Are my crossfired 290's temps bad?

[s1l3ntshadowz]

I have two R9 290's in Crossfire and these are the temps I get while playing Planetside 2(in a huge battle in doors), are they bad? Should I be concerned? I hear that temps above 95c will throttle down the card and I certainly don't want that...sooo what should I do? Also to add to this I currently have 3 fans not functioning that I'm trying to figure out if I need to replace or not (from replacing a PSU). The fans not functioning is the rear fan on my Corsair H60 CPU cooler and my two top case fans. The case fans are exhaust I think, to try and counter for those losses I have increased fan speeds by a large margin and opened up the case a bit to let air out. & This only bothers me so much because I HAATEEE high temps, they nag the crap out of me and make me want to go to grave lengths to solve them...

And lastly it arose to these temps within 5 minutes of playing.

 

[uplink-svk]

Oooh, 88°C is a "little" over head [actually a lot]. What case do You use? Also, without any exhaust fan, it's not gonna get better. And what PSU do You have?

 

[Robertwhyte]

if you hate high temps why have you overclocked your cpu to 1.312volts and have 2 of the hottest cards on the market lol but yeah, 88c is a little high, but youre right, anything above 94c is bad. get your case fans fixed dude, and if you can, get some fans mounted on the front panel to blow some air onto those GPUs.

 

[uplink-svk]

Robertwhyte - his CPU thermals are perfect, so I wouldn't see an issue in 1,3 vcore, though, it might be drawing quite a lot of power from PSU, together with CF, it might be doing what he's experiencing.

 

[s1l3ntshadowz]

Oooh, 88°C is a "little" over head [actually a lot]. What case do You use? Also, without any exhaust fan, it's not gonna get better. And what PSU do You have?

I have this case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129179. Also I realized after posting this that the fan that I had set to 80% was actually the slave card and not the top primary one, after having reversed this I am getting around 82c max instead of 88c, still not what I would like but its far better than 88.

if you hate high temps why have you overclocked your cpu to 1.312volts and have 2 of the hottest cards on the market lol but yeah, 88c is a little high, but youre right, anything above 94c is bad. get your case fans fixed dude, and if you can, get some fans mounted on the front panel to blow some air onto those GPUs.

Because when my cooling isn't messed up I can manage very good temps (30-37 C with Chrome and a few programs open). Only have these cards because I'm not paying $500 for an Nvidia card (again) that is practically the equivalent in performance to a single $259-$320 290. Oh also just noticed this but I do have 2 front fans, in my opinion they are the crappiest of the bunch but I do have them.



aaaand *quotes uplinks last reply* I have this PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152059. Ordered it and the second GPU on Black Friday when they were discounted, was able to pick up the extra 290 for about $259 and the PSU for $100 as my previous 750W PSU wouldn't have been enough for these 2 power suckers .

 

[uplink-svk]

Well, this may get a little harder. Best thing You can do is putting two fans in front, and three fans in back, so You will create a suction within Your case. How's Your cable managment? Case supports top-notch options for top-class cable managment. What's Your CPU cooler?

 

[Mr_Venbeer]

You might want to increase those fan speeds, or consider water cooling for your GPU's.

 

[s1l3ntshadowz]

Well, this may get a little harder. Best thing You can do is putting two fans in front, and three fans in back, so You will create a suction within Your case. How's Your cable managment? Case supports top-notch options for top-class cable managment. What's Your CPU cooler?

At the moment I have 2 front fans that actively work, a PSU fan (facing the bottom vent), 2 top case fans (non functioning) and a Corsair H60 CPU cooler. The H60 has 2 fans in its radiator, one facing the inside of the PC and one facing the outside vent, the one outside is not functioning as of 12/4. Also my cable management is as well as I can do without having all the wires in the back side preventing me from putting it back on, I can show a picture if you would like.

You might want to increase those fan speeds, or consider water cooling for your GPU's.

If its necessary to keep things from causing a nuclear explosion then I will ramp up everything to 100% and save the world, on the water cooling the GPU's idea though, I have considered it but as a first timer to GPU water coolers I'm a tad bit hesitant to do it. I mean I want to already but I don't wanna invest in it if I don't have to.

 

[uplink-svk]

s1l3ntshadowz - water is a bit extreme and unnecessary. You miss two things. Functional upper fans, and side fan, which You cannot install, unless You modify Your case. Side 140mm fan would solve all Your troubles, the one that would blow fresh air directly to Your graphics cards.

 

[s1l3ntshadowz]

s1l3ntshadowz - water is a bit extreme and unnecessary. You miss two things. Functional upper fans, and side fan, which You cannot install, unless You modify Your case. Side 140mm fan would solve all Your troubles, the one that would blow fresh air directly to Your graphics cards.

Well what do you recommend? I'm not even 100% sure my top fans are broke, they just stopped working after I installed new PSU. Also my question goes for both things, how would I modify my case to install a side fan? Are their alternate case doors I can buy or something? My bad if thats a dumb question but I've never heard of modding a case for side fans.

 

[Mr_Venbeer]

You could drill a few holes and drill 4 screw points and just intsall a 120mm fan on the side panel

 

[s1l3ntshadowz]

You could drill a few holes and drill 4 screw points and just intsall a 120mm fan on the side panel

Well I'm gonna replace/fix my top fans and maybe find out how to re-arrange my fan setup to do suction instead of whatever it's doing now and see if the side fan is necessary from there. If so then I guess that's what I'll be doing.

 

[uplink-svk]

s1l3ntshadowz - Mr_venbeer had a good point. Though, definitely go for 140mm fan, 120mm won't pack enough airflow for two graphics card, like...it will, but 140mm will pack 30-40% more.

Don't bet much on upper fans, it will help the system by 5-7°C tops, on each graphics card, and that's only "maybe". Side fan can take them down by 15-20°C and more/each.

 

[s1l3ntshadowz]

s1l3ntshadowz - Mr_venbeer had a good point. Though, definitely go for 140mm fan, 120mm won't pack enough airflow for two graphics card, like...it will, but 140mm will pack 30-40% more.

Don't bet much on upper fans, it will help the system by 5-7°C tops, on each graphics card, and that's only "maybe". Side fan can take them down by 15-20°C and more/each.

Well 5-7c is enough to make me feel comfortable again BUT if I would really get 15-20C lower I'll do that in a heartbeat.

Also an alternate question, is it possible installing this new PSU fried my top fans? I have checked them and they are installed properly and no wires are broke...

 

[uplink-svk]

It is very unlikely. You connected Your fans directly to Your PSU via Sata - 3/4pin adapter, or Molex - 3/4 pin adapter, or via motherboard?

 

[s1l3ntshadowz]

It is very unlikely. You connected Your fans directly to Your PSU via Sata - 3/4pin adapter, or Molex - 3/4 pin adapter, or via motherboard?

I honestly don't know. When I bought this PC it was as a whole because at the time I was just then learning the jiff of desktops and well this would be my first time replacing a PSU. I don't recall there ever being a plug in that I removed for the fan so that leaves my assumption to be it just connects and gets it power from the mobo. I spent last night researching this to try and figure out if I even plugged it in and well didn't find anything which only leaves me to believe it gets it from motherboard. Is there any way I can figure out for sure? I know I have 1 4 pin adapter on a PSU cable (think its sata one, its for the small little 4 pins on mobo) hanging on the cable plugged into my CPU cooler. If that is related then I'm not sure where to plug it in...if it's even necessary.

Oh and a side note, there is a tiny little board that both my CPU cooler and top fans are plugged into, that is the only thing I can see that my top fans are plugged into, I figured the plug in i plugged into it for the CPU cooler would also power the entire thing but perhaps I was wrong? Not sure but I'll let you decide.

 

[Mr_Venbeer]

Your fan that runs at 88 C seems to be running on slower fan speeds than your other one. Also, if the first gpu is lying on top of the second gpu, blocking air from being intaken and exhausted through the fans, it's obviously gonna run hotter.

 

[s1l3ntshadowz]

Your fan that runs at 88 C seems to be running on slower fan speeds than your other one. Also, if the first gpu is lying on top of the second gpu, blocking air from being intaken and exhausted through the fans, it's obviously gonna run hotter.

Yeah i realized that, I think I mentioned it somewhere in this thread. I up'd it to that of the one that was running faster and it lowered to about 82c max, which is acceptable for me. Also yes it's on top of the second GPU, the fan is on the bottom and whats below it is the metal board for the second card. Would it still work if I perhaps moved the second card down to the 3rd slot?

 

[Mr_Venbeer]

Your fan that runs at 88 C seems to be running on slower fan speeds than your other one. Also, if the first gpu is lying on top of the second gpu, blocking air from being intaken and exhausted through the fans, it's obviously gonna run hotter.

Yeah i realized that, I think I mentioned it somewhere in this thread. I up'd it to that of the one that was running faster and it lowered to about 82c max, which is acceptable for me. Also yes it's on top of the second GPU, the fan is on the bottom and whats below it is the metal board for the second card. Would it still work if I perhaps moved the second card down to the 3rd slot?

Yes. It will help a lot, although you might lose some performance if the 3rd PCIE slot is running on x8, or x4. Check that the 3rd slot is the same as the 2nd one.

 

[s1l3ntshadowz]

Your fan that runs at 88 C seems to be running on slower fan speeds than your other one. Also, if the first gpu is lying on top of the second gpu, blocking air from being intaken and exhausted through the fans, it's obviously gonna run hotter.

Yeah i realized that, I think I mentioned it somewhere in this thread. I up'd it to that of the one that was running faster and it lowered to about 82c max, which is acceptable for me. Also yes it's on top of the second GPU, the fan is on the bottom and whats below it is the metal board for the second card. Would it still work if I perhaps moved the second card down to the 3rd slot?

Yes. It will help a lot, although you might lose some performance if the 3rd PCIE slot is running on x8, or x4. Check that the 3rd slot is the same as the 2nd one.

I have 3 slots, all of them are the same size as the ones that already have GPU's in them. So I assume they are all 16x? I'm quite sure I originally tried both slots when I put the second card in in the first place so I think so.

EDIT: In GPU-Z both cards appear as PCI-E 3.0 X16 @ xSwitchingNumbers. I noticed that the "Switching NUmbers" varies from 1 to 8. What does this mean?

EDIT#2: Ok under load both run at x8 but they are in x16 slots.

 

[Mr_Venbeer]

Not necessarily. All PCIE slots are x16 size, but some only have x8 connection, x4 connection. I am not a Crossfire/SLI expert so I can't tell you what Switching Numbers refers to, maybe has something to do with GPU load, for power saving. So you are currently running both cards at x8? Or is that for the 2 bottom PCIE slots?

 

[s1l3ntshadowz]

Not necessarily. All PCIE slots are x16 size, but some only have x8 connection, x4 connection. I am not a Crossfire/SLI expert so I can't tell you what Switching Numbers refers to, maybe has something to do with GPU load, for power saving. So you are currently running both cards at x8? Or is that for the 2 bottom PCIE slots?

By "Switching numbers" I meant the numbers switch in GPU-Z from 1 to 8. It doesn't actually say switching numbers & yes according to GPU-Z they both run at x8 under load and x1 with no load.

 

[Mr_Venbeer]

And so yes, that's "IDLE MODE" sorry. They should also say they are running on PCIE 1.0, rather than 2.0 or 3.0.
So is the 3rd PCIE slot x8 or x4? You can check by visiting the motherboard's official website, it'll show all the specs there.

 

[s1l3ntshadowz]

And so yes, that's "IDLE MODE" sorry. They should also say they are running on PCIE 1.0, rather than 2.0 or 3.0.
So is the 3rd PCIE slot x8 or x4? You can check by visiting the motherboard's official website, it'll show all the specs there.

3rd one is same as the other 2.

Also in GPU-Z it varies from 1.0 to 2.0.

 

[Mr_Venbeer]

And so yes, that's "IDLE MODE" sorry. They should also say they are running on PCIE 1.0, rather than 2.0 or 3.0.
So is the 3rd PCIE slot x8 or x4? You can check by visiting the motherboard's official website, it'll show all the specs there.

3rd one is same as the other 2.

Also in GPU-Z it varies from 1.0 to 2.0.

So yeah, I would put the 2nd card down to the 3rd PCIE slot, and use MSI Afterburner to set custom auto fan speeds to suit certain heat levels. This should get your cards down to about 65 C max under heavy load, depending on fan speeds.