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Well, I got my BFG 6800 GT about a month ago now. First thing I did ws remove the stock heatsink and repalce it with a NV silancer 5.

My temps are 52c in windows and I woudl assuem higher ingame.

This is retarded! my F'ing cpu is at 38. why in the world is this videocard so damn hot!

I thought I did the install wrong the first time, so I took it al lapart again last night and cleaned off all the goup and reapplied it all. same. But the retail one on and it went even higher.

Am I just expecting to much? are videocards now the hotest things in PC's?

Greg

They are damn hot, by far the hottest things in PC's. It's common for a new videocard to run up to around 80-90c. My PNY 6800 GT idles around mid 50's but reaches around 80c when under intense load.

Originally posted by nexus_7
Well, I got my BFG 6800 GT about a month ago now.

Just FYI Greg: Don't expect a lot from that "lifetime warranty." I've been dealing with their tech support for the last few weeks with chaos reigning supreme (see my other thread in Off-Topic). BFG has outsourced their phone support to some other company and the communication between the two doesn't seen to be that great.

i know the owners. its a local company. need any help?

Greg

Greg, first of all I'd be AMAZED if your CPU is running at 38, unless you're running some serious water cooling. CASE temps are usually around 38. Modern CPUs usually run anywhere between 50 an 65 C depending on the cooling.

52 C is not unusual for a GPU. The GPU in my stock Radeon x800 runs at 55 C in the desktop and I'd assume a lot higher while gaming.

Yeah, they run hot. A GPU is just a very specialized CPU.

ROGUE: I would not want to see ANY chip run at over 70 C. I think your thermal probe is probably innacurate - or your GPU won't last long. Silicon transistor junctions begin to break down around 90C. Prolonged temperatures at 85 will dramatically reduce the life of the chip. At over 90 you've pretty much friend most silicon.

Silicon chips should never run hotter than 80C, which is why most mobo CPU alarms and auto-shutdowns are in the 70 - 80C range.

Originally posted by FlyingPenguin


ROGUE: I would not want to see ANY chip run at over 70 C. I think your thermal probe is probably innacurate - or your GPU won't last long. Silicon transistor junctions begin to break down around 90C. Prolonged temperatures at 85 will dramatically reduce the life of the chip. At over 90 you've pretty much friend most silicon.

Silicon chips should never run hotter than 80C, which is why most mobo CPU alarms and auto-shutdowns are in the 70 - 80C range.

Well, its actually commonplace for the 6800 series of GPUs to run near and over 80c under load. Pretty much everyone I know who has one reports temps of at least high 70's to high 80's. Heck, I've seen screenshots of some 6800 Ultras where the temps hover near the mid 90's. I'm pretty sure that nVidia designed their chips with this specification in mind, otherwise they would have a big problem on their hands.

Oh and just for kicks FP, you should download this:
http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/
and run it on your desktop, while looking at the temp sensor on your x800. I'm fairly sure that your card will run higher than 70c.

no water here. my systsms just run cool....and Damn quiet!

a64 3200+ at 3400+ speed with one of those zalman all copper flower fans on it with the built in 92mm fan

I have 3 fans in the fron of my case, one on the side, 2 in the back and then 2 in the PS...and the nv5 silancer on my videocard.

my system is Very quiet! ask any of the local members that come over.

Greg

I would trust my ATI catalyst driver temp sensor display over a 3rd party product.

You can't change physics Rogue - Silicon transistor junctions start coming apart at 90C. That's the physical limitation of all silicon chips.

That's why they're research DIAMOND as a substitute for silicon. Mush better heat resistance and conduction.

I think your temperature app is lying. If you're running a 6800 you should have a temp indicator in your drivers tab. That's the one I'd rely on, although keep in mind that in-chip temp probes are not accurate to more than 5 C or so.

90C is 194F. Trust me if something was nearly 200 defrees Fahrenheit in your computer on a regular basis, you'd SMELL it.

Originally posted by FlyingPenguin
I would trust my ATI catalyst driver temp sensor display over a 3rd party product.

You can't change physics Rogue - Silicon transistor junctions start coming apart at 90C. That's the physical limitation of all silicon chips.

That's why they're research DIAMOND as a substitute for silicon. Mush better heat resistance and conduction.

I think your temperature app is lying. If you're running a 6800 you should have a temp indicator in your drivers tab. That's the one I'd rely on, although keep in mind that in-chip temp probes are not accurate to more than 5 C or so.

90C is 194F. Trust me if something was nearly 200 defrees Fahrenheit in your computer on a regular basis, you'd SMELL it.

I am talking about the reading I get from nVidia's temp probe located in the driver controls tab. RTHDRIBL is simply a fun little app that lets you heat up your GPU to around what it would be in heavy-duty games without having to go fullscreen. Oh, and the max. operating temperature of silicon transistors is said to be 150c, not 90.

http://mdatechnology.net/techsearch.asp?articleid=321

EDIT: Heres a screenie of my temps for you non-believers

To achieve high-temperature operation, Astralux built the HBT out of gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC).

This is a special formulation. Not something you're going to see in run of the mill chips. Silicon Carbide is a Silicon/Carbon mix. As I said companies are trying to push the envelope by going to Diamond eventually (Diamond is made of carbon). A lot of military applications are already seeing this - but it's not something you'll find in consumer goods.

One Athlon CPU (forget which one) actually lists 95C as the max operating temp (all others are 90C).

Anything in your computer is going to be plain old silicon. 90C max for the most part.

I can't explain why you're seeing temps like that, but on-chip temp probes are notoriously inaccurate. I might believe 80C.

I had 9800XT that suffered a fan failure and the system would lockup when the GPU exceeded 75C.

This is the quote I was referring to from that page:

In comparison, the maximum operating temperature of conventional silicon transistors is 150°C

(You have to scroll down to the 2nd main paragraph to see it). Max operating temps on CPU's don't correlate 100% to the world of graphics processors - especially if they've been designed with high thermal output in mind. Anyways, all I'm saying is that the 6800 GT's and Ultra's run really hot - just go on any nVidia forum and check out the temps people are hitting. I'm sure that your 9800 XT wasn't designed to run beyond a certain temperature, but with the newer series of hotter GPU's, such temps are the norm. Heck, just get RTHDRIBL and run it for yourself and see what your X800 gets up to.

150 under ideal (probably military grade) conditions.

I'm willing to concede it's POSSIBLE the Geforce is designed to run that hot, but I doubt it. Wouldn't be cost effective. Nor do I think I'd want a video card that runs at nearly 200 F in my system.

Seriously - you can settle this easily. Wet your finger and touch the heatsink. If it's really that hot it'll sizzle.

Here's max temps for Athlon CPUs: http://www.amdboard.com/amdid.html

They all cap out at 90C although there is one (not listed there) that caps at 95C.

how much should your fps be improved with the 6800gt over a g4 4200

note my heat is idle around 55-65

me

I wouldn't worry about it. Before I rearranged my drives (moved FC-AL to another machine, added SCSIs to make up the space) and opened up some space under the card I was hitting 110C under load with mine. It didn't seem to cause any problems, though naturally I wasn't about to try OCing it. It's down in the 80s (load) now with the better airflow, and idles in the low 50s.

I don't think this chips are that hot. I'm pretty sure if you put a heatsink and fan on it like you have on your CPU (perhaps one of those thermalrights with 80, 92, or 120mm fans) it would run cool. I could be mistaken but I believe I read the 6800 ultra has 160 milion transistors in it. That is somewhere around what Pentium 4s have I believe.

Honestly, if it works I don't care what temperature it is. Given, it'll probably raise the case temperature, but that is why my Antec Sonata has a 120mm exhaust fan