Back of 980ti PCB getting to 231 degrees fahrenheit

[pali1H]

So this is really strange. I accidentally touched the back of my PCB after gaming and it was WAY too hot to touch. I took my thermal gun out and found that it is getting up to 231F near the middle edge of the card where the power goes in. Right where the power goes in is 187F. The back of the GPU is at 114.5F. I've had an EK waterblock on it for about 6 months without any issues. The temps stay in a great range. My core temps never go above 33C while gaming and it is overclocked to 1500mhz on the core. I don't think a backplate would help as the temps around the PCB look great. It  is just near where the power delivery is.  I have 2 - 480 radiators in a Corsair 900D.  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

This is a picture of my card without the heatsink. I see some caps there. I highlighted the area on the right side where that 225-231F readings are coming from.

 

Also, here is the waterblock I'm currently using. It isn't supposed to connect to that section of the video card as you can see there are cutouts to make room for the caps.

[TheRandomness]

Get a fan pointed at is asap, 110 Celsius for the back of the PCB isn't normal. 

[Mick Naughty]

Back plates do help temps. Prolly wont help your issue as much. Mine cards were hot too. I watercooled my plates and called it a day.

 

[airdeano]

welcome to the Linus Tech Tips forums!

 

that is not a major concern. at 110° is minimal for that memory controller and memory VRM. generally its 125° (257°F) and can handle 150° (302°F) continuous rated.

if concerned then aim a case fan across the back of the PCB.

[Mick Naughty]

Just some pic of a card on air without a back plate, then with a back plate. Then the card on water with a back plate, never tested without on one water. Then the card with a water cooled back plate. 

[pali1H]

Thanks a lot for the replies everyone! Really cool rig you got there Mick. Thanks for checking your temps. Airdeno, that is very interesting about the temperatures. I didn't think PCB could handle those kind of temperatures.  I'm tempted to open a problem ticket with Nvidia to see what they say and if they have any specifications. For now, I put a little spot fan on that back of the card and the temps went down 100F to the 130F range. I'll need to find a permanent solution that doesn't look ridiculous!

 

Look at what I saw last night. I got real close and took a picture. Does that look like burn marks?! I have some PCB cleaner spray I'm going to use, just have to find it among my 10 bins of PC stuff lol.

 

[airdeano]

hard to tell on the lower stem of the 'P' and upper stroke of the 'b'.

the trace does look contaminated, but i wouldn't spray anything on it. just a good dusting and proceed.

[VagabondWraith]

Dat dust buildup.  

[pali1H]

Haha yeah I have 3 cats and 2 dogs so I have a lot of dandruff floating around. It is really hard to stay on top of it. Airdino, yeah I'm not sure what that is on the "pb". It doesn't look like any traces are on that logo. 

[tkell]

I ordered a thermal sensors, to keep an eye on the back of mine, running two 980 Ti with a Delta 4k fan blowing on them both.

I got the thermal sensors and mine only gets up to 143F on the back plate with other fans on low.

[pali1H]

Oh nice. Yeah I'm don't have any airflow in my case since it is all under water and has 2 - 480 radiators. One is in the basement of my 900D, separated by a black piece of acrylic and the other is mounted to the top of the case, blowing air out. I'll have to find a solution that won't ruin the simplicity.

 

Also of note, I used to be big into the overclock forums. I posted this issue there and only got 1 response within 4 days and I kept bumping it. Looks like I found a new home here. Thanks gents.

[JDMFTW]

Is it possible to add some fans to the front of the case?

Microcenter has stock of the titan backplate btw it does help with temps it helped on my buddies 980ti 

[MR.awesome1]

On 2/13/2017 at 3:21 PM, pali1H said:

So this is really strange. I accidentally touched the back of my PCB after gaming and it was WAY too hot to touch. I took my thermal gun out and found that it is getting up to 231F near the middle edge of the card where the power goes in. Right where the power goes in is 187F. The back of the GPU is at 114.5F. I've had an EK waterblock on it for about 6 months without any issues. The temps stay in a great range. My core temps never go above 33C while gaming and it is overclocked to 1500mhz on the core. I don't think a backplate would help as the temps around the PCB look great. It  is just near where the power delivery is.  I have 2 - 480 radiators in a Corsair 900D.  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

This is a picture of my card without the heatsink. I see some caps there. I highlighted the area on the right side where that 225-231F readings are coming from.

 

Also, here is the waterblock I'm currently using. It isn't supposed to connect to that section of the video card as you can see there are cutouts to make room for the caps.

Hi, in response to your caps being cooled through your block I don't believe the water gets over there. Those are just cut outs so that the caps aren't squished once the cooler is on. Therefore the only parts of your card being cooled would be the main chip and the vrms, resulting in the caps having very little to no cooling placed upon them. You might want to either consider another fan or a different block.

[pali1H]

Thanks for the responses. Mr.Awesome Yeah I mentioned that in the OP that the caps aren't watercooled and just have a cutout in the acrylic. I'll look into getting a backplate as even though it won't touch that area, it might help spread the heat over a larger area resulting in lower temps. 

[Mick Naughty]

Should be good to add a thermal pad anywhere you want. As long as it's thick to touch the backplate it's gonna help quite a bit.