8800GT artifacting...

ck8-04 · Post by **ck8-04** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 2:50 pm

Recently, while playing AOE3, my 8800GT has been artifacting and locking up. Since it is summer, I'm fairly certain that heat has played a role in this. I've used ATITool to measure my temperatures, and the GPU shoots up to 80+ while gaming. Below is a picture of my current configuration:

In the current configuration, there are 3 fans including the PSU fan (there used to be only 2 when I had my 7950GT). The exhaust and CPU fan are Scythe S-Flex 800 RPM models. There are no intake fans. The CPU is a stock E6700, hard drive is a second generation 74GB Raptor, and case is an Antec Solo.

Money is no object here, however, I would prefer not to make changes that are too drastic, but I will consider them if nothing simple works. So far, I've thought of replacing the TRUE with an HR-01 Plus so the video card receives more spillover airflow, placing a 120mm fan under the video card, or rotating the TRUE 90 degrees so the airflow blows up and sucks the hot air out of the video card. What do you guys think?

mkk · Post by **mkk** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:09 pm

First I'd check if underclocking the cards core or/and memory just a little would be good enough to avoid the artifacts.

Then I'd try mounting a slowly rotating fan to circulate air into the card slots area. There are brackets for this and probably some ideas on how to make one yourself on this forum. I realise that those heatpipes might get in the way but perhaps the fan doesn't have to blow directly over the heatsink to be sufficiently effective.

Just maybe it could also work to move the fan on the TRUE over to a pull position on the left. Your CPU won't be bothered by the somewhat less effective cooling but it should be a little easier on the card.

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 4:33 pm

I would try mounting the HR-03 the other way and remove a few PCI covers, then tape up unwanted intake holes to create some airflow over the cooler. Might lower the temps a bit.

widowmaker · Post by **widowmaker** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 6:01 pm

The simplest and most effective solution I can see is to simply move your graphics card to another pci-e slot and mount a silent fan on your 8800. Note that you may not be able to run the card at 16X pci-e however it's been shown that the difference isn't all that significant.

ck8-04 · Post by **ck8-04** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 6:29 pm

widowmaker wrote:The simplest and most effective solution I can see is to simply move your graphics card to another pci-e slot and mount a silent fan on your 8800. Note that you may not be able to run the card at 16X pci-e however it's been shown that the difference isn't all that significant.

I had thought about that after I started the thread, but another thought crossed my mind. Would adding a 92mm fan as an intake have any effect on overall system temperatures?

ck8-04 · Post by **ck8-04** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 6:38 pm

mkk wrote:Then I'd try mounting a slowly rotating fan to circulate air into the card slots area. There are brackets for this and probably some ideas on how to make one yourself on this forum. I realise that those heatpipes might get in the way but perhaps the fan doesn't have to blow directly over the heatsink to be sufficiently effective.

I had that idea in the back of my mind, but where would I find one of these brackets? I'm very bad at DIY manufacturing, so that isn't an option.

ck8-04 · Post by **ck8-04** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 6:39 pm

Vicotnik wrote:I would try mounting the HR-03 the other way and remove a few PCI covers, then tape up unwanted intake holes to create some airflow over the cooler. Might lower the temps a bit.

That wouldn't be a bad idea, but my Raptor would really suffer from the lack of airflow.

Stravos · Post by **Stravos** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 7:24 pm

ck8-04 wrote:
Vicotnik wrote:I would try mounting the HR-03 the other way and remove a few PCI covers, then tape up unwanted intake holes to create some airflow over the cooler. Might lower the temps a bit.
That wouldn't be a bad idea, but my Raptor would really suffer from the lack of airflow.

The HR-03 is the GPU cooler, isn't it? I think the lack of airflow over your GPU heatsink and the proximity to the CPU heatsink is driving your temps way up there.

Ant6n · Post by **Ant6n** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 7:25 pm

ck8-04 wrote:
mkk wrote:Then I'd try mounting a slowly rotating fan to circulate air into the card slots area. There are brackets for this and probably some ideas on how to make one yourself on this forum. I realise that those heatpipes might get in the way but perhaps the fan doesn't have to blow directly over the heatsink to be sufficiently effective.
I had that idea in the back of my mind, but where would I find one of these brackets? I'm very bad at DIY manufacturing, so that isn't an option.

well, moving the card one slot down should arleady improve the situation. you can maybe put a another big fan using cable ties (is that a bad idea?).

widowmaker · Post by **widowmaker** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 7:52 pm

ck8-04 wrote:
widowmaker wrote:The simplest and most effective solution I can see is to simply move your graphics card to another pci-e slot and mount a silent fan on your 8800. Note that you may not be able to run the card at 16X pci-e however it's been shown that the difference isn't all that significant.
I had thought about that after I started the thread, but another thought crossed my mind. Would adding a 92mm fan as an intake have any effect on overall system temperatures?

Moving your card down a slot and mounting a fan on your graphics card should solve all the issues. Much more effective than adding an intake fan.

ck8-04 · Post by **ck8-04** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 7:57 pm

From what everybody's said so far, I think I'm going to try moving the card down one slot before I spend any money. If that doesn't work, I'll be purchasing a 92mm fan.

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:32 am

ck8-04 wrote:That wouldn't be a bad idea, but my Raptor would really suffer from the lack of airflow.

I didn't mean to imply that you should cover the front intake, but perhaps cover any other holes, making the front intake and the pci-slots the only major intakes.

The Raptor is not that hot really. It has some nice fins on it and I know both my old 150GB and 74GB Raptors were fine with very little airflow, even when they were suspended from the case.

ck8-04 · Post by **ck8-04** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 7:11 am

Alright so the saga continues... My Raptor died last week and I have a good feeling that heat was the culprit. Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to fiddle around with my PC in the past couple of weeks, but now I have no choice. I am 100% certain that I'll be purchasing a 92mm fan to blow over my hard drive and to act as intake and hopefully cool down the GPU a bit. My question is, which fan should I buy? I don't plan to run the fan above 1000 RPM. I have my eye on the Noctua NF-B9 and Scythe Kama Flex. Is the Noctua really worth its premium over other fans?

Post by **CA_Steve** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:46 am

It doesn't take much air to cool the HDDs in a Solo case. My WDC 320GB and 37GB Raptor are running 34C in a ~21C ambient room with 800rpm fan..this is after an hour of gaming.

ck8-04 · Post by **ck8-04** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:15 am

Which is exactly why

I wrote:I don't plan to run the fan above 1000 RPM.

Post by **CA_Steve** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:31 am

The unsaid implication of this

CA_Steve wrote:It doesn't take much air to cool the HDDs in a Solo case. My WDC 320GB and 37GB Raptor are running 34C in a ~21C ambient room with 800rpm fan..this is after an hour of gaming.

means nearly any SPCR approved fan will do the job in a silent/near silent manner.

Nick Geraedts · Post by **Nick Geraedts** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:06 am

Considering that you're not using any space below the graphics card, your best choice of action is to rotate the HR-03 and put a very low speed fan on there (Slipstream 800 or even 500's come to mind). Just that tiny bit of extra airflow will make all the difference.

Switching the graphics card to the secondary PCIe x16 slot may have strange consequences. Some motherboards lock that slot to only 4 lanes electrically, so your performance will be reduced. Furthermore, I've seen cases where the card works fine once you're in Windows, but you see nothing of the BIOS or booting screens.

Another option to try would be to use an intake fan and duct some of the incoming air into the "lower chamber" created by the 8800GT. Flip the HR-03 to the bottom and it will recieve indirect airflow from the intake. This is how my 8800GT is cooled with the S1 attached.

ck8-04 · Post by **ck8-04** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:35 am

CA_Steve, SPCR's 92mm fan list hasn't been updated in over a year which is why I'm asking about the Noctua and Scythe. I do realize that any SPCR approved fan would be more than adequate.

Nick Geraedts, I've previously used a 7950GT in that second PCIe slot without issues and, like widowmaker said, the performance drop was very insignificant. Currently, I have an old 92mm fan mounted to the top intake port running at just below 1200 RPM as a test. My HDD temperatures have dropped significantly, but GPU temps have stayed relatively the same. I will leave the fan on there for a few more days to see how my GPU reacts. If I still experience artifacting, I'm going to move the card down one slot and attach that same 92mm fan on top of the heatsink.

Post by **CA_Steve** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 10:05 am

Here are a couple of threads regarding Solo intake fans (search = "solo 92mm" in the fans and control forum).

thread 1
#2
#3
#4
#5

Here are two of Felger Carbon's 92mm reviews in the User Review forum:
four 92mm fans reviewed w equal airflow
Scythe Kama Flex 92mm compared to 4 others

Aard · Post by **Aard** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:01 pm

I have a very similar setup to this, Q6600, 8800GT, VX450, TRUE, HR-03, CPU + single case fan (both Slipstream 800) all in a Solo.

I cannot think of a time when I've had my GPU hit 70 degrees (I don't think it even hits 60 but I couldn't say for sure), the main difference is that my TRUE is rotated 90 degrees with an upwards blowing fan (case fan as intake). In this setup at idle both heatsinks are cool to the touch as are the hard drives.

Luminair · Post by **Luminair** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:02 am

You have no airflow through the hr03. The air in its fins stagnates and causes your heat problems.

Consider this: Blow on the hr03 with a fan from the front of the case, and rotate the cpu heatsink and use a new fan on the hr03 to blow up toward the cpu heatsink. I'd also think about moving the hard drive down close to the bottom, and remove the top hdd tray (if the passive flow is enough to keep the hdd below 45 c).

Right now any cool air input is being stolen by the CPU fan, so cool air never sees the video card.

ck8-04 wrote:

ck8-04 · Post by **ck8-04** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 4:56 pm

I finally got around to modifying my setup. What I did was move the Raptor down to the very bottom of the case and rotate the TRUE with the attached Scythe S-Flex 90 degrees clockwise. I am happy to report that my GPU is now only 72C under load and my Raptor is locked at 44C. Thank you, guys!

8800GT artifacting...

8800GT artifacting...

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