Two 4870x2 setup overheating - ram at 116 degrees

[zubovsergei]

I am using a Asus P5E3 premium mobo with two 4870x2 (sapphire). There is very tiny space in-between the cards and one of the gpu's (and its ram) on the top card really get hot. On max load and 100% fan, the one gpu goes to 95+ and the ram goes over 110 degrees. The other GPU on that same card and its ram are okay (around 80 degrees). THe bottom card is very cool (60-70 on load).

Now I know those temps are insane, but I only noticed them recently when I ran GPU-Z, before I would always just look at CCC and after exiting a game, the GPU temps would drop to 80 or so on that GPU, so I never saw that it gets that hot. And, CCC doesn't show the ram temps (maybe alot of people's ram gets that hot?) However, I don't really have any problems with stability, which I guess is strange. I just don't want this card to die on me in the near future.

Question 1: I wanted to take apart the card and clean it out and apply some TIM. My question is what kind of heatsinks (RAM heatsinks) does the 4870x2 have (if any?). Do I need to buy some heatsinks or new thermal pads? I'm not sure if applying some TIM would help at all since the temps get soo hot. Any info/help on this would be appreciated.

Question 2: I was looking at the Arctic Cooling Accelero XTREME 4870X2 cooler but since there is no space in-between the two cards in my setup, the fans would have no place to blow the air. In the info it says that it supports crossfire but probably only for setups that have some space in-between the cards. Anyone have any experience with using this cooler in a quadfire setup?

3. Any other advice appreciated

TIA

Zubov

 

[thefox14]

1) I'm not sure if that would help very much, and it might void your warranty if any

2) It sounds like the heat from your lower card is rising and heating up the second card. How many fans are in your system? and is it possible to fit another fan in there? Really sounds like an airflow problem to me

 

[boudy]

1. If you aren't afraid of voiding your warranty. That's what I usually do whenever I notice unusual temps.

2. I don't think the cooler would fit on a P5E3. There just isn't enough space between the cards. However, I would talk to annisman if you really want one.

What case do you have?

 

[zubovsergei]

CoolerMaster Cosmos S. Everything in my case is cool EXCEPT that one GPU and its RAM in the top video card. There is only about 1cm of space in-between the cards.

Here is the thing. I ran Furmark and the ram heats up to 100 degrees (if I have the fan on 100%). The ram heats up within 45 seconds of running the benchmark. I don't think heat from the lower card would be causing that sort of heat so fast could it? In any case, the other three GPUs and their RAM is fine - around 80 degrees at load.

I looked at a picture of an opened 4870x2 and I noticed that the ram has thermal pads on them. Would it make any sense to put any TIM on them? Do I take off the thermal pads and replace them with TIM or put the TIM on top of the thermal pads?

TIA

 

[zubovsergei]

Well I thought the GPU MEMIO was the mem, but I guess it is the mem controller on the GPU. I will take apart the card and clean out/ put some new TIM on the GPU.

 

[boudy]

Replace the thermal pad with some good ol' thermal compound. Just remember that you need to replace the thermal compound every so often.
I don't think this is just the heat from the bottom card rising up because the second GPU on the top card should be getting hot as well.

 

[Annisman]

Ok guys, I have some experience in this matter so let me reply:

First of all DO NOT install the arctic cooling Accelero Xtreme cooler, there will not be enough room for your second card because the cooler is too large, it takes up almost 3 slots.

Secondly, Furmark is know to cause issues with 48** series cards, do not use it as a stress test.

Thirdly, beleive it or not although those memory temps are high, they should still be cool enough to be stable. The Ram chips get VERY hot, this is normal.

Another thing, the black metal top of the video card makes direct contact with your memory, if you can, get a fan blowing on the top of your card to cool it off.

Hope this helps - Annisman

 

[boudy]

Another thing, the black metal top of the video card makes direct contact with your memory, if you can, get a fan blowing on the top of your card to cool it off.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209017 (?)
Anyway, he has a Cosmos S case which means that a 230mm side fan should be blowing on the top of the card.

 

[Annisman]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209017 (?)
Anyway, he has a Cosmos S case which means that a 230mm side fan should be blowing on the top of the card.

Unless he has upgraded to the side panel with a window, like I have, or has a cpu heatsink that is too big to allow the 230mm fan to stay mounted....

 

[Twoboxer]

If you believe the top card is the problem, and not the air flow, you can test your theory by swapping the two cards.

 

[hunuok]

i also had the same prob! i tried heatsinks, even considered water cooling (too much of a hassle) solution:

i installed 4*120mm case fans (2 facing INTO cooler slot, 1 on the end facing AWAY, 1 facing CPU)
and 2*80mm case fans directly onto uppermost cooling plate)

also changed the case to a big tower

idle temps 56C and 90C under load

a little noisy BUT effective!

hope this helps!

asus maximus formula extreme: q6600@3.4ghz: 4gb ddr2 ram: palit 4870x2 cf: 150gb wd raptor: 500gb seagate:
zalman zm 1000-hp: xclio windtunnel big tower: vista ultimate x86

 

[Annisman]

LOL easy problem fix.... just 4 more case fans!


Honestly just get a single fan blowing on that black heatsink on top of the card and you will be golden.

 

[hunuok]

annisman

hav u ever tried fitting and cooling 2 triple slot cards on ur mb?

theres little/no gap between them and the secondary card almost touches the case

i tried all possible combos/methods (including urs-ended up with artifacts on 3d app after 10min and then bsod LOL) and this seems the best for me

cheers