I cannot figure out why my thermals are so out of whack, am I doing something wrong?

[RedbiT]

Hey guys,

 

So my PC has always had bad thermals, and I've tried different fixes but I still cannot figure out why my GPU is always reaching the dreaded 83-84 deg C hell cap!

It's worth noting that my CPU temps are absolutely amazing and my cooler is doing a great job.

 

In short, here's my hardware so you can imagine the picture:

 

- CPU: Ryzen 5 3600X with a Noctua NH-D15S

- GPU: GTX 1080 Ti (recently repasted and cleaned)

- Board: My PC was a prebuilt that I salvaged, so the mobo is actually the stock that comes with the Asus GA15DH

- Case: Corsair Carbide 275R (pretty roomy)

- Fans: 2 intake in the front, 1 exhaust on top, and 1 exhaust in the back. Not PWM, very normal basic fans but they spin! (no dust in intakes/exhausts)

 

It is also worth noting that the motherboard is pretty small, and the CPU cooler almost sits on the board as shown in the pic attached.

 

I have a theory that maybe if I get a bigger mobo my thermals would be better?

 

Would love to hear thoughts from accross the comunity!

[Radium_Angel]

Do you run the PC with the side panel on, or off?

Also, the GPU and CPU heatsink are pretty close together, that probably isn't helping with heat...

[RedbiT]

12 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Do you run the PC with the side panel on, or off?

Also, the GPU and CPU heatsink are pretty close together, that probably isn't helping with heat...

Side panel is usually on cause my house accumulates dust easily, just took off the panel to take the pic.

 

Do you think a bigger, more spaced motherboard would help? Do you have any recommendations?

 

[Morgan MLGman]

2 minutes ago, RedbiT said:

Do you think a bigger, more spaced motherboard would help? Do you have any recommendations?

I believe there's not much you can do - if you swapped your aircooler for a liquid cooled AIO for the CPU then the GPU may have a bit more room to breathe and the hot air from the CPU cooler would immediately go out of the case.

1080Ti was a fairly hot running card and your particular model doesn't have that great of a cooler. That's the main reason for the card being 83-84C, that is a fully safe temperature however and it's perfectly normal. The card tries to stay at that temperature by reducing core clock speeds dynamically. With a liquid cooled CPU you could potentially see a bit higher GPU core clocks, but it's honestly not worth much, if anything.

[Vishera]

48 minutes ago, RedbiT said:

- Case: Corsair Carbide 275R (pretty roomy)

Your PC needs air for cooling,and your front panel impeding airflow.

Your issue is your case's front panel.

That's why cases with mesh front panels are preferable since they can provide a lot of airflow to your system.

 

Try removing the front panel and see if it solves the issue

 

Good:

 

Bad:

[RedbiT]

7 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

I believe there's not much you can do - if you swapped your aircooler for a liquid cooled AIO for the CPU then the GPU may have a bit more room to breathe and the hot air from the CPU cooler would immediately go out of the case.

Yeah so I don't know if I'll go for an AIO cause I already paid a hefty sum for that Noctua cooler lol. I'm thinking maybe I add some more/better case fans to get some better airflow, and thank you for the info!

 

9 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Try removing the front panel and see if it solves the issue

I will try that and see if it helps, thanks!

[Morgan MLGman]

18 minutes ago, RedbiT said:

Yeah so I don't know if I'll go for an AIO cause I already paid a hefty sum for that Noctua cooler lol. I'm thinking maybe I add some more/better case fans to get some better airflow, and thank you for the info!

Well yeah - the primary reason for those GPU temps (besides the GPU cooler itself) is the overall case ventilation but I thought you already assumed that (Closed front panel and all that)

Adding an AIO could help in this particular situation of limited airflow, but the first thing you should look to improve is the case airflow by using fans where available and prioritizing SP (static pressure) fans over AF (airflow) fans, even though cases usually use AF ones. SP fans are better for providing airflow in tight and restricted spaces. Maybe try increasing the RPM of intake fans first and see if it helps at all?

[RedbiT]

8 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

SP fans are better for providing airflow in tight and restricted spaces

Can you please explain a bit more on this point?

 

Opening the front panel has helped by the way, but still the GPU fans need to be absolutely + fps capping to get a good steady 79-81 deg C.

 

The case fans that I have rn are not PWM, so they are just "running". My mobo has 1 slot for case fans and i have a splitter running them all.

 

If I get SP fans, would the current config still be good? 2 intake in the front, 1 exhaust on top (next to the huge cooler) and 1 exhaust on the back?

[Poinkachu]

1 hour ago, RedbiT said:

Can you please explain a bit more on this point?

 

Opening the front panel has helped by the way, but still the GPU fans need to be absolutely + fps capping to get a good steady 79-81 deg C.

 

The case fans that I have rn are not PWM, so they are just "running". My mobo has 1 slot for case fans and i have a splitter running them all.

 

If I get SP fans, would the current config still be good? 2 intake in the front, 1 exhaust on top (next to the huge cooler) and 1 exhaust on the back?

Airflow Fan = Sucks in and lets out a ton of air, but bad at delivering the air if it have to get through obstacles. The Air will bounce and lose a lot of velocity once it meets obstacle.
Static Pressure Fan = Generate less air, but it delivers air in some kind of pressurized manner, so that it can get trough obstacles more easier.

When the intake holes are limited/small, people usually use static fan.
When the air needs to get through obstacles, like HDD rack, radiator fins, cooler fins, etc. They use SP fan.

Example : Put a small paper on table, blow air through a tissue using your mouth. Compare it with when using canned air.
Example : AIO Radiator fan, they are usually static pressure fan, because the air needs to get through the radiator fins.
Example : Your air cooler fan is a static pressure one. A powerful one.

Your current config is fine, the difference with SP fans will be that more fresh air will be delivered to your GPU, most especially to the GPU fan near your pci-e bracket.

Because, it could be just a simple problem of "The Air delivered inside by the intake fans gets sucked upwards by the noctua fans and therefore creating an airless zone under your GPU"
When there is multiple fans in a enclosed room facing different sides, those fans are gonna fight each other for air, the more powerful fan will get the most air.
To counter it is either to provide more air in the room (because each fan intake amount is limited by their own mechanical limitation), or deliver the air directly to the less powerful fan.

If I have to give a simple example : If you pull a box with 1kg force from right to left, and I am pulling the same box upwards with 3kg of force, can that box reach left side? or will it end up above?
 

 

To get a gist how air moves inside a particular pc case :

 

[Morgan MLGman]

49 minutes ago, RedbiT said:

Can you please explain a bit more on this point?

 

Opening the front panel has helped by the way, but still the GPU fans need to be absolutely + fps capping to get a good steady 79-81 deg C.

 

The case fans that I have rn are not PWM, so they are just "running". My mobo has 1 slot for case fans and i have a splitter running them all.

 

If I get SP fans, would the current config still be good? 2 intake in the front, 1 exhaust on top (next to the huge cooler) and 1 exhaust on the back?

I think the differences between SP and AF fans were explained well above, watch the linked TechQuickie video and that should give you a good general idea about this.

As for the current config, you are still limited by the case that you have and that shows when you opened the front panel. What are the core clock speeds under those current temperatures? Maybe you're just worrying about nothing, unless the noise generated by the card bothers you. From a "safety" perspective, these temps are perfectly good.

Remember how GPU boost works - if you cool the card better, it will increase clock speeds automatically and up the temperature again until it hits one of its limits such as temp limit, power limit, voltage limit etc. So if you lower the temperature limit, it should slightly reduce clock speeds but it should give you better temperatures (provided it has enough fresh air) as the card will try not to exceed the limit that you set.

[Vishera]

16 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

I think the differences between SP and AF fans were explained well above, watch the linked TechQuickie video and that should give you a good general idea about this.

As for the current config, you are still limited by the case that you have and that shows when you opened the front panel. What are the core clock speeds under those current temperatures? Maybe you're just worrying about nothing, unless the noise generated by the card bothers you. From a "safety" perspective, these temps are perfectly good.

Remember how GPU boost works - if you cool the card better, it will increase clock speeds automatically and up the temperature again until it hits one of its limits such as temp limit, power limit, voltage limit etc. So if you lower the temperature limit, it should slightly reduce clock speeds but it should give you better temperatures (provided it has enough fresh air) as the card will try not to exceed the limit that you set.

This may help:

[RedbiT]

Thanks everyone for your replies, they make a lot of sense and I am now a much more informed person after having gone through your research!

 

I relate a lot to the LTT video that is comparing mesh vs non-mesh front panels, as my setup is very similar to the one in the video, and I am getting the same baffling and weird results!

 

I've attached another picture that better captures the fan placements and the relative sizes of everything inside the case. The fans across the case I believe are airflow fans because they are basic case fans (corsair and NZXT respectively) with nothing special going on.

 

In my case (pun intended), the red square in the picture is most likely having a zone where not enough new air is being pushed in probably due to the noctua cooler fan, and the blue square is where all the fresh air is at.

 

The video unfortunately does not have a solid conclusion as to how to fix this airflow issue. What do you guys think would be a good solution to redirect some of that air in the blue zone down to the red zone?

 

Thanks again for all of your help, I really really appreciate it!

[Vishera]

17 minutes ago, RedbiT said:

The video unfortunately does not have a solid conclusion as to how to fix this airflow issue. What do you guys think would be a good solution to redirect some of that air in the blue zone down to the red zone?

There are 3 things you can do:

1. Move the bottom fan a little bit lower so that the GPU will get more air under it.

2.Remove the fan from the top,it's a weird place to put an exhaust and only makes things worse.

3.Cable management under the GPU - You don't want to see any cables under the GPU,that impedes air flow, 

Make sure that to move the PCI-E cables where they enter the case higher so the air will  easier get under the GPU.

Again you don't want any cables below the GPU - That's fluid dynamics for you :D.

[Bitter]

18 minutes ago, RedbiT said:

Thanks everyone for your replies, they make a lot of sense and I am now a much more informed person after having gone through your research!

 

I relate a lot to the LTT video that is comparing mesh vs non-mesh front panels, as my setup is very similar to the one in the video, and I am getting the same baffling and weird results!

 

I've attached another picture that better captures the fan placements and the relative sizes of everything inside the case. The fans across the case I believe are airflow fans because they are basic case fans (corsair and NZXT respectively) with nothing special going on.

 

In my case (pun intended), the red square in the picture is most likely having a zone where not enough new air is being pushed in probably due to the noctua cooler fan, and the blue square is where all the fresh air is at.

 

The video unfortunately does not have a solid conclusion as to how to fix this airflow issue. What do you guys think would be a good solution to redirect some of that air in the blue zone down to the red zone?

 

Thanks again for all of your help, I really really appreciate it!

Based on this image I have a suggestion for you to try out. It's not going to look pretty but that's ok it's just for testing.

Loosen your lower front fan and then cut some paper board (cereal box type material) into a large rectangle that will extend from the top of the lower front fan to the GPU backplate and rest it on or use a small amount of tape to hold it to it, stuff it between the fans then push the lower fan back up and snug the screws to hold the air diverter in place. This will help direct all the air from the lower intake fan toward to the GPU. I'm curious if pushing all the air from that fan at and under the GPU will help, right now probably less than 1/2 the air is getting under it.

Something else which may help would be to put a 120mm fan on some stilts, long screws or threaded rod, under the GPU to allow it to blow air up at the GPU directly. I used that years ago in a different build to get air up to a GPU that was in a dead zone behind some hard drives, it worked well but didn't look great.

[Morgan MLGman]

31 minutes ago, RedbiT said:

What do you guys think would be a good solution to redirect some of that air in the blue zone down to the red zone?

Lower your front intake fans - put the NZXT one under the Corsair one, or even better move the fan from the top exhaust into a 3rd front intake under the Corsair front fan. It looks to be in a place in which it could actually hurt airflow by throwing fresh air from the front intake fans immediately out of the case before reaching the hot components.
It's better to provide more fresh air into your restricted case and let it flow out of it naturally (since warm air goes upwards anyway).

You could also try playing with the idea of placing a 120mm fan over the PSU blowing into the GPU since you have a bit of a mesh area on the PSU chamber cover over there.

[Poinkachu]

1 hour ago, RedbiT said:

Thanks everyone for your replies, they make a lot of sense and I am now a much more informed person after having gone through your research!

 

I relate a lot to the LTT video that is comparing mesh vs non-mesh front panels, as my setup is very similar to the one in the video, and I am getting the same baffling and weird results!

 

I've attached another picture that better captures the fan placements and the relative sizes of everything inside the case. The fans across the case I believe are airflow fans because they are basic case fans (corsair and NZXT respectively) with nothing special going on.

 

In my case (pun intended), the red square in the picture is most likely having a zone where not enough new air is being pushed in probably due to the noctua cooler fan, and the blue square is where all the fresh air is at.

 

The video unfortunately does not have a solid conclusion as to how to fix this airflow issue. What do you guys think would be a good solution to redirect some of that air in the blue zone down to the red zone?

 

Thanks again for all of your help, I really really appreciate it!

Top exhaust at that position is pretty much just :
1. Helping to draw air from lower intake to go up faster
2. Throwing out new air out of the case before it reaches any part.

Remove it, place it as 3rd front intake.

Or if you'd like to try a bit of diy, Place that fan standing between the front side's middle intake & GPU, blowing air towards the area under your GPU.
BUT, you have to make sure the fan will never fall down.

Or, go nuts, place the top exhaust as 3rd front intake, use the case without front panel, just the filter.

[Daethz]

probably just bad fans.

The case fans that come with nzxt cases for example are pretty much just decorations, i doubt they could bend paper.