Decrease FPS output to match monitor? (Decrease load on GPU)

Setup:

8800 gtx sli
Dell 3007WFP 30" @ 2560 x 1600 @ 60hz (max)

Question: Is there a hack/adjustment I can make to limit my FPS from an application/game or GPU to 60 FPS max, to match the monitor?

The monitor will only go as high as 60hz and I thought I could potentially decrease some strain on the GPU's.

Heyyou27,

I was thinking less work was less heat, they idle at 72 and go up to 88 (c) with applications. Yes, I was thinking strain, but because of the heat. I know they are made to run hot, mine just seem to run hotter.

Thank you for the fact about the vertical sync, appreciate it.

Skittle,

I appreciate that as well. I will look mine up and see what the console commands are for my games. Skittles are awesome by the way.

Thanks

Enabling Vsync (usually done in the drivers) isn't going to help. As I understand things, its simply a "trick" to only show some of the frames. The cards and system still render 90 frames, but only 60 get shown on the screen. I'm not sure how max frames work, but I don't see how it would be much different.

I would try to improve the airflow between the cards. Get creative.

I've never tried to undervolt a GPU, but it should work. (assuming you don't go to low that is...) I don't know about nvidia GPUs, but with ATIs cards you can change at what temp the fan goes up a notch. Its noisier sure, but the card stays cooler. Make sure you have the basics covered. Clean heatsinks, clean fans, everything working the way it should. The hotter everything runs in the case, the more heat you'll have to deal with. You could also try turning the case 90o. If your case is drawing in hot air to begin with, turning it to face cooler air might help.

Chips are not humans. What is warm to us isn't for them. Graphic cards are designed to work at those temperatures.

As I recall some VIA chips run at 200C. It was their working temperature.

turn on triple buffering for opengl games, it improves fps and also allows it to work correctly. it draws 3 frames in advance instead of 2 into the buffer. i use it on moh:aa and moh:sh and they are q3 based games.

and yes for me vsync is must..i hate tearing! >.<

thats if vertical sync is on though isnt it? cause my cod2 (in dx 7) goes upto 450+ fps at points....and im pretty sure my monitor is not refreshing that fast

but yeah i agree completely with the second part. 88 with games is not something you should freak out over. Iv known cards to hit 115 and still work. Its high non the less, so you will have to figure out other ways of cooling it down.

To be honest, I don't think you're going to reach 60+ FPS on a 2560x1600 resolution anyway, so I really see no point on wanting to decrease the load on the GPUs, because what you really need is to try to make them work harder.