at 2560x1440.
If you want to keep xfire then either a new motherboard, stock cards or water cooling.

To be fair though, 80c isn't ideal but it also won't harm it.
It's better running at 80c then having a pen between them!
 
hobib_ali said:
Hi

Ive bought 2x7970s, when i installed the cards the 1st primary card reaches temps of 80+

This concerned me very much, so as a tester I removed 2nd card and now on a single card the temp is perfect, 30 on idle and never above 60 on full load.

I saw on you tube that a reviewer said that running cards on xfire actually divides the heat between the 2 cards making them even cooler?

Not with me, I have plenty of space on a cooler master cosmos sport case and a big 50 inch fan on the side of the case.

The only thing I can think of is both the cards sit right next to each other and as a result cannot cool due to the limited space. My mobo a gigabyte ud7 has pci e slots literally right next to each other.

what are my options other than returning 1 card?
Click to expand...

Can you link me to the youtube video which said that?
 
heat + heat = more heat. it really is as simple as that. How hot the cards run is really down to how well they dissipate that heat, but two of them in close quarters is always going to present some issues. you need more air in the case / better heatsinks on those gpus / water cooler or better. You wont get around this if you dont have the option of using a different pci-e slot for one of the cards.
 
antec spot cool fan works for this. angle it down over the top of card one pointed down towads card 2 and remove all unused spacers from the back of the case to push air out of it. Kept my 480s under 90 when they used to hit 105 and throttle.
 
I can sort of see his logic, in that if two cards split the work of one then they each work half as hard and produce half as much heat. However this is not how it works in practice, as that is not how crossfire and sli work.
 
1 card = hot. 2 cards = hotter. I am not up on physics but I am sure there is no positve=negative and I so need to see that video and slate the reviewer/user/fool.

What I can't grasp is why is it when I run 1 680 on its own, temps are 34C idle and 60C load. When I add a second card to make SLI, the top card runs at 40C idle and 70C load whilst the bottom car runs at 36C idle and 64C load. Even if I switch them over, the top card runs hotter but in the lower slot, it ran cooler....It is crazy :p
 
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