Question Gigabyte 1660s Oc running too hot

Nov 5, 2022
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1
15
My Gigabyte 1660s Oc 2 fans idles at 53 degrees room temp at 26 and when gaming it reaches over 83 degrees (at 100percent fan speed) ive repasted the thermal paste and adjusted the fan curve. I'm not sure what to do
 
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My Gigabyte 1660s Oc 2 fans idles at 53 degrees room temp at 26 and when gaming it reaches over 83 degrees (at 100percent fan speed) ive repasted the thermal paste and adjusted the fan curve. I'm not sure what to do

Hey there,

Lowering the OC will help. Sometimes you just have to dial back. Running fans at 100%, and the core past their default could reduce the lifespan of the GPU (and fans).

Actually, with the way Nvidia Boost algorithm works, it's often better to undervolt the GPU. This reduces voltage, giving more headroom for the boost tech to push your GPU clocks as far as they can go.

Additionally, OC'ing modern GPU's yield barely 3-5% most of the time in performance benefit. This translates to just a few FPS when gaming.
 
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My Gigabyte 1660s Oc 2 fans idles at 53 degrees room temp at 26 and when gaming it reaches over 83 degrees (at 100percent fan speed) ive repasted the thermal paste and adjusted the fan curve. I'm not sure what to do
Another thing you can do is to improve the airflow in your case. If it reaches 83C with 100% fans after a repaste, your airflow is not optimal to say the least.
 
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Nov 5, 2022
14
1
15
Hey there,

Lowering the OC will help. Sometimes you just have to dial back. Running fans at 100%, and the core past their default could reduce the lifespan of the GPU (and fans).

Actually, with the way Nvidia Boost algorithm works, it's often better to undervolt the GPU. This reduces voltage, giving more headroom for the boost tech to push your GPU clocks as far as they can go.

Additionally, OC'ing modern GPU's yield barely 3-5% most of the time in performance benefit. This translates to just a few FPS when gaming.
I haven't done any overclocking on it at all, I bought it 2nd hand so after i saw the temps being high i repasted the GPU and it still runs hot.
 

Karadjgne

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Can't do that on a gpu. Should spread it by hand. With a cpu, that has an IHS, the actual die is only @ ¼ of the IHS, in the middle. Gpu doesn't have an IHS. It's direct die, so you Need to be absolutely certain that every square mm has paste. Or it can overheat, burn up cores etc.
 
Nov 5, 2022
14
1
15
Can't do that on a gpu. Should spread it by hand. With a cpu, that has an IHS, the actual die is only @ ¼ of the IHS, in the middle. Gpu doesn't have an IHS. It's direct die, so you Need to be absolutely certain that every square mm has paste. Or it can overheat, burn up cores etc.
Thank you for that info I will try that and see what happens
 
Nov 5, 2022
14
1
15
Can't do that on a gpu. Should spread it by hand. With a cpu, that has an IHS, the actual die is only @ ¼ of the IHS, in the middle. Gpu doesn't have an IHS. It's direct die, so you Need to be absolutely certain that every square mm has paste. Or it can overheat, burn up cores etc.
it indeed helped but its still idling at 50 ish degrees then i ran a GPU stress test it took me around 3 minutes and a half to reach 80 degrees but it did not go up more than 80 degrees
should i still be worried?
 

Karadjgne

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The idle says a lot. That's generally an indication (if the card is working right) that there's realistically very little airflow from the case, actually reaching the gpu. There's very little load at idle, so the fans and heatsink are well able to absorb and control it. But the stuff inside most cases starts at case ambient temps and goes up. Case ambient is generally 6°-15°C above outside ambient. So figure your gpu should idle somewhere @ 35-36°C, if it was actually getting air.

Load temps have less to do with case airflow and more to do with card function, but dropping from 83+ to 80 is a good thing, most cards start to throttle at @ 83°C.
 

Phaaze88

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Hey, does this card not have a fan off mode? I found that Gaming OC, Mini-ITX OC, and Windforce OC all have it.

It's also important which model is in question, because the orientation of the finstack is different and affects cooling.
Mini-ITX and Windforce are aimed front to back. Gaming is side to side.
 
Nov 5, 2022
14
1
15
The idle says a lot. That's generally an indication (if the card is working right) that there's realistically very little airflow from the case, actually reaching the gpu. There's very little load at idle, so the fans and heatsink are well able to absorb and control it. But the stuff inside most cases starts at case ambient temps and goes up. Case ambient is generally 6°-15°C above outside ambient. So figure your gpu should idle somewhere @ 35-36°C, if it was actually getting air.

Load temps have less to do with case airflow and more to do with card function, but dropping from 83+ to 80 is a good thing, most cards start to throttle at @ 83°C.
I took my case front panel off because it was restricting like 95 percent of the airflow. So there's 3 intake fans in the front and 1 exhaust fan on top because of my case design i cant mount my CPU 120mm AIO on the back. But i did try taking the side panel off and it still runs at50 degrees.
should i try shoving my AIO to the back instead?
 
Nov 5, 2022
14
1
15
Hey, does this card not have a fan off mode? I found that Gaming OC, Mini-ITX OC, and Windforce OC all have it.

It's also important which model is in question, because the orientation of the finstack is different and affects cooling.
Mini-ITX and Windforce are aimed front to back. Gaming is side to side.
when my GPU idles the fan still runs so i don't think it have a fan off mode
Asper the finstack it is from side to side
 

Karadjgne

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Wait. So the aio is in the front, and the fans towards the outside? That's called 'Push' configuration.
If you think of airflow, it has 2 basic values, cfm and static pressure. Cfm is the amount/volume of air moved, static pressure is the force behind the movement.

So, you have fans exterior, pushing air through a radiator. Air is air it does not just disappear, you'll get the same volume on the back side as what's pushed through on the front. Static pressure is force. And a radiator is a giant resistive diffuser.

The air is coming out the back, but goes really nowhere, the rad sucked all the force out of it. And you have large exhaust fans up top taking the lions share of what air is in the case. That's starving the gpu.

Put the fans on the back of the rad, in 'Pull' configuration. You'll get the same amount of air sucked through the rad as pushed through, but now the fans are free of obstructions and can blow that air directly at the gpu, which will lower the amount of air the exhausts take directly from the intakes and raise the amount of air taken from the gpu. More effective heat removal.
 
Nov 5, 2022
14
1
15
Wait. So the aio is in the front, and the fans towards the outside? That's called 'Push' configuration.
If you think of airflow, it has 2 basic values, cfm and static pressure. Cfm is the amount/volume of air moved, static pressure is the force behind the movement.

So, you have fans exterior, pushing air through a radiator. Air is air it does not just disappear, you'll get the same volume on the back side as what's pushed through on the front. Static pressure is force. And a radiator is a giant resistive diffuser.

The air is coming out the back, but goes really nowhere, the rad sucked all the force out of it. And you have large exhaust fans up top taking the lions share of what air is in the case. That's starving the gpu.

Put the fans on the back of the rad, in 'Pull' configuration. You'll get the same amount of air sucked through the rad as pushed through, but now the fans are free of obstructions and can blow that air directly at the gpu, which will lower the amount of air the exhausts take directly from the intakes and raise the amount of air taken from the gpu. More effective heat removal.
I have done this and the temps are unfortunately the same.
 

SomeGuyonTHW

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Oct 9, 2020
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Undervolt.
if you don't know how, open up afterburner, install unigine heaven too.
run it with unlimited fps, observe your max clock speed with GPU-Z sensors.
google stock 1660s clock speed.
Max Clock speed - Factory Clock speed = a number
you underclock the core clock by that number and hit apply in afterburner.
then open up the Voltage Curve Editor.
see what voltage you like to run at (usually under 0.9mV)
and drag that voltage to your desired Frequency.
just play around until you find a stable voltage/frequency, you can probably run it at like 775mV with a good frequency well close to stock one (maybe 100 MHz less) which usually translates into 3-10 fps loss in games (10 is a very overexaggrated number, you should lose 5 fps max) but it will run at like 60% TDP which is insanely more efficient.
 
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Phaaze88

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View: https://imgur.com/WKpO2wg

this is the PC fan configuration
3 intake and 1 exhaust
Looks like I caused some confusion about the finstack orientation. Regardless, you have the Windforce model. That cooler exhausts air out the back and front - or at least it tries to.
I see Gigabyte has front section closed up. Why? I've no idea, and even if it didn't, these front and back exhaust coolers fight against front intake case fans...
Not a well thought out cooler design. It's only going to work well in certain cases.

I conclude that the gpu's shroud is trapping the waste heat that the fans are trying to get rid of.
 
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Reactions: brixntxr1
Nov 5, 2022
14
1
15
Looks like I caused some confusion about the finstack orientation. Regardless, you have the Windforce model. That cooler exhausts air out the back and front - or at least it tries to.
I see Gigabyte has front section closed up. Why? I've no idea, and even if it didn't, these front and back exhaust coolers fight against front intake case fans...
Not a well thought out cooler design. It's only going to work well in certain cases.

I conclude that the gpu's shroud is trapping the waste heat that the fans are trying to get rid of.
Thank you for your conclusion the problem was driving me mad
 
Nov 5, 2022
14
1
15
Undervolt.
if you don't know how, open up afterburner, install unigine heaven too.
run it with unlimited fps, observe your max clock speed with GPU-Z sensors.
google stock 1660s clock speed.
Max Clock speed - Factory Clock speed = a number
you underclock the core clock by that number and hit apply in afterburner.
then open up the Voltage Curve Editor.
see what voltage you like to run at (usually under 0.9mV)
and drag that voltage to your desired Frequency.
just play around until you find a stable voltage/frequency, you can probably run it at like 775mV with a good frequency well close to stock one (maybe 100 MHz less) which usually translates into 3-10 fps loss in games (10 is a very overexaggrated number, you should lose 5 fps max) but it will run at like 60% TDP which is insanely more efficient.
Thank you I will do that right away