8800 GTS SLI running hot

Status
Not open for further replies.

Ysman

Posts: 15   +0
I'm running two e-VGA 8800 GTS 320mb Superclocked on SLI. PCWizard 2008 reports both of my cards running 80C on idle and close to 89C on heavy load. You can touch the back of the cards and they are red hot! The cards are flat up against each other because of how bulky the stock heat sinks are, but I guess thats to be expected.

What would be a good cooling solution for SLI? I hear the Zalman VF1000 LED & RHS88 Coolers are no good for SLI because of the shape. Not only this, but buying a setup for each card would be very pricey. I'm hoping for a cheaper solution. Purhaps another fan? I currently have a good airflow going through my case, would another fan interfere with that? Also, I don't want anything hanging loose in my case and I hear bad things about those fans with the snake necks.

The main reason I'm asking is because just a few hours ago, I was playing WoW, while also watching a video and the video glitched and then my computer locked up followed by a hard restart. I heard that overheating video cards can cause this problem.
 
Adding another case fan is most likely NOT going to bring the cards' temps down. If you have good airflow through the case already, you need to focus on cooling the GPUs themselves. I would have recommended the Zalman products you mentioned if I hadn't seen what you've researched with the SLi setup. The only way to tell if they fit would be to either get the exact dimensions from Zalman's site or to try and find a review of the product online, similar to your setup.

There is an alternative however... a lot of Zalman products DO fit various cards that are not on the compatibility list. This may require a little bit of custom fabrication but in most cases it is possible to "modify" a certain cooler. For example, if only one of the studs on the cooler lines up with the mounting holes on the card, you can make a bracket/retainer to hold down the other side. As long as you have at least 2 of the (usually 4) studs clamped down; the polished copper base is touching the core, you'll be okay.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back