Optimizing GPU Temperature: Tips and Tricks

[slee95]

It will be at 56°c when the door is closed but will be at 54°c when the door is open. I have a fan under the card and on the side of the card. Both fans are 80mm.

 

[Simon Bridge]

Is your gpu overheating?
1. use the gpu less
2. use a different cooling method

but you know this: what is your real question?

 

[Bill Simpson]

Get a sheet of acrylic to replace the side of your case. Cut a couple of holes in that and glue short lengths of acrylic tubing so that the tube directly connects room air to the input side of each fan. (You could, just as a first quick cheap experiment, try this with cardboard, duct tape and staples. Do a good job and if it shows substantial results then do the more impressive job with clear acrylic)

Some Dell computers have have plastic ducts that route room air from openings on the back of the case directly to the top of the CPU fan. You are just doing the same for your GPU fan and CPU fan.

If you wanted to really impress people you could come up with a portable room air conditioner and duct the cold dry air out of that into your GPU and CPU input ducts.

Or if you want to go steampunk you could get some sheet copper and tubing and a good sized soldering iron and make yourself some copper fins bonded onto a copper tray. You fill the copper tray with crushed ice and the fans pull air past the cold fins cooling the air before it is sucked into your case.

Watch out for condensation. Sucking water into your computer might not be a good idea, but I did once wonder for a few hours whether it would be feasible to blow a mist of fine water droplets onto the CPU heatsink where it would immediately evaporate and decrease the temperature substantially. I feel I must say I am not responsible for any damage caused by trying this, but if someone does try it and gets video showing substantial temperature drop I think you might have some youtube material there. Post to let me know.

 

[wuliheron]

If you haven't already done so and your gpu isn't new, buy some compressed air and blow out any accumulated dust. Disassemble the thing if you have to, but dust can be a major problem for getting rid of heat.

If the computer is a name brand prebuilt the case is likely not really designed for serious cooling or upgrades like a gpu that produces heat. If you have just added a video card where none was before I'd suggest drilling a few extra holes in the front bottom or front bottom sides of the case to allow more air in for the gpu fan to suck on. If dust is a problem even dryer anti-static sheets can be used for dust filters. Without knowing more about your exact setup it's impossible to make anymore recommendations.

 

[slee95]

this sounds like a cool idea and i will talk to my red necking buddy's about it. :) the gpu is right now at 56c.

 

[slee95]

The case is made by acer and the mother board had a built on video card but i wanted to try a digital video card and see if there is a difference.

 

[slee95]

I can post picture of the computer but i only know how to upload it to fb.

 

[wuliheron]

I can post picture of the computer but i only know how to upload it to fb.

What we really need are the model and specifications. You can download Everest or CPU-Z and GPU-Z and tell us what you have plugged into the thing.

 

[slee95]

NVIDIA: 57% ATI: 36% Intel: 6% Other: 0%
Bus Interface:
PCI-E: 42% PCI-E 2.0: 21% PCI: 11% Other: 23%
DirectX Support:
10.0: 37% 9.0c: 17% 10.1: 15% Other: 31%

 

[slee95]

I have a screen shot on fb of SpeedFan 4.43. and it has all the speeds of my fans and the temps.

 

[slee95]

Did a screen shot of TechPowerup GPU-Z 0.6.3 and posted it to fb My fb account is shawn lee.

 

[rcgldr]

With an ATI video card, you can enable ATI overdrive, not to speed up the clock rates, but to speed up the fan with a manual setting, somewhere between 25% and 40% should be enough, but check the temp of the GPU after running a game for a while.

 

[wuliheron]

Please provide a link or list the model of acer computer it is and the model of graphics card.

 

[slee95]

Ok everything may not be correct because this is a refurbished Computer. http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=AM3100-U3201A-R&cm_mmc=geekmail-_-newarrivals_html-_-07jun08-_-AM3100-U3201A-R The hard drive and the ram are 2gb of ram and 200gb Hard drive mother board is all Original. The operating system is xp.