Post your record videocard temp...

[Sovereign]

I just saw a new record, 86C, on my top 7900GTX (while playing FEAR). It may have been hotter between the time I shut down the heavy rendering part of the game, navigated out through the menus and back to the desktop, but I'm sure the ATIs get hotter...

Anyone have a card that runs regularly in the triple digits while gaming (aka craptastic airflow)?

[yurimxpxman]

What did you use to record the temperature?

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Sovereign

I just saw a new record, 86C, on my top 7900GTX (while playing FEAR). It may have been hotter between the time I shut down the heavy rendering part of the game, navigated out through the menus and back to the desktop, but I'm sure the ATIs get hotter...

Anyone have a card that runs regularly in the triple digits while gaming (aka craptastic airflow)?

I had a heatpipe cooled 6600GT PCI-e from Gigabyte that ran 115C. It even artifacted after 5 minutes. One day though the temps fell down to ~75C full load. What I think happened, while I couldn't check this, is that the liquid inside the heatpipes was stuck somehow and it unblocked suddenly.

[Sovereign]

Originally Posted by yurimxpxman

What did you use to record the temperature?

I know it's not as accurate, but I'm talking about the built-in monitor (nVMonitor in my case, don't know what the ATI equivalent is called)

~polo: there's liquid inside heat pipes??? I thought it was just heat-conductive metal...

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Sovereign

I know it's not as accurate, but I'm talking about the built-in monitor (nVMonitor in my case, don't know what the ATI equivalent is called)

~polo: there's liquid inside heat pipes??? I thought it was just heat-conductive metal...

Yes, there's liquid. When this liquid heats up it turns to vapor and travel thru the pipes. As it cools down it turns back to it's liquid state and travels back and it starts all over again. :P
There's a few liquids used, normally water, ethanol or mercury. Combined with heat-conductive materials such as copper, heatpipes are probably what gives the best heat disspation to cost ratio. :) Also, it reduces the need for moving parts such as fans so in some cases a piece of hardware can be totally silent. :)

Edit: For ATI you can use ATITool. However, alot of "low-end" graphic cards do not have a thermal sensor to keep the production cost at a bare minimum so you might not be able to see your card temperature even then.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Sovereign

there's liquid inside heat pipes??? I thought it was just heat-conductive metal...

Yep, they have a liquid inside. work under the force of gravity or by capillary action.
Heatpipe Mechanism

And I don't think I'm gonna take on the challenge of finding the hottest my video card can run, sorry

[Sovereign]

No I didn't mean overheat your card. Just report on the hottest you've seen it.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Sovereign

No I didn't mean overheat your card. Just report on the hottest you've seen it.

HAHAHAHA, ok, I can handle that then. My 6800GT and 6600GT both got into the 70's quite a few times (more times than I would have liked), but that's about it. I have a really good cooler on my X1900GT and the ambient temperatures are so low that the stock cooler could probably keep the thing below 50ºC

[jph1589]

This is about as high as i see my 6600gt with my zalman ZM80D-HP


Attachment 55

[Quakindude]

My old 6800GT, after I dropped a screwdriver on it WHILE it was powered on, hit a registered 135C before my screen froze up. Evidently, when I dropped the tool onto the video card, don't ask.....just go ahead and assume I was being a idiot, there were a couple of small noises, popping like, and then it fried itself.