350D Crossfire overheating

[ConfusedPixel]

Hey everyone,

 

So, I've recently built my new PC, and the aim was to crossfire my old 7950 with a new 280x, the 280x essentially being a rebrand of the 7970 and therefore Crossfires just fine with the 7950. The two cards Crossfire well as expected, however since the build is MicroATX I'm finding that the cards are sitting right next to eachother and that the top card was hitting up to 95c in benchmarks before I shut it off.

 

In theory, the case cooling I have set up is pretty good, I have 2 AF120s intaking on the front, two SP120 exhausts on a H100i radiator on the top and a rear AF120 intake which I've seen suggested a few times as the best setup for the 350D with a radiator. The CPU temps are fantastic, even if I did get a rather poor overclocker unfortunately. 

 

Here's a picture (it's a little large to put on the actual post, so here's an Imgur link, I hope that's OK):

 

http://i.imgur.com/gsSL4rH.jpg

 

What I've tried:

 

- Reversing rear intake to exhaust, only increases CPU temps slightly and no effect on GPU temps

- Massively underclocking the top card, which does cut off a few degrees but not enough to make a difference (more 90C than 95C but with a big performance drop)

 

The specs of the system are:

 

GPU1: MSI Twin Frozr 4 280X

GPU2: MSI Twin Frozr 3 7950

CPU: Intel i7 4770k @ 4.2Ghz

Mobo: Asus Maximus Gene VII 

RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance Pro @ 2133Mhz

HDD: 2TB Seagate Barracuda 

SSD: 120GB Samsung 840 Evo

CPU Cooler: H100I

PSU: Corsair AX860

OS: Win 8 64Bit Pro

 

I'm not sure if there's anything I can do, other than replacing the cooling on the cards with a custom water-based solution but that is a little too pricey. Right now I'm running with just the 280X and I'd  love to be able to run with both if possible.

 

Thanks for reading, if I can provide any more information let me know.

 

Thanks!

[79wjd]

Try 140mm fans up front, you could try suspending an exhaust fan over the cards themselves to pull heat away...or lower ambients.

Or get a riser and separate the cards.

[seiny]

Well your cooling set up is fine, but the cards are simply just too close, it's physics. Only thing you could is change the board to something with more space between the PCIe lanes, but then you'd have problems with PSU clearance.

[dragoon20005]

i will suggest fan right at the front of the GPUs just above the HDD bays

[William12h]

Well i would say the its the airflow, Only suggestion i can really think of is change the air flow like you have tried.

 

I would try, back and top blowing air up and out, and the front blowing air in. You may want to try or permanently keep the side panel off so cooler air can get in. 

 

Or get a larger case and MB for better air flow control

Or get water cooling GPU heatsinks  

[hiyayhi]

What benchmarking software are you using. And does it do thing in games?

[ForsakenLive]

The problem is  that the bottom card blocks all the intake on the top card, it's not a matter of fans, there is not enough space for air to enter the card's heatsink. 

A different type of card , like a blower style one (while noisier) won't have trouble on the top slot.

You can get a Corsair HG10 or NZXT G10 + an AiO water cooler, and add it to the top card. It is an extra $100, but there is not much else to do.

[79wjd]

The problem is that the bottom card blocks all the intake on the top card, it's not a matter of fans, there is not enough space for air to enter the card's heatsink.

A different type of card , like a blower style one (while noisier) won't have trouble on the top slot.

You can get a Corsair HG10 or NZXT G10 + an AiO water cooler, and add it to the top card. It is an extra $100, but there is not much else to do.

An exhaust right above the cards helps a bit as it pulls the hit air off and away from the cards. It cooled my 780 ac acx (single) down about 5c+.

[William12h]

The problem is  that the bottom card blocks all the intake on the top card, it's not a matter of fans, there is not enough space for air to enter the card's heatsink. 

A different type of card , like a blower style one (while noisier) won't have trouble on the top slot.

You can get a Corsair HG10 or NZXT G10 + an AiO water cooler, and add it to the top card. It is an extra $100, but there is not much else to do.

He could get a PCI expansion card but i dont know where he could place his GPU then.

[ConfusedPixel]

Hey djdwosk97, thanks for the reply. Do you think that 140mm fans will make the difference? The intake is already pretty good, even if I could squeeze a few more CFMs on the intake I'm not sure if the top card can actually get to the air because it's just trying to get its air from the back of the bottom card. I'm starting to think Twin Frozr wasn't the best choice for CF.

 

dragooon2005, there is already a fan just next to the HDD bays, do you mean one further forwards right next to the GPUs? If so, how would I go about fixing one there?

 

William12h, I've tried keeping the side panel off, it doesn't really make a huge difference, or enough at least to make the temps safe for the GPUs. The new case and Mobo aren't really possible for me, I need the build to be Micro at biggest, and I've already spent the money on these parts. I have taken a look at various all-in-one style GPU coolers like the H100i for CPU, but I'm struggling to find a cost effective and simplish way of doing things. Any ideas?

 

hiyayhi, I've tried MSI Kombustor, Dirt 3's benchmark, Unigine Heavan and 3D Mark, in the last two the GPU's get very hot, very fast. When playing games for more than a few mins the temps just keep rising and rising until the top GPU's fan is on 100% and the temp is nearing 95c.

 

Forsaken, I'm starting to think a blower would have been a better plan, I'll see what I can do by way of returning things I think if possible, but I'm not sure that I can now. I'll take a look into those other cooling options you suggested. 

 

Thank you all for your incredibly fast responses. 

 

Edit: I'm using Catalyst Control Center and GPU-Z to monitor temps. 

[William12h]

A low cost solution may be to get a fan and mount it infront of the 2 GPU or get a normal fan that you would use on your self and place it pacing the gpus  

 

 

Hey djdwosk97, thanks for the reply. Do you think that 140mm fans will make the difference? The intake is already pretty good, even if I could squeeze a few more CFMs on the intake I'm not sure if the top card can actually get to the air because it's just trying to get its air from the back of the bottom card. I'm starting to think Twin Frozr wasn't the best choice for CF.

 

dragooon2005, there is already a fan just next to the HDD bays, do you mean one further forwards right next to the GPUs? If so, how would I go about fixing one there?

 

William12h, I've tried keeping the side panel off, it doesn't really make a huge difference, or enough at least to make the temps safe for the GPUs. The new case and Mobo aren't really possible for me, I need the build to be Micro at biggest, and I've already spent the money on these parts. I have taken a look at various all-in-one style GPU coolers like the H100i for CPU, but I'm struggling to find a cost effective and simplish way of doing things. Any ideas?

 

hiyayhi, I've tried MSI Kombustor, Dirt 3's benchmark, Unigine Heavan and 3D Mark, in the last two the GPU's get very hot, very fast. When playing games for more than a few mins the temps just keep rising and rising until the top GPU's fan is on 100% and the temp is nearing 95c.

 

Forsaken, I'm starting to think a blower would have been a better plan, I'll see what I can do by way of returning things I think if possible, but I'm not sure that I can now. I'll take a look into those other cooling options you suggested. 

 

Thank you all for your incredibly fast responses. 

[dragoon20005]

Hey djdwosk97, thanks for the reply. Do you think that 140mm fans will make the difference? The intake is already pretty good, even if I could squeeze a few more CFMs on the intake I'm not sure if the top card can actually get to the air because it's just trying to get its air from the back of the bottom card. I'm starting to think Twin Frozr wasn't the best choice for CF.

 

dragooon2005, there is already a fan just next to the HDD bays, do you mean one further forwards right next to the GPUs? If so, how would I go about fixing one there?

 

William12h, I've tried keeping the side panel off, it doesn't really make a huge difference, or enough at least to make the temps safe for the GPUs. The new case and Mobo aren't really possible for me, I need the build to be Micro at biggest, and I've already spent the money on these parts. I have taken a look at various all-in-one style GPU coolers like the H100i for CPU, but I'm struggling to find a cost effective and simplish way of doing things. Any ideas?

 

hiyayhi, I've tried MSI Kombustor, Dirt 3's benchmark, Unigine Heavan and 3D Mark, in the last two the GPU's get very hot, very fast. When playing games for more than a few mins the temps just keep rising and rising until the top GPU's fan is on 100% and the temp is nearing 95c.

 

Forsaken, I'm starting to think a blower would have been a better plan, I'll see what I can do by way of returning things I think if possible, but I'm not sure that I can now. I'll take a look into those other cooling options you suggested. 

 

Thank you all for your incredibly fast responses. 

yes a fan closer to the GPU blowing right at them

[ConfusedPixel]

Thanks for all of the fast replies, plenty of great ideas. 

 

My first step now is to attempt to send the card back, since I believe I am still within my 14 day period in which I can. If I can do that, I will replace it with a better blower GPU, which from the sounds of things should help. Could you suggest what the best blower 280x would be?

 

If that doesn't work I'll attempt to install some more fans for moving air more efficiently to my GPUs as suggested by a few people. 

 

If that doesn't work then I'll either just use the 280x or I'll look into potential water cooling solutions if I can afford it at the time.

 

Thanks again for the help.

[ConfusedPixel]

So, I can return it just fine, my only issue is I can't find any actual blower 280s or 280x's. It seems only the reference coolers really would do that and they're pretty much non existent. Any ideas? 

[79wjd]

So, I can return it just fine, my only issue is I can't find any actual blower 280s or 280x's. It seems only the reference coolers really would do that and they're pretty much non existent. Any ideas?

Have you tried mounting an exhaust in front of the cards? It helped quite a lot when I tried it. I'd also suggest running it with the panel off and seeing what temps are like.

[mapegl]

I would go as fas as saying that the 350D is not the best case for crossfire. The bottom card is either choked by the PSU, or if it is right next to the top card, it chokes that one...... So you can't really achieve a very good cooling situation with open-air coolers.

 

Reference coolers are crap on AMD cards.........I really can't suggest anything else, but getting rid of that 7950 on ebay and maybe buying a more powerful single-card solution, or keeping the 7950. I mean it is not excactly a bad card.

 

or, if you really want two cards: Get two reference 770s. They are ok quiet, and cool enough for SLI. But they are also expensive.........

[ConfusedPixel]

Yeah, I know the reference coolers are noisy and not exactly perfect, but they're the only cards with a blower style cooler that'd actually allow crossfire to work properly in the 350D. djd, I'll give that a go, taking the side panel off made no difference. I'm a little sceptical, it's not the airflow really making a difference it's that the top card can't actually get any air because it's being suffocated by the bottom card. 

[79wjd]

Yeah, I know the reference coolers are noisy and not exactly perfect, but they're the only cards with a blower style cooler that'd actually allow crossfire to work properly in the 350D. djd, I'll give that a go, taking the side panel off made no difference. I'm a little sceptical, it's not the airflow really making a difference it's that the top card can't actually get any air because it's being suffocated by the bottom card.

which gpus, exactly are the two? One might be able to pull air in better in the top slot than the other.

In any case the top card really should be able to pull enough air in...although, you could try in intake right on top of the side of the card blowing air into the crack (again with the panel off).

The only other option would be to get a long raiser and move the card somewhere else....potentially vertically up front where the bottom hdd cage...not an elegant solution but it's certainly aomething.

[ConfusedPixel]

The cards are a Twin Frozr 3 7950 and a Twin Frozr 4 280x, if you take a look at the picture: http://i.imgur.com/gsSL4rH.jpg

 you can see why the top card can't get enough air. 

[79wjd]

The cards are a Twin Frozr 3 7950 and a Twin Frozr 4 280x, if you take a look at the picture: http://i.imgur.com/gsSL4rH.jpg

you can see why the top card can't get enough air.

Those look really tight.... I had looked at putting a second 780 in my 350d, and I don't recall them being that tight.....okay, that could be a bit of an issue.

You could try putting a rubber spacer between the two cards to stop the top card from sagging as well as creating a bit more room. But even that probably won't help much. You're probably either going to have to get a riser and find a creative place for the card, or change cards, or throw water blocks on them.

Also put the 280x in the top slot if you haven't already as according to specs it's a tad smaller.