Soldato
- Joined
- 27 Dec 2009
- Posts
- 2,727
- Location
- Gillingham, Kent
I left the world of single screens a good few years ago and have never looked back. In 2009 I went up to 3 screens attached to a 5870, then later crossfired with another 5870, then went to a 7970, then two 7970's, then 4 screens, and now I've currently got 2 x 290's running 4 screens.
In all that time, I've always known my primary (or sole) GPU wouldn't downclock it's memory - leading to higher idle temperatures than all the GPU reviews quoted. Over the years I've become quite comfortable with running at 60C idle, or even 70-80C on my 290's.
Most recently I'm running 3 x Iiyama E2409HDS's, with a Dell 2007FP running over the top for monitoring/email/etc while gaming on the 3 Iiyama's. They're running DVI/HDMI/Active DP-DVI on the Iiyama's, with DVI to the Dell, but I've swapped these around a few times over the past few months. Today I swapped the Dell out for a Packard Bell (Acer) Viseo243D, and to my astonishment my primary GPU memory now sits at 150MHz while idle, rather than at 1250MHz! I knew AMD had mentioned some improvements in multi-monitor support over the last couple of generations of GPUs, but this is the first I've ever heard of the old expectation of the memory running at 100% all the time not being true. My primary GPU is currently idling at 48C! I haven't seen those kind of temperatures on my PC for years (I had a 4870 when I last had a single screen, so no danger of low idle temps there either!)
Are you running a multi-monitor setup? Does your memory downclock when idle or does it stay at full speed?
In all that time, I've always known my primary (or sole) GPU wouldn't downclock it's memory - leading to higher idle temperatures than all the GPU reviews quoted. Over the years I've become quite comfortable with running at 60C idle, or even 70-80C on my 290's.
Most recently I'm running 3 x Iiyama E2409HDS's, with a Dell 2007FP running over the top for monitoring/email/etc while gaming on the 3 Iiyama's. They're running DVI/HDMI/Active DP-DVI on the Iiyama's, with DVI to the Dell, but I've swapped these around a few times over the past few months. Today I swapped the Dell out for a Packard Bell (Acer) Viseo243D, and to my astonishment my primary GPU memory now sits at 150MHz while idle, rather than at 1250MHz! I knew AMD had mentioned some improvements in multi-monitor support over the last couple of generations of GPUs, but this is the first I've ever heard of the old expectation of the memory running at 100% all the time not being true. My primary GPU is currently idling at 48C! I haven't seen those kind of temperatures on my PC for years (I had a 4870 when I last had a single screen, so no danger of low idle temps there either!)
Are you running a multi-monitor setup? Does your memory downclock when idle or does it stay at full speed?
