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Chaos (40)
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[Magathery]

OK, might have inadvertantly got lucky.

I've suspect for quite a while that the problem I've had with Crysis has been the graphics card. The game is stunning, but it's got to be giving the card a headache.

So after getting MWLL up and running, I went and spectated a game. All was good for about 8 minuets, then the screen went blank. I had to give the three finger salute and shut down the game. Just like I had to on the single player of Crysis.

Today I did some spring cleaning. I opened up the case and with a can of air duster in one hand, and a hoover nozzel in the other, I gave the case a clean out. I also removed the graphics card and gave it a through clean out.

Now I have a XFX GeForce 9800 GTX. You would think it would be ok with Crysis. It is with other games. So I found myself wondering about aftermarket cooling for the card. So by the power of google I found myself with all sorts of options. Mostly in Dollars it would seem. Then by shear fluke there was a link to UK company selling the card. Now the WEB site said "Discontinued", but there were customer reviews. And one comment got my attention.

The known problem with the GPU cooling fan not altering under load.

Yep, that's right. I've been using the graphics card on it's lowest default cooling setting so that it's quiet. Poor things been cooking it's self. Anyway, the fella that put the comment up spoke of a program called "Riva Tuner 2.0".

Well I got to wondering if the programs that came with the card would be any help. So with very little searching I soon learnt the horable truth. The default profile, and only profile in fact, had the GPU on 18% fan speed. I've now managed to get the PC to see things my way. Which is when the computer starts, set the GPU fan speed to 100%.

There is the option to set mutiple rules. So you can have different cooling profiles for individual games. I've just gone for the one at the moment. I can certaily hear the fan spinning. I can now beging to understand why people go for water cooling or quiet fans. But for the slight increase in noise I'm quiet happy. Well it's got to compeat with 5 system fans, the CPU fan and several small system board fans. So the noise isn't that noticable. But the main thing is I've seen the GPU temp fall from 50c to 34c. And that's at idel.

My fear now is how much damage has the GPU sustained over all this time?



So how manny of you are now checking your fan speeds?

More importantly, do any of you have any recomendations for aftermarket coolers, or utilities?

[Lazzars]

i'm fairly sure the fan on my card shorted out when my last PC blew up recently but the thing works just as well as a passive cooler so its not a big deal.

HOWEVER the stock fan it came with was utter crap and i was forever having to turn up the fan speed via rivatuner. the card would die after a couple hours of TF2 as it just cooked itself, especially in the little shuttle case i had. i had to put speedfan on all the time to turn up the fan profile for the case fans so  that i could vent some of the heat out!

once i replaced the old fan, however, the card ran happy as larry. Except that all the heat that was staying in the card now was chucked out into the case making everything else hot!

was a right old mess and, tbh, its probably better that the thing died when it did!

TL:DR - small form factor can be a pain if you have a hot running card

[discordance]

Laz i had a similar problem in my old case which was huge, my processor ran very hot, i upgraded its heatsink but that just made everything else hot and crashed the ram and gfx. ATX needs to die a horrible death, tis ashame BTX never took off.

[Chaos]

I used to have to turn up a fan on a 8800 card using RivaTuner.. it's a headache indeed.. having to do it either at startup or when I start a game..

as far as aftermarket cooling gooes, this will do the job (cheapest price from a good seller I found)

but If you're going to spend money, you might as well consider a straight upgrade to one of these

[Zarf]

I have to use Rivatuner on my 8800GTX, otherwise it sits at 60% fan speed and eventually crashes.
I've set up profiles and triggers, so it increases fan speed automatically as the temperature rises now, takes a little bit of time to set everything up for a smooth ramping, but it's worth it now as I don't have to remember to start profiles manually before games and it's as quiet as possible.

[Magathery]

Nice one. Thanks for the links Chaos.

Long term I'm going to have to replace the card. It's been running on limmited cooling since the begining. This can't have done it any favors. One test would be to load up a single player game of Crysis and see how long it takes befor the game falls over. Previously it was 10 to 15 minuets for me.

I can handle the increase in noise, but I am wondering if I should take the cheap option and replace the fans. Lets see how the poor little thing gets on now it's not running so hot.

[Chaos]

if you're thinking of getting a new card anyway, why bother spending £20 on a cooler you're going to trash soon enough?

Thinking about it like that, makes me think that dealing with a crappy card until you can afford a new one becomes a better option

[Junta]

or.. when I get the funds for an NVIDIA 460... my ATI 4890 will be up for grabs. Handles Crysis well and tops out at 62-70 Degrees under heavy load (Vapor-X cooling).

I'm surprised that your card complains at 50 degrees! I assume that's an idle reading? This is way within normal for most GFX cards mate! I'd consider 80-90 high.

Get RivaTuner and re-read the temps (it can monitor temps whilst you are in game and log them to a file).

[Nineblade]

Never really got to grips with cooling issues. I'm not a fan

[Power]

You think bursting into a random thread with your silly puns is cool?

[Zarf]

You think bursting into a random thread with your silly puns is cool?

Yeah, they blow.

[Magathery]

[DeadlyAvenger]

All he's really doing is blowing hot air.

[Zarf]

Lets try and put a positive spin on things - at least it's given us something to waste time with.

[Magathery]

Now now. Let's just keep a cool head shall we? After all there is no point in getting all hot and bothered. Befor you know it you'll be in a spin.

(Your right, this is fun )