Semi OT: overheating problems while playing rFactor

I ran into a situation where my graphic card was overheating and causing lockups and video bugs after playing rFactor for 3 hours. I have a 8800 GTS 320 Mb and unfortunately, my casing only has one fan. I was wondering if there were solutions to cool down the video card that don't require buying a new computer casing.

In article <LPhwj.7422$[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

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> I ran into a situation where my graphic card was overheating and causing > lockups and video bugs after playing rFactor for 3 hours. I have a 8800 GTS > 320 Mb and unfortunately, my casing only has one fan. I was wondering if > there were solutions to cool down the video card that don't require buying a > new computer casing. > > >

Take the side off the case and use a house fan. Dust is a problem and the internals of the computer will need to be cleaned more often. MRSisson -- LOAD "GPL",8 SEARCHING FOR GPL LOADING READY. RUN

Bob Loblaw wrote: > I ran into a situation where my graphic card was overheating and causing > lockups and video bugs after playing rFactor for 3 hours. I have a 8800 GTS > 320 Mb and unfortunately, my casing only has one fan. I was wondering if > there were solutions to cool down the video card that don't require buying a > new computer casing. You can use rivatuner to control the graphics card fan, i.e. keep it running at full speed. I certainly used the ATI equivalent utility with my ATI card and rfactor to prevent some weird artifacts that were heat related. Cheers Tony

On Feb 24, 12:29 pm, "Bob Loblaw" <[email hidden]> wrote: > I ran into a situation where my graphic card was overheating and causing > lockups and video bugs after playing rFactor for 3 hours. I have a 8800 GTS > 320 Mb and unfortunately, my casing only has one fan. I was wondering if > there were solutions to cool down the video card that don't require buying a > new computer casing. You can buy separate fans designed to fit inside regular cases. I have two in my case: one at the front and another on the side (where the case maker thoughtfully provided anchor points and ventilation holes. On an older computer, I purchased an add-in card exactly like a video card except all it had on it was a fan. It exhausted the air out the slot at the end of the card where a real videa card would have had the connector. I placed it directly above the real video card (in a tower) so that it blew the hot air off the video card out of the case right away. Any computer store should be able to get you going with extra fans at very little cost. -- Darryl

"Bob Loblaw" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:LPhwj.7422$[email hidden]... >I ran into a situation where my graphic card was overheating and causing >lockups and video bugs after playing rFactor for 3 hours. I have a 8800 GTS >320 Mb and unfortunately, my casing only has one fan. I was wondering if >there were solutions to cool down the video card that don't require buying >a new computer casing. > Use a vacuum cleaner with a hose and suck out any dust on top of the fan. I had the same problem a while back and the cause turned out to be dust clogging up the fan. After doing this my video card temperature returned to normal. Alan

Bob Loblaw wrote:

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> I ran into a situation where my graphic card was overheating and causing > lockups and video bugs after playing rFactor for 3 hours. I have a 8800 GTS > 320 Mb and unfortunately, my casing only has one fan. I was wondering if > there were solutions to cool down the video card that don't require buying a > new computer casing. > >

Buy a better HSF for your video card or send it back to the manufacturer. If it is not over-clcocked then it shouldn't overheat even after 8 hours of use.

[email hidden] (Backspace) wrote: > If it is not over-clcocked then it shouldn't overheat even > after 8 hours of use. The problem tends to be in the case, not on the card itself. The vid card is probably doing a fair job of keeping the GPU cool. But from the sound of it, the heat of the card is not being removed from the case efficiently. So over a period of time the case temperature rises steadily until problems occur. So for intensive gaming sessions it's probably easiest for the OP to just open up the case temporarily. In my PCs I use extraction fans which fit in a spare PCI slot. They don't suck out much air, but it might be the difference between a slow build up and a steady state during gaming sessions. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Exhaust-Extractor-Fan-Internal-Cooler/dp/B000VJ6WC K Andrew McP

Andrew MacPherson wrote:

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> [email hidden] (Backspace) wrote: > >> If it is not over-clcocked then it shouldn't overheat even >> after 8 hours of use. > > The problem tends to be in the case, not on the card itself. The vid card > is probably doing a fair job of keeping the GPU cool. But from the sound > of it, the heat of the card is not being removed from the case > efficiently. So over a period of time the case temperature rises steadily > until problems occur. > > So for intensive gaming sessions it's probably easiest for the OP to just > open up the case temporarily. > > In my PCs I use extraction fans which fit in a spare PCI slot. They don't > suck out much air, but it might be the difference between a slow build up > and a steady state during gaming sessions. > > http://www.amazon.co.uk/Exhaust-Extractor-Fan-Internal-Cooler/dp/B000VJ6WC > K > > Andrew McP

Yea, I know about all that but it doesn't take much to create efficient cooling. Some people (not saying you) who try to solve this issue with more fans are not really going about it the right way as that tends to just create turbulence inside the case instead of solving the issue. I've seen people bragging that they have 6 case fans which IMO is just nuts. Both my 2 PC's have 8800GT's and both use those circular type fans (think Zalman style) instead of the reference fans. One of them has a heatpipe which is always good to have as it really wicks the heat away quicker. One case I have 92mm intake fan and the exhaust fan is 120mm with the blow hole grill cut out (cutting the grill out really helps to make your case more efficient and also less noisy as there is no turbulence). The other case has good front ventilation and two 80mm rear fans. That's it, nothing else. All fans are volt modded to run at lower rpm than stock speed too. Neither computer has any issues running demanding games for long periods of time. Only times I have had isues with vid cards is when the manufacturer put ram on the cards that could not do the speeds they say it was rated for. To solve that you either send the card back for a replacement or downclock the ram a bit until you get it stable.

> I ran into a situation where my graphic card was overheating and causing lockups and video bugs after playing rFactor > for 3 hours. Because of the noise of video card fans (I have an ATI HD2900XT), I find it's quieter to simply remove the sides of my computer cases. This pretty much guarantees the temperature "inside" your case won't be much different than room temperature, well below the 40C requirement for some CPUs. There is a lot of heat generated between the video card and CPU, enough that the room will get a bit warmer if I don't have a door or window open.