Hardware Analysis - Inspired

Re: Inspired

Phil — 2008-05-04T20:34:56-05:00

100 degrees on a graphics card?

I have a Zalman Cooler on my ATI and worry getting temps over 60C.

I tested a 8600gt Fanless a while back, slower clock speeds, but i noticed that idled at 50c and went up to around nrly 80c when playing games, i was shocked.

i've never let temps in my PC go over 60c, dunno if thats me just bein over protective

Re: Inspired

MrBungle — 2008-05-01T17:36:55-05:00

DarK_SlayeR said:

Overall I'm happy with the card, 1 minor problem. Whoever set the fan speed:temp ratio is a moron. The card is set by default @ 36% fan speed (about 450 rpms). Yes, it can be changed, but when the card got to 76c lastnight during UT2004, the fan never sped up. I used Rivatuner to lock the fan @ 60% (975 rpms), and the temp never exceeded 61c.

But in all truth, whoever set the fan speed:temp ratio REALLY is an idiot.

I've been seriously spoiled by the 7900 GTO. The fan never spins up and the card never exceeded 55-57ish under load. Such a cool running card

I noticed my card was getting pretty hot too.. I contacted eVGA about it and they basically told me it was normal and that the fan would auto adjust itself if it got too hot the rep said it would start running up the fan RPM's if it got over 100c. That sounded pretty hot to me but, the card is under warranty so if it over heats and kills itself they get to pay for it.

Re: Inspired

john albrich — 2008-05-01T12:02:32-05:00

DarK_SlayeR said:

...But in all truth, whoever set the fan speed:temp ratio REALLY is an idiot....

That's one of the first things I always check, and end up changing.

However, I do so not only for cooler temps, but because they don't bother to optimize rpm v. temps so the fan usually was getting over-rpm'd for a given temp and wears out faster than necessary. A 30% difference in fan speed can make a huge difference in a fan's MTBF.

For example, there's absolutely no technical reason to have fan "XYZ" running at 1200rpm if the same fan running at 800rpm keeps the monitored temps within 2C of each other, and I have seen instances of such. The higher rpm also tends to be noticeably louder. So, you set the profile to increase the fan speed only when the temp exceeds a meaningful threshold. It sould be nice to have a program that allowed for user-definable hysteresis, but so far I haven't seen any fan control program that provides that level of control.

Example of fan speed control program:
I use an ATI tool program to set up a fan speed profile for my ATI graphic card like this. Note that it's non-linear, and that as the temp crosses the 52C threshold, I ramp-up the speeds quickly

above..%of top
degC...fan speed

0.........35
43.......37
48.......41
52.......46
58.......65
62.......80
67.......89
70.....100

The idea is to provide optimum protection to the GPU while minimizing wear on the fan. The optimizing profile will be unique for a given video card.

Re: Inspired

Darkie — 2008-04-30T19:16:51-05:00

Re: Inspired

McFly — 2008-04-30T04:48:03-05:00

Damn, I can't get to 3.0GHz stable even though my temps are very comfy even then. 2.8 is solid though.

Re: Inspired

Darkie — 2008-04-30T03:20:43-05:00

Pushed the core to 2.88ghz, 1.4v. Managed to hit 10,657 this time. Guess a full 3 ghz is needed for my 11k run, but thats not happening on this cooling setup (Zalman 9700). The chip can do 3ghz stable, it just gets too hot for comfort. If I recall the core would hover around 60-62c under duel prime95, and the PWIC would get equally as hot.

Re: Inspired

Darkie — 2008-04-30T02:58:00-05:00

McFly said:

DarK_SlayeR Apr 29, 2008, 12:37pm PDT
Well, my brand spanking new PNY 8800 GTS came yesterday.

You cheeky bastard!

Cheeky! xD

Re: Inspired

Darkie — 2008-04-30T02:54:24-05:00

Just did a fresh reboot. When I ran the test before, I had just installed it and technically didn't bench it right. This time I got 10,327. I bet I could get close to 11k if I push my proc up to 2.88ghz (the highest I can safely run this chip on my current cooling, a 1.08ghz OC).

Jim H said:

sweet! You are being bottlenecked by your processor... I did have my 8800GT in a system with an Athlon X2 @ 2.6GHz and scored around 9500 after upgrading to the Core 2 Quad my score went up to 14600.

I had a feeling. But I didin't build this rig 1.5 yrs ago to benchmark it. I built it to game the Opty is still hanging in there, don't need another mobo/cpu/memory setup for quite a while yet. I'm just glad that Unreal Engine 3 games run well now. I've had Rainbow Six Vegas for a long time but have never really been able to get into it due to the heavy slowdown from the GTO, and I wouldn't even have considered getting Gears of War or UT3 with the old card.

Re: Inspired

MrBungle — 2008-04-29T20:44:43-05:00

DarK_SlayeR said:

sweet! You are being bottlenecked by your processor... I did have my 8800GT in a system with an Athlon X2 @ 2.6GHz and scored around 9500 after upgrading to the Core 2 Quad my score went up to 14600.

Re: Inspired

McFly — 2008-04-29T20:07:51-05:00

DarK_SlayeR Apr 29, 2008, 12:37pm PDT
Well, my brand spanking new PNY 8800 GTS came yesterday.

You cheeky bastard!

Re: Inspired

Darkie — 2008-04-29T19:37:01-05:00

Well, my brand spanking new PNY 8800 GTS came yesterday. I loaded it up and ran 3Dmark06. 10,006 first run. I suppose thats good, not really sure what it should bench, though the AM 2.0 score was lower then a comparable system (by 500 pts) with an 8800 GT.

I'm quite pleased so far, Unreal Engine 3 games run really well (they were crap on the 7900). So far so good

Re: Inspired

MrBungle — 2008-04-23T22:53:46-05:00

the one linked was a G92

Re: Inspired

McFly — 2008-04-23T22:45:28-05:00

Which one are you getting? G80 GTS or G92 GTS?

Re: Inspired

Darkie — 2008-04-23T22:35:24-05:00

Well sweet. Got one on the way for that price I can't pass it up

Re: Inspired

MrBungle — 2008-04-23T20:23:30-05:00

most of those cards are nVidia reference designs, that are identical regardless of manufacturer the only diffrence between that one and an evga or XFX model is the sticker on the heat sink.