MSI Afterburner - Temps almost doubles when playing games

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
R

Rizing

Commendable
Aug 19, 2016
75
0
1,640
Hello,

I built my computer and finally got it up and running about several weeks ago.

Specs:

Asus Prime B250M-A
i7 7700 (with stock cooler with a huge hexagonal amount of thermal paste I was advised not to change)
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
Kingston Digital HyperX Fury 250GB SSD
Seagate 2TB BarraCuda 6GB's/64mb cache @7200rpm
Corsair Vengenace LPX 16GB DDR4 2400 Mhz
Zalman ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ZM-Z9 NEO BLACK
EVGA Supernova 850 G2 Fully Modular
GTX 970 4GB

With my core programs and W10 on my SSD and everything else on the HDD, the computer runs pretty smoothly. However, I've encountered a game breaking issue when it comes to running anything with intensive resources (mostly games).

Upon starting a game, I get the performance I would expect. After about 5-10 minutes, I notice that all the models in the game start to move very slowly. Even the background seems to transition more slowly. I restart the game and the exact same thing happens over and over.

After doing a ton of research, I downloaded MSI afterburner but don't know how to interpret the results. The results are the follow for 2 games with temperature at base and at max recorded in celcius.

40 - 86 C NBA 2K17 (Very noticeable lag standing still, worse when moving)
40 - 81 C WWE 2k17 (No noticeable lag even after a 5 minute match)
40 - 68 C Path of Exile (No noticeable lag after noting that 68C was maximum temperature reached)

I also played The Division and lag came a lot sooner and was more impactful. I uninstalled the game before I learned about MSI afterburner.

According to MSI afterburner, power limit is set at 100%, temp limit is set at 79 C, Core and Memory Clock at +0, and Fan at auto.

I have 2 case fan heads, but only the rear 1 works. The other case fan header does not seem to work. I have 4 extra case fans in the front and on the top.

I heard that this slowdown can be attributed to a CPU bottleneck if temperatures are too high?
Was the stock amount of thermal paste on my cpu that I mentioned too much? I heard it should only be a pea sized amount. Maybe the cooler is bad? Even if the game might have been badly optimized, which I doubt since I never experienced the level of lag on my older 8 yo computer, are those temperatures normal?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
dotas1

dotas1

Splendid
Dec 5, 2015
3,157
523
24,540
7th generation of Intel CPUs run hot. You are most probably experiencing thermal throttling. Stock cooler is not that effective so I believe it's better buying an aftermarket cooler. There are several ways to put your thermal paste, with many fanatics on each side. I prefer the pea size.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Karadjgne

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Dec 26, 2012
30,740
4,559
142,790
I'm doubting it's the cooler at fault. You are mistaking the size of the spread of paste for thickness. The paste when properly applied will be paper-thin, this is why when a user applies the paste, its just a small pea, so the pressure of contact between the cooler base and cpu lid will spread the paste out paper thin. Pre-applied factory paste is already paper-thin, Intel won't screw that up.
Your temps are very high for a gaming load, even for a kabylake cpu.
I suspect it has more to do with airflow to the cooler, than the cooler itself.

You mention 1 header not working, yet you have 5x fans installed. Are you saying all 5 fans are running from that 1 rear header? Or how exactly are they running? Are the fans 3 pin or 4pin? How are they set, 2x as front intake and 3x as top/rear exhaust?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

Rizing

Commendable
Aug 19, 2016
75
0
1,640
The paste was not only spread out over a good portion of the core, there was a slightly thick layer (barely 1 cm worth). I examined it pretty closely after reading that it should be a pea sized amount. Mines was definitely not a paper thin layer.

I didn't install 5X fans. They were factory installed. The case fan header near the middle of the mobo was the only one that seemed to work when powering on the mobo. The other fan header did not seem to supply any power to even 2 of the remaining fans. The headers are both 4 pin and the fans are 3 pins.

I'm thinking those other fans can be used to dissipate more heat but I have been unable to get them working. Maybe I should connect them to the single header that does work? I was researching better after market coolers and thermal paste if that didn't work. I've also left my case wide open for better cooling. It has helped a little. I was able to play NBA 2k17 for a lot longer without any noticeable slowdown yet.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

Rizing

Commendable
Aug 19, 2016
75
0
1,640
It seems my initial interpretation of what I was reading was wrong.

The main screen of MSI afterburner is showing GPU clock speed and temp. The graphics below that show everything else. A second interpretation tells me that my GPU is showing those high temperatures while my cpu cores at hovering at 50 C under load and 32 on idle. I will ask this in the appropriate section now that I know what's going on.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Karadjgne

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Dec 26, 2012
30,740
4,559
142,790
You need airflow. You've got only 1 working fan for exhaust. With no airflow, that cpu and gpu are going to cook. Hopefully you don't have a bad header, hoping it's just disabled or set wrong in the bios. You need those intakes to be working at the very least. That alone can drop cpu/gpu temps an easy 20°C.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

Rizing

Commendable
Aug 19, 2016
75
0
1,640
My CPU isn't the problem anymore. I've just noticed it stays between 32-50 C which is what you want it to stay at. It's the GPU that's sitting at 32 C and going all the way up to 86 C and the GPU fans are the problem because they aren't spinning faster. I cannot even manually control their speeds. If only those fans worked, then my GPU could be a lot cooler.

I'll try looking in the bios to see if the other.

Is it possible the GPU is attempting to draw in so much power when there isn't any left for it, let alone the other 4 fans?
Or is it possible my GPU cable into the PSU is bad? It at least attempts to work when the computer is turned on though..
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

Rizing

Commendable
Aug 19, 2016
75
0
1,640
Unfortunately, I cannot connect the 2 other exhaust fans to the working chassis fan. The rear exhaust has a different type of cable and it cannot connect to the 2 top exhaust fans like they can connect to each other. The 2 top ones are also LED I believe and 4 pin molex. The rear is regular 4 pin.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Karadjgne

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Dec 26, 2012
30,740
4,559
142,790
If the fans are molex, connect them directly to the psu. The intake fans at least. If that drops your gpu temps then that's really the issue, and then you can work on either putting normal pwm fans as intakes, figuring out why that one header isn't working right etc. Solve one issue at a time. Worst comes to worst you can get a fan controller that fits molex fans and use that to work any and all case fans you have,just leaving the motherboard to control the rear/cpu headers.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

Rizing

Commendable
Aug 19, 2016
75
0
1,640
I have replaced the 970 ACX 2.0 I had with an older 760SC. The fans are now spinning all the time. Weirdly enough, the gpu and mem clock on the gpu spiked after I tried reseating the GPU and heard a crack. It was overheating so badly I took it out. I heard all new GPU's have this silent operation so I think I will stick with the 760 for now until EVGA/MSI/Etc. give the option to directly control the fan regardless of temps.

I had heard that the fans wouldn't kick in until 65 C, but when the gpu is recording temps of 90 C and still not spinning its fan, yeah, somethings broken
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Karadjgne

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Dec 26, 2012
30,740
4,559
142,790
Yep. It's a eco setting. The fans on my 970 by default were that way. You didn't say what brand of 970,but on my Asus if I use the supplied Asus gpu software, it allows you to turn off the eco and run the fans normally. This is probably true for Evga, msi too, not sure about any others since I've not seen their gpu software if there is any. Gpu tweak and Evga Precision X will also give you access to fan control settings on the gpu that override any bios or gpu bios settings. SpeedFan can set gpu fan curves aswell
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

Rizing

Commendable
Aug 19, 2016
75
0
1,640
Both the 970 and the 760 are EVGA.

EVGA Precision always reported 0 rpm for the 970 even if I turned fan curve on, or turned auto-fan off and set to max. I looked at the gpu fan multiple times to see if EVGA was simply non-synced but it was.

For the 760, it is actually showing an rpm and the actual card is indeed spinning.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Karadjgne

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Dec 26, 2012
30,740
4,559
142,790
970 is borked. Sorry. Decision time. Replace the 970, stick with the 760 or take the chance that it's just a bad fan (and nothing to do with that crack you heard) and spend $20 on ebay for new fans. You might still be under warranty, Evga has the best there is bar none, so I'd be looking in that direction first.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

Rizing

Commendable
Aug 19, 2016
75
0
1,640
The crack had nothing to do with the bad fan. The crack happened was I was attempting to re-seat the graphics card.

After the crack, not saying it caused it, but my gpu and mem clock shot up 10X the originally shown values and massively overheated my card.

I'm thinking of throwing down 230-250 for a 1060 6GB. Do you think that would be a good investment? 1070 is still too much atm.

In the meanwhile, I've hooked my 2 top exhaust fans and 2 front intake fans directly to my power supply. I no longer need to worry about that potentially defective 2nd chassis fan.

Unfortunately, in order to generate a closed system loop where the intake fans are not being dispersed out into the open, it's going to be a hell of a battle trying to fit the power supply back into the case. It was already difficult enough without the 2 extra wires I just put in.

The issue with RMA the card back to EVGA is that I don't have the original receipt or any idea when I purchased it. I doubt they will just flat out replace a generic GTX 970. The other solution I have is to take it to a local repair shop and have them try and get the parts? I tried buying a switch off a scalper as my initial ebay experience, but they cancelled my order, leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Karadjgne

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Dec 26, 2012
30,740
4,559
142,790
970 to 1060 isn't much of a bump, but if it's for a replacement, it's a better card that'll deal with the more intensive gpu settings of many newer games a lot easier than the 970,so it's still a good deal.

What do you mean by 'generate a closed loop?' intake fans are just that, they suck air in and blow it out into the case, that's their entire purpose. Exhaust fans suck in heated air and dump it outside the case, but that air must be replaced by something, so that's what the intake fans are for, constant replenishment of the vacuum created by the exhausts. There's nothing closed loop about that. Mount your psu, plug the fans into the molex chains, same as you would a hdd or optical.

You may not need the receipt or date of purchase, just probably place of purchase and approximate date. That's not going to be that hard to figure out as you probably purchased it close to the same time as something else, like the rest of the pc etc. It's at least somewhere in the last 4 years or so,give or take a few months. On the back of the card is a serial number. Evga has records of exactly when that card was built, who they shipped it to, and when. If you are close, they know it's true as there's absolutely no way you could possibly know what that serial number reveals. It's worth a try at least, Evga has the best service/support of any of the leading vendors, I've dealt with them several times, never had the slightest issue. At worst case scenario, if the gpu is that far out of warranty, they might issue you credit towards another gpu. Won't know till you try.

Edit:
Wait.. Are you talking 'closed loop' like in the way the English, Aussie and some others run house wiring with 2 hot legs, 1 in each direction? So you are going effectively from one molex wire, around in a circle to the other molex wire? Please tell me that's not what you are doing!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

Rizing

Commendable
Aug 19, 2016
75
0
1,640
Um, no. I used terms I see are common.

Closed loop = case completed closed and the air is contained and putting pressure on the components and open loop = case open and air not optimally distributed among components

Open loop = case open and air is not optimally distributed because it can leak back into the room

The issue is that, the special area where the PSU is supposed to be housed is incredibly small and both the psu and the cables are big and thick meaning I have to brute force the thing into the space. Now I have the two top fans coming in through a slot near the top because the pci-e cables I got aren't long enough to extend through the top slot on the case housing the psu.

Actually, I took a look at a thread I made on these forums form last year. Seems I talked about upgrading to a 960 in August 2016, but eventually went with a 970. It was either from Amazon or NewEgg so I guess I found out!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom