Gtx 670 with very high temperatures

joenscp

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Sep 6, 2012
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Hey. My Gtx 670 msi OC edition has been hitting 90ºc under full load which is very hot :( I know it's been very warm in London, but even when the temperature is colder, is till hits 84-86ºC . Anything at all I can do? The case airflow is fine.
Temp under full load: 90ºC
Temp idle(14% power): 38ºC
Fan speed: Auto
 
Solution
you should never create a custom profile unless you REALLY know what you are doing. When did the high temps start? Like I said my GTX670 FTW is running bone stock and it gets into the high 80's when gaming, and if you notice Tom's reference cards hit 80s in a totally AC mostly consistent temp controlled room:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-review,3200-13.html

The reference GTX 670s are perfectly happy running mid 80s, and that also keeps the fan's silent. if you want to run 68C that's fine, but it will be MUCH louder than 40 decibels, which is really on the edge of tolerable anyways. I would tread VERY lightly when adjusting a fan profile manually because if you don't get it right, you can cause more damage...

DryCreamer

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Jan 18, 2012
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Your GTX 670 will throttle itself before anything happens to it. the only thing the 90 Degree temp will do is lower how it automatically overclocks, so if you aren't worried about MAX performance you should be fine. 90 is where NVIDIA sets its hard stop, so rather than going OVER 90, the card will underclock itself to cool down.

My 670 also runs pretty warm, but its in a tiny case and I'm not to concerned about MAX performance.

Airflow is key. How long have you had the card? has it done this before? did it start when the temps got high outside? can you move your PC to a room with AC?

by running my computer in the AC room, I dropped my GPU temps by 7 degrees.

Dry
 

ZippyPeanut

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Dec 26, 2012
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That’s hot. Airflow is indeed the key. First and foremost is the card’s cooler fan(s). Download and install MSI Afterburner (http://download.cnet.com/MSI-Afterburner/3000-20432_4-75871628.html), or EVGA Precision X (http://www.evga.com/precision/), which allows you to set the card’s fan speed in proportion to its temperature. I have Precision X run my fan speed (on an EVGA 670 FTW) at 80% when the card’s temperature reaches 68 C. This works perfectly, even when playing Crysis 3 on high settings: when the fan kicks in at 80%, the temps stay between 66 and 69. (And I’m playing in ambient temperatures of around 80 F.)

Also, double check your card’s fan’s intake to ensure it’s not clogged with dust and make sure that all your case fans are clean and optimally working.
 

DryCreamer

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you should never create a custom profile unless you REALLY know what you are doing. When did the high temps start? Like I said my GTX670 FTW is running bone stock and it gets into the high 80's when gaming, and if you notice Tom's reference cards hit 80s in a totally AC mostly consistent temp controlled room:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-review,3200-13.html

The reference GTX 670s are perfectly happy running mid 80s, and that also keeps the fan's silent. if you want to run 68C that's fine, but it will be MUCH louder than 40 decibels, which is really on the edge of tolerable anyways. I would tread VERY lightly when adjusting a fan profile manually because if you don't get it right, you can cause more damage than do good.

Its better to leave the card stock and find out why the temps spiked to 90, probably room temp or fuzz all clogged in the heatsink (especially if you run the PC sitting on the floor where dust settles)

after you get that settled, then you can adjust your fans if you are brave :)

Dry
 
Solution

cliffro

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Aug 30, 2007
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There's nothing overly complicated with changing fan profiles. Honestly I just added a few more nodes to the default profile, insuring that the fan doesn't wait until 70c+ to ramp up.

But I digress, he should definitely find the cause of the high temps first, hopefully it's just dust build up, and not the TIM needing replaced.
 

ZippyPeanut

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Dec 26, 2012
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Hi, Drycreamer.

Thanks for your cautionary advice. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure I really know what I’m doing. So perhaps I could benefit from knowing why setting a custom fan profile might do more harm than good. When I discovered the little “graph” in Precision X to adjust my fan speed according to the temp, I just moved the little bar and, abracadabra!—worked like a charm. So, what are the dangers of the setting a custom profile so that I don’t screw something up?

Thanks.
 

cliffro

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The only thing that immediately jumps out is, don't set it too low at higher temps. I guess 100% at idle is bad too, though I don't know why someone would want that.

Mine looks like so
13zy.png
 

DryCreamer

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thanks for the question.

To be honest, software has come a LONG way in regards to fan control, so as long as you make simple or small adjustments then really nothing horrible should happen. Nvidia new technology really eliminates the ability to 'damage' a GPU, because it will shut down or idle before it gets to hot to pop. But to the point, the fan profile would ideally strike a balance between noise and temperature. The first gen Keplars, GTX 670, overclocks itself by how much POWER it draws, so as long as it is falling UNDER its spec'd TDP, it will continue to overclock, and as a result, heat up. the newer cards with the GPU boost 2.0 works off of temperature alone. the difference is this: your GTX 670 with its fan CRANKED to 80% or 100% will easily be able to hit its TDP power draw (that you set in the OC software) and keeps its temps low, but the noise will be CRAZY, so you could possibly slow the fanspeed down and still hit the TDP you want. depending on how its set in EVGA PreX, if you have the power set to 100% that should be a piece of cake to hit max speeds

The newer GPU Boost 2.0 like in the Titan and 700 series runs strictly on temps, it will overclock until it hits 80C or whatever, so turning the fans up might change the way the OC can run

I guess my point is, you don't have to run the fans that aggressively because 80C isn't going to hurt the card, you just gotta find out what power % your card can hit its max clock AS WELL as the optimum temps. 68C is really really good and you are boosting your performance to the max but you could probably notch it down, lower your noise, and still hit the same clocks speeds, at say 77C.

sure, the card will last longer at lower temps, but your fans won't and most people upgrade long before their cards hit the duty cycle

that was a lot of words to say, if you have your power limit in precisionX set to 100%, there's really no need to force the card to run 68C unless that's really just want you want. if you want to bump it up to say 120% (which is very aggressive) then you can start forcing fan speed increases

Dry
 

ZippyPeanut

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Dec 26, 2012
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Dry,

Thanks so much for this thoughtful and informative answer. This is good information for me and the OP.

Yes, at 80%, my card is loud. But I have an acoustic system that’s as good as my graphics; so, when I play a first-person shooter I crank it up, sometimes scaring the shit out of my neighbors! I can tolerate the noise of the card, but heat scares me. So I err in favor of noise over heat.

Your point is well-taken about the shorter longevity of fan-life at 80%. I read somewhere that my 670 FTW stops turbo boosting at 70C; and that’s why I try to keep temps below 70. I’ll do some research to see if this is true and maybe adjust my fan speeds to something around 70% at 74C or 75C.

And cliff makes a good point that you could set the speeds too low for high temps or a constant 100%. Both of these mistakes could certainly be dangerous, and I could see a newb making simple yet fatal mistakes like these.

So, back to the OP. Can we agree that a reasonable course of action is a follows: First, blow the dust out of the card’s fan with canned air. Second, clean the case’s fans and blow the dust out of them using canned air. Third, try to lower the ambient temperature by locating his tower close to a cool source (or getting it away from a heat source). Fourth, install Afterburner, go to Youtube and check out some instructional videos on how to safely use Afterburner, and then carefully and incrementally set his fan speeds to be proportional to his temps.

Again, thanks for the well-written and thoughtful post. And good luck to the OP.

Zippy