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Crossfire Temps

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Guys ambient temps in my "man cave" are increasing due to this "summer" weather! Averaging around 24-26oC.
Anyway my Crossfire setup 2 ASUS 280X TOPs, the top card was hovering around 81oC, bottom card around 65oC, after a short while gaming, both cards at 99%.
I have two Apaches on the side of my Stacker 830 case, one blasting air on the GPUs the other is exhausting.
I have an exhaust on the top, two intakes at the front, and an exhaust via my PSU and my Tundra TD03 radiator (push/pull)
My fan profile is set to 80% for the top card, and 75% for the bottom, I am thinking of increasing this to 90% during the summer months, noise is not too bad! I game with headphones anyway.
What in your opinion is the safe upper limit for the 280Xs, bearing in mind I want a few years out of these, before an upgrade!
Thanks in advance.
 
They are safe to run up to mid 90's and will throttle around the 95 mark. 80deg isn't an issue and it the average temp for most mid-top end air cooled cards.

You'll be fine.
 
Most 7970s I had used to start artifacting at around 85 so I'd say try to keep them under that.

Yes i found the same, only when overclocking though. If you leave the cards at stock then they should be fine up to 90c. I used to run my reference 7970 up at 86c at 1010/1375 without issue for a while until i used a custom profile.
 
Most 7970s I had used to start artifacting at around 85 so I'd say try to keep them under that.

Yes i found the same, only when overclocking though. If you leave the cards at stock then they should be fine up to 90c. I used to run my reference 7970 up at 86c at 1010/1375 without issue for a while until i used a custom profile.

If I limit the intake fans on my case, my 7970 (Twin Frozr) will hit 90 under load, typically BF4. Average gaming without limiting the case fans will keep to 75-85 and no issues :) Solid little performer!
 
Your fan configuration sounds a little messed up. The two side fans should be both going same way either intake or outtake.
Have the two front intake, side intake and top or back outtakes.
 
Yes i found the same, only when overclocking though. If you leave the cards at stock then they should be fine up to 90c. I used to run my reference 7970 up at 86c at 1010/1375 without issue for a while until i used a custom profile.
Ah, I always ran mine at 1200mhz :p
I miss that card :(
 
Your fan configuration sounds a little messed up. The two side fans should be both going same way either intake or outtake.
Have the two front intake, side intake and top or back outtakes.

+1

The problem with your cards is that the exhaust heat INTO your case. So you need to make sure air can exit the case as quickly as possible. I would go into positive and negative air pressure but it's hardly needed here.

Front = intake
Top and rear = exhaust

But my only change would be to experiment with the sides. Try them as intake and measure DELTA temps from ambient. Then try them as exhaust. It may work. But always measure DELTA temps as you need to be as scientific as possible

Have you thought about running your second card in the 3rd x4 slot? You won't notice much difference in actual FPS but I would bet your temps would decrease. With 280Xs you also don't need a crossfire cable, so distance between isn't an issue

Good luck
 
+1

The problem with your cards is that the exhaust heat INTO your case. So you need to make sure air can exit the case as quickly as possible. I would go into positive and negative air pressure but it's hardly needed here.

Front = intake
Top and rear = exhaust

But my only change would be to experiment with the sides. Try them as intake and measure DELTA temps from ambient. Then try them as exhaust. It may work. But always measure DELTA temps as you need to be as scientific as possible

Have you thought about running your second card in the 3rd x4 slot? You won't notice much difference in actual FPS but I would bet your temps would decrease. With 280Xs you also don't need a crossfire cable, so distance between isn't an issue

Good luck

Great advice lads, very much appreciated. I think I will "flip" the other side fan to make it intake. Install a fan within the room to help with ambient temps. I will change my top card fan profile to a summer one, fan at 90% and see how that goes. Just out of interest temps up to the mid 80s are fine for the Tahiti XT GPUs?, bearing in mind, mine are pre-factory overclocked to 1070/1600 "stock" what I am running them at the moment.
Thanks again.
 
Some good advice here in the science of fan configuration. Some people really do have poor setups that is no fault of their own.

Getting it right can make 10c + difference on GPU temps.
 
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