SOLVED New Gainward GTX 570 GLH, hot and loud

[cbope]

Hello OC forums,

I just installed a new Gainward GTX 570 GLH "Goes Like Hell" in my game box last night, after thoroughly researching the options for 570 cards. It's a fast card, no doubt, but I'm a bit disappointed with the thermal and noise profile so far. The card replaced my overclocked Asus GTX 260, which was relatively quiet under heavy load even though I was running a custom, more aggressive fan profile via MSI Afterburner together with the overclock (for those interested, 675 ROP, 1458 shaders and 1215 memory overclocks).

The rest of my system:
Asus P5E motherboard, X38 chipset
Core 2 Quad Q9550, overclocked 3.4GHz (400MHz bus)
Coolermaster Hyper212 CPU cooler with Noctua 120mm fan
Antec P182 case
Corsair HX620 powersupply
6GB Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 (2x1GB, 2x4GB modules)
2x 120mm exhaust fans (one top, one rear)
3x 120mm intake fans
1x 120mm internal fan in front of powersupply (cools only powersupply and hdd's)
2 SATA hard drives, one PATA optical drive
Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatality sound card
GeForce 9600GT 512MB as Physx card
Win7 x64 HP

First, I reset all Afterburner settings to default and removed the overclock profile used with my old GTX 260. Also made sure the fan profile was set back to default (it was). Performed full uninstallation of the Nvidia 266.58 drivers and then shut down and removed the GTX 260. Installed new card and reinstalled the 266.58 drivers. After reboot, then I began testing.

This card comes with a decent factory overclock, 800 ROP, 1600 shaders and 1000 memory. It has a dual 80mm fan custom cooler designed by Gainward, seems to be the same one used on the GTX 580 too so it should be pretty efficient. Based on several reviews, this card at default overclock seems to run about 72-76 degrees under load and is reasonably quiet, though audible. Mine however, seems to be a different beast. After one loop of Heaven 2.0 benchmark, at high settings and normal tessellation at 1920x1200, the card easily hits 82-85 degrees and becomes VERY audible. In fact, the fans are hitting about 75% after a few minutes full load. And this is without any additional overclock, just the factory one applied.

I'm very sure I have a good case with good airflow (all cables run behind the motherboard tray), and I have no shortage of fans. My old GTX 260 had a bigger (by percentage) overclock than the GLH factory overclock, and it had no problem staying cool and reasonably quiet. I should also note that my GTX 260 was an early 216 core version with a 65nm GPU, not one of the later, cooler 55nm ones. It peaked about 75 degrees with the overclock under heavy load and the fan rarely got about 60%.

I don't mind if the GLH is a bit louder than my old 260, but honestly it feels like I bought an infamous GTX 480 (or FX 5800), rather than a 570. Did I get a dud? Should I remove the cooler and check the thermal interface? To me, this card is running much hotter and louder than expected. It hits 70 degrees within 30 seconds under what I would consider a medium load, such as running Bioshock 2.

I'm just not sure what to do with this card, it's not what I was expecting. On top of this, I had to wait for nearly 2 months to get it. I've bought Gainward in the past and never had a problem. It's fast, yes, but I'm not sure I can live with the heat and noise levels. I still need to play a few games to get a feel for how loud it is under non-benchmarking sessions, but my first impressions are it's running a lot hotter and consequently louder than it should be.

 

[Saaby900t]

Fermi cards run Hot. Yes the 500 series is "cooler" but still they Run hotter than any ATI or 8000-9000 geforce series cards. As far as the fan getting audible after one loop of a benchmark. I'd be worried if they didn't but hey I am Not very expericenced with the New 500 series.

 

[BobbyBubblehead]

doesnt sound like anythings a miss. as you say hot `n loud is on the money.

just ran heaven on the 580 using custom fan profile.

Q9650
1920x1200
(rest of the systems watercooled)

I appreciate the space heater effect here in the uk right now.... game or freeze, game or freeze!

Edit: on a useful note mine was up to 87 on some stuff with the default fan profile.... hmmm, that new card smell

 

[cbope]

I may have found the answer: more airflow. The 2 case exhaust fans, one in the rear and one on top are Antec Tri-cool fans, which have a 3-speed fan switch. I was running them in the silent lowest-speed position. I bumped both fans up to the middle-speed and re-ran Heaven with my custom less-aggressive fan profile. After 5 or 6 runs, it seemed to peak about 80-81 degrees, the first run only hit about 75-76, much better than my previous attempts. With my custom fan profile, 80 degrees is just on the edge where the fan noise starts to be an issue, but it's bearable. I just need to accept that the idle noise floor is now somewhat higher than when I had the Tri-cool fans set to low. I may also tweak my front-mounted intake fan which has a fan control to see if I can drop a degree or two off the current peak. Then I would be quite happy with the result. Ideally, it would be nice to have a peak of 75-76 degrees, which with my custom fan profile is very good... once you go above that the fans start being much more noticeable.

 

[hUMANbEATbOX]

my solution to fan noise is headphones, always has been.

 

[Zantal]

my solution to fan noise is water cooling.

back on topic,
You can't compare temps of reviewers with yours, most probably your ambient temp might be different.

Btw i always kept my gtx260 on 50% fan, and never got over 75C while gaming =)

 

[cbope]

my solution to fan noise is headphones, always has been.

Good point, but I prefer gaming in glorious 400 watt 4.1 surround to headphones. Always have preferred speakers when gaming anyway.

 

[cbope]

my solution to fan noise is water cooling.

back on topic,
You can't compare temps of reviewers with yours, most probably your ambient temp might be different.

Btw i always kept my gtx260 on 50% fan, and never got over 75C while gaming =)

My ambient temps are actually quite good... not much over 20C. But yes, you are correct... and reviewers generally won't care too much about a bunch of loud case fans or even running an open test bench when they are testing GPU's.

As an update, I've managed a stable overclock to 850/1700/2100 and temps are peaking at ~82, still using my custom fan profile. I tried 900 but no go, driver reset during GT2 in 3dmark06. 885 ran fine in 3dmark06 full pass, but driver reset occurred in 3dmark11. 875 seems stable, but for now I dropped back to 850. All on default volts by the way. I heard the latest Afterburner beta has voltage tweaking for 570 working, but I'm still running 2.0 and voltage is locked out. Not that I really want to overvolt this card... want to keep it on air and reliable.

All in all, I'm happy with this card now. Just a bit more tweaking, maybe take the clocks up a bit more, and verify my overclock stability over a few days.

 

[EarthDog]

You can't compare temps of reviewers with yours, most probably everything might be different.

Fixed.

You cant compare with any amount of accuracy a reviewers tempertures to yours.

That said.. Things look about right. What I would do is ramp up the fan a bit quicker. On idle I see around mid 40's with 40%

 

[cbope]

Fixed.

You cant compare with any amount of accuracy a reviewers tempertures to yours.

That said.. Things look about right. What I would do is ramp up the fan a bit quicker. On idle I see around mid 40's with 40%

I am purposefully running a less aggressive fan profile than stock. The stock profile ramps up quicker, pushing the fans into the annoying range under full load after a minute or so. By relaxing the profile a bit, the sound profile is less of a problem and temps are only a bit worse. This is not a benchmark system where I'm shooting for the best performance and damn the noise levels. This is my game system in my home office, and I don't want a hair-dryer under my desk while playing.

 

[Zantal]

Fixed.

You cant compare with any amount of accuracy a reviewers tempertures to yours.

oh well gotta work on my language skills a little bit =)

 

[EarthDog]

haha, that wasnt it... just having fun and saying EVERYTHING is different affecting the temps.

 

[Saaby900t]

I am purposefully running a less aggressive fan profile than stock. The stock profile ramps up quicker, pushing the fans into the annoying range under full load after a minute or so. By relaxing the profile a bit, the sound profile is less of a problem and temps are only a bit worse.

So let me get this right . Your Worried/Complaining about Temps after you edit the fan profile to be less aggressive. Well OCing your card

And then you are comparing your temps to a Test/review you found online that was run under different conditions. And are expecting yours to be similar.

I fail to see your logic.

 

[EarthDog]

While your point may be spot on, thats just not nice. I think he knows whats going on.

 

[Saaby900t]

While your point may be spot on, thats just not nice. I think he knows whats going on.

I not trying to be mean.

I am just wondering What the OP is asking about?
To me Overclocking a card and turning on a less aggressive fan profile usually results in higher than average temps.

 

[Yakri]

Just my two cents, but I don't think it's actually fair to the GTX 570 cards to say they run hot. I had a (possibly faulty) GTX 460 that ran at 80-100c with stock fan speeds.

Now I'm rocking x2 GTX 570's from EVGA, and one of them is running under 100% load right now, with 64% fan speed, and it's hitting 64c.

You can barely hear the fan too, it's noticeable if you don't have music on, but it's a bit quieter than my 460 if anything, and a nice low-pitch hum, so it's easy to tune out. With headphones or loud music it's impossible to hear.


Oh right, did I mention it's overclocked to the same specs as your card?

And I got it to 850 core clock with MSI afterburner (but the beta version sometimes sets your fans to 40%, so it isn't safe to run 24/7, it will be later though). While overclocked to 850, it stayed around 68c to 72c with 60% and 70% fan steps. When you seriously overclock the card, the fans do get pretty noisy if you want to stay under 80c, but you DO stay under 80c.

PS. imo, seems like your card should be nearly inline with what other people get, but either you have super-sensitive ears, or your fans are weirdly loud. Under stock speeds, mine are dead silent.

Peace out~

 

[cbope]

I not trying to be mean.

I am just wondering What the OP is asking about?
To me Overclocking a card and turning on a less aggressive fan profile usually results in higher than average temps.

Well, if you go back and read my original post, I was NOT overclocking the card. The card comes with a factory overclock, that in my book is not overclocking.

My original complaint was that my card seemed to run a lot hotter and louder than the same card based on several reviews. I'm not talking about stuffing this card into a small box with no airflow; I have a meticulously designed system with strategically positioned fans running at specific speeds based on what they are designed to do. Not just throwing some crap 80mm Chinese-made fans into a cheap-*** box. I have personally built hundreds of systems (more than I care to count) over 28+ years and I have been overclocking since the mid 80's when it meant soldering clock oscillator crystals directly on the motherboard. I do actually know a thing or two about computers and overclocking.

I came here looking for advice and help since this is the first 500 series card I've worked with and something didn't seem right. I may be a noob in this forum, but that doesn't give someone the right to be rude.

As you will find from further reading my posts, I did solve the problem by kicking up two of my case fans to a higher speed, a simple oversight I just did not recognize at first as a problem.

Since then, I have also been overclocking the card while trying to keep temps and noise under control. So far I have achieved 850 on the ROP domain, 1700 shaders and 2100 on memory, reaching a peak temp of 80 running several loops of Heaven. I know the card has more in it, but I'm getting framebuffer corruption (colored blotches) onscreen around the 875/1750 mark. Keep in mind this is still on default voltage which happens to be 1000mV for this sample. I have not started to increase voltage yet. Does anyone know the safe max voltage for GF110 chips?

 

[cbope]

Just my two cents, but I don't think it's actually fair to the GTX 570 cards to say they run hot. I had a (possibly faulty) GTX 460 that ran at 80-100c with stock fan speeds.

Now I'm rocking x2 GTX 570's from EVGA, and one of them is running under 100% load right now, with 64% fan speed, and it's hitting 64c.

You can barely hear the fan too, it's noticeable if you don't have music on, but it's a bit quieter than my 460 if anything, and a nice low-pitch hum, so it's easy to tune out. With headphones or loud music it's impossible to hear.


Oh right, did I mention it's overclocked to the same specs as your card?

And I got it to 850 core clock with MSI afterburner (but the beta version sometimes sets your fans to 40%, so it isn't safe to run 24/7, it will be later though). While overclocked to 850, it stayed around 68c to 72c with 60% and 70% fan steps. When you seriously overclock the card, the fans do get pretty noisy if you want to stay under 80c, but you DO stay under 80c.

PS. imo, seems like your card should be nearly inline with what other people get, but either you have super-sensitive ears, or your fans are weirdly loud. Under stock speeds, mine are dead silent.

Peace out~

At 850, I'm hitting a peak of 80 after a few loops of Heaven. The fans hit about 76%, which is just about the annoyance threshold for noise. Under 3dmark06 it just cracks 70C and is much quieter.

Funny, I'm running the 2.1 beta 7 version of Afterburner, and I haven't seen the fan behavior you mention. It works fine for me. Keep in mind this card has two 80mm axial fans, not a single blower like reference 570's, so 70% on a blower is likely to be quieter than 70% with 2 axial fans. There is actually some audible "beating" oscillation between the two fans when they are running up over about 65%. And yes, I do happen to have pretty sensitive ears.

I have the opposite result with a 460 in another machine. It's running an 800 core overclock and 2000 memory, and I really can't hear the card under load. I can't recall the fan speed, but I believe it maxes out around 60% which is pretty dead quiet.

Both cards at idle are quieter than the rest of the fans in both systems.

 

[EarthDog]

Problem with that cooler vs teh stock cooler is the heatdump inside the case, so upping your exhaust fans RPM's will help with that evacuation. Most reviews find that cooling solution to be quiet, but every setup is different as was alluded to before and everyone's perception on what is loud/quiet is too as witnessed here..

 

[cbope]

Problem with that cooler vs teh stock cooler is the heatdump inside the case, so upping your exhaust fans RPM's will help with that evacuation. Most reviews find that cooling solution to be quiet, but every setup is different as was alluded to before and everyone's perception on what is loud/quiet is too as witnessed here..

Exactly what I noticed as well. I already changed one exhaust fan to a better flowing one (CoolerMaster SickleFlow 120mm) and I'm probably going to change the other one too.

I set up speedfan to monitor the GPU core temp, and control the CoolerMaster fan based on that data. That way I get a pretty quiet system when in 2D, and both the exhaust fan and GPU fans spin up on heavy 3D use. This works really well, though I am still fine tuning the temp thresholds and fan speeds in speedfan a bit.