The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

Just one question: How do I use Rivatuner?? I installed it and I'm confused....it doesn't say my temp anywhere

EDIT: How about GPU-Z?? It also reports my temp, and it's easier...

 

click 'customise' and then the magnifying glass.

 

Thanks, I get it now. But do I do generic PnP monitor or default monitor? GPU-Z has the same temps, but I don't know which one is the one I should be looking at....
At idle one of them is at 65C and the other at 73C.
I'll try and find a game that can run in a window and is demanding....
I'm guessing it gets hot considering that those are my idle temps, so do you have any suggestions as to making it run cooler?

 

You can increase the fan speed in rivatuner. Also you can turn on the AC. Your room is HOT.

 

If he has it...

 

Lol, I live in Florida so I assume everyone has one. My bad.

 

No, I have one...it's just that it takes a lot of energy and our bill runs high...I'm in California so....
But now I set it to about 76F so it's a little lower, but not too much...is that still hot?
I put the fan up to 1200 rpm and my temp dropped to about 48-50C...I ran the FEAR test thing once: went up to 96 fps avg, 366 max...
Ran it again: went all the way down to 35 avg....
It's like my card doesn't cool down after it heats up, even with the fan running high...It doesn't make sense...
In COD2 though, I'm having constant RPM's in the high hundreds (I know I shouldn't compare FEAR with COD2, but just letting you know...).

 

Just so you know, 1200rpm for a graphics fan is very low. The maximum speed of most graphics fans is 5000rpm, and even the HD3870 whose fan is notorious for not running fast enough runs between 800 and 1500rpm.

The 8800GTS puts out as much heat as two overclocked dual core processors, so running an 80mm fan at 1200rpm, see the problem?

 

Wait, then I'm probably not doing it right...
For increasing the fan speed, do I click customize and then the pic of the graphics card?? That's the only thing I see that can adjust the fan speed, and even in that it says "low-level fan control" that only goes up to 1650 rpm (it gets REALLY loud)...

 

You might just be having heat issues then... I don't know. My 8800GTS sounds like a hairdryer at startup but it goes down to whisper-quiet when the drivers load. I just let it run on its own. Mine idles at 50-55*C and loads at 80-85*C. As far as I know, these are normal operating temps and in line with a stock nVidia card. I never get graphical slowdown or bad performance. The fan is quiet on desktop and revs up to a slightly noticeable *whir* sound in games.

Somehow, "nVidia prototype" rings an alarm for me. Where did you get the card and what makes it an nvidia prototype? Maybe it has a crap fan controller being a prototype?

 

Well I have a cousin that's a lead designer at nvidia, and the designer of the 8800GTS is in the office next to his. He went and asked him for a prototype, and he gave it to me....
I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but I'll ask...

Mine also sounds like a hairdryer at startup and goes down to whisper quiet later....but it idles at 58-60C for some reason.

 

That's pretty warm. Is your case ventilated properly? Wires tucked out of the way so as not to impede airflow?

I don't know if you have the experience for this, but is the cooler making proper contact with the card? Is the TIM sloppy or dried up? Maybe it needs to be cleaned up and re-applied. I recommend Arctic Silver 5 or Arctic Silver Ceramique(my personal fave as it is non-conductive).

Maybe an aftermarket cooler would see an improvement?

 

Estuansis, what is your room temp? MK's temps will always be a bit higher because his room temp is kinda high. That might be the reason.

 

That's true. Ambient temps do have a big impact on PC temps. I'm not really sure what my room temp is. We hardly ever use air conditioning and I don't exactly keep a thermometer right by my desk. I'm in the basement and it stays fairly nice down here year-round. My feet are cold right now if that helps at all, lol.

 

Yeah, I don't know about what sammorris said about the fan having a 5000 rpm being the highest in a fan, but the highest I can get it in rivatuner is 1650, which is really loud so I lowered down to about 1140 rpm, which keeps a nice idle temp of about 50 (still loud though).

And what exactly are your guys' room temps anyway? Because I'm sweating like hell....there's somewhat of a heatwave in LA right now....

 

I've been getting unrealistic temps ever since I built my first PC. I guess my room is just that cold. My X2 4400+ OC'd to 2.6GHz saw 26*C idle 42*C load with an AC Freezer 64 Pro. My E6750 OC'd to 3.4GHz has seen 35*C idle 55*C load with my AC Freezer 7 Pro. The Tuniq Tower could beat that with 32*C idle 50*C load.

Mind you all these temps are in the winter. In the summer they are about 3 degrees higher.

I love the winter. It's like having a mid-range liquid cooling setup

 

Only?! Wow, you're either rich, or you live somewhere that has very low energy costs because from what you're saying, your room is REALLY cold. My room right now is probably at maybe 77F-79F? And it's nighttime right now, and we have the AC on...I guess I don't know how to use that thing the right way...

 

Nope. We hardly ever use AC. My room is in the basement and I'm on a cement floor(the room is finished but the carpeting was ratty). Cold air sinks and warm air rises. It's cold down here year round. I was born in Wisconsin so the cold doesn't bother me, lol.

And are we rich? ...LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Then I guess you're not rich! lol. I wish I had a basement...

 

No 80mm fan is loud at 1650rpm, and no graphics fan would max out at 1650rpm either. I think the RPM readings are bull, personally.
Mrk: You didn't see the post Estuansis made a little while back, I'll let him tell you about that if he so chooses.