Severe Crossfire overheating problems

killari

killari

killari

Associate
Joined
6 Mar 2009
Posts
513
Location
London
Im running a rig with the specs in my sig. It seems that when I have both cards in temps just sky rocket.

With just 1 card in the idle temp (gpu) is roughly 49 degrees and with both in idle jumps to 80. Under load with both cards the temps are just insane and can quickly climb to 110 degrees before sending the system to crash world.

Here's a pic of the rig:

CIMG8279.jpg


Ignore the cable mess, this was just a quick photo whilst I was trying to sort a couple things out. In general it's neat and shouldn't cause any issues.

The gfx cards in question are two of these:

As you can see with this motherboard it's a super tight fit and there is hardly any space between the two cards.

I have modified an Akasa Vortexx Neo to fit into the top one, but it didn't really change the temps by much. Also I believe this board is not of reference design which did make it a pain to change the cooling.

Any ideas? Oh I also have a side fan door and there are 2 12cm fans blowing onto both gfx cards.

Thanks all!
 
Last edited:
well looks like the top cards fan is completly blocked by the bottom card, so i would swap them round to see if that helps to start with
 
Unfortunately that doesn't sort the issue, both cards had the same cooler at the start of today and the temps were just as bad. :(
 
Sort out the cables then slot a nice big fan, a 220 mm behind the graphics cards and blow it on them direct...that would work...but to be honest...just buy a better case that is the easier option. Or just leave the side off and blast the fan from the side...either way it would cool them...although saying that they seem to be running within spec.
 
does the back end of your case have a clear space?
put the akasa on the bottom.
swap your H50 round so its sucking warm air out...will raise your cpu but cool down the inside of the case.
have the side fans sucking air out?
whats the temp inside the case with the side on, you could be pulling hot air through the GFX cards?
can you fit fans on the bottom grill?
this is an airflow problem.....
 
-There is loads of room at the back of the case.
-Will do in a bitty
-The H-50 is sucking air out (there are 2 noctua NF-P12's in push/pull)
-Am looking into ambient case temps now
 
I have limited capacity to measure the ambient case temp but these are what I'm getting:

From thermal probe somewhere in the case: 26.4
And these are from Everest:

Motherboard: 36
CPU: 33
Cores 1-4 mean: 43
NB: 58
SB: 58
GPU1: 80
GPU2: 78

Just a note: When both the gfx cards had the same cooler the temps reported now are roughly the same.
 
Manstein said:
Sort out the cables then slot a nice big fan, a 220 mm behind the graphics cards and blow it on them direct...that would work...but to be honest...just buy a better case that is the easier option. Or just leave the side off and blast the fan from the side...either way it would cool them...although saying that they seem to be running within spec.
Click to expand...

Cables aren't normally like that, it was just a quick photo I took whilst I was sorting some stuff out.

There are also 2 12cm fans blowing at full speed straight onto the Graphics Cards (had to remove them for photo purposes).

I don't think theres much wrong with the case. It's more like the positioning of the PCIE slots on the mobo is a bit too tight.
 
Last edited:
Had a shot at swapping the cards round, but it didn't work. The bolts that hold the akasa cooler get in the way of the fan of the zerotherm cooler. Here's a better pic of the spacing between the cards. It seems pretty dismal :(

CIMG8281.jpg
 
What are the temps like with the stock coolers? My old 4870 crossfire setup ran cooler with the stock coolers than it did with both cards under an accelero twin turbo. This wasn't due to the cooler - the twin turbo is amazing with a single card, but rather the spacing.

The aftermarket cooler was thicker than the stock job, meaning there was less room for cool air between the cards. It also had less directional airflow than the stock ones, the stock jobs suck in air and dump it out the case, the aftermarket ones hardly exhausted anything - raising ambient temps local to the cards.

Another less likely possibility is that your install of the coolers my have been less than superb - doutful though judging by the sounds of how many times you;ve swapped them over.
 
they look like powercolor cards which dont need to blow out of the case

could you not put one in the top and one in the bottom pcie [white slot] and make a gap between the cards
 
Beaten to it by rjkoneill, but if that's a rampage extreme it has three pci-e slots. Moving the cards further apart would strike me as extremely obvious, is there a reason why you haven't?

Failing that, a couple of water blocks and a radiator and you're done. Poorer, but temperatures don't cause further problems.
 
The crossfire bridges aren't long enough, looked around but haven't had much luck finding longer ones. Also you can't see it there but in the 3rd position the cooler obstructs the USB and Firewire headers :(
 
you could maybe try using some passive coolers with a giant fan on the side of the case? passive coolers tend to be a bit smaller (lack of fan) and so with a big fan pumping air over them it could help reduce the temps somewhat (albeit at a cost).

consequently, your NB/SB temps are pretty high :O nearing 60oC on those would be a concern for me also
 
Interesting... Just googled for long crossfire bridge cables and not really had any luck.

Found a forum or two where they mention Asus being able to provide 100mm ones but not been able to find evience to back this up.

E-I
 
Watercool the cards would be the best way but you would'nt get much change from £150 and that's just using core only blocks. Full cover blocks would be much more expensive.
 
asus and msi do long crossfire cables

i will take a look around technical for one now

email me in trust and i will see what i can do
 
When I was trying my cards in crossfire I can't say that I had the same problem but I had a gap between my 2 cards, so perhaps that does make all the difference. Which is understandable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom