I've had this EVGA GTX 295 since February of 2009 and it ran fine for a card with two GPU's on it (idled around 60-65 C, depending on bedroom temp), but now I think after I switched to Windows 7, the card idles at 75-78 C, depending on bedroom temp. Certain games like Left 4 Dead 1-2 are unplayable without manually cranking the fan up to 100%. Crysis makes it get dangerously hot (98-102 C).
Is there anything I can do to clean out the card without taking it completely apart? Or is there anything else I can do to make it run cooler?
Nvidia did release some broken drivers at one stage that didn't scale the fan speed to temp; so in saying that, got the newest drivers?
[QUOTE=Pandamobile;23009933]
Is there anything I can do to clean out the card without taking it completely apart? Or is there anything else I can do to make it run cooler?[/QUOTE]
Compressed Air in a can
[QUOTE=camstatic;23010016]Nvidia did release some broken drivers at one stage that didn't scale the fan speed to temp; so in saying that, got the newest drivers?[/QUOTE]
I've got the newest drivers. This issue has been persistent for about 6 months now.
Clean the heatsink off and reapply some fresh thermal paste.
get MSI afterburner and set the fan graph thing to this
[img]http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/1018/msia.jpg[/img]
i do this with my 2 gtx 470s in sli and it never goes beyond 80c
That's not going to do anything if he has to run the fan speed at 100% to keep it from overheating.
The heatsink is probably clogged with dust and/or you have terrible airflow in your case. I would suggest taking the heatsink off and getting a can of Dust Off and thoroughly cleaning it out completely. Then clean the GPU core and the base of the heatsink with 99% isopropyl alcohol and then Acetone afterwards (it gets rid of the streak marks). It's not necessary to use Acetone though.
Lastly give the GPU some airflow in your case. I bet your case fans are also clogged with dust as well.
I've got a HAF 932 case with all the airflow I can manage. There's tons of space around the card. I took apart the housing of the GPU and took a can of compressed air to it, but there wasn't a whole lot of dust in there. Current temp is fluctuating between 69 and 70 C. The rest of my components are nice and cool. My CPU is chilling out at 31 C.
I'll try out the MSI Afterburner thing.
Afterburner isn't going to do anything. Haven't you had this card for two years or something? The thermal paste on the GPUs has probably almost completely disintegrated. Take it apart using one of the various tutorials floating around on the Internet, clean the GPUs using rubbing alocohol, and reapply with the best you can get (Tuniq TX-3 or Tuniq TX-4 whenever it's released).
[QUOTE=Odellus;23017662]Afterburner isn't going to do anything. Haven't you had this card for two years or something? The thermal paste on the GPUs has probably almost completely disintegrated. Take it apart using one of the various tutorials floating around on the Internet, clean the GPUs using rubbing alocohol, and reapply with the best you can get (Tuniq TX-3 or Tuniq TX-4 whenever it's released).[/QUOTE]
So thermal paste just vaporizes? Please explain.
[QUOTE=PunchedInFac;23037200]So thermal paste just vaporizes? Please explain.[/QUOTE]
Some thermal pastes tend to lose their effect after a while, it just happens. It's not a drastic change or anything, but it can happen.
[QUOTE=PunchedInFac;23037200]So thermal paste just vaporizes? Please explain.[/QUOTE]
Uh yeah? Especially some shitty stock thermal paste. It's going to deteriorate after a while of having 50C+ temperatures being pumped through it 24/7.
get a heat backbourd, and the cards rated at 100C's so I wouldn't worry.
I'm in the same boat. I bought my EVGA GTX 295 somewhere around May 2009. At the time I was using a pretty small case (the [url=http://www.krunker.com/wp-content/ThermaltakeTsunamiDreamPCCase.jpg]ThermalTake Tsunami Dream[/url]). It always got very hot when I hit 60+ FPS in a game, and whenever my card reached 100°C my computer crashed (EVGA support told me to contact them if this happened all the time). So I decided to buy the EVGA backplate. This didn't make much of a difference, the temperature went down 4-5°C max.
Roughly a year after that I purchased a new case (the HAF 922, including the 3 200mm fans). Swapping cases was a piece of cake, though my PSU decided to backfire (ThermalTake Toughpower 700W, I really expected a lot better from ThermalTake) and fried almost all of my hardware.
After months of RMA'ing I got all my hardware again, and I was eager to see how low my GPU temperatures became thanks to my new case, but they didn't really get any lower, which obviously disappointed me because I bought a new case and had to RMA all my hardware for nothing.
I contacted EVGA several times already, and while the support says: "The card is built to operate at those temperatures", the people on the forums are surprised my card didn't burn out already. Recently my card started freezing and displaying artifacts at random moments, and after contacting EVGA support again, they suggested I'd send in the card for inspection, which I'm going to do in 1-2 weeks.
Anyway, it's good to know I'm not the only one with this problem out there. If it can be considered a problem that is; Apparently it's meant to run this hot, although I don't think it improves the card's lifetime.
Just to update at what I said before, is the heatsink or card uncomfortable to touch when it reads 70C? How about when it reads 90C-100C? If you can touch it without burning your hand off then the GPUs are not contacting properly. So, the only thing I can think of is that, to do with the thermal paste, as you report there is good airflow and no dust clogged in the heatsink.
If you do what I suggested, clean the base of the heatsink and the GPU with alcohol and then use acetone(if you have it) to get rid of any streak marks. For thermal paste, well, I would suggest getting some good stuff. MX-3 or OCZ Freeze will do the job, just put a dab in the middle of both GPUs and place the heatsink on it but do not lift up as it might invite air pockets. If you're really looking for good thermal paste, try the IC7 Diamond, it's the best stuff you can get. I used it on my Q9550 and temps dropped by a noticable amount.
Read more about it here [url]http://innovationcooling.com/overview.htm[/url]
Remove the dust. You can take off the heatsink and give it a good dusting. That's what I did recently, and you'd be surprised at the amounts of dust it accumulates over a few months. I could have knitted a quilt.
[QUOTE=Mayco;23062288]I'm in the same boat. I bought my EVGA GTX 295 somewhere around May 2009. At the time I was using a pretty small case (the [url=http://www.krunker.com/wp-content/ThermaltakeTsunamiDreamPCCase.jpg]ThermalTake Tsunami Dream[/url]). It always got very hot when I hit 60+ FPS in a game, and whenever my card reached 100°C my computer crashed (EVGA support told me to contact them if this happened all the time). So I decided to buy the EVGA backplate. This didn't make much of a difference, the temperature went down 4-5°C max.
Roughly a year after that I purchased a new case (the HAF 922, including the 3 200mm fans). Swapping cases was a piece of cake, though my PSU decided to backfire (ThermalTake Toughpower 700W, I really expected a lot better from ThermalTake) and fried almost all of my hardware.
After months of RMA'ing I got all my hardware again, and I was eager to see how low my GPU temperatures became thanks to my new case, but they didn't really get any lower, which obviously disappointed me because I bought a new case and had to RMA all my hardware for nothing.
I contacted EVGA several times already, and while the support says: "The card is built to operate at those temperatures", the people on the forums are surprised my card didn't burn out already. Recently my card started freezing and displaying artifacts at random moments, and after contacting EVGA support again, they suggested I'd send in the card for inspection, which I'm going to do in 1-2 weeks.
Anyway, it's good to know I'm not the only one with this problem out there. If it can be considered a problem that is; Apparently it's meant to run this hot, although I don't think it improves the card's lifetime.[/QUOTE]
When I switched cases from my old Xion shitbox to my HAF 932 my GPU temps dropped a good 10 C. I couldn't even play Crysis or L4D in that case without my PC shitting out.
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