Should I give up on SLI??

Like the title says, should I give up? I'm running the cards at stock speeds and I'm getting idle temps of 48-51C and load temps of 81-83C. I can't seem to get these temps any lower!!! Are these deadly high temps really worth it all?

How well ventilated is your case for one, and have you considered possibly going watercooling to keep your temps down?

are you running stock cooling?

81-83 i dont this that is high for video card temp

anhvo12345 said:

81-83 i dont this that is high for video card temp

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While those temps are within the operating temps. of the video card I see any video card temp over 80 as being high. I am interested in this as I am contemplating getting 2 7800gt's to run Sli.

While 81-83c is very high for a GPU, it is well within the threshold of what the GPU can handel. You may experiance throttling (minor though) at that temp.

Have you tried possibly putting a fan on your side panel? Something along the lines of a 120mm, or IMO a good idea if you have a big case and plenty of room... i would put a 92mm fan on the side panel, and make a duct so it only blows air on the graphics cards.

Do what I do... leave the side panel open and that should help cool your rig.

I'll have a picture up later today of my case layout and where it's at. Currently putting a side panel fan on it wouldn't be of much use, as my computer sits under the desk and it's like a sweat room under there by the computer.

I'm currently cooling the cards with Zalman VF700-Cu's, but I have tried NVSilencers. Those lead to 3C higher temps though.

My computer is based upon silence and performance. I'd love to have high end performance, but if I can't have a silent comp, there's no point in having performance because I'd get irritated with the noise that it'd be off most of the time.

My case is a Lian-Li V1000B, first generation (they've redone a few things in the recent cases). I'm pretty sensitive when it comes down to modding anything major like a side panel, so cutting a permanent hole in it isn't something I'm going to jump at first glance. I spent $200 on this case last year and I'm still not over it.

Not sure if it's worth waiting for the VF900 or not. I've seen the reviews out on the AccelleroX2 and it looks good, but not as good as what I have now, or the VF900. I've used the NVSilencer 5 Rev. 1 and I have a Rev. 3 in my posetion and they've both been noisy compared to the zalmans.

Well, have you tried just one card and seen the temps/performance of it? I personally wouldn't worry about it if:

a. You experience no lock-ups
b. It doesn't affect your CPU temps much (~2 degrees isn't something to worry about)
c. you like having SLI.

If you already dropped the money on the cards and you are satisfied playing games with SLI and ALL the above have been satisfied, then I don't think it's something to worry about.

Just my 2 cents...

Yes but won't the life of my expensive investment be shortened by a year or so? I've had video cards last me four to five years. I at least want these two to last me at least that long.

When running it with only one card in the system, the load temps drop 7-10C, idle temps drop 3C.

I realize that it's within the operating temperature, but it's the life and well being of my equipment that I'm worried about.


EDIT: I have considered water cooling, but I've already spent over $600 on the video cards and over $1k on my system this year, it's not even an option anymore.

Celeron_Phreak said:

I'll have a picture up later today of my case layout and where it's at. Currently putting a side panel fan on it wouldn't be of much use, as my computer sits under the desk and it's like a sweat room under there by the computer.

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found your problem right there. Maybe you can mod the desk to allow for some better airflow? If not then those temps are pretty high, im worried what summer might have in store for them.

Well it's either I just deal with these temps and wait for some outstanding reviews about the VF900 or I sell one. What would you recomend?

custom90gt said:

found your problem right there. Maybe you can mod the desk to allow for some better airflow? If not then those temps are pretty high, im worried what summer might have in store for them.

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Same, i keep my computer well ventilated and leave the door open when i don't need it closed.

i get idle 42/43 and load 52/54

although at the sweaty poonage lan party. i got load temps of 68 and artifacts from one card [ i assume the heatsink needs to be reseated [which it does]]

but normally, i get low temps. if its hot were you live.. then you really don't have much of a choice.

Celeron_Phreak said:

Well it's either I just deal with these temps and wait for some outstanding reviews about the VF900 or I sell one. What would you recomend?

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Well I doubt the vf900 is going to be a huge huge dif in temps for those cards, so dont hold your breath too much. I would look at the position that your case is in and see if you can fix anything about it (Maybe wire in some yate loon 120s and 5 volt them into the desk itself to help feed some fresh air). If not then you could prob live with it, it shouldn't degrade the life of your cards much (just try to make sure it doesn't go much higher).

you are already getting artifacts on your card during game. It's definitely a tell tale sign you have to back down on your o/c.

I guess its back to the waiting game for you. If I'm you, and I really don't want to wait, just go ahead and buy the VF900 and test it yourself. If you don't like it, send it back. Of course, you have to deal with the shipping charges both ways, plus the restocking fee. IMHO, you have already spend lots of $ on your rig. What difference does that $20 return charge make at all?

True, but it will be a month or so before I can afford the VF900s. I've been sick and had to take three days off from work, so I'm not having much come in on this next paycheck.

Well Maybe you should sell the pair and buy a 7900gt(x). You wouldn't lose too much in performance and I hear that it runs fairly cool. And If you ever decide to go SLI again, add another 7900gt(x).

Sounds like a ventilation problem, for me I just have an 80mm fan blowing over my 7800GT from the back over the top and bottom of the card. Doing this lowered by temps drastically, i bet it would help you a lot also. The main thing I'd suggest if you really want to get your temps down overall is to pickup a cooler like the NVsilencer5 that blows the hot air out the back of your case. Even just one of these might lower your temps inside the case by a lot.

Try one of these:
http://www.frozencpu.com/vid-34.html

Adding that made my temps drop dramatically... How high is the ambient temperature there???

Are both cards running hot? I always thought that the upper card ran hotter in sli because there was no room for the fan to grab air due to the closeness of the card under it. If this is the case maybe it would help to use an accelero x1 on the upper card and a zalman on the bottom with an empty pci slot under the bottom card. Pictures I've seen of the accelero show the fan sticking out over the side of the card so as long as you only have an accelero on the upper card it should have nothing blocking the fan.