Huge temp difference on 2 SLI cards, my older has always been bad it seems

[NerevarReborn]

I have asked before why my MSI GTX 970 was running so damn hot. It seems to have to push fans to 80% to maintain a fairly high 72 degrees celsius in many games. In a very well cooled and clutter-free case. I just got another identical card for SLI, and usually that would mean both cards got slightly hotter. The old card is still on 72-73, so it hasn't changed despite another card under it. The new however, with an identical fan-profile in MSI Afterburner reached 60 degrees when I benchmarked Heaven 4.

That's 13 degrees celsius difference. And a lot in noise-level. Should I RMA my old card? Or would this be an acceptable temp diff to MSI? Will I have to jeopardize my warranty and open up my first card and try to fix it myself? Because this is totally not acceptable to me. I have been after a quiet and cool rig from the beginning. Having to push the loudest fans in the case (even though they are good for GPU fans) an extra 15+% for one cards defective cooling is not ok.

Edit: read post 3 steps down, hadn't closed case, it's even worse.

 

[SkylerJacobs]

Top card will always be hotter in SLI/Crossfire solutions.
Try setting a fan profile for your cards. I have my GTX780 set up with a fan profile that will not allow the fans to go over 70% max rated speed at 80C. My card never hits 80C, usually around 73-74C when playing games (this is with my card being overclocked.) and the fans at most have hit 64% of the max rated speed.

Edit: Read your post again and i see you have an identical fan-profile for both cards.

 

[krells]

Are you using a custom fan profile? Every 970/980 I have seen targets 79c before really ramping up the fans. I have never seen one trying to keep the card at 72c with the fans spinning that fast.

 

[NerevarReborn]

Yea, I forgot I hadn't closed the case yet. So I did. Stock speeds, now my old card hit 78 degrees at 82% fan speed. If that is good cooling from MSI I don't want to see their bad ones. I'm borderline throttling the card on stock now. Top card was at 80-85% power, bottom one on 70-75%.

Bottom one was happy to land on 62 degrees at 58% fan speed. 16 degrees cooler.

Is this still ok SLI difference on identical cards? I think my old card has a heat sink that is hardly touching the actual GPU chip.

 

[NerevarReborn]

Yes I have an agressive custom fan curve since my old card was so damn hot. 25% @ 40 degrees to lower Idle and keep fans spinning. Then straight to 80% on 75 degrees, and 100% on 95 degrees (have never seen above 78, this was a new record). Old record high was 76 I believe.

 

[krells]

Have you tried running the new card by itself with the factory fan profile to see how it performs? The temp difference between the two is pretty normal the fan speed you need to get those temps seems too high.

 

[NerevarReborn]

Just tried new card solo (physically removed other and placed new at top slot), it ran the benchmark with the same fan profile at 62 degrees @ 59% fan speed.

That is at least 10 degrees cooler than my old card. Same everything else.

 

[krells]

That sounds better. What does it run on the stock fan profile?

 

[NerevarReborn]

65 degrees @ 50% fan speed max.

WAY less than my old card. Gonna RMA the old card.

 

[krells]

Once you get a working card the top card in sli will average 10c higher and maybe 10% higher fan speed versus the bottom card. Should be way cooler and quieter compared to what you have now.