7970 Thermals

[IRQ Conflict]

Just needed a knowledgeable persons opinion. Are these temps acceptable maximums for my card?

I find the fan profile is not near aggressive enough, so I customized it. But I would still like to know if these temps are "normal" or not. Especially the VDDC Power and memory temps.

The card is stock factory OC @ 1100/1650. These are max temps after 10 minutes of load. Read by GPU Tweak.

GPU temperature 69

Memory temperature 67

VDDC Power temperature 74

Board temperature 74

VDDCI Power temperature 52

Memroy Power temperature 54

[BlueByte]

What 7970 do you have? those are not bad temps by any means. My Asus DC II run 1125/1500 single card default fan profile is around 65C load after an hour. After Xfire custom fan profile, extra cooling slapped around the setup the hot card still gets into the 80C.

[IRQ Conflict]

This one. I know GPU's are notoriously warm. But what of the memory and power circuitry?

[great_big_abyss]

I suggest that your case may not have adequate cooling. As an experiment, try removing the side panel and see if temps go lower. While this is not a long term solution, it will at least let you know if your case has adequate ventilation.

Your temps are actually a few degrees higher than Sky's was on his testbench. And, you're running a more aggressive fan profile.

[jibz]

Those are respectable temps. I tested a few reference 7970s this week and they hit 85c with less voltage and clock. so 70ish is respectable. These card are notoriously hot.

[Arinoth]

As the card vents into the case make sure you have a side panel where the fan moves air out of the case, that should help lower the card recycling and reusing the hot air inside.

[IRQ Conflict]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Truth is those temps were achieved in the worst case (pun intended) scenario. That was with the side panel closed on my POS P180b Antec garbage can...er PC case. The GPU fans were left at stock speeds I think the stock profile doesn't go above 10% till it hit's 50c lol.

I have no way to properly create positive pressure properly with this case. 1 fan below at the front blowing in, one at the top and another at the top rear blowing out. If I invert one of the top mounted fans I fear I may create some sort of nasty vortex that will create a hot spot around the CPU cooler and or NB.

I know I have to upgrade that lousy tin can. But what I'm really after is opinion of the Power/board and mem temps. Those seem reasonable? They are much lower now because I ramped up the fan profile and run it with the side open till I get rid of this black tower of terminal thermals.

I am a little ignorant on the subject. Though thorough, I fear that might make me thoroughly ignorant.

[great_big_abyss]

Originally Posted by Arinoth

As the card vents into the case make sure you have a side panel where the fan moves air out of the case, that should help lower the card recycling and reusing the hot air inside.

I actually found better results with a side fan flowing IN rather than exhaust. This is with a dual card setup (GTX680/570). When I had the side fan exhausting, temps spiked by about 15 degrees, with the 680 sometimes hitting 90 degrees. With the fan blowing cool air onto the video cards, temps came down to a more realistic 60 degrees. YMMV.

But, IRQ, it's worth experimenting with different fan orientations/locations to see what kind of temps you come up with. If your case has a fan mount on the floor of a case, try running a fan there in Intake. Also, try running a fan as intake at the front of the case. Of course, your top and rear fans should be exhaust, but if your top fan mount has a dust filter, you could also experiment with it as an Intake. Just make sure to see what all your temps are before and after.

[Arinoth]

Yeah, depends on the set up really and how the fans vent.

Also, default fan profiles tend to always suck, that's why I have my tutorial to make a custom one in my signature for those who aren't aware of it.

[NyteOwl]

I have an Antec 182 (basically the same case) and have no problems achieving positive pressure. Lower chamber fan blowing in, one mid-level fan blowing in, top exhaust and rear exhaust. The two front fans are higher speed/pressure than the exhaust fans. If you want some tips on improving airflow in that case do a search for it on silentpcreview.com. Lots of tips and mods. Do note that whicle decent airflow can be achieved in this case, they were designed primarily for silent systems, not high performance gaming rigs.