SLI GTX 980 heat?

[CannedLobster]

Okay, I've made another thread already but I didn't want to bump it as last time I did, people responded to OP and not the bump. I hope that's okay.

I'm quite long-winded, so bear with me as I get to the point.

I got SLI 980 on a MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC in an Corsair Air 540 case which has 3 ports for GPUs. One top, then the next one is right next to it and then the final one is a bit further away, basically at the bottom of the motherboard and the case. I'd have liked to put my second 980 on that bottom one so the top one doesn't basically suck air from another hot GPU but I've been told that you should always take the "second" lane and use the top one for your monitor cables etc. And I've also have liked the cables to have been in the bottom because my logic (from my limited knowledge) is that the one with the cables will be the primary GPU thus the one with most heat.

Anyway, my question(s) is (are): Right now I have Firefox open (it has a lot of tabs, like 80 but not loaded), one movie 1080p movie paused with Media player classic, Steam, Origin, Skype (call going) and Battle.net launcher, a Steam download and finally, Heroes of the Storm running and right now my GPU heat is like this: 70-74 celcius for what I'm assuming is the top card with monitors plugged in and 48 celcius for the bottom. What when I played GTA V before it didn't go much above 74 either, just stays there, now it's down to 69. Point being that it's running quite hot for no apparent reason??

Also, *can* I put the bottom card in the bottom lane or does it indeed have to be at the one right next to the top GPU
And do I have to put cables in top GPU?

And off-topic: I was playing GTA V and fraps was saying 70-80+ FPS with everything but MSAA but I could just see/feel that it wasn't running that high, it felt like 30 or less. What gives??

Thankyou.

[ZetZet]

What do you mean see/feel. GTA has mouse acceleration all over the place so that might feel laggy. 

[Dzzope]

You can skip PCI-E ports.. The top card is always primary I believe.

 

Turn off v-sync

[Fluxx]

Iv'e never had an SLI setup before so I'm not 100% sure but I think that first card is automatically set as the primary card in an SLI setup so you might just have to use the top card, but you can put the cards in any slot you want.

 

The lag in GTA could be any number of things, Screen Tearing, V-sync, You will just have to tweak the settings around a bit.

[Superspeed07]

If those temps are with games running those temps are fine, anything 85 and down is good for those cards. You can try setting a more aggressive fan profile and that will probably drop the temps quite a bit.

[CannedLobster]

What do you mean see/feel. GTA has mouse acceleration all over the place so that might feel laggy. 

I mean what I'm saying (don't mean to sound arrogant or rude, but I really do mean what I'm saying) -- You can "feel" and see if the FPS is below 60, you just can. Can't really explain it. I could just, 100% tell that it most certainly was not running 60+ even though fraps said 80.

[CannedLobster]

You can skip PCI-E ports.. The top card is always primary I believe.

 

Turn off v-sync

So I don't have to have them that close?

And I don't have V-sync on, no way, lol. I have a G-sync 144hz monitor.

[CannedLobster]

If those temps are with games running those temps are fine, anything 85 and down is good for those cards. You can try setting a more aggressive fan profile and that will probably drop the temps quite a bit.

Well, I guess they are with games running, but it's Heroes of the Storm, not exactly Crysis, if you get my meaning.

It just seems quite odd that one is running 70 almost always and the other around 45 almost always.

[CannedLobster]

Iv'e never had an SLI setup before so I'm not 100% sure but I think that first card is automatically set as the primary card in an SLI setup so you might just have to use the top card, but you can put the cards in any slot you want.

 

The lag in GTA could be any number of things, Screen Tearing, V-sync, You will just have to tweak the settings around a bit.

Yeah, like I said before, I have Gsync monitor.

I just realised I should have responded toall these in one message, didn't see there were so many until I started, sorry.

[Blecter]

Double check to ensure SLI is indeed enabled - I know that I get the same temperature pattern with my SLI'd GTX 760's when SLI isn't enabled/working properly.

Also check your fan curves. You may want to ramp up the fan curve on the warmer card earlier due to the reduced/less effective airflow to it.

As mentioned though, your temps are still safe.

[CannedLobster]

Double check to ensure SLI is indeed enabled - I know that I get the same temperature pattern with my SLI'd GTX 760's when SLI isn't enabled/working properly.

Also check your fan curves. You may want to ramp up the fan curve on the warmer card earlier due to the reduced/less effective airflow to it.

As mentioned though, your temps are still safe.

How do I double check this beyond both GPUs showing up in the Nvidia Control panel?

How do I manually speed up my fans? MSI afterburner or something? EDIT: This works for me, it's just in the past MSI Afterburner hasn't worked for me, so I was unsure. Is there a good % to keep it on, like a minimum? any sort of "golden number" that many use until they need more. Because constant 100% will drive you insane, haha.

Yeah, I know max is like 90-something but I still don't like that it's basically on a constant 60-75.

Can you confirm that I literally doesn't matter which PCI-E port I put in my second card? BEcause I called the company I bought the GPU from and asked them (first time doing SLI, so I just figured I'd ask to be sure) and he said I should put it in the "second" port, the one closests to the main one.

[Blecter]

How do I double check this beyond both GPUs showing up in the Nvidia Control panel?

How do I manually speed up my fans? MSI afterburner or something? EDIT: This works for me, it's just in the past MSI Afterburner hasn't worked for me, so I was unsure. Is there a good % to keep it on, like a minimum? any sort of "golden number" that many use until they need more. Because constant 100% will drive you insane, haha.

Yeah, I know max is like 90-something but I still don't like that it's basically on a constant 60-75.

Can you confirm that I literally doesn't matter which PCI-E port I put in my second card? BEcause I called the company I bought the GPU from and asked them (first time doing SLI, so I just figured I'd ask to be sure) and he said I should put it in the "second" port, the one closests to the main one.

You have to enable SLI in the control panel. Both cards will show up regardless if it is enabled or not.

Under the control panel, go under "Configure SLI, Surround, PhysX" (or similar title; I'm not at my system right now and can't remember the current name 100%). There will be options under "SLI configuration". You want to select "Maximize 3D performance". If you've never done this before then you've always had an idle card in your system, and in fact not running in SLI.

You can modify fan curves/monitor GPU usages/etc with Afterburner or PrecisionX. While they might seem confusing at first, learning them is a valuable thing to do for ensuring performance setups are working correct.

You'll have to experiment with fans curves to get them how you like - everyone's airflow is a bit different, and this will require different curves.

[CannedLobster]

You have to enable SLI in the control panel. Both cards will show up regardless if it is enabled or not.

Under the control panel, go under "Configure SLI, Surround, PhysX" (or similar title; I'm not at my system right now and can't remember the current name 100%). There will be options under "SLI configuration". You want to select "Maximize 3D performance". If you've never done this before then you've always had an idle card in your system, and in fact not running in SLI.

You can modify fan curves/monitor GPU usages/etc with Afterburner or PrecisionX. While they might seem confusing at first, learning them is a valuable thing to do for ensuring performance setups are working correct.

You'll have to experiment with fans curves to get them how you like - everyone's airflow is a bit different, and this will require different curves.

Yeah, I did that. I watched a video on how to set up SLI, so that control panel step I took.

Yes, I managed to control the fan speed on the MSI Afterburner and I decided to take the SLI card down to the bottom lane because my motherboard says it has 3 x16(?) sockets meaning non of them are slower, so I figured I'd do it and it dropped 10 in average just like that.

Now to find some overclock settings that are safe for my GPU, hehe.

[CannedLobster]

And I just noticed the SLI options are gone in the control panel after moving it down to the bottom PCI-E... So I have to use the two top ones?? I don't like that...