Safe temp for GFX card

Gfx cards typically run hotter than CPU's and can *generally* operate stably up to even 70degC. Staying under 65C is desirable, for the longevity of the card
 
I would also say "the lower the better"

Mine idles at 42 C, averages 61 C under full load, and throttling kicks in when it reaches 95 C.
 
As stated obviously the lower the better :)

Newer models of graphics cards tend to run at higher temperatures than the older ones.

However, if worst comes to worst, a card will throttle itself when it overheats. This can be seen as either a sudden extreme lag in a game for instance, or artifacts appearing on your screen (a lot of colourful little squares and pixels) ;)
 
Ok. cause my card is running on 62 - 65 C and upping to 75 c during game play(COD 4)!

This wouldnt harm the card?

I've got a ZALMAN VGA cooler but fitting it would make warranty void, do you guys think I should fit the cooler?
 
Its a 8800Gt Extreme Edition, do you guys think I should install the VGA cooler?

Any other options without voiding the warranty?
 
It's about the same temperature as mine (mine actually runs hotter) so I don't think you need to worry.
 
QWERTY12345 said:
Its a 8800Gt Extreme Edition, do you guys think I should install the VGA cooler?

Any other options without voiding the warranty?
Click to expand...

ONE IMPORTANT THING!!! What is your card's fan speed? Either install Nvidia's nTune, or Rivatuner and check the fan speed. The 8800GT's are known for not raising the fan-speed above the default 29% as the card heats up, causing overheating. I strongly suggest installing one of these apps that allow you to control the speed yourself. Then start off by forcing the speed to 45%, which is still quiet, but cools things reasonably well.

I have that card as well and currently see idle temps of 50-55deg and peak at 61degC. This is with the stock cooling and only 120mm intake + exhaust fans.

It depends also on your average ambient temperatures. If your weather conditions average high 20s, then you'd probably see higher PC temps than here in GP

Going up to 75 is a little high, but not overly so. If you're confident with replacing the cooling, then I would suggest doing it. If not, then perhaps keep your warranty safe. AFAIK, only eVGA still warranty cards with aftermarket cooling.

Perhaps as an alternative, add a slot-cooler that either blows cool air from below your card, or removes hot air from above. These are cheap and require no modification of the card. I'm thinking of doing this, but don't particularly want to add another fan to my mostly quiet PC.

The order of steps I recommend:

1) Use Rivatuner to automatically adjust the speed as: 30% for temps below 50deg, 40% for temps from 51deg to 60deg, 60% from 60deg to 70deg and 100% above that. Also, I underclock my card to 400/800 for 2D purposes (who needs full speed for surfing the Net?)

2) Add a slot-fan cooler to pull the hot air out of the case

3) If it still runs hot with these measures, then add the Zalman cooler.
 
My 8800GT - XXX Edition never goes above 60degrees, all I did was to set the fan speed to a constant 40% in nTune...

Use :
  • nTune - If you've got a motherboard with a nVidia chipset
  • RivaTuner - For all else

You could even use RivaTuner for the nVidia chipset motherboards aswell or the other way around, I just know that not all motherboards work equally well with nTune.
** And RivaTuner is only a 2-4MB download, whilst nTune is > 40MB
 
I keep mine on the default since I'm not experiencing overheating (not since my 7900GT at any rate :p)
 
WKJ?:beanie said:
I keep mine on the default since I'm not experiencing overheating (not since my 7900GT at any rate :p)
Click to expand...

I also didn't really experiemce overheating, mine just went up to about 75degrees, so I upped my fanspeed in nTune, and there was almost no noticable increase in noise, so I left it there, and have since not seen my GPU go past 60degrees.
 
Frag said:
I also didn't really experiemce overheating, mine just went up to about 75degrees, so I upped my fanspeed in nTune, and there was almost no noticable increase in noise, so I left it there, and have since not seen my GPU go past 60degrees.
Click to expand...

If it's not broke I'd rather not fix it ;)
 
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