5800 decaf hotter than 5800 Ultra?

[ricercar]

If you have a GeForce FX 5800 of any flavor, could you be so kind as to respond:

- post your running temperature as shown in the Control Panel?
- tell whether your rear heatsink is too hot to touch in 2D mode?

While testing a PNY 5800 Ultra and an ASUS 5800 regular, I find the Ultra is noticably cooler to the touch in 2D modes, but the non-ultra is too hot to touch regardless of whether it's in 2D or 3D mode.

However, the Display Advanced control panel reports 49-53°C for either card in 2D mode. (Up to 72°C after gaming for a duration in 3D modes.)

After seeing DRAMs fail in one 5800 Ultra, I put active cooling on rear of the PNY Ultra (a 50 mm "case" fan). I'm wondering if a more powerful thermal solution is needed for the rear of the 5800 regular, or if this is a defective (overheating) card.

[Greg]

Room temp 18deg C (reported by digital desk thermometer)

Motherboard: 25 (as reported by BIOS)
Ambient: 33 (as reported by driver)
2D: 38
3D: 64

I sampled the 3d temperature by leaving the temperature display on screen and exiting during the GunMetal2 benchmark at different times. That was the highest temp I saw. I get similar results in 3DMark2003.

Note that the room temperature is low because it is winter here, but you can directly add to that to simulate summer, so a hot summer day could be +20degC, and time to run air conditioners or room fans at gale force.

Also note that the GPU cools very quickly. Eg. within 1 sec it drops from 64 to about 48 deg, then over the next few seconds falls to 41, then slowly cools back to its 2D speed.

System:
GeforceFX 5800 (non-ultra) @ 470/940
Athlong XP 2100 (Palomino)
Epox 8RDA+ (nForce2)
512mb PC2100
WinXP
Lots of Case fans.

Note the 470/940 speeds are nice and cool. This card will run stable at higher speeds and run 99% stable at 490/980 with default cooling, but can soft crash (eg. exit app and continue) if running for many hours at that speed. Also, at that highest speed, the fan speeds up as the GPU gets over 80degC. I got it to 90degC repeatedly running 1 particular benchmark at those near ultra speeds. This card won't run at ultra speeds with default cooling.

BTW, the GPU and the board should be rated well over 100degC before you start doing physical damage to it. The computer will show visible problems and crash before you physically damage the card.

[Behemoth]

room temperature: 25~30 ℃
2D: 46~53 ℃
3D: 65~72 ℃

i am using inno3D fx5800 non-ultra.
i have touched the heatsink and it didnt burn my fingers, when it was around 50 ℃ i think.

[jAkUp]

i am using a fan on the backplate... when i remove it and feel the heatsink, it is just slightly warm.

[rover214]

i have o/c'ed my gainward 5800 nu to ultra speeds and it still runs @ around 50oC after a 2 hr stint on NFS underground or MOH