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

Why are you worried about "straining" your GPUs? Enabling Vertical sync will not allow the frame rate to go higher than your monitor's refresh rate, but if you're worried about the health of your cards it won't do anything.

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.

also most games have a maxfps command... quakeIII was /com_maxfps <fps#, 0 for unlimited>

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

Silly question: how do you enable the vertical sync?

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.

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I currently have an 80mm "floating" in some wires pulling air directly from a lower 120mm front case fan hitting the area between the cards. The top card is the hottest and is getting the most air already. I have no where else to put the sound card as it is, so I will have to be even more creative. Water is really not an option.

That said, is it worth undervolting the GPU's assuming they are stable? I already do with my CPU to drop temps, it works fine and runs cooler.

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.

if you are REALLY desperate to keep it cool then open your case while it's running (just don't get a cup of coffee while you are on it)

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.

Do note that Open GL does not work right with force on. so some games will still run over 60(or 75 in my case)

Quake 3
Wolf ET
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Well all Q3 based games do not seem to work with forced Vsync, the games are fine just run over the 60 fps limmit
as said you can use /com_maxfps 60 but it will still page tear and this pisses some ppl off....

TO ALL
if anyone knows how to make vsync(even the in game settings do not work.) work on those games please tell me as i still play them and my LCD does not like to tear....

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! >.<

FPS cant go higher then your moniters refresh rate anyway, I knnow what you mean about getting rid of the load but seriously cards can run that hot its nothing to worry about.

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.  

IF this was for me i have it that way and its still 200+(AA +AF on to try to bring it down   ) fps. damn thing...ARGGGGGGG

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.

EMP,

Looking back, I was looking at temps and longevity of equipment overall, but that said, I want the most bang for the buck.

Thanks to all for your thoughts.