High Temps with CF 6950s

dannybates

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Oct 10, 2011
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Hi people i am currently using a CM HAF-X with Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 and crossfire XFX HD 6950 DD 2GB DDR5.

The top card hits about 85c with 80% fan speed with full load, I have heard of people sticking things between the cards to allow more airflow. currently there is about >2-3mm space in between the cards.

If i don't use MSI afterburner the card reaches 90c+ easy

Any tips anyone ?
 
Are you using the stock side panal fan on the HAF-X? If so do you have any high performance 120mm fans you fan use instead?

Do you have a picture of the inside of your case you can upload?
 

dannybates

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Oct 10, 2011
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I use the stock fan on the side and two top fans, 1 front and 1 back with a corsair H100 mounted on the inside top also.
 

beltzy

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Jan 25, 2010
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The problem is that with your cards crammed that close together there just isnt airflow. I'd recommend you move the second card down a slot. You won't be using 16x lanes for both cards, but the performance hit shoud be really minimal and you'll get vastly better temps.

If you're concerned about the performance hit, just do a test. Run a few benchmarks in your current config and look at temps vs performance. Then try it the other way. I'm betting that you'll be willing to lose a few percent to not approach triple digits :p

Other solution is to put a physical spacer to provide a little more room. It's a little ghetto, and I'd be concerned about stressing either your GPU boards or the slots. It could, however, provide you enough airflow to get the temps down a bit without dropping down to your other slots.
 

dannybates

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If i'm gonna move it down a slot i'm going to need a crossfire cable because a normal bridge one will not reach.

Can't seem to find one though :/

EDIT: NVM i didn't know they made long ones

Also another quick question

How come some people use 2 crossfire connectors with 2 cards ? i have always used 1
 

beltzy

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I have 5850's w an extra slot between them and the standard crossfire connector was long enough. Are you sure they won't reach?

I used 2 crossfire connectors as well- don't think it's supposed to boost performance significantly (as the intent is to use each slot on the middle card to hook up to diff cards) but had read a few posts speculating that it improves the connection. Don't have more info on that bit.