Need some advice...

[Okele]

Hi guys,

I recently picked up 2 BFG 9800GT OC's for SLi, I seem to have run into a few issues with heat on one of the cards. Im using a Rocketfish case(Best Buy Lian-Li made case), and it has a 120mm fan that sits right in front of the 2 cards. Yet my 2nd card seems to heat up causing Speed fan to show that its on fire. Current temps are GPU1: 39c GPU2: 46C. I tried running OCCT last night for some stability testing and it crashed my computer. Keep in mind I do not have these cards OC'd, its based on stock OC from BFG. They are both currently clocked at 600/900 respectively.

I was playing WoW last night when I got a pop up last night saying that my Video Device driver has stopped working. Im not really sure what this issue is as the driver is the latest(as of install 2/16 or so). Im thinking of doing water cooling for my system, but I dont know enough about it to be comfortable in even trying. And the prices on water cooling seem just a bit higher then I want to pay considering Im trying to talk my wife into letting me upgrade everything else like my mobo and cpu.

Any suggestions? Im off work today so I should hopefully be around to answer any questions. Thanks in advance!

[Spawn-Inc]

you could properly cool your cards for about 300-400.

you need to read up on it and learn more about it before you do anything about it. head over to oc forums or a place that specializes in hardware and not modding. then come back here and mod it :)

i would get a
RAD
Swiftech MCR320
Pump
Swiftech MCP655 or Swiftech MCP 355 with XSPC res top
Blocks
Swiftech MCW60's

and various other things like tubing and barbs and heatsinks for the rest of the spots on the video card that the mcw60's don't cover. etcetc.

[The boy 4rm oz]

How close are the cards to each other? Is there a PCI slot between them? Sounds like an airflow or problem to me. Put a few more fans around the cards and make sure the stock coolers are installed properly and change the thermal paste.

Like Spawn said you can water cool for probably $300-$400, may even be able to get the CPU in there also for that price. Another option is to grab a couple of Thermalright HR-03 coolers and grab a couple of 92mm fans, they work extremely well.

[Okele]

How close are the cards to each other? Is there a PCI slot between them? Sounds like an airflow or problem to me. Put a few more fans around the cards and make sure the stock coolers are installed properly and change the thermal paste.

Like Spawn said you can water cool for probably $300-$400, may even be able to get the CPU in there also for that price. Another option is to grab a couple of Thermalright HR-03 coolers and grab a couple of 92mm fans, they work extremely well.

There is a PCi-e slot between the 2 cards. Whats odd about it is I have a fan right in front of them from the case that points into the motherboard. Also below it is the PSU 120mm fan maybe 4 inches from the bottom card, which seems to be the one thats having the issue. I was hoping to not spend 3-400.00 on a cooling system. Any other alternatives? and Im looking up those coolers now.

[mtekk]

Sounds like that bottom card is air starved. ATX powersupply fans usually push air into the supply (removing air from near that bottom card in your setup). What cooler setup do the cards have (can you link to any pictures/is it like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143164 ??)?

If you take off the side panel do the temperatures change much? If so, is it in a good or bad direction (if the case cooling is setup properly the temperature should not change by much or even get warmer without the side panel on)?

[Okele]

this is the type of cooling it has but the card is actually the 1gb variety

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143151

[The boy 4rm oz]

Ah the good old bog standard cooling, good for nothing except preventing fire lol. Have you tried increasing the fan speed through RivaTuner? I know with my 8800GTX the stock cooling was set at 25% at stock, card hit 65c idle easily. I upped the fan to 75-80% and it kept it a nice 50-60c at 100% load, much better. Upgrading the cooler will also be a huge benefit to you, you can do it pretty cheaply but it won't compete with water cooling.

[Okele]

Ah the good old bog standard cooling, good for nothing except preventing fire lol. Have you tried increasing the fan speed through RivaTuner? I know with my 8800GTX the stock cooling was set at 25% at stock, card hit 65c idle easily. I upped the fan to 75-80% and it kept it a nice 50-60c at 100% load, much better. Upgrading the cooler will also be a huge benefit to you, you can do it pretty cheaply but it won't compete with water cooling.

Ive actually been using NTUNE, always had a problem figuring rivatuner out. Only real problem I have with ntune is that the fan speeds dont stay once I shut down, when Im playing a game or something I try to make sure that I turn them up before I play.

[mtekk]

If you have the room, try making air ducts from the air intake of the cards to the back of the case (will make each card take 2 slots). You may not have room for this however. I have a feeling that bottom card is starved for air.

[progbuddy]

I would suggest investing in one of those extra PCI slot cooler things. They seem to work. You can stick one above your GPU to relieve the heat of the chipset, which is a major problem in a lot of case designs. It is normally the hottest thing in the case besides a GPU (about 50-60 degrees celsius operating tempurature without modification). It tends to heat up everything else. Or, if there are a couple slot's space below the second SLI'ed card, it'll pull the hot air from the bottom of the case. 5 bucks.

link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835888309)

[mtekk]

I would suggest investing in one of those extra PCI slot cooler things. They seem to work. You can stick one above your GPU to relieve the heat of the chipset, which is a major problem in a lot of case designs. It is normally the hottest thing in the case besides a GPU (about 50-60 degrees celsius operating tempurature without modification). It tends to heat up everything else. Or, if there are a couple slot's space below the second SLI'ed card, it'll pull the hot air from the bottom of the case. 5 bucks.

link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835888309)

I don't think that is the problem as his psu is sucking air out from the bottom (psu is on the bottom, bottom card is getting hottest). I really think his GPU cooler is "starved" for air.

[p0Pe]

i cant see the problem:S the cards should only start to fail when hitting the 90C. not 50/60.
you might have to look in another direction. heat might not be the issue.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Possibly power starvation at load?