For many of you, you are overclocking highend GeForce cards - so you MUST have heat dissipation under control.
For those of us running midgrade GeForce Cards - 9600GT / 9800GT etc - the stock GPU fans and heatsinks aren't that great. What temps can we realistically run the GPU up to - AND expect it to survive long-term ??
Are there realistic alternatives - aftermarket heatsink fans ?? Do they do much good over the stock ones ??

Define long-term. weeks? months? years? How long do you expect to run your gpu before upgrading it?
There is already a big market in 3rd-party gpu coolers -
http://www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=0&oq=gpu+cooler&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4SUNA_enAU309AU279&q=gpu+coolers
And don't forget, if your gpu doesn't exhaust its heat outside the case then you need a good case fan to get rid of it. google.

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Cheers,

PeterV

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Long-term: To me that is 6-8 months (250 cards will HOPEFULLY be reasonable price by then). For others it might be "lifetime" (at least 1-2 years).

I'll grant that all serious Gamers and OC'ers will have higher-end gear already. But this question is for us in the middle.

And, I know about the healthy market for VGA Coolers - but many seem little better than stock or worse pure snake-oil !! And many are unrealistic in price - $75 cooler = replacement card. Or in size - Motherboard design is screwy facing the PCI-x card "inward" thus limiting depth so severly.

So, original question remains: what temps are OK ??

OK, so I dropped $40 on a relatively generic GPU Fan kit - twice the fan size as stock on my 9600GT with copper fins radiating 3-4 inches and midgrade heatsink paste.
But it's still only running a few degrees cooler before TThrottle has to scale back the GPU Tasks.
The CPU temps didn't deteriorate, so any extra radiated heat must be sufficiently exhausting from the case.

Still in search of some real info on what can realistically be expected from a GPU Fan for a midgrade GeForce card.

And what Temp is the most appropriate TThrottle threshold ??

For many of you, you are overclocking highend GeForce cards - so you MUST have heat dissipation under control.

Just a suggeston: not really answering your question but this is not the greatest project to be running NVidia cards. For not that much more than the cost of your cooling system you can buy an ATI card that does a lot more work. Then use the NVidia card where it crunches efficiently.

Beyond wrote;

Just a suggeston: not really answering your question but this is not the greatest project to be running NVidia cards. For not that much more than the cost of your cooling system you can buy an ATI card that does a lot more work. Then use the NVidia card where it crunches efficiently

......sorry to sound kinda dumb but I'm currently running an Nvidia GTX260 (216sp's), on a slight overclock - would an equivalent ATI card be more effective/efficient? Any recommendations? Thanks!

Mike, Bristol, UK

would an equivalent ATI card be more effective/efficient? Any recommendations? Thanks!

Mike, Bristol, UK

An HD 4770 or 4850 would give you at least double the credits in this project (and Collatz) compared to the GTX 260 and costs (US) around $100. The HD 4850 is a little faster but the 4770 uses quite a bit less energy. Then you can use your GTX 260 for a project where the ATI cards won't work, such as GPUGRID. This works best if you have more than 1 machine running. Of course presently there's a larger choice of projects for the NVidia cards.

2 PNY 9600GSO cards in one machine - they run (without any aftermarket software for fan control) between 72-85 C. EVGA has a program called Precision that allows you to monitor (real time) fan speed , GPU core clock, etc. I usually load this and keep the GPUs around 65-70 C. (SETI)

2 EVGA 9800GTX+ cards - stock temps are 80-90 C - set fan speed to keep GPUs in the 65-75 C range. (GPU Grid and SETI)

4 EVGA GTX280 cards - stock temps are 80-90 C - set fan speed to keep GPUs in the 65-75 C range. (GPU Grid and Milkyway)

For comparison:

2 Visiontek (ATI) 4870x2 - 80-90C stock 70-75 with CCC

2 Visiontek (ATI) 4870 (512mb) - 80-90C stock 70-75 with CCC

1 Saphire (ATI) 4870 (1024mb) - 80-90C stock 70-75 with CCC

Im having an Artic Cooling Accelero on my ATi 4770 and my card is usualy between 58° and 60° C. I wouldnt run any card in the 90+° range 24/7, its going to reduce their lifespan for sure.

Back to the Cooler: I can only suggest the Arctic Cooling Accelero, Ive never had a card running so quiet and cool and the same time! Actually my CPU fan makes more noise.

In Europe it sells for ~12 € : http://www.alternate.de/html/product/Grafikkarten_Luefter/Arctic-Cooling/Accelero_L2_Pro/348206/?tn=HARDWARE&l1=Grafik&l2=L%C3%BCfter

Compability list :

nVidia 9800, 9600, 9500, 8800, 8600, 8500, GTS250 7950, 7900, 7800, 7600, 7300, 6800, 6600, FX5950, FX5900, FX5800, FX5700;

ATI Radeon HD 4850, 4830, 4670, 4650, 4550, 3870, 3850, 3650, 3470, 3450, 2600, 2400, X1950, X1900, X1800, X1600, X1550, X1300

I am particularly interested in using an nVidia card, CUDA capable, to crunch Collatz.

My problem is the PC I want to crunch on requires I replace the graphics card, an ATI Radeon 7000 (non-CUDA and no use on MW), is in a dual P3 server. This runs Win2K Pro on a SuperMicro server MoBo (370DLE/370DLE) with a 133MHz FSB and the 24" monitor is run at 1680 x 1050 @ 32bit true colour. Seems to be OK at this resolution for the last 2 + years.

The graphics slots are run via an ISA-PCI bridge, and the current ATI 7000 sits in a 64bit PCI slot (not PCI-X or PCI-E, just plain PCI). I have an unoccupied 32bit PCI slot and a 16bit ISA slot unused.

I have been advised a GeForce 9500GT might come in a PCI form, and therefore work. Can someone confirm this, as the highest state nVidia GPU capable of being installed in a legacy PCI machine.

I have Googled for nVidia graphics cards to run in a 64bit PCI slit, and only come up with a Novatech GeForce 8400GS 512MB DDR2 HDMI/DVI PCi retail card. This may ot may not be high enough for my purpose.

Can I have comments or recommendations, aside from leaving things as they are (why change a working PC)?

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Go away, I was asleep

There is a nVidia 9400GT for PCI , and ATi 2400 Pro aswell. thats about the best you get for PCI and I doubt there will come any better in the future.

http://geizhals.at/eu/a429192.html

http://geizhals.at/eu/a461942.html

Thanks

The 9400GT from Sparkle looks to be about the highest PCI graphics card available. As I want to use it in CUDA form for Collatz (MW needs double precision so ATI HD38xx+ is the king), I need to find out if it is one of the lower end CUDA cards that Collatz recognises and supports. If not, then I will leave well alone.

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Go away, I was asleep

I use both GTX 295's and GXT 260 in my systems. Both will do double precision math and support Milkyway and Collatz. The minimum 1.3 cuda based card I know of is the GTX260.

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I am currently running a very low end nVidia 8500GT on CUDA. Slow (6 hours per WU) but it crunches Collatz OK. No good for MW though.

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Go away, I was asleep

You can successfully run the 9400GT (or even the 8400GT) on Collatz -- once Slicker gets back and can bring the server on line again. I've run both. That level card will not work with GPUGrid -- too slow these days with the longer run times over there. The entry level card for GPUGrid is the 9600GT.

The problem I've seen with higher end GPU cards, (those that support double precision and can be run here), is that they require more power (often requiring two 6 pin power connections) and more cooling. I suppose when I reduce my farm to only a few computers, then I could focus on the higher end GPU cards with more hefty power supplies. I have some cases that would work (with a spot for a fan over the GPU on the side panel -- I suspect that would be a big help heat wise.

Thanks

The 9400GT from Sparkle looks to be about the highest PCI graphics card available. As I want to use it in CUDA form for Collatz (MW needs double precision so ATI HD38xx+ is the king), I need to find out if it is one of the lower end CUDA cards that Collatz recognises and supports. If not, then I will leave well alone.

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With guidance, links, and help from others I see that the Sparkle 9400GT and the 9500GT GeForce nVidia cards are compatible with PCI (not PCI-X and PCI-E) and available at newegg.com.

Unfortunately Newegg do not ship beyond the boarders of the USA, so I need to contact the manufacturer to see if there is a UK source I can approach.

I may be able to get it through Amazon?? Which it looks like I can as Amazon.com ship internationally. Amazon.co.uk dont have this graphics card on their lists.

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Go away, I was asleep

Right, that's the downside for NewEgg -- it doesn't affect me (living in the US), but it is unfortunate as for domestic use, NewEgg is VERY good.

I may be able to get it through Amazon?? Which it looks like I can as Amazon.com ship internationally. Amazon.co.uk dont have this graphics card on their lists.

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