High GPU temps

DrearierSpider · June 12, 2020

The temperature issues started to occur when I upgraded my CPU this past holiday. My old build included an i7 4790K on a Z97 board, which was cooled using a Corsair H100i V2 240mm AIO, mounted as top exhaust. My current build, shown in the pictures, has a Ryzen 7 3700X on a Gigabyte Aorus Elite Wifi X570 MOBO with a Noctua NH-D15 cooler. The case did not change, it's a Corsair Obsidian 450D, using the included fans (two 140mm intake, one 120mm exhaust). The CPU temperatures are fine with the new config, but the GPU temps have gone way up from what I was getting previously. With my old configuration, I would usually get high 60°s to low 70°s as a peak temperature range in demanding games (gaming is the only demanding task I use my PC for). With my current configuration, I'm regularly in the high 70°s to low 80°s. It can get as high as 84°C when I play a really demanding game like Metro Exodus. My GPU is an EVGA GTX 1080 SC (with the thermal pad fix, for anyone who remembers Gamers Nexus covering the issues these cards had years ago). I have a couple of theories as to what might be causing the issue:

-Case airflow is not optimal with the tower cooler. This would be the most obvious cause, but I'm not sure of the best way to solve it. Maybe bottom mounted intake fans would be probably be best? I can't imagine exhaust fan(s) at the top would do anything with the NH-D15 taking up so much room.

-Nearby components running hot is another theory. You can see in one of the photos the X570 chipset fan is right next to the GPU. I also have an SSD in the top M.2 slot (Intel 660p 2TB, which serves as a boot drive and game storage drive). I have the M.2 heatsink that came included with the MOBO covering the drive.

If push comes to shove, I'm not opposed to changing my case. I've had this one for over 5 years now, and the more I look at the Cooler Master H500, the more I want it . I'm open to suggestions for other cases if that turns out to be the best option.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the Intel SSD was added with the CPU upgrade, it was not present in the old configuration.

EDIT 2: It's also worth mentioning that the NH-D15 is right up against the side panel. The panel is removed in the photos, but when I put it on and press against the acrylic, I can feel it touch the top of the fan.

Edited June 13, 2020 by DrearierSpider

Bombastinator · June 13, 2020

When you removed the AIO you also effectively removed 3 exhaust fans that removed heat from the top of the case. Also your new cpu cooler is big. Sounds like gpu now has a hot air exhaust problem.

things I might try:

1. put case on some sort of riser to get it farther away from the carpet and add fans at the bottom blowing to make the case over pressure and force air out of the top of the case. May increase cpu temp slightly.

2. put case on some sort of riser to get it farther away from the carpet (a good idea regardless) and add fans to top blowing out mimicking old configuration. Might not do much.

Theres a certain throw stuff at the wall aspect to fixing case cooling issues.

oh and front dust filter could use a cleaning.

DrearierSpider · June 13, 2020

16 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

When you removed the AIO you also effectively removed 3 exhaust fans that removed heat from the top of the case. Also your new cpu cooler is big. Sounds like gpu now has a hot air exhaust problem.

things I might try:

1. put case on some sort of riser to get it farther away from the carpet and add fans at the bottom blowing to make the case over pressure and force air out of the top of the case. May increase cpu temp slightly.

2. put case on some sort of riser to get it farther away from the carpet (a good idea regardless) and add fans to top blowing out mimicking old configuration. Might not do much.

Theres a certain throw stuff at the wall aspect to fixing case cooling issues.

oh and front dust filter could use a cleaning.

All good advice. I'll probably buy a cheap set of 120mm's and play around with the configuration. As for the dust, I cleaned it just a few weeks ago with my dad's air compressor. It's two layers of very fine mesh, and can be really hard to get the dust out even with a lot of pressure. Part of why I want to change cases is this reason alone.