Not Pleased with Nvidia

Does anyone have a definitive answer on whether thermal protection still exists under Vista for Nvidia cards, seeing how they have removed support for GPU temperature monitoring from the drivers? Does anyone know of a replacement to monitor it? Not interested in Speedfan, and all the others I have tried, required driver support to read it.


Yes I know nTune does it now, and no, nTune does not work for me. Not even a point to troubleshoot, its an nvidia issue.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=39158

 

7800GTX. Im trying to determine if the artifacts in game are heat related or driver quality related.

 

Ok, using Everest I find my card is hitting upper 90s....

Good grief, so many fans, and still I have cooling problems with this card...

 

It works fine for me though some motherboard options are not available. It also reads my mobo as an A8N-SLIR as it should be a "-E", but the temps are the same as in Everest at 49C and a touch test confirmed it.

 

Problem is, artifacting starts at 90c.

Rivatuner doesnt work for me either. The info is greyed. Same with Hmonitor.

Everest did, though.

Ive an idea the problem, but have no clue how to remedy it, aside from spending money, that I dont really have right now.

The fan isnt ramping up correctly. Even when it hit 95c--the fan was still only running at 70%. Vista sleep only exacerbates the issue. I woke up the machine, started the game and the machine croaked after severe artifacting. The fan never ramped up the entire time, and stayed at 40% speed.

So--I had this issue with Oblivion--and I had to stop playing altogether. So I was playing WoW, and the temps never exceeded high 80s, so I forgot about it.

I have a lifetime warranty on this card...but the card works. The fan spins without grinding. Games do work--sort of.

How can I prove that the fan is the culprit to honor a warranty? I can't. nTune locks up my machine--as well as other people with my motherboard. So my options now are buy a cooling system, or another video card.

/sigh

 

90c !! my volt modded 7900gts don't even hit that rolleyes. Can you post a pic or link to a pic of the card?

 

http://www.xfxforce.com/web/product...e™+7800&seriesId=12035&productId=12036#

Card at the bottom with 1.3ghz ram clock.

 

Overclocked? How are case fans setup around it ? Do you run your system with the case open? With that heatsink setup i would think it would be rather hard to make a better cooler for it. Seeing as my mom just lost the video card in the family system due to heat id recommend under clocking it if you can get the heat down by other means.

 

what about one of those little PCI port aux fans mounted right below the vid card? would that help out?

 

My fans are as follows:

1. 120mm fan sucking air in through the front, bottom.
1. 90mm fan sucking air in at the top.
1. 90mm fan sucking air out at the back top.
1. 120 mm fan sucking air out at the back, in the middle or so.
2 80mm fans blowing air in on the side, one positioned above the CPU, and one positioned below it, centering over the motherboard chipset and half of the video card.

All cables tucked away so as to not interfere.


http://thermaltake.com/product/Chassis/fulltower/armor_extreme_edition/va8004bns.asp

This case is basically the same. The fans on the side were put in by me--so this case has actually been updated.

 

Ive tried them--if anything, it raised the temperature :/ I tried an Antec one.

 

Have you tried running the side of the case off to see if that helps temps? Might even go as far as putting a window fan blowing in to the open side of the case (not to close to the case, the magnetic fields can induce instability...somehow...)

 

I have in the past and didnt get an appreciable result. Not more than 2-3c.

This is a really bizzare issue. I only need to save about 10c--the card runs normally at 83c under load. The card being factory overclocked, and the 7800gtx being a super hot card anyway....

Those 80mm fans are for cooling the already hot motherboard, by the way. They never affected the video card, postively or negatively.

 

Well in that case underclocking it is the only real option. If it doesn't make the card run cooler it will at least make it stable at the higher temps.

 

the only suggestion I can come up with is face the one 90mm fan on the top out instead of in. that way you get more air flow across the center of the case. and can you ramp up the 120mm fan in the front? maybe blowing more air in might help

 

Which leads me to a new dilemna. What do I use, under Vista? nTune locks my system solid. Seems to be some sort of motherboard incompatibility, per the thread in the first post.

 

I'd have to replace the 120mm, its slow speed, only like 1200rpm to make it silent.

As for the top, I'll have to check, I thought it was blowing in, but then there is no filter on it so...maybe its blowing out already. I'll check when I get home.

 

ATI tool ? Riva tuner?

 

another thing to try is maybe a cardboard divider for air flow. Dell server cases do something like that to help out with heat issues. you could divide the case right between the slots and the CPU and force air flow the way you want it. might be worth trying out

 

there is a thought.

Thanks for the suggestions

 

Have you got the space within the case to fit an extension riser card for the Nvidia to move it clear of other stuff?

 

Not sure it would help, as Ive got clean airflow.

Thats why its so irritating.

 

My current plan when I get home to use Gainward Expertool, Jack up my fan speed to full (I hope), and then use a cardboard divider to funnel the 120mm fan to my video card, and see how that goes.

I'll underclock if I have to, but didnt really want to.

 

If you taper the tube/duct down in cross section toward the Nvidia, you will increase the airspeed and thus the cooling effect of the blower.

 

Yeah Im considering it, I just dont want to compromise overall case airflow. This motherboard has passive cooling and runs hot.

Update: Currently at 52c idle. This is about 12 degress lower than it usually runs. The fan is running at full speed, thanks to Expertool.

 

50c!

Huzzah!

 

well cool beans, glad you got it figured out---sorta

 

Heh, yeah sorta.

To each their own I guess. I suppose now I know why it was on Newegg one day, and then never again.