Graphics card heating question

thefabe · 05 Jan 2010

And the worst part is they are not as easy to just pop of the side cover and clean them out. I loaned mine to my Nephew and can't seem to get it through his head it's not a good idea to lay it on our new frizzie carpet while he uses it. First off it can't breath and what is trying to breath is all the fuzzz off the carpet not to mention static shock. Oh well I made him a strap that fits arpound the laptop while he was sleeping and when he woke up and asked what it was for I said so you can wear it around your neck till you figure out not to use it on the carpet. Took all of the time to explain it to get it to sink in.

Fumz · 05 Jan 2010

Coolness said:

computersplus said:

try these you can set the video card fan to run 100% all the time instead of idling lower then seeding up under load you will create a little more fan noise but so what i want my stuff running nice and cool

RivaTuner for Nvidia

http://downloads.guru3d.com/RivaTune...nload-163.html

Atitools for ati cards

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...Tool_0.26.html

The nvidia link is dead. And if i max the fan, it will use more power right?

Coolness said:

... Now that i remembered, it doesnt have a fan of its own. So why does gpu-z tell me the fan speed?...

If you don't have a fan, these tools won't help you... besides, having your fan at 100% all the time would get annoying... fast.

You can get a card with a fan, which is probably best if you're into gaming, or you can increase your case's airflow... which may be difficult dependent on your case.

Having said that, I would check to see what your card is at while gaming. If 70-80C is as high as it gets, then for a fanless card in an OEM case, I'd say you're alright and wouldn't expect much better given the setup.

thefabe · 05 Jan 2010

@Fumz I think it's a lappy. Coolness correct me if I'm wrong just going off our sytem specs.

Fumz · 05 Jan 2010

I was unsure at first, still am a bit :), but then noticed what he listed under drives: Hard Drives 80gb - SATA 750gb - SATA II (Installing on it soon) 160gb - SATA

It's that 750 that led me to believe this was a desktop... but Coolness, plz let us know for sure.

Coolness · 05 Jan 2010

Fumz said:

I was unsure at first, still am a bit :), but then noticed what he listed under drives: Hard Drives 80gb - SATA 750gb - SATA II (Installing on it soon) 160gb - SATA

It's that 750 that led me to believe this was a desktop... but Coolness, plz let us know for sure.

Youre right, its a desktop, and ive installed it now... Need to correct that...
Anyway, im not trying to overclock anything here. I just wanna make sure that im safe, And that the gpu is as hot as it should be.

Fumz · 05 Jan 2010

Googling your machine I see it's a mini tower. They're less efficient at removing heat, generally speaking, and so it's not out of the ordinary to see your card, which tends to run warm anyway, running warm... even a half hour after just browsing.

Your major concern is what load temps are? Check out gpu-z while gaming.

If you've applied a fan to the video card, then there's not much more you can do on that end... assuming the installation went as it should have and you did not apply too much thermal compound?

Also remember that your internal case temps are a factor; which is why a mini may be compounding the problem, if there is a problem? If the air inside your case it hot, then hot air is what's going to be blown over your card. It does not matter to metal that the air is moving, it's still warm, so the best you can do as far as air cooling is concerned, is x degrees over your ambient case temps. The lower you can get case temps the better.

Do you have access to a dremel?

Coolness · 05 Jan 2010

Fumz said:

Googling your machine I see it's a mini tower. They're less efficient at removing heat, generally speaking, and so it's not out of the ordinary to see your card, which tends to run warm anyway, running warm... even a half hour after just browsing.

Your major concern is what load temps are? Check out gpu-z while gaming.

If you've applied a fan to the video card, then there's not much more you can do on that end... assuming the installation went as it should have and you did not apply too much thermal compound?

Also remember that your internal case temps are a factor; which is why a mini may be compounding the problem, if there is a problem? If the air inside your case it hot, then hot air is what's going to be blown over your card. It does not matter to metal that the air is moving, it's still warm, so the best you can do as far as air cooling is concerned, is x degrees over your ambient case temps. The lower you can get case temps the better.

Do you have access to a dremel?

First off: the GPU doesnt have a fan. Its called "passive cooling".
Number two: whats a dremel?

Fumz · 05 Jan 2010

Coolness said:

First off: the GPU doesnt have a fan. Its called "passive cooling".
Number two: whats a dremel?

lol, that's what I thought when I entered the thread. My bad... when you said you installed "it", I thought "it" was a fan for your card.

A dremel is amazing little tool modern man cannot live without: Tools
It can cleanly cut out the plastic, aluminum, steel, case grill that stands between your case fans and the air outside them; they impede airflow more than you'd expect. You can also drill new holes for fans... which is fun.

As far as where things stand, given the still fanless card:

Having said that, I would check to see what your card is at while gaming. If 70-80C is as high as it gets, then for a fanless card in an OEM case, I'd say you're alright and wouldn't expect much better given the setup.

Coolness · 05 Jan 2010

Fumz said:

Coolness said:

First off: the GPU doesnt have a fan. Its called "passive cooling".
Number two: whats a dremel?

lol, that's what I thought when I entered the thread. My bad... when you said you installed "it", I thought "it" was a fan for your card.

A dremel is amazing little tool modern man cannot live without: Tools

As far as where things stand, given the still fanless card:

Having said that, I would check to see what your card is at while gaming. If 70-80C is as high as it gets, then for a fanless card in an OEM case, I'd say you're alright and wouldn't expect much better given the setup.

82 while gaming, fan speed 85% (altho it doesnt have one...)
So, is it going to explode?
Also, i probably have one of those dremels... Ill check it out.
And how did you think that i had a 24" display in a laptop?

Fumz · 05 Jan 2010

I'd say the card is going to be fine; although, to do a thorough test I would game for an hour or two, if that's normal for you, then check the temps again. A hot card in a small case can really heat up internal case temps, which in turn will further heat up the card.

I didn't think you had a laptop, which is why I made the suggestions I did. thefabe suggested it might have been a laptop, but since neither of us did our due diligence, we asked.

Anyway, you can hook up any monitor you want to a laptop: dual display.