Will adding more case fans reduce gpu temperature in SLI

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fallenshinobi

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Hello,

I recently added a second 780 Ti to my system.
My current setup is as follows ;

Case : Corsair Obisian 750D
Mobo : Asus Maximus VI Hero
CPU : Intel core i7 4770k
RAM : Corsair Vengeance 8 gigs
GPU 1 : MSI GeForce GTX 780 Ti
GPU 2 : MSI GeForce GTX 780 Ti
Storage : Seagate 1TB SSHD
PSU : Cooler Master V1000

I am exploring the possibilities of providing better cooling for my gpu's.
Liquid cooling is out of the question for me, so when looking at some case fans I found one that piqued my interest, the Noctua NF-A14 PWM.

At the moment it's not that the GPU's are overheating but I would like for them to run at a cooler temperature, for instance now when playing BF4 on 1080p 200% resolution scaling with everything on max except AA the top card sometimes gets to 80°C+ degrees and when running furmark for 15 minutes or so with all 3D test options enabled the top card goes to 85 - 90 °C

My Case provides me with two 140MM fans in the front and one 140MM at the rear.

So now my question to you is, what kind of temperature drops can realistically expect to see when I would replace the two front fans with two Noctua NF-A14 PWM fans, take the original 140MM fans and place them as two exhaust fans at the top of my case and maybe add a third Noctua at the bottom of my case as an intake fan so that I will have equal intake and exhaust fans?

Thanks in advance for your expertise!
 
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dwatterworth
The Noctua ones will work really well in that front panel position. The higher static pressure will really help to pull air into the case and push it out, maintaining that positive pressure.
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dwatterworth

dwatterworth

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Which model of the 780Ti do you have? The reference cooler? Aftermarket model cooler?

You should see perhaps a few degrees drop in temperatures with the top exhaust fans.

The effects of new top exhaust fans will be more applicable to the aftermarket/recirculating type coolers whereas the reference coolers are probably getting nearly all the fresh air they need from the front intakes and exhausting a majority of their heat produced, instead of relying on the cases exhaust fans.

The spacing of the GPU's is also a factor, since the bottom intake will most likely only provide limited extra direct airflow for the GPU's as they are somewhat out of the path of the airflow direction from that location.

What speed are your current intake fans running at? I would see if there is a major difference between case fans at 25%, 50%, 75% and full speed. If there is, then you can probably benefit from some more powerful fans, especially if the noctua models you are looking at have a significantly higher CFM raiting. Do the temperatures of the cards drop noticeably with the side panel off?

 
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nostall

nostall

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Nov 28, 2012
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dwatterworth has you heading in the right direction; I just wanted to add a little.
The 80C that you see running BF4 is o.k. especially for that top card. Maximum temperature, per Nvidia's website, is 95C.
So even at 90C you should be o.k., and there should be no graphics throttling (slow down).
My Sniper case has a big side fan for intake and during benchmarking or gaming it is turned up to about 70% RPM, along with the other two fans; with two EVGA SC 660's (non ACX cooling, they use a reference type design and blow the hot air out of the case) my top card has been running 70-82C in Metro 2033 Redux with everything but AA maxed out. That is a heavy work load similar to BF4.
I would probably put a fan on the bottom as intake for starters and see if there is any effect on the top cards temp. Adding just the third intake fan will tend to create more of a positive pressure condition in your case. Because of the openings in the back of the case and top, you cannot achieve actual/real/complete positive pressure, but more cool air in is a good thing.
dwatterworth's last question is really important: To reiterate, do the cards run cooler with the side panel open or off?
 
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fallenshinobi

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Both GPU's are by MSI which makes the coolers twin frozr iv's.

The top GPU is in the first PCI slot and the second GPU is in the second PCI slot, there's about 2,5 - 3 cm space between the cards.

I have yet to tinker with the speed of the case fans, I will test that right now.
If I remove the side panel I see a very slight temperature change, about 1 - 2 degrees max.

 
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fallenshinobi

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I've ran some tests, I turned furmark on and ran it for 5 minutes, the top gpu got to 87 degrees and the bottom gpu to 70 with both temperatures slowly building up.
Then I went into my bios, turned the fans from 'normal mode' to 'turbo mode'. I've been running furmark for 10 minutes at the same settings, and the temperatures are 83 - 84 for the top card and 68 - 69 for the bottom one. This is with the dust filter removed at the front fans and the gpu fans at around 100% speed aswell.

This solution kind of works for me but I'd much rather not have all the fans run at 100% all the time, so if adding more fans will improve the temperatures and make it so that I don't have to push my fans to the max all the time I'd rather go with that.
 
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dwatterworth

dwatterworth

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It will help some to install those additional fans by a few degrees I would think. If they are the stock corsair fans in the case, then those are actually pretty good units. The noctua ones may not perform significantly better but will probably be more quiet at the same air flow rates.

Those twin frozr coolers are among the best, I wouldn't want to see what those temps look like with an inferior cooler.

I think with added top exhaust fans you will probably see roughly the same temperature drop as when you ran the fans at 100%, but at a lower fan speed.

The key to even lower temperatures would be more direct air into that top card which is clearly the problem location.
 
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fallenshinobi

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The reason I was so interested in those noctua fans was because they've got like double the specifications of the corsair fans so wouldn't they be vastly superior?
 
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dwatterworth

dwatterworth

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The static pressure sure is a ton better, but only about 10+/- CFM more than the stock fans. I think the stock corsair fans are unlabeled AF-140 models. They both have roughly the same noise levels, so they will definitely be an upgrade for keeping a positive pressure in the case / pushing more air through.
 
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fallenshinobi

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No I ment that the static pressure 140 ones by corsair have 49 CFM while the Noctua ones have 83 CFM which to me seems like the Noctua fans would preform much better than the corsair ones.

But then again I don't know much about fan specifications so I don't know for sure how much of a difference it would make.
 
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fallenshinobi

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Okay, thanks. That made my mind up about the fans.

One last thing though, would it be okay if I would replace the front fans ( which are the stock AF-140 models by corsair )
with the Noctua ones and then use the stock af-140 fans which I took from the front, and put them at the top of my case as exhaust fans? Or would it be better to just use the Noctua ones as exhaust and leave the front fans as they are?
 
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