How hot is too hot?

[DanW]

I was running a video stress tool yesterday andthe video card seemed to not quite top out at 72-ish when the card's fan was at minimum speed.

This is still safe right?

Cheers,
Dan

[Kozure]

I was running a video stress tool yesterday andthe video card seemed to not quite top out at 72-ish when the card's fan was at minimum speed.

This is still safe right?

Cheers,
Dan

I seem to recall reading somewhere that 70C should be considered a "yellow line" - that is, it's not optimal to be running at temperatures over this level.

If the temperature is not topping out at 72C, do you mean it's still rising?

There are more experienced people than I on this site for whom it will probably be useful to know:

1. Which video card (exact model number and type)?

2. Which heat sink (stock or third party)?

3. Which video stress test?

4. What's the ambient temperature in your room, your case, and the motherboard temperature?

72C sounds high to me. On my older 6600 GT with passive cooling (the ZM-80D-HP) I was peaking under load at temperatures around 58C, and idling around 40-44C

My freshly installed X1950Pro with the stock cooler seems to idle in the low 40s. I haven't done an extensive stress test on it yet, but after two hours of fairly graphics-intensive gaming, it peaked at 55-56C.

My guess is that you should probably try to drop that peak temperature if possible, but it's not "dangerous".

[McBanjo]

My "throttle" limit is 125C and +70C seems to be standard from what I've seen.
Your GPU is perfectly safe to my knowledge

[DanW]

I was running a video stress tool yesterday andthe video card seemed to not quite top out at 72-ish when the card's fan was at minimum speed.

This is still safe right?

Cheers,
Dan

I seem to recall reading somewhere that 70C should be considered a "yellow line" - that is, it's not optimal to be running at temperatures over this level.

If the temperature is not topping out at 72C, do you mean it's still rising?

There are more experienced people than I on this site for whom it will probably be useful to know:

1. 7800GS AGP

2. Stock one that came with the card (Arctic Cooling style affair)

3. This tool

4. Ambient around 25 ish at a guess,
What's the ambient temperature in your room, your case, and the motherboard temperature?

I was stressing the card out more than I had done before on the minimal fan-mate setting.

My freshly installed X1950Pro with the stock cooler seems to idle in the low 40s. I haven't done an extensive stress test on it yet, but after two hours of fairly graphics-intensive gaming, it peaked at 55-56C.

My card is idling at about 48 with it turned to minimum again which is inaudible compared to the other fans in the case, so I'm going to turn it up again slightly (when I do it idles about 40, without being audible still)

Next step is to replace all my stock Tri-Cool with Alkasa fans and a fan controller and see how quiet it is (but that's for another post) as they are generating the most noise at the moment.

[stromgald]

72C is prefectly fine. 67-75°C is usually the limit for CPUs before they start throttling themselves down. GPUs are rated up to 100°C and higher. I think most newer nVidias are rated up to about 105-115°C. My old passive nVidia 6800 idled at about 60-70°C and went up to about 85-90°C under load. My current 6600GT with a VF700Cu idles around 55°C and tops out at about 70°C.

I wouldn't worry about your GPU temps until you get into the 90s. Here's some sample temperatures: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2825&p=17 . Its not the most rigorous test since I'm not sure if they kept ambient conditions constant, but it shows that your 72°C is perfectly fine.

72C sounds high to me. On my older 6600 GT with passive cooling (the ZM-80D-HP) I was peaking under load at temperatures around 58C, and idling around 40-44C

My freshly installed X1950Pro with the stock cooler seems to idle in the low 40s. I haven't done an extensive stress test on it yet, but after two hours of fairly graphics-intensive gaming, it peaked at 55-56C.

Those temperatures seem awfully low. A modern graphics card idling at under 50°C is extremely low, especially since yours is passive. Your ATI numbers are also very low since they're usually hotter than their nVidia equivalents. Are you sure you aren't reading your CPU temps?

[Tzupy]

Those temps are not low. My 7900 GTX with the stock cooler is now at 43C and peaks under 60C.
My previous 6600 GT with VM-101 idled at 40C and peaked at ~62C.
IMO 70C is still safe but I would get a bit worried and turn the case fans up a bit when gaming.

[stromgald]

Those temps are not low. My 7900 GTX with the stock cooler is now at 43C and peaks under 60C.
My previous 6600 GT with VM-101 idled at 40C and peaked at ~62C.
IMO 70C is still safe but I would get a bit worried and turn the case fans up a bit when gaming.

Well, out of the 5-7 graphics cards I've installed/tweaked with in the past few years, I've only seen one idle under 50°C with outside temps of ~70F/21C or higher, and that one was a 7300 IIRC. Some of the higher end cards do tend to be cooler since they pack in massive heatsinks with heapipes. Maybe your 7900GTX is one of these. The VM-101 is no slouch either. But with most stock coolers or something in the range/size of the VF700Cu, the temps can easily get in the 75-90°C range, and the chips are designed for that since not everyone has big graphics card coolers with multiple heatpipes.

[Kozure]

72C is prefectly fine. 67-75°C is usually the limit for CPUs before they start throttling themselves down. GPUs are rated up to 100°C and higher. I think most newer nVidias are rated up to about 105-115°C. My old passive nVidia 6800 idled at about 60-70°C and went up to about 85-90°C under load. My current 6600GT with a VF700Cu idles around 55°C and tops out at about 70°C.

I wouldn't worry about your GPU temps until you get into the 90s. Here's some sample temperatures: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2825&p=17 . Its not the most rigorous test since I'm not sure if they kept ambient conditions constant, but it shows that your 72°C is perfectly fine.

72C sounds high to me. On my older 6600 GT with passive cooling (the ZM-80D-HP) I was peaking under load at temperatures around 58C, and idling around 40-44C

My freshly installed X1950Pro with the stock cooler seems to idle in the low 40s. I haven't done an extensive stress test on it yet, but after two hours of fairly graphics-intensive gaming, it peaked at 55-56C.

Those temperatures seem awfully low. A modern graphics card idling at under 50°C is extremely low, especially since yours is passive. Your ATI numbers are also very low since they're usually hotter than their nVidia equivalents. Are you sure you aren't reading your CPU temps?

My Sapphire X1950 Pro 256 MB is not passively cooled - it has a fan attached to the heatsink. I am reading the temperature through ATI's Catalyst Control Centre, which, to the best of my knowledge, measures GPU temps only and not CPU or MB temps.

The old 6600GT ZM-80D-HP was passive, but never climbed above 58C according to the NVIDIA control centre. Here's my original report from when I installed it.

viewtopic.php?t=18268

My case is well ventilated and exhausted, and ambient temperatures in the room where the computer sits are relatively low, so that's probably part of the apparent discrepancy.

In any case, I figured people who were more knowledgeable than I would pop in, and there you have it.

Here's a link to an article from back in June which shows the various (then current) VGA coolers in action and with various voltages for the fans.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article612-page7.html

As you can see, the range for peak load ranged from 63 to 75 with the fan undervolted to 5V.

So, it sounds like you're in the right ballpark, I suppose, as long as it's not continuing to heat up past 75C.

[rei]

As mentioned here my temps are 50-60 idle/2D in Windows and 60-87 full load. If I play at 4x instead of 8XS antialiasing it's 60-70.

Fans are Fanmated but on full.

[DanW]

As mentioned here my temps are 50-60 idle/2D in Windows and 60-87 full load. If I play at 4x instead of 8XS antialiasing it's 60-70.

Fans are Fanmated but on full.

are your fans still loud at full? Why not turn them down at those temps?

[rei]

Because it'd get hotter at low Fanmate.

They're Nexus/Noctua so it's a dull, not entirely-maddening low-volume throb.

[McBanjo]

Do you get artifacts? If not then it's fine

[Lawrence Lee]

I'd get nervous at around the 80C mark, but video cards these days can handle higher than that. I prefer to keep mine under 70C at all times if possible.

Right now I have a 7950GT with a fanswapped Zalman VF900 and it runs surprisingly cool. 40C in 2D idle @ 200/400Mhz (underclocked), and 50C in 3D load @ 620/920 (overclocked). Fan speed at 5V idle (effectively silent), 7V load (very quiet).

[Stereodude]

Seem kinda hot, but it's likely OK.

My 7900GS sits around 40C with a Zalman VF900-Cu (fan at 5V).

[cmthomson]

Well as usual, I'm at the other end of the spectrum.

My 7900 GT KO SC with a Condor and a gentle draft (600 RPM Nexus) runs artifact-free at around 100C under full 3D load, and at 56C idle/2D.

It has never throttled (throttle is 130C), and never had any issues (artifacts or hangs) below 115C.