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GTX480 SLI temperature question

threedee

threedee

threedee

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I have now 2x GTX480, played a bit in sli, decided that borderlands doesn't really need SLI to run perfectly all maxed out.
So i went and disabled SLI and not using the second card for Physx.

So, if the second card is not used at all, why its temps rise from 42 idle to 70 while i play Borderlands2 ? GPU usage is zero, but temps constantly stabilize at 70... ??? What gives ? If there is temp rise there has to be power consumption rising as well...

Case is Antec900, well ventilated.
Cards are one space apart, which is occupied by sound card.
Temps, fan tach and GPU usage monitored by MSI Afterburner...

Is there a way to completely disable second card without actually pulling it out ?

#EDIT1#
Well, i have a theory.

This problem persists in games that are built on Unreal Engine or drivers in regards to UE.
I'm now in a process of testing different games.

Unreal games (that heat up GPU2):
Borderlands1
Borderlands2
Batman Arkham City

Non-UE games (that don't heat up GPU2):
Skyrim
Just cause2
Torchlight2
Far Cry2
Portal 2

Still testing. Have to install some of my steam games to do that. Will keep updating...

#EDIT2# **SORTED** Disabled CUDA for one of GPUs (global 3d settings) and temps went back to normal...
 
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Same case and setup as I used to have, the top card gets hot enough to blow 70c air at the bottom card so the sensors show it being heated up when not in use. It's just a ventilation problem. I solved it by having stock design at the top and windforce design at the bottom. Kinda wish I still had my 480s they were more powerful than the 7970ghz I've got now.
 
This is not the case.

I have alt-tabbed out of the Borderlands2 and left it sitting for half an hour. The active card cooled to its idle 45c, but the supposedly unused card stayed at 70c. So its not a "blown air heating things up". The card itself is producing heat.

Riddle me this... :D
 
threedee said:
This is not the case.

I have alt-tabbed out of the Borderlands2 and left it sitting for half an hour. The active card cooled to its idle 45c, but the supposedly unused card stayed at 70c. So its not a "blown air heating things up". The card itself is producing heat.

Riddle me this... :D
Click to expand...

What sort of temp is it when you are using it ?

Its going to use some power even with sli turned off but it should not get above the normal idle temp for a gtx 480. Is the cooler working properly ?
 
Both cards have been cleaned out this week. Properly. Both coolers work fine, both cards idle at ~45.

As soon as i run BL2 both cards start to generate heat. Primary card at load is about 85-90. If i alt-tab out of BL2 primary card cools to idle 42, the secondary ("unused") one stays at 70.

I'll see if other games do this. Wil try JustCause2...

#Edit1# Couldnt run JustCause2, ran Skyrim instead and i can confirm that it DOES NOT heat up secondary card. It is apparently a BL2 issue... Will do some more testing later...
 
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I have absolutely tripple checked all these options before posting it all here. The card is NOT ENABLED in any way. Not sli and not dedicated to physx.
 
Why false reading with only one game? So far only BL2 does this.
Skyrim doesnt, will test some other games later, but i'm pretty sure they wont be doing this...

This may be drivers issue. I use 306.23 (as of time of this post 306.23 are current drivers), which had some improvements specifically for BL2 launch...
 
threedee said:
Why false reading with only one game? So far only BL2 does this.
Skyrim doesnt, will test some other games later, but i'm pretty sure they wont be doing this...

This may be drivers issue. I use 306.23 (as of time of this post 306.23 are current drivers), which had some improvements specifically for BL2 launch...
Click to expand...

No idea TBH. I am an SLI user but I use both cards always. I was wondering if it was just a false reading from AB or whatever monitoring program you use. Is there good space between the cards? Like post #2 states, it could be rising heat.
 
Try changing multi-display/mixed GPU acceleration setting in the nVidia control panel to Single display performance mode and the power management setting to adaptive.
 
Well, i have a theory.

(See first post for edits)

Still testing. Have to install some of my steam games to do that. Will keep updating...
 
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In that case (regarding the edits) check what GPUs are selected for CUDA in the manage 3D settings section of the nVidia control panel - its possible the game engine is intialising the CUDA engine on all GPUs in those games even if its not using them all or some minor CUDA backend GPU compute for PhysX even tho PhysX itself isn't being run on the 2nd GPU - causing them to run higher than idle clocks while that program is active.
 
And we have a winner !!!

Yes, i have disabled CUDA (edit: on second GPU) and temps went back to idle AND i saved about 80w power draw while playing BL2 and other UE games...

For some reason only UE games do all this nonsense. So far none of non-UE games i have do this...
 
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