My shiny XFX 9800GTX Black edition does 61 degrees celsius idle

[bramdo]

Hello,

Great that i've found this forum on one of my favourite review sites.

I was very happy to receive my anticipated Geforce 9800 GTX Black ed.
But despite all my efforts (P 182 CASE-4 NOCTUA case fans) to have a reasonable quiet, but also performing, pc I do experience a rather high idle temperature of the graphic card.

All my sensors (mainboard, separture measurement) do indicate a realistic in case temp of 38 degrees (8 hours, combinded activities). The geforce however gives (even after an overnight shut down) an idle temp of 63 degrees celsius. Despite the absence of harddisks and a wind vent with a nocuta case cooler blowing on the card.

The first reply from a helpfull technician (waiting for a second one after my experiments) was to use ntune but it gave me blue screens on vista 64.
What I did do based on the interesting posts in the guru3d forum (update drivers to 175.16 - use riva to manually change fan speed.

Increasing the fan speed to 59 % gives of the fan speed indeed gives nice temps of 51 degrees but even with riva tuner the only thing i can do is adjust the fan speed permanently (so 59 % is excellent with 2d but too low with games). I think the cooler is only on 30 % by default.

Anyhow, without manipulating things manually, temps are staying low so is this normal.

Any advice/opinion is welcome
Bram

[bramdo]

Hello,

despite all my efforts (p182 case, 4 noctua case coolers) to have a reasonable quiet, but also performing, pc I do experience a rather high idle temperature of the graphic card. All my sensors (mainboard, separture measurement ) do indicate a realistic in case temp of 38 degrees (8 hours, combinded activities). The geforce however gives (even after an overnight shut down) an idle temp of 61-63 degrees celsius.

Despite the absence of harddisks and a wind vent with a nocuta case cooler blowing on the card.

[XFX Tech]

61 idle is a little high but not too bad for a card clocked as high as that one is. The fan is always going to run pretty low when in 2D mode and the card is never going to die at 61C so it shouldn't be an issue. It is too hard to go off of idle temps considering so many variables like the other components and the surrounding temperatures. What are your loaded temps like? We would like to see anything under 80C or so when under a heavy load.

[Scott]

The card is ok at those temps. My card runs one GPU at 64 and one at 67 at idle and go into the low 80's when gaming.

[swmeek]

Maybe you should try the newer version of Rivatuner.
right now (according to pcwizard 2008 ) my gpu is running at 47*C and the fan is running at 100% and I'm only browsing the internet.
I'm using a Armor case so maybe it could be a case related problem.

[bramdo]

Hi, thanks for the reply.
I have already tried several versions of riva to check the temps (also a manual sensor, hwmonitor etc...)
The case is an antec p182 with several coolers and i know people who have sli setups with this case so that's not the problem.
Bram

[Methious]

Given that others are experiencing similar temps if you want to run cooler than that really your looking at an after market cooler.

On a GPU that runs that warm I'd after market it in a second to get better longevity.

[BigVEvil]

Maybe you should beef up your fans. My CPU fan is a Masscool 8WA741 which runs at 30c idle with 2 120mm aspire case fans. Never going over 38c with a full load. One for intake and one for exhaust. I have a q6600 running in an XFX680i LT Mobo with 4 gigs OCZ 800mhz and dual XFX 8500gt ultra silent cooling vid cards in SLI mode. With XP pro 64 bit. Had nothing but problems with vista and it's lack of a stable SLI driver. Switched to XP 64 corp. been running fine since. My GPU's run at 42c and 45c never going over 50c with a full load. I'd also suggest going with XP pro. Vista has too many bugs right now. Hope this helps.

Ultra XBlaster Clear Side Blk Mid-Tower Case
XFX nForce 680i LT SLI Socket 775 Motherboard
Intel Quad Core Kentsfield 2.4Ghz Q6600
OCZ Vista Upgrade Edition 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MH
XFX GeForce 8500 GT 512MB Ultra Silent Cooling PCI X2
Masscool 8WA741 CPU FAN w/Heat Pipes 775
Aspire 120mm UV Blue LED Case Fan X2
Vantec Spectrum Fan Card with Blue UV LED between vid cards
Ultra 600w X-Finity Power Supply w/2 80mm / Titan
LITE-ON 20X PATA DVDRW DH20A4P-04 OEM Black
WD Caviar 250GB SATA HD 7200/8MB/SATA-3G

[infernalzen]

ive had mine installed 2days +has 34.c core temp :)
i took a real chance +pulled it apart before even testing it.

i fitted enzotech copper ram heatsinks, ocz copper heatinks on my vrms with arctic silver thermal adhesive
+arctic cooler S1 cooler, lapped +fitted with ocz freeze compound.
too cool the lot, i have a 54cfm 120mm fan blowing in the direction of the fins +out the back of the case.

custompc reviewed this cooler this month +slagged it off.
it amazes me that they can wring every last mhz, but cant see that with a fan, it'll work superbly.

my idle temps are: mb 28.c
gpu core temp 34.c
using rivatuner 2.09 +pc probeII

[bramdo]

Hello all of you,

Thanks for the helpfull replies, and this great forum, and sorry for the delay but since I live in Belgium there is a time difference :wink:
The idea of a special cooler (i was thinking of the new arctic cooling 9800) is something that i'm considering. The only concern is the warranty? The reviews i've read on the geforce 9800gtx in general, and the black edition in particular, are mentioning 47-53 degrees idle and 65-75 under load. That's why i'm a bit worried.

For the moment the card is with my dealer (pc stuff ;-)) for testing and I have the xfx 8800 gt alphadog with gpu temps around 42 degrees celsius and 40 degrees celsius. So it's already a relief that nothing is wrong with my case.

If someone has a good guide to tune a card with aftermarket heatsinks and coolers ...
I've seen that some hardware manufacturers are adding these tweaks standard on their higher end cards which could be great.

Bram

[gmedina333]

I have the XFX 9800 GTX Black Edition too, and it runs very hot for me also. Right now I have it at 95% fan speed (with rivatuner) and the temp is 52ºC when Idle. When playing, it can get up to 80ºC. I live in a caribbean island, and it's summer, so it's hot in here right now. I hope running the card always at 95% fan speed doesnt damage it, but right now it's the only option.
I made a ticket with xfx support but haven't heard from them yet. I guess it's just how the card works.
Just so you know you're not alone heheh.

[XFX Tech]

Those high end fans basically don't fail. I have had an 8800GTX since the launch of the XXX Edition in Dec 06 that has ran 100% fan 24/7 since then. 95% should be fine and 80C under load is fine.

[typh4u]

I was idling at 61'C on my 8800GT and loading near 80'C. I upgraded to a TT duorb and my idle temps are now 43'C and loading at 60'C. Easy and inexpensive upgrade that will definitely prolong the life of your Graphics card. The great thing is XFX warranty remains intact as long as you keep your original HSF unit.


Stay Cool

Typh

[bramdo]

Hi guys,

thanks for all the info. I did put some senors on the card and noticed that it's only 31 degrees, even under load. The only thing that stays 60 degrees celsius is the core but even after 1 hour of gameplay it stays that way.
I suppose the cooler is rather spinning slow at idle but under load it keeps the card also at 60 degrees so i decided to stop worrying.

Bram