Burning hot, 780i gtx 260 sli - Overclock.net

andrewmchugh · 06-23-09

Today I got my second GTX 260 and I installed sli, I am getting very temps, the NB was unbearabley hot to touch, the graphics cards are around 69 -74 in games, and 60 idle.

what should i do.

dominique120 · 06-23-09

get liquid cooling

andrewmchugh · 06-23-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by dominique120

get liquid cooling

i cannot afford that, its out of the question, it has to stick with air.

c00lkatz · 06-23-09

Take off the NB heatsink/mosfet/SB cooler assembly. Wipe the NB/NF200/SB chips clean of thermal paste with alcohol. Re-apply better thermal paste to the chips, and make sure the thermal pads on the MOSFETs are in good condition. Re-assemble the cooler assembly.

Now, take off that dinky NB fan and strap on a 60-70mm fan using zip-ties (or other mounting method). The new fan will run quieter and will help cool better. If you have an old s478 or AM2 stock heatsink laying around, take the fan off of that.

Now, double check your NB and NF200 voltages. Your NB voltage will vary with your overclock, however your NF200 voltage should not be bumped more than a notch or two from stock, and only with SLI. If you have mistakenly adjusted the NF200 voltage thinking that it's your SB voltage, then you were wrong, turn it back down. The NF200 chip is a very hot chip, and it sits under the same heatsink as your NB/SPP chip.

andrewmchugh · 06-24-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by c00lkatz

Take off the NB heatsink/mosfet/SB cooler assembly. Wipe the NB/NF200/SB chips clean of thermal paste with alcohol. Re-apply better thermal paste to the chips, and make sure the thermal pads on the MOSFETs are in good condition. Re-assemble the cooler assembly.

Now, take off that dinky NB fan and strap on a 60-70mm fan using zip-ties (or other mounting method). The new fan will run quieter and will help cool better. If you have an old s478 or AM2 stock heatsink laying around, take the fan off of that.

Now, double check your NB and NF200 voltages. Your NB voltage will vary with your overclock, however your NF200 voltage should not be bumped more than a notch or two from stock, and only with SLI. If you have mistakenly adjusted the NF200 voltage thinking that it's your SB voltage, then you were wrong, turn it back down. The NF200 chip is a very hot chip, and it sits under the same heatsink as your NB/SPP chip.

I am not going to dare remove the chipset heatsink, however I will order a 60mm fan to replace the current NB fan, My cpu was over clocked but that was it, nb and others may have auto increased voltage. (my graphics cards are factory overclocked.)

Su77en187 · 06-24-09

I would suggest re-applying better TIM on the NB as well, but you have already stated you don't want to.

Well, how is the cable management and case airflow? I've noticed a temp decrease of my GTX260 when I cleaned my case. Might want to check your NB voltage as well. At the same time I wouldn't worry much because my NB is too hot to touch as well, but it has cause no problem to the system's stability. Many n-Force chipset runs hot, so I wouldn't worry too much. If you are concern, might want to invest in an aftermarket NB cooler. I heard those lower the temps dramatically.

andrewmchugh · 06-24-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Su77en187

I would suggest re-applying better TIM on the NB as well, but you have already stated you don't want to.

Well, how is the cable management and case airflow? I've noticed a temp decrease of my GTX260 when I cleaned my case. Might want to check your NB voltage as well. At the same time I wouldn't worry much because my NB is too hot to touch as well, but it has cause no problem to the system's stability. Many n-Force chipset runs hot, so I wouldn't worry too much. If you are concern, might want to invest in an aftermarket NB cooler. I heard those lower the temps dramatically.

Thanks, i reset the bios and reinstalled the os. (so theres no overclock)

Interms of cabling. I think that im ok.

The north bridge isn't my main concern, its more the graphics cards when in game.

c00lkatz · 06-24-09

What exactly are your NB temps? I idle around 46-47*C, and under full load (GPU's and all) I get to 49-50*C. I've felt the NB, and it's a bit warm, but not blistering hot. The 750i FTW uses the exact same NB chip and cooler assembly as the 780i. The only differences are a few less SATA ports and 1 less PCI-E x16 port.

You really need to look into changing the TIM on those chips. I've heard horror stories about poor quality control with some 780i boards and the TIM is either junk or wasn't applied correctly. I've even seen a post where the wasn't any thermal paste AT ALL. It's not hard, just a few screws on the back of the board. Take them out, gently pull up on the heatsink assembly, and it will pop off. Rub off the old TIM, put on a VERY SMALL amount of new TIM, put the heatsink assembly back on, screw it back down, and you're good to go. After you have the board out, the whole process should take you like 10-15 minutes. Of course this is with a modded BIOS where I set the fan speed to minimum 60% and it increases from there. During intense games I set the fan speed manually via EVGA Precision to 80%.

As for your GPU's, turn up the fan speeds a bit, and again, reapply the thermal paste with some better stuff. I used Arctic Cooling MX2 personally. Make sure your cable management is good, and that you're getting plenty of airflow. My top card idles at 44*C and my bottom card idles at 41*C. Under load they reach between 60-65*C, and during Furmark (higher stress than a standard game) they reach just over 70*C, but again, that's only during Furmark. With Vsync enabled keeping my frames capped at 60fps (for smoother play), they rarely pass 55*C. And this is at their overclocked specs. My top card generally runs about 3-5*C hotter than my bottom card, since as we all know, heat rises.

DuckieHo · 06-24-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by c00lkatz

You really need to look into changing the TIM on those chips. I've heard horror stories about poor quality control with some 780i boards and the TIM is either junk or wasn't applied correctly. I've even seen a post where the wasn't any thermal paste AT ALL. It's not hard, just a few screws on the back of the board. Take them out, gently pull up on the heatsink assembly, and it will pop off. Rub off the old TIM, put on a VERY SMALL amount of new TIM, put the heatsink assembly back on, screw it back down, and you're good to go. After you have the board out, the whole process should take you like 10-15 minutes.

You should also manually spread the TIM since the NB and NF200 are exposed dies.

andrewmchugh · 06-24-09

ok... im not rageing, but there is no chance that I am going to change any thermal paste. Because A. im not great at thermal paste. B. my hardware is new and covered under warranty. Surely the heatsinks would be cooler to touch if there was bad connection, also last night the temps were really high as my room was very warm, almost unbearable for my self.

		Overclock.net - Overclocking.net > Graphics Cards > NVIDIA > NVIDIA Cooling
Burning hot, 780i gtx 260 sli

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)