Overheating concern after installing gtx 970

Renzore101

Member
Hello folks,

I have a quick question pertaining to system cooling. In my current build I have a total of 4 fans including the PSU, hyper 212 evo, and 2 chassis fans. First of all, I just installed a GTX 970 in my rig today, which i just upgraded from a GTX 750TI. I just launched battlefield 4 and to my surprise, the processor speeds went upwards of 70C. Now previously, with the 750TI the speeds never went much above 50C at full load if I recall correctly. I am slightly concerned at this seemingly drastic temp difference. I tore my computer apart again and attempted to look for some obvious things, the first thing I noticed was the fact that my SSD may have been obstructing the airflow from my front intake fan, so I moved that down to the bottom of the case as to not obstruct the airflow. Next, I noticed that I had one of the chassis fans plugged into the CPU plug on the mobo instead of the CHA plug, which indicated Chassis. I changed these plugs and noticed in the uefi bios that the fan speed of the chassis fan increased by about 250-300 rpms. I am assuming that the CPU and CHA fans are treated differently by the bios, and possibly this was contributing to the issue. I am going to test it under load to see if it gets better, however any input is greatly appreciated. This is making me consider thinking about some type of alternative liquid cooling solution.
 

Renzore101

Member
Update:

Okay I guess the chassis fan being plugged into the CPU connector apparently made a significant difference, as my temps while under load have dropped 20C.
 

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
70oC is a little high, however nothing to be worried about. What PSU do you have exactly?

The 970 consumes significantly more power and generates a lot more heat. You're correct about the bios fan controls and made the right decisions about fan connectors and case flow. Just make sure you have plenty of exhaust in the top and rear of the case.

What is the ambient temperature?
Did you replace the the thermal paste each and every time you removed the cpu cooler?
Try turning off q-fan or similar in the bios
Make sure the cpu cooler is correctly fitted

Other than that, I wouldn't worry too much. Your CPU cooler simply has a lot warmer air in the case.
 

Renzore101

Member
70oC is a little high, however nothing to be worried about. What PSU do you have exactly?

The 970 consumes significantly more power and generates a lot more heat. You're correct about the bios fan controls and made the right decisions about fan connectors and case flow. Just make sure you have plenty of exhaust in the top and rear of the case.

What is the ambient temperature?
Did you replace the the thermal paste each and every time you removed the cpu cooler?
Try turning off q-fan or similar in the bios
Make sure the cpu cooler is correctly fitted

Other than that, I wouldn't worry too much. Your CPU cooler simply has a lot warmer air in the case.

After plugging the exhaust chassis fan into the CHA connector on the mobo instead of CPU2 the load temps while playing BF4 dropped 15-20C. And to answer your questions, the ambient temp in the house is around 74F. I did not see a q-fan feature in the bios but I will look. I believe the cooler is correctly fitted, however, I did notice upon installation that there is a very slight amount of play between the cooler and the CPU. I read up on this with the hyper212 evo in particular and noted that others experienced the issue as well. I will also note that this is my first build, and I believe I used too much thermal paste, I smeared a small amount of it on the CPU socket, and in addition I leveled it out with a piece of plastic. After researching further, I noticed that many people do not level it out, they just put a small amount on the CPU and then install the cooler and let it spread out that way. I may be able to reapply the thermal paste and see if that grants any further improvement.
 

ninjabubbles3

Active Member
After plugging the exhaust chassis fan into the CHA connector on the mobo instead of CPU2 the load temps while playing BF4 dropped 15-20C. And to answer your questions, the ambient temp in the house is around 74F. I did not see a q-fan feature in the bios but I will look. I believe the cooler is correctly fitted, however, I did notice upon installation that there is a very slight amount of play between the cooler and the CPU. I read up on this with the hyper212 evo in particular and noted that others experienced the issue as well. I will also note that this is my first build, and I believe I used too much thermal paste, I smeared a small amount of it on the CPU socket, and in addition I leveled it out with a piece of plastic. After researching further, I noticed that many people do not level it out, they just put a small amount on the CPU and then install the cooler and let it spread out that way. I may be able to reapply the thermal paste and see if that grants any further improvement.


Yeah, for low airflow cases, you want a blower style GPU, which exausts air our the back. I would recommend a couple new fans in the top of the case if there are none. Also, make sure you put a pea sized amount of thermal paste, or two grains of rice end to end, like a line. Let the cooler spread it out.
 

Renzore101

Member
Yeah, for low airflow cases, you want a blower style GPU, which exausts air our the back. I would recommend a couple new fans in the top of the case if there are none. Also, make sure you put a pea sized amount of thermal paste, or two grains of rice end to end, like a line. Let the cooler spread it out.

In retrospect I should have probably bought a 970 with a different style cooler, I did not think about that. I will probably upgrade to a better case, as the one I have makes it impossible for me to take advantage of the modular psu I have. Unfortunately I cannot put fans in the top of the case because this case is not designed that way.
 

Renzore101

Member
I wouldnt worry, there is nothing thats going to be an issue there.

Yeah, for now i'll be content with this setup, although I have to admit your build is pretty insane. I have a couple other quick questions if you don't mind. 1) In regards to gaming, I have a 250 GB 850 evo almost busting at the seams. In this day and age, with games being 30-40 GB, what do you advise? I noticed that you have a 40 GB SSD dedicated exclusively to the page file? I will eventually most likely invest in a high capacity external HDD for bulk storage, but what do you suggest for programs that will benefit from the performance that an SSD offers? I see no other solution than additional SSD's RAID 0. 2) Would I benefit greatly by moving to a liquid cooling solution right now? Is it more efficient in regards to space? Before I expand any further, I think my next upgrade however is going to be a new case, as cable management is effectively impossible in the one I have currently.
 

Renzore101

Member
Just get one or two 2GB spinning rust HDDs and put them in RAID1.

I'm assuming you meant RAID 0, but nevertheless it may be cost effective with two 7200rpm drives. Although I have read that two mechanical drives in RAID still don't approach SSD speeds. Have you ever experimented with a hybrid SSD/HDD RAID setup? Wherein the SSD is ran in a RAID setup with a mechanical HDD.
 
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lovely?

Active Member
I'm assuming you meant RAID 0, but nevertheless it may be cost effective with two 7200rpm drives. Although I have read that two mechanical drives in RAID still don't approach SSD speeds. Have you ever experimented with a hybrid SSD/HDD RAID setup? Wherein the SSD is ran in a RAID setup with a mechanical HDD.

If we were speaking RAID 0, two 7200rpm WD 'black' drives will roughly double their read speed, which hovers between 100-125MBps. So, with two medium performance hard drives, you can expect no more than 250MBps. A modern SSD running the new SATA-III connection can read at over 500MBps.
 

Renzore101

Member
No i meant RAID1 mirror. And yes, look up smart response by intel.

I am slightly confused as to why you are suggesting RAID 1, as redundancy is not of major concern to me. I would be looking for performance gains exclusively, as well as storage. I am under the impression that RAID 0 is best in this regard. With RAID 1, you are losing total storage capacity.
 

Renzore101

Member
If we were speaking RAID 0, two 7200rpm WD 'black' drives will roughly double their read speed, which hovers between 100-125MBps. So, with two medium performance hard drives, you can expect no more than 250MBps. A modern SSD running the new SATA-III connection can read at over 500MBps.

So even in a RAID configuration, mechanical drives are roughly half as fast. Im sure these numbers could change with a high performance 10,000rpm-15,000rpm drive, but at that point it is no longer cost effective in comparison to SSD prices.
 

Renzore101

Member
Yes, well if you want speed, RAID0 is best.

Eventually i'll get another 250GB samsung, in the meantime i'm learning to live with the fact that I may not be able to store all my games on SSD. :D If money grew on trees I would have 1 TB SSD,s RAID 0!
 

Renzore101

Member
UPDATE: Along with a BIOS update for my ASRock mobo, EVGA Precision X program has worked immensely for the ambient temp in my case. I now realize that this new ACX 2.0 gfx card setup does not turn the fans on the gpu until it reaches 60C factory. By setting the fans to run at atleast 50% under load I am able to keep my cpu under 60C at all times. When the gfx card is at 60C It is interfering with the temp of my cpu drastically most likely due to the increased voltage, but primarily due to the proximity to my cpu and the cpu cooler I believe.
 

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
Yes. There has also been some issues with the 970 fans. Look out for a vbios update on the EVGA website. I am currently having one fan that doesnt turn on at all. Ticket pending with EVGA, however the temp doesn't seem to be affected too much. The 980 has a different cooler, but you should still be on the look out for vbios updates and driver updates in the near future.
 

lovely?

Active Member
Eventually i'll get another 250GB samsung, in the meantime i'm learning to live with the fact that I may not be able to store all my games on SSD. :D If money grew on trees I would have 1 TB SSD,s RAID 0!

I manage to have bf3, bf4, shadow of mordor, assetto corsa, borderlands the prequel, EVE, and several other large games and windows all on the 256gb ssd in my laptop. believe me, with proper storage techniques like putting pictures, downloads, and large non-gaming programs on the secondary data drive, you can make 250 gigs stretch. The problem with this approach I guess is that it means you'll be set for games but in many other aspects your PC would still be hampered by the loading time of your HDD
 
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