GPU: How hot is too hot?

Hi there everyone,

Alienware Aurora
nVidia 240 GTS in SLI

I know this isn't 7 specific, but was hoping that you might have an answer for me.

Today I was playing the Rift beta and suffered three or four system lockups after playing it for about an hour. Once it happened the first time, the subsequent lockups happened in faster succession, leading me to believe that it was a heat issue.

I looked on-line and found that people were claiming 50-60c at idle and about 80c under load for these cards.

Cranking up SIW, find the following:

At rest:

Sensor Value Min Max
SCHWIM-GAMING
Fintek F71882F
Voltages
+3.3V 3.31 V 3.28 V 3.31 V
CPU VCORE 0.94 V 0.93 V 1.28 V
VIN2 1.52 V 1.44 V 2.16 V
VIN3 0.87 V 0.82 V 1.28 V
+5V 4.96 V 4.92 V 4.96 V
+12V 12.23 V 12.14 V 12.32 V
VIN6 1.81 V 1.76 V 1.81 V
VSB3V 3.30 V 3.28 V 3.31 V
VBAT 3.23 V 3.23 V 3.25 V
Temperatures
TMPIN0 37 °C (98 °F) 37 °C (98 °F) 50 °C (121 °F)
TMPIN1 58 °C (136 °F) 57 °C (134 °F) 63 °C (145 °F)
TMPIN2 48 °C (118 °F) 47 °C (116 °F) 58 °C (136 °F)
Fans
FANIN0 1208 RPM 1183 RPM 1397 RPM
Fans PWM
CPU 100 % 100 % 100 %
System Fan 1 100 % 100 % 100 %
System Fan 2 100 % 100 % 100 %
System Fan 3 100 % 100 % 100 %
Intel Core i7 920
Temperatures
Core #0 53 °C (127 °F) 53 °C (127 °F) 64 °C (147 °F)
Core #1 49 °C (120 °F) 47 °C (116 °F) 61 °C (141 °F)
Core #2 53 °C (127 °F) 52 °C (125 °F) 62 °C (143 °F)
Core #3 51 °C (123 °F) 51 °C (123 °F) 64 °C (147 °F)
Powers
Processor 43.76 W 32.03 W 149.28 W
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 240
Temperatures
GPU Core 86 °C (186 °F) 80 °C (175 °F) 107 °C (224 °F)
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 240
Temperatures
GPU Core 77 °C (170 °F) 73 °C (163 °F) 97 °C (206 °F)
ST350041 8AS
Temperatures
Assembly 30 °C (85 °F) 29 °C (84 °F) 31 °C (87 °F)
Air Flow 30 °C (85 °F) 29 °C (84 °F) 31 °C (87 °F)

During play:

Sensor Value Min Max
SCHWIM-GAMING
Fintek F71882F
Voltages
+3.3V 3.30 V 3.28 V 3.31 V
CPU VCORE 1.26 V 0.93 V 1.28 V
VIN2 2.06 V 1.44 V 2.16 V
VIN3 1.21 V 0.82 V 1.28 V
+5V 4.96 V 4.92 V 4.96 V
+12V 12.14 V 12.14 V 12.32 V
VIN6 1.78 V 1.76 V 1.81 V
VSB3V 3.30 V 3.28 V 3.31 V
VBAT 3.23 V 3.23 V 3.25 V
Temperatures
TMPIN0 46 °C (114 °F) 36 °C (96 °F) 50 °C (121 °F)
TMPIN1 62 °C (143 °F) 57 °C (134 °F) 63 °C (145 °F)
TMPIN2 56 °C (132 °F) 47 °C (116 °F) 58 °C (136 °F)
Fans
FANIN0 1199 RPM 1183 RPM 1397 RPM
Fans PWM
CPU 100 % 100 % 100 %
System Fan 1 100 % 100 % 100 %
System Fan 2 100 % 100 % 100 %
System Fan 3 100 % 100 % 100 %
Intel Core i7 920
Temperatures
Core #0 60 °C (139 °F) 53 °C (127 °F) 64 °C (147 °F)
Core #1 59 °C (138 °F) 47 °C (116 °F) 61 °C (141 °F)
Core #2 58 °C (136 °F) 52 °C (125 °F) 62 °C (143 °F)
Core #3 60 °C (139 °F) 51 °C (123 °F) 64 °C (147 °F)
Powers
Processor 147.34 W 32.03 W 149.28 W
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 240
Temperatures
GPU Core 103 °C (217 °F) 80 °C (175 °F) 107 °C (224 °F)
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 240
Temperatures
GPU Core 93 °C (199 °F) 73 °C (163 °F) 97 °C (206 °F)
ST350041 8AS
Temperatures
Assembly 30 °C (85 °F) 29 °C (84 °F) 31 °C (87 °F)
Air Flow 30 °C (85 °F) 29 °C (84 °F) 31 °C (87 °F)

I've posted the other temps to show that everything else seems to be in the normal range and that would lead me to believe that I'm not dealing with a case flow issue.

Those temps seem crazy hot to me. Is there something that I should look for or try to get these temps down? I took the side of the case off and checked for dust and vacuumed the radiator and didn't see anything obstructing the GPU fans.

Any thoughts are more than welcome.

thanks,
json

over 100 C is too hot. For You video card, it's 105 C

GeForce GTS 240 (OEM Product)

schwim said:

Those temps seem crazy hot to me. Is there something that I should look for or try to get these temps down? I took the side of the case off and checked for dust and vacuumed the radiator and didn't see anything obstructing the GPU fans.

Any thoughts are more than welcome.

thanks,
json

Due to the length of my post, you might have missed my question.

thanks,
json

What struck me as odd is that both cards are running uniformly hot. I'll try running it with the case open but I don't think that the design of the internals has anything exhausting onto the cards(cpu is water-cooled)... Also, they are relatively open(not crowded by other cards).

Thanks very much for your time.

Posting your info in the quote boxes isn't really helping us help you. Posting your system specs in the "My System Specs" link does help us help you.

Also you might want to post an image of GPU-Z, Core Temp/Real Temp, and CPU-Z.

Yeah It could be a lot of things, system specs helps with the diagnoses.

Thanks.

There could be dust bunnies hiding under the shroud - but a uniform heat suggests the cards fans aren't ramping up when they are supposed to. (updated your drivers recently?)

Perhaps try using MSI Afterburner and create a custom fan profile.

smarteyeball said:

There could be dust bunnies hiding under the shroud - but a uniform heat suggests the cards fans aren't ramping up when they are supposed to. (updated your drivers recently?)

Perhaps try using MSI Afterburner and create a custom fan profile.

Thanks very much for your help!

I updated the drivers last week(266.58).

The system has a thermal monitor installed already(Alienware Thermal Controller) but it's very rudimentary, in that it only allows me to alter hard drive fan and a "pci fan", which I assume they are calling the GPU fans. I manually ramped the pci fan up to 100% and now it sounds like a Harrier jet but has brought the idle temps down to 70c/60c.

If I install the MSI app, I assume that I'm going to have to get rid of this one first as it can't be good to have two apps trying to control the fan speeds, no?

schwim said:

If I install the MSI app, I assume that I'm going to have to get rid of this one first as it can't be good to have two apps trying to control the fan speeds, no?

It could cause a conflict with two apps trying to control the same device.

You could always disable the existing app instead of uninstalling it.


That's still a pretty high temp for such high (and noisy) fan speeds.


It might also be worth rolling back to a previous driver version to see if has any impact on temps. That way you'll know if it's due to software rather than something else.