Workstation GPUs run 90°C. Will adding more case fans help?

[aeduG]

Hello,

 

I have built a quad GPU workstation. If I give all my GPU's 100% load, they heat up to 90 degrees but the fan speed is only at 80%.

Is this bad? I plan to do heavy workloads, almost 24/7.

And why are the GPU fans not going 100%? (see picture).

I have space at the bottom and top of my case to add two more fans. Will this help?

 

Thanks for your advice!

[Lord Nicoll]

2 minutes ago, aeduG said:

Hello,

 

I have built a quad GPU workstation. If I give all my GPU's 100% load, they heat up to 90 degrees but the fan speed is only at 80%.

Is this bad? I plan to do heavy workloads, almost 24/7.

And why are the GPU fans not going 100%? (see picture).

I have space at the bottom and top of my case to add two more fans. Will this help?

 

Thanks for your advice!

GeForce GTX 1080ti's are not work station cards, so they have a more tame fan profile that won't ramp up. They run at 83°C anyways if they're reference coolers, however they're not boosting very much, you're loosing a lot of performance because of that. Are they reference design cards? How much space is between them? 

[aeduG]

32 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

GeForce GTX 1080ti's are not work station cards, so they have a more tame fan profile that won't ramp up. They run at 83°C anyways if they're reference coolers, however they're not boosting very much, you're loosing a lot of performance because of that. Are they reference design cards? How much space is between them? 

It is the GTX 1080ti Turbo 11G from Asus.

There is maybe 2-5mm of space between the cards:

[kerradeph]

1 minute ago, aeduG said:

It is the GTX 1080ti Turbo 11G from Asus.

There is maybe 2-5mm of space between the cards:

That's a gaming card. Things like Quadro, Tesla, and Volta are their workstation cards. 

[aeduG]

1 minute ago, kerradeph said:

That's a gaming card. Things like Quadro, Tesla, and Volta are their workstation cards. 

Yes but but people recommend the 1080ti for deep learning. So that's why we bought it

[kerradeph]

Because it's cheap for what it does. That doesn't change the fact that it's a gaming card. You can take a mountain bike on Le Tour de France, that doesn't make it a racing bike. 

 

Back on topic, how is the ventilation int eh case? Those look like reference coolers so you'll want fairly high pressure inside the case to help push air though those tiny gaps, and if possible get a side case fan to blow direction onto them. 

[aeduG]

1 minute ago, kerradeph said:

Because it's cheap for what it does. That doesn't change the fact that it's a gaming card. You can take a mountain bike on Le Tour de France, that doesn't make it a racing bike. 

Ok I get it. So this is why I'm getting these temperatures? The cards are not meant to be stacked like this?

[kerradeph]

I edited my post but it looks like you responded first. 

 

Back on topic, how is the ventilation int eh case? Those look like reference coolers so you'll want fairly high pressure inside the case to help push air though those tiny gaps, and if possible get a side case fan to blow direction onto them. 

[aeduG]

3 minutes ago, kerradeph said:

I edited my post but it looks like you responded first. 

 

Back on topic, how is the ventilation int eh case? Those look like reference coolers so you'll want fairly high pressure inside the case to help push air though those tiny gaps, and if possible get a side case fan to blow direction onto them. 

Yeah thank you!

I have two front in-take fans, one exhaust at the back, and one on top right above the cpu cooler. 

The case does not have holes for a side in-take unfortunately. 

Maybe I can mount a fan directly on the side of the GPUs?

[Lord Nicoll]

5 minutes ago, aeduG said:

Ok I get it. So this is why I'm getting these temperatures? The cards are not meant to be stacked like this?

Oh no, the GeForce GTX 1080ti work great for deep learning, but when you pack 4 with no space between them, not so much. Now the rear exhaust blower type is better than an open air type for that use, I'm afaid you might have to either edit the fan curve (not sure how'd you do it on Linux or anything like that) or watercool them. If done right watercooling should not leak and will drive the temps down. You'll need at least a quad 120mm rad and 4 blocks. 

[aeduG]

3 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

Oh no, the GeForce GTX 1080ti work great for deep learning, but when you pack 4 with no space between them, not so much. Now the rear exhaust blower type is better than an open air type for that use, I'm afaid you might have to either edit the fan curve (not sure how'd you do it on Linux or anything like that) or watercool them. If done right watercooling should not leak and will drive the temps down. You'll need at least a quad 120mm rad and 4 blocks. 

Ok. I still don't understand why I would have to manually adjust the fan curve for 100% fan speed. Shouldn't the GPU be smart enough to do that when it's running 90 degrees hot?

[Lord Nicoll]

Just now, aeduG said:

Ok. I still don't understand why I would have to manually adjust the fan curve for 100% fan speed. Shouldn't the GPU be smart enough to do that when it's running 90 degrees hot?

No. It's designed to thermal throttle at 105°C, it won't auto shutoff until over 120°C, the fan curve is designed to not be too loud. No body at ASUS thought someone would pack 4 of them together. I looked but don't think they make a waterblock for that card, it's a custom PCB in ASUS's infinite wisdom. They have a little bit of room between them, so they can at least breath a little bit. Something like a Quadro or Tesla card would obviously have a much more aggressive fan speed profile, as well as lower boost frequencies. I know the thermal compound ASUS uses also isn't the best, you could maybe cool them a bit better if you replace it with like IC diamond or Aeronaut, Formula 7 or anything like that. 

[aeduG]

10 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

No. It's designed to thermal throttle at 105°C, it won't auto shutoff until over 120°C, the fan curve is designed to not be too loud. No body at ASUS thought someone would pack 4 of them together. I looked but don't think they make a waterblock for that card, it's a custom PCB in ASUS's infinite wisdom. They have a little bit of room between them, so they can at least breath a little bit. Something like a Quadro or Tesla card would obviously have a much more aggressive fan speed profile, as well as lower boost frequencies. I know the thermal compound ASUS uses also isn't the best, you could maybe cool them a bit better if you replace it with like IC diamond or Aeronaut, Formula 7 or anything like that. 

Oh I see. Thank you for the research. I will see how much I can invest, but it looks like I'm pretty much stuck with the cards. 

[OddsCrazyStuff]

17 minutes ago, aeduG said:

Oh I see. Thank you for the research. I will see how much I can invest, but it looks like I'm pretty much stuck with the cards. 

Contact https://www.pugetsystems.com/

They build workstations for companies, using 1080Ti's. They might have some tips on how to set the system up, so it wont kill it self.