EVGA can't take the heat!

[hool10]

Well another video card fried or will be fried soon(ish). Let me give you a quick recap of what has happened with EVGA and myself since 2007. In 2007 I built a new PC with the 8800GTX and came with a lifetime warranty. A few months later, the card fried. So I got a warranty going and they sent me another 8800GTX but in reality was my own untouched. So I sent it back and got a 8800GTX that wasn't working and had the RMA label on it. After a phone call pretty much stating how ridiculous this was and the S&H costs they agreed to send me a working card and free fast shipping. HOWEVER they sent me a 9800GTX! So I'm thinking this is great because it's faster and it won't run as hot.

In 2009 the 9800GTX fried. :| So I RMA'd that one and I got what I am currently running the GTX 260. Now this card runs cooler however it gave me artifacts on desktop one day. So I download their EVGA tuner program and monitor the temps. I'm playing Bad Company 2 at max like I usually do and this card is cooking. It's so damn hot it's about 70+Celsius! Now the funny part is I realize since I got this card it has never raised it's fan speed. No matter how hot this card gets, it won't raise the fan speed past 40%. So I'm playing Fear 3 with max graphics and I crank the fan speed up to 100%. The card crashes barely trying to keep the temperature to 65 Celsius.

I guess my question is, should I wait until this card fries and get another EVGA card that will fry? Their tech support is great however their cards just flat out suck. Really I'm thinking it's great I never have to upgrade my video card but this is getting ridiculous. I also recently took the card apart (shh it never looked like it happened) and there was no dust clogging the insides. I'm using an Antec 800 case as well.

 

[Ennui]

Hmm, I've never had these issues. My EVGA GTX260 ran fine, a bit warm but never had any issues (still chugging along in my gf's PC like 3 years later) and I've had an EVGA GTX460 for the past year or so with no problems. My case is very spacey and has great airflow though so maybe your case is just hot?

 

[DEATHMASTER]

You're complaining about 70 goddamn degrees? That's pretty good if you're under load.

My BFG 7950gt goes into the 90s and it's been working for years. My new evga gtx 560 goes into the 70s. Yes, I'm also talking Celsius.
I suspect your crashes are the result of some other factor(s). I don't play BF so I couldn't comment on software issues.

 

[Higlac]

Oh no, 70C. My laptop CPU does 75. Drivers are up to date?

 

[Ennui]

I didn't actually read that you were playing BC2. On max settings that will stress the **** out of a GTX 260. It can run it on max but it will heat up fast and you'll lose framerate. It struggles at higher resolutions too (I usually run at 1920x1200 in all games).

On the PC that has my 260 in it (the core 216 version, 896mb) I play BC2 on medium-ish settings (tweaked a bit) and 1920x1200 because I want better frames... but I think your problem is just that BC2 is an extremely graphics intensive game and pushes the 260 to its edge. I can't be 100% on that though because I suspect the CPU/RAM on that PC bottleneck the GPU some... it's built out of old parts (so my gf could have a computer to game on too) so the processor is a dualcore Athlon 5600+ (2.6ghz) and the RAM is 4gb of some "value" brand DDR2 800.

Also like Deathmaster was saying, 70C isn't too bad. It's pretty warm but not out of the ordinary. Like I said both of my cases are quite cool and have tons of fans and even so the 260 would get really hot, I'd say high 60s under load and above 70 if I do something like play BC2 on max for several hours.

Dunno about the fan speed thing though. Or the crashing and artifacts. It could just be a fault with your card.

I'm guessing you've already tried updating drivers and whatnot. What CPU/RAM is on this rig? Some modern games (BC2 especially) are pretty CPU hungry. Also some don't really take advantage of multiple cores like they should.

 

[LibDem]

70C really isn't that bad, my old 8600GTS ran at ~85C at full usage. My current video card, which is a 450 GTS, runs at about ~55C. Though, your video card should not be crashing at those temperatures no matter the stress load, video cards are meant to get to >90C.

Also, are you overclocking? An unstable overclock could be causing the crashes.

 

[hool10]

I'm not OC'ing. The CPU is a Q6600 2.4GHz and RAM is 4GB of DDR2 800 running in flex memory mode. The card gives me artifacts and locks up the computer though which tells me it's overheating. The other thing is that I'm not the only person with this problem: http://www.google.com/search?q=GTX+...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a I think NVIDIA has failed to code automatic fan speed into their drivers. I also have said that since getting this card for 2 years, I have never heard it raise it's fan speed. Kind of odd don't you think?

 

[Hectic Glenn]

There used to be this problem with fan increase with the 8800GTs as well and they used to burn out. I think people (including taviow) used to use rivatuner or other programs to set up fan profiles yourself to forcibly make the card increase by certain % at a certain temperature. My old card used to run way higher than 70C all the time heh, but it always surprises me that people take the approach "I can run everything at on top settings with decent FPS therefore I will regardless of the impact on health of the hardware". I don't want to kill my 460 any time soon so I don't use ultra high settings, it isn't worth it.

Since you've had a continual problem issue with these cards, I would contact EVGA and remind them this is the third card in a row this has happened to and they should try to accommodate you to stop this happening any more. Then I would recommend with your new card you assess your cooling layout in your case (any other cards directly next to the graphics card?) and don't run everything full tilt.

 

[LibDem]

I'm not OC'ing. The CPU is a Q6600 2.4GHz and RAM is 4GB of DDR2 800 running in flex memory mode. The card gives me artifacts and locks up the computer though which tells me it's overheating. The other thing is that I'm not the only person with this problem: http://www.google.com/search?q=GTX+...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a I think NVIDIA has failed to code automatic fan speed into their drivers. I also have said that since getting this card for 2 years, I have never heard it raise it's fan speed. Kind of odd don't you think?

Yeah if you're getting artifacts/lock ups and you're not overclocking, it is definitely the result of overheating. So the issue lies with one of these two things:

1) Poor air movement in your case (hanging cables, weak fans, lack of fans, etc).
2) Your video card failing to increase fan speed while the video card's temperature is increasing.

The second one is interesting because my GIGABYTE GTS 450 also did not have automatic fan control, it stayed at 17% fan usage at ALL times. I was forced to use MSI Afterburner to set an automatic fan control schedule for my video card. But, even when it stayed at 17% I never experienced overheating issues. Now you may say that the video card has a defect, but I am really doubting that because of the fact you have gone through multiple cards so far, all with the same issue.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

That's why I'm saying the problem isn't inherent in the cards themselves (chances are). There's something else going on.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Maybe your motherboard has a defect, since your GPU temp isn't getting as hot as would indicate it as the cause.

Also buy Asus. 4 1/2 years on my 8800GTX and still going strong.

 

[hool10]

Here is my case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021 People have complained about the noise this thing makes because the amount of air being pushed but it sounds normal to me. I have all the fans turned to medium.

Spoiler

^^Big pics

Yeah it sorta is messy inside there. It's not too dusty at all neither. I owned 1 ATI video card in my life and that thing kicked butt. It was the 9800PRO and when I got it, I ran BF2 to the max back in the day. That card was just the bomb until I decided that I should scrap the PC because it was using the AGP standard. So when I go with NVIDIA, I find out their cards suck. Really I'll deal with AMD cruddy driver/late support if it means I'll have a video card that lasts longer than a year or two. Also as soon as I open EVGA graphic tuner thing to adjust the fan speed, it always jumps the fan speed in accordance with the heat. Never does it with the program off.

 

[hool10]

Actually I'm just now finding out it could be the RAM of all things. I still have BSOD with the RAM yet memtest86+ comes out clean. I have more of a suspicion it's the RAM now though.

 

[LibDem]

If you are getting a BSOD, put the code that it's throwing on here.

 

[hool10]

If you are getting a BSOD, put the code that it's throwing on here.

It's always related to the RAM. MEMORY_MANAGEMENT or various other error codes all leading to the RAM. This started when I first built this PC but it seemed like when it built up enough BSOD logs, it would stop. Now since adding a 650GB HD and a 2GB RAM stick (all in the same configuration except it's not 1GB and 2GB thus the flex memory setting) I'm getting errors left and right. I mean I get random Windows processes crashing or SuperFetch crashes (another RAM related program) or even a BSOD when the computer idles.

BCCode: 1a
BCP1: 00041201
BCP2: C00BA870
BCP3: C3D15847
BCP4: 877D8A38

BCCode: 4e
BCP1: 00000099
BCP2: 000AE1D6
BCP3: 00000002
BCP4: 0007DDD5

BCCode: 1
BCP1: 81A05E83
BCP2: 00000000
BCP3: 0000FFFE
BCP4: 00000000

Today I ran memtest with 1 stick at a time for 9 hours total. So each stick had 6-8 passes and had no errors. Then I got a bright idea it might be a certain RAM slot and tested a stick on each slot with 2 passes and nothing came up.

 

[LibDem]

Are you sure the ram is FULLY compatible with your motherboard? Try looking it up in the motherboard's manual.

 

[hool10]

The RAM isn't listed on the memory support list: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2631#ov However the RAM meets the specification on the motherboard including the new RAM stick I got.