GPU over heating game what kind of cooling is cheap and effective

Ok, lets take a step back for a second. I'm getting a little confused here about how much you understand about your video card.

A) Your card already has a very big heatsink and fan and that should be all it needs to keep it cool.

B) The heatinks/fans you're looking at are improvements but they replace the original heatsink. You'd have to take the original off and put the new one in it's place.

C) Arctic Silver isn't "cooling paste", it's a thermal paste and the ONLY thing it does is help heat transfer from the chip to the heatsink there fore allowing your heatsink to work better. It does nothing on it's own.


So the bottom line here is simply that something is keeping your stock heatsink/fan from working properly and 99.9% of the time it's one of the following two things.

1) Your card's fan is either dead or not getting enough power to work right. Do you have the card plugged into a 4-pin connector from your power supply?

2) Your giant cavernous heatsink has dust in it's tubes. You have to take the card out and either blow really hard through those tubes or blow some compressed air in there.

Caxus, I must say you've never replaced stock heatsinks and fans, have you? There is a huge difference in temps from a stock cooler and an aftermarket one.

Arctic Silver may not be cooling paste, but it will help reduce the temps on the card anyhow. But maybe we should still stress the fact that you'll need to use it with a heatsink and fan combo.

If you're going to venture into watercooling, better a whole setup, no point watercooling one component, and not watercooling the rest.

Bear in mind you should only consider watercooling the GPU and CPU, forget the rest, its more or less pointless. Video RAM shouldn't be watercooled neither according to the guys at www.extremeoverclocking.com, so you don't have to get a waterblock designed for a particular GPU.

No, i understand that the aftermarket ones, are in many cases, much better. My point was that his temps are abnormal and he probably doesn't NEED to buy a new heatsink to fix the problem. If he had normal temps and wanted to get even cooler then that's one thing. But it doesn't sound like that's the case. In his case it would be like buying a new car just because he has a flat tire. Besides, a lot of his attention seemed to be focused on the back of the chip where the clip that holds the heatsink on is. I think he needs to be focusing on his current heatsink and fan before deciding if he wants to upgrade.

About the arctic silver, it sounded like he was under the impression that it was something you spread on the chip to cool it and i just wanted to make sure that he understood that it was something that goes between the chip and the heatsink for better heat transfer.

Caxus is write. I thought you smear it on the back plate on the card or something lol...Anyway it is impossible for me to tell wether my card fan is on or off. Damn you PNY. But I can see a small green light coming from the bottom of the card near the fan that is on. So I guess that means I plugged it into the 4 pin power correctly thats plugged into my psu. Also my card came with a Y shaped 4 pin connector. Maybe the card came with the Y shaped connector not for sli support but as another plug into the PSU? Do you guys follow that? Right now the card is like 64 degrees Idle. I live in florida and its very hot in my houe atm (88 Farenheit) with no A/C and my big fan isn't on. Im about to shut down my pc so I didn't see the need. It could very well be that my fan is not on. But on cooler days my card temp would be like 62-63 degrees. I read owners with the 6600 gt get liek 66 degrees idle I kno its hot but if there fans are which im assuming is true then I guess this is just the normal temp for my video card. un cool; I guess my card is just crappy temp wise.

That could be your problem right there. It sounds like you DO have it plugged in correctly. Those splitters are just for if you're out of 4 pin connectors you can split off from one of your drives or something.

I also just want to make absolutely sure that you've taken your card out of your computer and blown through the tubes in that heatsink.

the cards barely a month old. But i'll try it. Yeah it Could. Not to make sure you understand about the splitter. Its the another 4 pin attached to the connector . http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?j02g6vw15no Is this for dual video card support only or should I plug it into my psu also? From what you said it sounds that I shouldn't Just verifying. In a bit i'll turn off my pc and pull it out and blow the dust out of it like an N64. Maybe i'll see a slight improvment.

Yeah, that splitter is just to give you an extra connector if you're out.

If the card is only a month old then i'm sure it's not clogged with dust. I wouldn't bother pulling it out.

I don't know how hot Nvidia cards are supposed to run but my x800 was around 72 at full load so i don't think you're THAT hot. Once when my heatsink got clogged it got into the 90's before my motherboard started beeping and i didn't experience any slowdown at all, just warning beeps.

Your temps are most likely the result of your room temperature being 88 F. Your heatsinks and fans are only as good as the air thats blowing through them and 88 is pretty damn hot.

Also, do you use any programs that let you control the speed of your video card's fan? I know that ATI tray tools lets you control the fan speed of ATI cards.

My X800XT ran about the same temps, but with an aftermarket cooler (Zalman VF700-Cu), I managed to OC it almost 20% and keep it around 59-61C load. Thats how much difference a good aftermarket cooler can make.

Good call there Caxus, I thought it was kinda clear what thermal paste is. Either way, if D@nny had read the instructions for use, he would've found out how to use it anyway

I love the animation, but you could've saved us some time by just uploading a pic

Temps for 6800s seem to be in around the same area, probably not a problem, but you're just not used to seeing temps in that range, since CPU temps don't ever go there unless there's a problem.

D@nny, I don't think that's too hot, considering where you live and the card in question. I have a 6800 GT here and it's idling at 62degrees celcius right now. I think, though, that that's because I'm only powering it with a 305w psu Kirock even told me it'll eventually blow up! Anyway I think you could just get a case with a grill on it, and move the tower into a more open space if you can, see if that helps. What kind of power does you're psu have? I think mine(and yours maybe) idle so high because they're only just getting enough power.

since you live in a hot area, you should have good case cooling. if all you have on your case for cooling is the fan on the PSU, then that's not enough. you could add something like this to your case. they mount in an empty PCI slot and can help suck some heat off of your video card. it's not a replacement for good cooling, but it may help

its good to put that in, but make sure the fan isn't anywhere near another fan thats also sucking in air, or you'd just do yourself harm.

It would be a better idea if you can get one that blows air in instead, but those are hard to find.

Thank you for all your responces and help. I might go and purchase the zalmax fan anyways unless you guys think that 79-84 * temp arn't really hurting my card. Only problem Ican think of is that when I buy it the zalmax fb 7000 (sorry it's early)won't have enough room around my video card to fit it in properly. I do have any extra slot but it's marginally covered by this chip beneth it and it's all the way at the bottom. But I think it's safe to rip out since its like a phone line connector. Paranoid guy I think you hit it right on the spot too. My psu says it has a max for 295.4 watts. So If I get a new PSU and open a window once in a while my problems will be solved. Anyone know how many watts will be needed to power the new cpu's and gpu's coming out next year? (goes newegg shopping)

models like the pictured one are pretty short and wouldn't be right on top of the video card's fan, it would suck out some of the hot air that the video card's fan blows away so that it doesn't just recycle the same hot air again.

I have never seen one, it would be a good idea though.

Do to the ATX standard, all video cards (that I know of at least) have their heatsinks and fans underneath the card. many cases do not have good airflow under the video card, which creates a "hotspot" where the heat produced by the GPU is just recycled constantly. The bottom of the case is also where most HDDs are located, which are another source of heat. If you have open PCI slots, you can remove the plate covers and cable tie an 80mm fan to it, this could help out alot if you have the space. just another idea.

Yup, you and me are in the same boat :grinthumb Oh wait a minute that's a bad thing I'd say anything from a 400w from antec or the like will sort you out ok. You'll have no problems 'cause you can use that newegg shop you lucky American you. But here's a list of bad psu makers http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=792566
so don't get any of those.

that's a great link on good and bad power supplies there paranoid guy...

That site will be handy for future PSU questions

I can't take credit for that, I stole it from one of vnf4ultra's posts :angel:

I got this crazy idea. Get a better psu to power my pc better but instead of going threw all th hassle of having to take out my old psu ( I have a sony case) unplug it and plug the new one into the mobo but leave the psu outside of the case. My case is already open. Wouldn't that lower the overall heat of the case? Having the psu out of their? And better airflow if I take the other one out. Any flaws in this ?( oh yeah and another thing will higher end mobos next year still support 20 pin connectors?)

No. The case is supposed to provide airflow around needed areas. If this airflow is not there, its not going to help. The fans on the PSU suck hot air from the case and brings it out, at the same time cooling the PSU. So having the PSU out doesn't help.

if your case is already open, then it shouldn't matter either way, it will just look kind of silly, haha

probably not, but any good PSU you buy now will have a 24 pin connector with a 20 pin adapter or it will have the last 4 pins removeable. adapters are available to convert it either way as well

I think that might be the source of your problem, try getting more case fans, and close the case up tight