Vid card over heating.

[Mandrake4565]

Well, problem solved I guess. My wife took pity on me pulling my hair out trying to find a way to keep my new system from cooking without spending any more of our savings on it, and bought me the Maximus V FORMULA for a Christmas present. God love her.

Very cool!

 

[magellan]

Well, problem solved I guess. My wife took pity on me pulling my hair out trying to find a way to keep my new system from cooking without spending any more of our savings on it, and bought me the Maximus V FORMULA for a Christmas present. God love her.

WHy does this help your cooling situation w/your crossfire setup?
Does this mean you can install the cards farther apart?

Do the crossfire card connectors even come in different lengths?

 

[EarthDog]

Does this mean you can install the cards farther apart?

Do the crossfire card connectors even come in different lengths?

(Likely)Yes and Yes for sure, LOL!

 

[KΓλ©KΣΓ™]

WHy does this help your cooling situation w/your crossfire setup?
Does this mean you can install the cards farther apart?

Do the crossfire card connectors even come in different lengths?

Yes, the new board has double spacing between the GPU's allowing space between the 2 for fresh air to be drawn into the fans. The GeneZ Gen3 (Awesome as it is) is just not meant for a Crossfire/SLI setup. 100% inexperience on my part with running duel GPU's.

 

[Johan45]

Just for future reference the side panel fan would work better if used as an exhaust. I'm sure the new board has helped a lot, I learned this for 2x580s DCUII 3 slot cards on a Sabertooth. The cards literally sat on each other.

 

[KΓλ©KΣΓ™]

I'll try that too, I don't get the motherboard till Christmas. lol

 

[EarthDog]

It will vary as to if that will work better (depends on many factors). But is without a doubt worth a try.

 

[Johan45]

It will vary as to if that will work better (depends on many factors). But is without a doubt worth a try.

You're right E_D , I assume his fans are close to the cards themselves, mine sat right smack in the middle of both of them, and I'm also assuming that like most cards these days he's exhausting a lot of the heat into the case. What I found i my situation was even with good airflow in the case the hot air was getting trapped by the cards right at the back of the case and putting the exhaust there dropped my top cards temp over 10°c. Definately worth the few minutes it take to swap them around. I would also try using just one at first, the one closest to the rear of the case.

 

[KΓλ©KΣΓ™]

Ok, I spent all day today trying everything suggested here for fan layout and direction. No change in GPU temp what so ever under full load. Currently, I have the HDD cages rotated, a 200mm front intake, a 120mm intake under the DVD Drive, a 120mm side intake, a 120mm rear exhaust, and a second 200mm on top as exhaust. This layout seems to be giving me the best overall cooling for all other components. This motherboard is just not meant to run 2 gfx cards in XFire. At least not 2 xfx 7950's. I have no idea what the cooling is for other brands. xfx is lifetime warranty, the deciding factor in my purchase. I'd like to ask someone with more knowledge than myself to write up a "paper" if you will for inexperienced people like myself that outlines things to consider when choosing to run 2+ gfx cards in their system. I thought I had done my homework, everything was good. Everything was compatible. Everything was good to go. I just had no idea that running 2 gfx cards on a board that doesn't have dual spacing between the 2 cards would create cooling issues. I know a lot of you here will laugh at that statement, but it's not something everyone knows about. I mean... WHY do the even make boards that can house two cards that close when they "must" know it's not gonna run correctly. Or do they do it hoping people like myself will buy it, figure out it's not going to work, then buy a bigger better (more expensive) motherboard?

 

[magellan]

Thermalright used to make a video card heatsink that was mounted perpendicular to the plane
of the video card, I seem to remember at least one guy using this peculiar video card heatsink
on his crossfire rig. Now I know why. It used to be one Thermalright's best video card heatsinks
because it had a huge surface area to dissipate heat. I think it might have been called the
sidewinder but I'm not sure.