GTX 580 Phantom 3GB temperature issues

[Spoonie]

Ok here are some low quality pics, but you'll get my drift. First is a pic of the entire case, if you didn't know already:

By toothless_spoon at 2011-09-07

Next is a pic of the top of the case, where I have removed the outta honeycomb metal grate, which has decreased the heat by 10 - 20 C, that's how much it holds it back. Also if I remove that honeycomb grate you see in the pic, it takes it down another 5 - 10...but it's not really practical.

By toothless_spoon at 2011-09-07

This is a shot inside the case and you can see the cluster fck that is going on

By toothless_spoon at 2011-09-07

And finally the shot of the cards and distance apart. Also you can see to the right the fan that I have installed using precision twist ties

By toothless_spoon at 2011-09-07

So there you have it, if you want more pics let me know and I'll see what I can do. Thoughts?

 

[crazyotterhound]

This might sound daft, but is your front intake fan spinning at full rpm when the GPUs are under load? This turned out to be my problem, intake stuck at only 4% (in software control panel), once I manually set it to 40% my load temps dropped from 91c to 75c. Nice tidy build btw!

 

[Spoonie]

This might sound daft, but is your front intake fan spinning at full rpm when the GPUs are under load? This turned out to be my problem, intake stuck at only 4% (in software control panel), once I manually set it to 40% my load temps dropped from 91c to 75c. Nice tidy build btw!

Yeah I hear what you are saying, it's a 200mm 600-800rpm (not particularly good quality, but unlike most 200mm fans i've seen this one is quite thin, I'm thinking of replacing it - although I'm not sure any fan would just fit). Now with this particular case it has an external button that changes the fan speeds from low to high. Now I can only assume that this is enabling the max for each fan that is connected to this function. But like I mentioned before, the case has 5 hot swap bays and a lot of the front intake fan is blocked because of all the brackets for these bays etc, so that extra fan which you can see in the pic helps suck more air in and also blows cold air straight on to the GPU's. This is also achieved by a fan on the bottom just below this fan sucking air from under the case which blows into the path of the new fan. Idle temps alone have dropped 6 degrees. to 35 and 31.

What utility did you use to control the fan speeds? I've tried both bios and speedfan, and I think the external button negates both of these by switching to the highest setting. I think the biggest difference was allowing the top exhaust fan to breath better. Huge difference there.

 

[crazyotterhound]

My case is not a custom build (its an Alienware Aurora) so I was using their command centre software to control the fan speeds. Otherwise I would have suggested speedfan which you are already using, but it sounds like you have full control of fan speed. From what I can gather the Gainward Phantom dumps heat into the case (as opposed to the stock 580 cooler) so good case airflow is the key to getting good temps.

 

[twicksisted]

Perhaps your air intake is much more than your exhaust making an excess of stagnant air in the case with no set flow pattern.

Most people advise to have more air coming in than out to keep positive pressure for dust reasons, but if i was hitting 95c on a GPU that should do 60-70c maxxed, I'd try different airflow methods.

Hot air rises, follow the natural convection of the case, exiting the heat out the top and back, and entering into the case through the front and side panel.

Also is your Corsair watercooler's fans blowing into the case or out? This could be really screwing up your airflow as by the look of it you have all these fans blowing into the case from every direction (front, back bottom and sides) and only your power supply (at the very bottom) and the top 20mm fan (at the very top) exiting the air.

 

[Bo$$]

on the side door is there a fan?

 

[Spoonie]

Perhaps your air intake is much more than your exhaust making an excess of stagnant air in the case with no set flow pattern.

Most people advise to have more air coming in than out to keep positive pressure for dust reasons, but if i was hitting 95c on a GPU that should do 60-70c maxxed, I'd try different airflow methods.

Hot air rises, follow the natural convection of the case, exiting the heat out the top and back, and entering into the case through the front and side panel.

Also is your Corsair watercooler's fans blowing into the case or out? This could be really screwing up your airflow as by the look of it you have all these fans blowing into the case from every direction (front, back bottom and sides) and only your power supply (at the very bottom) and the top 20mm fan (at the very top) exiting the air.

I have made a variety of changes, and know exactly what you are talking about. I use to have the H80 out the back of the case as an intake (which corsair recommend) but I changed it to an exhaust, and placed a fan at the same level at the front of teh case, which actually helps push cool air into this setup, while allowing the hot air that rises to still be exhausted. The top fan was having a hard time exhausting as well with the mesh over it, but once I got rid of that I lost almost 20 degrees C. I think I have nailed the flow of the air now in it's current setup, but I'll keep you posted if it changes.

on the side door is there a fan?

Boss, yeah I have a 200/230 mm side fan..it is an intake fan and again I even tried it as an exhaust, but if didn't help much. It did help however taking the dust filter off and letting it breath more, but I need the dust filter, and the other fans I installed seem to do the trick, so we'll see.

 

[Spoonie]

To filter, or not to filter...that is the question my friends.

Ok...So I was becoming happy, idle temps were great, top @ 38C bottom @ 34C so then I usually run deus Ex @ 5760 x 1080 with everything maxed, but I thought I'd try a different game, and booted up The witcher 2 with everything maxed except uber sampling disabled. I'm get a constant 40+fps which I find smooth, anything below 40 is too slow. Anyway first run, top card got to 90C and bottom to 75C...not happy. Bottom card is still performing well, 75C @ 87% fan, is good. Not happy with 90C though. So I take my dust filter off the side intake fan, and run the game again. Exact same area of the game, played the exact same way etc, and for the same amount of time 5 mins or so. This time top card gets to 82C @ 100% and bottom card gets to 67 C @ 83 %....hmmm it's amazing how much these filters block the air flow.

But in saying all this, thats still a crap load of difference between the two cards. I suppose the only way to find out if it's another crappy card is to swap them around...ah it never ends :/

 

[Bo$$]

top card is choking as it is taking all the hot air of the bottom card, hence the heating effect

 

[Spoonie]

top card is choking as it is taking all the hot air of the bottom card, hence the heating effect

I've already removed the outta grate on the top, what more can I do? the only thing I can think of also other then swapping the cards, is taking the metal grate off the side so more cool air can flow?? thoughts?

 

[twicksisted]

I've already removed the outta grate on the top, what more can I do? the only thing I can think of also other then swapping the cards, is taking the metal grate off the side so more cool air can flow?? thoughts?

Well the only options I see are to either:

1.) Buy another case with better airflow
Or
2.) Run a single card configuration (not SLI)
Or
3.) Watercooling

Its likely your case just has bad airflow and another case will remedy the situation for you. If not you could go the watercooling route but thats a bit of a headache to do if youve never done it before. And lastly you could just get a single GPU setup going which should make less heat and use less power than two GTX 580's.

 

[Bo$$]

I've already removed the outta grate on the top, what more can I do? the only thing I can think of also other then swapping the cards, is taking the metal grate off the side so more cool air can flow?? thoughts?

i dont really think there is a solution other than moving the fan from the HDD cage and latching it to the end of the graphics card to push air to the top card

 

[blaznee]

Finally got an update from my vendor.. After their test they have decided to send me a new card.. Now I'm crossing my fingers for that to be silent!

 

[twicksisted]

Finally got an update from my vendor.. After their test they have decided to send me a new card.. Now I'm crossing my fingers for that to be silent!

good luck and keep us posted on the results

 

[Bo$$]

Finally got an update from my vendor.. After their test they have decided to send me a new card.. Now I'm crossing my fingers for that to be silent!

good luck, hope it works out for you

 

[Spoonie]

Finally got an update from my vendor.. After their test they have decided to send me a new card.. Now I'm crossing my fingers for that to be silent!

Good to hear, I definitely think I had a dud card. Also for an update, I bumped up my corsair to level 2 (theres 3 levels with the H80) and now I struggle to get the top card over 75, and the bottom always stays below 70. Theres usually only 5 - 10 degrees difference now. So I'm ultra happy with that. Granted I still have the dust filter off the side and top, but just means I'll have to clean more often But I think that is great temps for 2 of these cards sli on fan cooling. Thanks for everyones help/advice.

 

[Bo$$]

Good to hear, I definitely think I had a dud card. Also for an update, I bumped up my corsair to level 2 (theres 3 levels with the H80) and now I struggle to get the top card over 75, and the bottom always stays below 70. Theres usually only 5 - 10 degrees difference now. So I'm ultra happy with that. Granted I still have the dust filter off the side and top, but just means I'll have to clean more often But I think that is great temps for 2 of these cards sli on fan cooling. Thanks for everyones help/advice.

excellent, good for you man

 

[blaznee]

My RMA'ed card fiiiiinally arrived, and the cooler was the same as the old one, and it had the gap that I thought caused the issue on the bad card.. So I wasn't hopefull when I booted up..

But lo and behold.. I struggle to even break 60 degrees on this card.. So YAY! .. When I was hitting 90 degrees on the old one, I'm at 58 with the new one..

 

[Bo$$]

That is a beautiful outcome blaznee, good luck with your card and enjoy it!

 

[twicksisted]

Awesome news