- Oct 10, 2011
- 2
- 0
- 18,510
Hi. I've experienced a significant overheating problem since I've set up a GTX 570 SLI configuration and would really appreciate some advice from some experienced/knowledgable types as to what my best options are from here.
In short, I'm getting critical overheating on gpu intensive games to the point that the PC either reboots or the screens goes black and the system hangs. I'm certain the problem is due to my motherboard (asus P6X58D-E here ) which has the only two usable PCIe 2.0 slots so close together that the first gtx 570 has no space to draw air in for cooling the card (it has a third slot, but stupidly it's unusable as critical board slots become blocked if I put the 570 in). If I swap the cards, the same thing happens so it's not either card, definitely just the lack of space/airflow affecting the card in the first slot. I've measured the temps as rising to over 102 degrees after about 5 to 10 mins of gameplay before the system crashes, and have read that these cards shouldn't run over 97 degrees max so that's absolutely what's going wrong as far as I'm concerned.
I have a Cooler Master Wave Master case ( here ) and really have no understanding of how good/suitable the cooling is and whether it can be improved enough to compensate for the poor motherboard sli slot design. I have run the same game benchmark with the side case off and a 7" desk fan blowing directly onto the two GPUs, with all fans on 100% and the temp of the first card rises to and fluctuates between 97 and 98 degrees (the second card is usually at least 10 to 20 degrees cooler as it has enough space to draw air in) What I'm curious about is if I cut into my case side and install one or two decent intake fans right over the GPUs, is that realistically going to be sufficient to cool things down, or would I be wasting my time. Would such a setup be better or worse than the test environment 'desktop fan'? In my head, I reason that it needs to be better than the test environment or it wouldn't be worthwhile as the 97/98 degrees seem too close to the max temperature for the card, so unless I can be certain of setting up some case fans that will drop the temps down to at least sub 95 degrees it won't work.
The thing is, I've just spent a lot of money and pretty much my entire budget on what would be the perfect setup for my needs. I have a new 1920x1080 120Hz monitor, Nvidia 3d kit, and the 570 sli was to ensure 3d gaming frame rates remained high on high settings, and it works perfectly until the GPU overheats. It's frustrating to have spent so much money and be so close to what I want, and I'd hate to be faced with replacing my mobo as it's less than 6 months old, and I can't afford the cost of a new one.
So from my limited research, this is what I think my options are, and how realistic they are. I'd appreciate any advice on whether there are additional options, or whether my assessments are off.
1. Replace the mobo to one where the PCIe 2.0 slot are further apart. Cost of this is realistically out of reach until maybe Xmas and so something I'd prefer to avoid.
2. Install extra case fans over the GPUs. I think I could afford this, and my father in law would be well capable of modding the case side. Don't know if it would work though, and would hate to have spent the extra and gone to the trouble to find it didn't work, so would need to be certain this would solve the problem before I'd go ahead.
3. Water cooling. Know nothing about this, but it always strikes me as expensive and trickier to install than I'd be comfortable with. I really don't see this one as an option unless someone can really prove my concerns are unfounded.
4. Sell the two 570s and buy a 590. I think I'd probably end up making a notable loss on the 570s and then have to shell out further on the 590. Also, while I'm not an expert, I think I've read that 570 SLI is better performing than a single 590, so again the thought of spending extra to 'downgrade' is not something I'd be comfortable with.
5. Sell a single 570 and accept that I'll have to run games at lower settings if I want to play them in 3d. Would be frustrating if I have to do this.
As this is my first post here, I apologise if this is in the wrong place or I've been unaware of any commonly accepted posting guidlines. If I can provide more info to help your recommendations, just let me know.
TIA
Phil
In short, I'm getting critical overheating on gpu intensive games to the point that the PC either reboots or the screens goes black and the system hangs. I'm certain the problem is due to my motherboard (asus P6X58D-E here ) which has the only two usable PCIe 2.0 slots so close together that the first gtx 570 has no space to draw air in for cooling the card (it has a third slot, but stupidly it's unusable as critical board slots become blocked if I put the 570 in). If I swap the cards, the same thing happens so it's not either card, definitely just the lack of space/airflow affecting the card in the first slot. I've measured the temps as rising to over 102 degrees after about 5 to 10 mins of gameplay before the system crashes, and have read that these cards shouldn't run over 97 degrees max so that's absolutely what's going wrong as far as I'm concerned.
I have a Cooler Master Wave Master case ( here ) and really have no understanding of how good/suitable the cooling is and whether it can be improved enough to compensate for the poor motherboard sli slot design. I have run the same game benchmark with the side case off and a 7" desk fan blowing directly onto the two GPUs, with all fans on 100% and the temp of the first card rises to and fluctuates between 97 and 98 degrees (the second card is usually at least 10 to 20 degrees cooler as it has enough space to draw air in) What I'm curious about is if I cut into my case side and install one or two decent intake fans right over the GPUs, is that realistically going to be sufficient to cool things down, or would I be wasting my time. Would such a setup be better or worse than the test environment 'desktop fan'? In my head, I reason that it needs to be better than the test environment or it wouldn't be worthwhile as the 97/98 degrees seem too close to the max temperature for the card, so unless I can be certain of setting up some case fans that will drop the temps down to at least sub 95 degrees it won't work.
The thing is, I've just spent a lot of money and pretty much my entire budget on what would be the perfect setup for my needs. I have a new 1920x1080 120Hz monitor, Nvidia 3d kit, and the 570 sli was to ensure 3d gaming frame rates remained high on high settings, and it works perfectly until the GPU overheats. It's frustrating to have spent so much money and be so close to what I want, and I'd hate to be faced with replacing my mobo as it's less than 6 months old, and I can't afford the cost of a new one.
So from my limited research, this is what I think my options are, and how realistic they are. I'd appreciate any advice on whether there are additional options, or whether my assessments are off.
1. Replace the mobo to one where the PCIe 2.0 slot are further apart. Cost of this is realistically out of reach until maybe Xmas and so something I'd prefer to avoid.
2. Install extra case fans over the GPUs. I think I could afford this, and my father in law would be well capable of modding the case side. Don't know if it would work though, and would hate to have spent the extra and gone to the trouble to find it didn't work, so would need to be certain this would solve the problem before I'd go ahead.
3. Water cooling. Know nothing about this, but it always strikes me as expensive and trickier to install than I'd be comfortable with. I really don't see this one as an option unless someone can really prove my concerns are unfounded.
4. Sell the two 570s and buy a 590. I think I'd probably end up making a notable loss on the 570s and then have to shell out further on the 590. Also, while I'm not an expert, I think I've read that 570 SLI is better performing than a single 590, so again the thought of spending extra to 'downgrade' is not something I'd be comfortable with.
5. Sell a single 570 and accept that I'll have to run games at lower settings if I want to play them in 3d. Would be frustrating if I have to do this.
As this is my first post here, I apologise if this is in the wrong place or I've been unaware of any commonly accepted posting guidlines. If I can provide more info to help your recommendations, just let me know.
TIA
Phil
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