Whats a normal video card temperature?

[Bubbleman]

Right now I am running 48C with full high quality on right now.

I am planning to over clock it, I am just wondering what temperature should I look out for so my card doesn't go over its threshold.

I heard cards can take 100C just fine...

I am going to use this nTune to overclock everything.

I am also confused if you can help me with this, I have my card set with the most high quality image settings possible, and is there any reason to go to performance settings if I don't notice anything wrong with my frames?

I am guessing performance if your expeirencing frame issues...

[Harudath]

I wouldn't use nTune. Use RivaTuner (http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner) or ATi tool (http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/). 48C seems about right, although it depends what you're playing :tongue: If there's nothing wrong with it then there's no need to fiddle, unless you're into benchmarking and went to get the max performance for higher scores, that or you really want the absolute maximum performance for your games.

[Bubbleman]

Well you see I am probably going to scrap this PC in 3-4 months and build my first ever PC, make it the best PC on the market because I crave perfection :P

So basically I want the best performance of this card, its certified to be "overclocked" by bfg but... I dont think so.

I dont know... I just feel this card can do more..... you know what I mean? I dont feel I am utilizing its full potential.

[Bubbleman]

Why shouldn't I use Ntune?

[Harudath]

nTune is really bad for it, I found that you have little control over what you overclock and often it doesn't apply the settings you choose. So I'd overclock my card, click apply, close it, restart and it would still be at stock speeds again. RivaTuner gives you more control and it actually works :tongue:

[Bubbleman]

Hmmm ok,

I also can adjust the fan control, theres no harm making it run at 100% always right? Right now its on automatic, adjusts the fans speed for the card.

I mean if sound isnt a issue, I guess I can just put it on 100% speed

[Harudath]

The default speed is between about 25% and 40%, the difference between 40% and 100% is amazing though. at 800MHz core speed, 100% load my GPU never goes above 44C. It is noisy but if you have a headset or simply don't care it's not an issue :D

[Bubbleman]

Yeah headsets all the way... thinking about getting a new headset soon.

So what temperature should I get worried about tho and tone it down if it gets to high.

[Harudath]

below 60-70 is ideal I think, but it depends what settings your graphics card is at. But you don't need to "worry" until you hit 100C tbh :tongue:

[Bubbleman]

I just want to get this right...

Overclocking my video card would increase performance of frame rates right? So means you can push your cards graphic settings higher?

And Overclocking your main proccessor of your system just makes everything work faster overall even the video card?

[Harudath]

Overclocking makes things go faster, but to do that you need more power, which makes things run hotter. Much hotter. And pushing it too far can break it- You need to be careful ;)

[Bubbleman]

Yes, I will not go to far with it I think. We will see.

[Bubbleman]

I need to uninstall nTune before I install riva right?

Also what do you do with your vertical sync option? Currently I have it at 3D application use and triple buffering ON

[Harudath]

Nope, you don't need nTune but the nVidia control panel can also be useful, but that comes with the drivers so you're fine for that. Vertical Sync synchronises your game's framerate with your monitor's FPS. So if you have your screen set to 60Hz that's the max fps you can get. Triple buffering is something you enable if you are seeing virual errors, like tears or artefacts.

Having vsinc off allows higher framerates but is more stressful on your graphics card.

[Bubbleman]

Do you shut vsinc off? And by stressful you mean it would probably raise the temperature?

My monitor is set at 75hz refresh

[Harudath]

If your monitor is at 75hz and you hagve vsinc enabled then the max fps you can get is 75. And stressful because if your card is capable of going above 75 on that current application then it will go as high as it's possible for it to go at those settings.

If I was playing WoW and I had vsinc on then I'd be stuck at 60fps, but if I turned that off, hid my interface and went somewhere quiet I'd hit 600-700fps.

[Bubbleman]

Hmm Wow I see... Well 75 Frames per second is enough for any program really. So I guess I'll leave it on with triple buffering.

And as for overclocking a video card, does it take a very high temperature to fry a card or I guess it depends on the card there...

[Harudath]

But there's your problem- Overclocking will increase your overall fps, but not the stability of the fps so much- If you're going to have vsinc on which in effect limits your fps then there's not much point overclocking.

To fry a graphics card? Probably 150c+ which is a riddiculous temp, but its' not so much the temperature that fries it as the voltage. I don't know much about GPU voltages but to overclock you increase the voltage too, or that's part of it. The higher you go the higher the voltage and if that goes too high for the GPU to handle then it's gunna blow.

[Bubbleman]

Is there a site to know your max voltage of a specific card?

Well I guess your right, so in some games like WoW you would use vertical sync on I guess, and for crysis just leave it off.

[Harudath]

With graphics cards you don't need to worry so much about the Voltage since with the average piece of overclocking software you don't need to change it, I was just stating worst case scenario. Most cards have a clock speed that they'll stop working at so you'll need to experiment to find that. You can look it up online of course, but whatever floats your boat :)

[Bubbleman]

I really don't think I need to limit my FPS, now with monster of a graphics card I could see why but with mine not so much. So I might select the option Force off and see what happens.

I guess I will have to experiment a little.

Also on a offnote, how would you overclock your CPU, Mine is in my sig. I probably wont go this far but would like to know regardless

[Harudath]

Overclocking is different depending on the BIOS, but you go into the BIOS, find your advanced menu or wherever the menu is located and change 3 main factors: the bus speed, the CPU multiplier (that often doesn't change) and the voltage.

At stock speed my processor is 333Mhz (bus speed) multiplied by 8 (CPU multiplier) at about 1.3Volts. To overclock you change those, currently my bus speed is 450, multiplier 8 and the voltage about 1.45. 1.5V+ is the danger zone.

If you want to overclock your CPU you'll need most likely want to ask for more help before overclocking since its complicated and dangerous- Heck, I've learned everything I know from Icrontic :D

[Bubbleman]

Yeah one day I will go in those uncharted waters, maybe when I build my first rig. But for now I'll just work on the video card.

Thanks for the replies :) I will post back if I have anymore questions, currently working right now so might be awhile till I try this.

[Harudath]

Have fun :)

[Bubbleman]

Is there a temperature monitor on the riva tuner?

[Harudath]

Nope, ATi tool has one though

[Bubbleman]

Well ntune had a great temperature module

is it ok to install ntune with rivatuner going?

[Harudath]

Sure, but once again I don't reccomend nTune >< Off to bed so won't reply til tomorrow. Good luck :)

[mas0n]

Is there a temperature monitor on the riva tuner?

Yes. On the main RivaTuner page select "Customize..." under the "Target Adapter" section. Then click "Hardware Monitoring" to chart pretty much anything including real core/shader/memory frequencies, fan speed, framerate, and of course temperature. It is also highly configurable.

[Bubbleman]

Well then... Guess I wont Ntune anytime soon since it sucks, I mean doesnt even keep the settings.

Yeah you can even put the temperature number in the task tray!

So much easier now. Just look at the task tray

Thanks

[Bubbleman]

whats a good data poll interval ms?

[mas0n]

whats a good data poll interval ms?

Comes down to preference really, but I don't think anything lower than 1000ms (the default) would be necessary.

[Bubbleman]

Is it perfectly fine to have the video card fan at 100% at all times?

I mean will it suck up a signifigant amount of power from the power supply?

[mas0n]

Is it perfectly fine to have the video card fan at 100% at all times?

I mean will it suck up a signifigant amount of power from the power supply?

Less than 1W for a fan that size. Run as fast as you can stand to listen to.

[Bubbleman]

Done.

[Bubbleman]

Is there any guides to overclock your video card in general?

I've been following this other guide on another website but maybe for rivatuner?

[Harudath]

Overclocking a video card is pretty simple... It's just moving sliders :tongue:

[Bubbleman]

So just slowly move them and reboot, run a game and see if its stable.

Will it crash right away if its set to something over the top?

[Bubbleman]

My card was "overclocked" A little over the factory overclocking, I still think maybe its possible to clock it a bit higher.

[Harudath]

It won't instantly crash, it'll most likely freeze or your screen will go all technicolour. If you card was overclocked in the factory then there's not much you can do that would be worth it. ATi tool has a stability test/scan for artefacts (Graphic errors).

[Bubbleman]

Yeah true, Its only overclocked very slightly above its standard clock. So I was thinking it could go maybe a bit more.

I got to say that putting my fan to 100% helped out my temperature quite a bit, so I am still glad I found out about the rivatuner.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/132

I think this might be accurate it shows the video cards factory clock settings so I have been following that.

On a sidenote do you play WoW currently? I use to play for about 2 1/2 years, was a main tank for my guild. I quit at essence of souls do to personal issues at the time.

[Harudath]

I'm a 2 1/2 yearer too :tongue: I quit from sheer boredom plus I have exams in a couple weeks :skeptic: Did I not mention RivaTuner controls the fan speed? I meant to :tongue: I have SSC/TK ready gear but I've been running kara repeatedly -_- Once my exams are over I'm gunna apply to a good guild.

[Harudath]

Holy crap.. I turned all my cooling down to minimum and set the graphics back to stock... Just playing Total War got my GPU at 100C, but I took the screenshot too late :tongue:

[Bubbleman]

Wow lol, Yeah you did mention it I am saying I am glad you told me about the rivatuner because if I had not known about it I could not adjust my fan speed, it would be set on automatic. Personally the noise from my fan is so bare minimal to the noise my actual fan in my room makes so.

What race, class are you?

I am an male undead warrior

I think I might add another fan to my computer cause the dell machines have the most ****ty cooling ever. I really am not sure where to add a fan or how to but ill find out.

[Bubbleman]

So you use ati tool then, why do you use that instead of rivatuner?

Is there any difference? Or just personal preference, I mean you do have an nvidia card.

[Harudath]

I use Both, ATi tool has a termperature monitor that I can run in the system tray as well as a Clock Profile, so you can load stock, overclocked, superclocked just by clicking "load" and RivaTuner allows me to adjust my Shader clock and fan speed.

I'm a male Nightelf Hunter, but one of the originals not the credit card wielding 8 year olds that think greens are skill.

[Bubbleman]

So it is guarenteed tho if you do overclock you will get a increase in temperature, even if its a small increase of changing memory and clock.

I just don't think my dell case has enough good cooling to even attempt to do so would be foolish. So I might just leave it as is.

[Harudath]

Any change in the clocks/voltage will have a temperature effect, just it won't be very much in this case. But the hotter a card runs the less performance you get, I had a 7600GT that gave me 1fps in raids til I got extra cooling and then got 20-30.

In your case I dont think it's worth overclocking your GPU due to it already being overclocked and it will most likely reduce your performance anyway.

[Bubbleman]

Yeah true, Think I'll just try to add a fan IF I CAN in this stupid dell case.

[mas0n]

Yeah true, Think I'll just try to add a fan IF I CAN in this stupid dell case.

Dremel + zip-ties! You always CAN, it's just not always pretty.