Undervolting GTX 480

[alex3003]

Im a 3D artist with a GTX 480, and i have noticed even though im using CPU only rendering, that over the time in long rendering session, my GTX 480 starts heating around 90C and 91C (after 7,8 hours). Im bit worried about it and searched around the internet and found out that i can safely Undervolt my card. So I used EVGA Precision X to undervolt my card. but i think i under volted it too much that at a point, strange flashing little squares appeared over my monitor (like a check board) and my heart stopped.
but after i reset my pc, everything 'seems' fine.
did i up my 480?

 

[alex3003]

Nope... when you get a bad clock/volt, worst case scenario is typically that you just get a BSOD and the PC resets back to normal.

Just means you shouldn't undervolt quite as much as you did. I'd keep an eye on your GPU usage during these rendering sessions... 90C indicates that the card is under full load.

Oh thank god! it really bugs me. cause im just using mental ray, that is a pure cpu only renderer though my cpu (i7 920) never go over 70C even after very long render times. and the card isn't loaded at all. maybe my air flow need to be adjusted? And i recently went to ( Kingston HyperX Blu Red Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1600 KHX16C10B1RK2/16 ) RAM upgrade and im worried about it's temperature too. can anyone tell me the safe temperature range to these ram sticks and a tool that i can monitor them?

 

[alex3003]

Are you certain that your GPU is not under load? As in, have you actually opened up the GPU usage graph in Precision or Afterburner to confirm that it's not being loaded when it is at 90C?

If it's at 90C idle, you have a major problem that undervolting isn't going to solve and you most likely need a new graphics card...

nope nope. when idle, its around 60 - 66 C.

 

[maxalge]

nope nope. when idle, its around 60 - 66 C.

You could create a more aggressive fan profile to better cool the card.

 

[alex3003]

So are you saying that the heat from other components in your case (e.g. the CPU) raises your GPU's temperature by 25-30C even though the GPU remains idle?

That doesn't seem possible to me at all, which is why I'm confused. There's just no way your CPU releases enough heat into the case to do that. Do you have any case airflow at all?

im not saying like that, but note that im using cooler master hyper 212 plus to cool the cpu.. it has fans on both sides that the bottom fan breaths hot air right on to back side of the GTX. im so certain that GPU is not used in the rendering. i activated the automatic profile of the fan by evga tool and it now seems stable around 80 C.