100% fan all the time bad?

[96Firebird]

After seeing my 8800GT crawl up to a little over 80C during COD4, I was wondering if keeping the fan on 100% (using RivaTuner) was bad for the card. Sure, its loud, but I can deal with it. I just played Crysis for about an hour, the temps never went above 65C with an average FPS of about 25 (everything set on high, 1680x1050). I just changed the speeds to 700/1750/1000, is that bad with the stock EVGA cooler? Could I go higher?

 

[Evilonigiri]

100% fan is fine. I'd expect it to last ~5years with heavy usage.

If you think your temps are fine for you, then you can keep on OCing.

 

[IndigoMoss]

Yeah 100% fan usage is fine. I do have one question for you though, are you using Taowolf's config file for Crysis? If not, I highly recommend you do. It made the game look so much better when I used it. http://crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=12717

 

[harly2]

I have that card but you are going from one extreme to the other. It does heat and it is very odd the fan does not kick in a little higher when you go in game like other cards do. That said ntunes has a quicker and more efficient fan contol that opens up other options in the nvidia driver settings anyway. Before I go into any game I put my 8800gt to 50% and she stays nice and cool. 100% is loud, really loud and over done, 45-50% is good 29% is default.

 

[attila_the_gorilla]

Yeah I wouldn`t think you need 100% fan speed to keep it reasonably cool.

 

[96Firebird]

100% is probably overkill, but like I said the sound doesn't bother me much... But now I'm having a problem when trying to OC. After playing Crysis for a bit on 700/1750/1900, the screen went black. I could still hear myself walking around and shooting and stuff, so it has something to do with the video card. I had it happen before and after I exited the game it went back to Vista and had an error message in the corner saying the driver had an error but recovered or something like that. I have ForceWare 169.25, and RivaTuner 2.06 says it doesn't fully support it when starting up. Is it a problem with me OCing (I'm sure the temp. didn't go above 70C as I was monitoring it throughout the game), the drivers, or the card?

 

[folius]

I had the EXACT same problem with my 8800GT when I first got it. I would game for a bit, screen would go black with sound looping, the game would exit with an error on my screen then my computer would restart. It ended up being that the card was bad. I RMA it back to eVGA and they sent me a newer one (v2 card with bigger fan). I was so pleased with how well the card ran that I got a second and threw them in SLI. The temps get around 78c after a couple of hours in CoD4 because the two cards are just venting hot air into my case and not out the back... but I am ordering some PCI slot coolers which should help a whole hell of a lot.

Sounds like you have a v1 card with the smaller/louder fan. I would RMA it back and get the newer one... they run cooler and are a lot quieter even at 100%.

 

[nukchebi0]

60% works fine for me.

 

[tricky trees]

100% is not over kill if your hitting high temps and think you need it for your own piece of mind and the safety of the card. God knows why Nvidea set the fan default to 29% for these cards. Before i bought an HR 03GT to cool mine it was idling at 59 degrees and under load 85 with the fan at 80%. Now it idles at 40.
I'd say if your concerned about the card temps get another cooler for it, a silent fan and have it on 100% then you know your temps are never going to worry you again.

 

[MrCommunistGen]

Its a bit more effort, but rather than leaving it at 100% all the time you could turn it down when not gaming.

-mcg

 

[3Ball]

Remember that video card temps are not the same as CPU's. They can handle higher temps, and are built to. I run the card you see in the sig with the OC it has on it @ 80% fan speed @ all times (dual slot cooler = not as loud @ 80% as the single slot of the 8800GT) and I 56 - 58c depending on what I had been doing before and room temp. and I load 76 - 80c from what I have seen from my tests. At long hours and high intensity games overtime I am sure that there is a possibility it creeps slightly above 80 (i.e. maybe to 82c or so.

From what I understand under 85 for this cards is fine, and seems to be right along the threshold, but a goal of 80c or under should be fine. Thats what I am at for 24/7 use and it is running perfectly stable under both XP and vista. If I were you I would just look for the fan speed that keeps you under or around 80c on full load and stick with that. (Hell, my X1900XTX ran @ 90 - 92c for 2 full years "under load" and is still chuggin along in my roommates comp with no issues at all.)

As for ease of use...my fan speed and clocks start up when windows does so I never have to check anything at all to know its running. Works perfect for me anyways. Just my two cents.

Best,

3Ball

 

[jay2tall]

Here is another point of view and perspective. I have seen this issue in other gamers I know that do not have a high level of Tech knowledge. They throw in highend hot running cards without considering proper case cooling.

I had a buddy who had a x1950XT ATI card that would hit over 90C all the time. In some games it would lock up and go to the VRU recovery thing or whatever it was. Anyways, I sat with him and looked at his case. He has a 80mm exhaust fan and that was it. His cables were all over the place and not managed. His case accepted 120mm on the intake and exhaust so we got some sythe quiet running fans, but them on both ends and got some zippy ties and nicely ran the power on one side and i/o cables on another. That card never touched 90C again and usually hovered in the mid to low 80C range. We dropped 5-10C off his GPU temp JUST from getting proper cooler.

Those 8800GT's have a single slot cooler that doesn't blow the air out of the case like the GTS's. You NEED to get the air flowing well in your case. Just a thought. Enjoy.

 

[96Firebird]

I have a 120mm side intake fan that pretty much points right at the card, with no wires in the way. I think I'm set for now, it plays COD4 all extra @ 1680x1050 at around 60fps, which is great for me. I also have two profiles in RivaTuner, stock and games. "Games" OCs a bit and sets the fan speed at 75%, and stock is... stock. I switch it off and one when needed, works for me.

 

[jay2tall]

So you have an exhaust fan? I recall an article that research the best ways for proper airflow and the front intake fan had almost no effect on case temp. A single rear exhaust fan had the most effect and a top blow hole had a large effect as well. If you don't have an exhaust fan GET ONE. heat rises and you need to blow it out. Those cards radiate heat up.

 

[96Firebird]

Oh I have an exhaust fan too, 120mm in the back. I've been thinking about getting another 120mm in front as another intake. And there is a port that leads to the CPU fan above the side intake fan, which I guess directs the CPU heat right out the side. Its this case... http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811119104

 

[jay2tall]

Ok you've satisfied my cooling question. I always have to throw that idea out since so many people don't consider this. I'd check this off your list then.

What happens to temps when you run the card at stock? My GTS hits 68C in Crysis and hovers between 60-68 on most games.

 

[jerseygamer]

WTH are you doing to get that card that hot? I OC the piss out of my card. With smart fan setup it has never went over 45c. I sit at 44c when gaming on average. I would suggest all of you GT owners with high temps remount your cooling with some good greece.

 

[jay2tall]

WTH are you doing to get that card that hot? I OC the piss out of my card. With smart fan setup it has never went over 45c. I sit at 44c when gaming on average. I would suggest all of you GT owners with high temps remount your cooling with some good greece.

You have a GT that sits at 44C? an 8800GT? where do you live? Minnisota? without heat?

 

[TurdBurglar]

WTH are you doing to get that card that hot? I OC the piss out of my card. With smart fan setup it has never went over 45c. I sit at 44c when gaming on average. I would suggest all of you GT owners with high temps remount your cooling with some good greece.

Yeah, some nice Mediterranean country spreads like butter on a GPU

 

[TurdBurglar]

You have a GT that sits at 44C? an 8800GT? where do you live? Minnisota? without heat?

I idle at 34C and load at 48C on my 8800GT at 740 core. That is with an Accelero S1 w/ Turbo Modules though

I know, off topic... Even most cheap fans will go for several years at 100 percent. The only graphics card fan that has died on me was on a geforce4 4200ti that I had for 6 years.

 

[jay2tall]

Boy what is with all the cool temps on these cards with regreesing or aftermarket coolers. I dont' feel like going this route yet. I haven't seen any real gains with OCing the g92 chips yet since they lack the Rendering Operators that the GTX had. They just don't OC that great. I mean they do but you dont see much of a gain.

I Idle at 50C load about 60-68C

 

[TurdBurglar]

Boy what is with all the cool temps on these cards with regreesing or aftermarket coolers. I dont' feel like going this route yet. I haven't seen any real gains with OCing the g92 chips yet since they lack the Rendering Operators that the GTX had. They just don't OC that great. I mean they do but you dont see much of a gain.

I Idle at 50C load about 60-68C

I understand what you mean. I saw a 5 fps increase in Crysis after overclocking. Nothing spectacular, but free performance. I got the cooler after seeing 92C after an hour of playing Crysis. The fan was too loud at higher speeds for my taste, so I got silent performance, more overclocking headroom, and cooler temps for $25. It now performs like a stock g92 GTS. I'm happy with my results. If I had the GTS with the dual slot cooler, I wouldn't have gone this route at all (depending on the noise of course).

...and dammit, it's grease lol

 

[jay2tall]

I understand what you mean. I saw a 5 fps increase in Crysis after overclocking. Nothing spectacular, but free performance. I got the cooler after seeing 92C after an hour of playing Crysis. The fan was too loud at higher speeds for my taste, so I got silent performance, more overclocking headroom, and cooler temps for $25. It now performs like a stock g92 GTS. I'm happy with my results. If I had the GTS with the dual slot cooler, I wouldn't have gone this route at all (depending on the noise of course).

...and dammit, it's grease lol

I haven't played enough games to see what it should be at stock yet since I only got my card last week. I can easily crank mine to 750/1000 no problem and run some stress tests. It doesn't get all that much hotter. I am leary on the aftermarket coolers since they do not blow the air out the back like the stock GTS cooler. Maybe I'll try to reGREASE the card eventually and see what happens. Sorry i can't spell. Greece..

 

[96Firebird]

I'm not sure what my stock temps are, I just remember it got upwards of 80C while gaming with the fan on auto. Regardless of temps, I can't OC this card too much over 750/950. For some reason, I get driver errors (nvlddmkm has stopped responding). Using ForceWare 169.32 now.

 

[TurdBurglar]

I haven't played enough games to see what it should be at stock yet since I only got my card last week. I can easily crank mine to 750/1000 no problem and run some stress tests. It doesn't get all that much hotter. I am leary on the aftermarket coolers since they do not blow the air out the back like the stock GTS cooler. Maybe I'll try to reGREASE the card eventually and see what happens. Sorry i can't spell. Greece..

If I idled at 50 and loaded in the 60s, I wouldn't worry about doing anything with the cooler on a g92 card. Those are great temps. An after market cooler might allow for another 35-50 mhz. I haven't seen too many reports of g92 chips going beyond 800mhz on the core. Some people want to drop 50 or 60 bucks on a zalman, but I couldn't justify it even with a GT. With a GTS, it's not even a decision to me.