[SOLVED] Hybrid 2080 Ti HOT!

[PcGamerFromHolland]

Dear forum members,

I picked up a MSI RTX 2080 Ti SeaHawk X. I installed the radiator on the top of my case, with push/pull configuration. On idle, the card is just 27 degrees (ambient: 20 degrees), which is good. As soon as I play a game, the card gets really hot. While playing The Witcher 3, it hits 75 degrees without any overclock. The radiator was really hot, the backplate was really hot, the tubes were hot, and my fans were already spinning quite fast. The pump was also really really loud, like annoyingly/disturbingly loud. The cpu was really cool (around 55 degrees with a overclock on), and I have good airflow in my case (1 200mm intake on the front, a 140mm intake on the bottom, a 140mm exhaust fan, and 2 gpu radiator 120mm fans).
I am quite lost. A hybrid card should be cool and quiet right?
Should I apply new thermal paste? Does that help, as the radiator does get really hot, so there is a big amount of heat transfer? But I have read that MSI's thermal paste application isn't the greatest, so might be worth it right?

I hope you can help me!

System specs:

Ryzen 2700x @ 4.2 ghz
Asus Crosshair Hero VI
Crucial Ballistix Sport 32 gb @ 3200mhz
Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 750 watt
Phanteks Enthoo Luxe

 

[PcGamerFromHolland]

Okay, little update:
I re-applied the termal paste on the gpu, which was already quite good. So maybe it wasn't worth it to do, as I voided the warranty. But hey, that's life.
I think it has to do with the fan that is on the radiator. As the radiator gets really hot, the fan is just not up to the task to cool the radiator enough. So I ordered 2 Noctua A12x25 PWM fans, which seems to be the best 120mm fans on the market. They were quite expensive (€62) but I know Noctua just makes perfect stuff. I will put them on the radiator with a push/pull configurator. I have to connect them to my motherboards system fan connector. Is it possible to control the fanspeed? Speedfan isn't working and detecting anything on my computer, so should I just leave them on a manual rpm like 1100 or 1200?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Some_Guy_87]

I have to connect them to my motherboards system fan connector. Is it possible to control the fanspeed? Speedfan isn't working and detecting anything on my computer, so should I just leave them on a manual rpm like 1100 or 1200?

That motherboard should have the UEFI Bios - when you go into that you should immediately have a list of the fan statistics on the bottom left and a button with "QFan Control". Is it not appearing there? You can set profiles for the fans then at which degrees they should spin how fast. With my Corsair ML140 fans the silent PWM default profile works extremely well and is both quiet and effective.
Apologies if I'm just misunderstanding .

 

[PcGamerFromHolland]

Thanks for your response.
Yes, I can control all my fans via the Bios, but that's not ideal. I would like to lower them when the pc is idling, and raise the rpm when I am gaming. It would be nice to be able to do that while in Windows
In the Bios you can't make a fan curve based of GPU temps unfortunately.

 

[drivinfast247]

A 120mm radiator cooling a 250+watt GPU is a bad idea. Not sure why they did it.

 

[PcGamerFromHolland]

Yeah I agree. The power limit seems to be about 330 watts, which is just too much for this little radiator. However, I do think the Noctua fans are going to make a difference. I downloaded AI Suite from Asus, and now I can change my fan speeds inside Windows!
Another question, is it normal that the backplate is so extremely hot? It is by far the hottest thing on the GPU. I have the little blower fan on 30% speed.

 

[Phaaze88]

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/207808/msi-rtx2080ti-11264-181025
^Seahawk X vbios.

The power limit is for the entire gpu package - core, Vram, VRM, etc. Use the latest version of Gpu-Z. It will show you how much power the core pulls on its own... which will still be up there.
Unlike air cooled models which have to deal with the whole package, the hybrid cooled model isolates the core from the rest.

That said, the 120mm is rather terrible, if whatever you're doing doesn't allow the card to throttle down.

If the backplate is warm, that means it's not just some plastic piece of crap for show like on some models that just trap heat.

30% is a tad low to be running on this card...

 

[PcGamerFromHolland]

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/207808/msi-rtx2080ti-11264-181025
^Seahawk X vbios.

The power limit is for the entire gpu package - core, Vram, VRM, etc. Use the latest version of Gpu-Z. It will show you how much power the core pulls on its own... which will still be up there.
Unlike air cooled models which have to deal with the whole package, the hybrid cooled model isolates the core from the rest.

That said, the 120mm is rather terrible, if whatever you're doing doesn't allow the card to throttle down.

If the backplate is warm, that means it's not just some plastic piece of crap for show like on some models that just trap heat.

30% is a tad low to be running on this card...

Thank you for your response. This is good to know. I don't need to worry about the temps then if they seem to be normal for a 120 mm rad. 2080 Ti's are known to run quite hot. I will see how much difference the Noctua fans will make (They will be delivered next week), and I will post it here.
It is nice that the backplate is doing something! I will put the little blower fan at a higher rpm, to see if that makes any difference.

 

[Phaaze88]

I doubt they will make a difference. They are good, but they're no miracle fans.
The manufacturers design their cooling solutions for 100% operation on the fans and the pump(if present). The blower fan is far too low at 30%.
I figure that higher than that is likely too loud for your ears, but having it that low isn't helping things.

Also, Nvidia has their gpus report thermals as an average of 3: the core, Vram, and VRM.
So if the hybrid cooler is dealing with the core, and the blower(30%) is dealing with the Vram and VRM... methinks the Vram isn't being cooled effectively, and is the outlier in the temperature reports.

 

[PcGamerFromHolland]

Ah okay, didn't know that! When I turn up the blower fan to around 50%, it is already loud. On 30%, it hits around 700 rpm, which is the same as my other components. Is there any other way I can cool the vram and VRM's?

 

[Phaaze88]

Uhh, not without taking the thing apart, I'm afraid...

 

[PcGamerFromHolland]

Hmm okay. I will check if I am able to mount a fan blowing on the backplate, just to check if that would help anything. But I think the temps are okay for a 2080 Ti. Just not much thermal headroom left for overclocking I guess. Thank you for your responses!

 

[PcGamerFromHolland]

Update: I installed a new fan in my case so it blows on the backplate of the card. Temperatures dropped by about 4 degrees! Would it help to remove the plastic shroud around the card so that this fan directly blows into the VRM's and memory chips?

 

[Phaaze88]

I installed a new fan in my case so it blows on the backplate of the card.

Where is this air coming from, though, and does it disrupt the cpu cooler?

Would it help to remove the plastic shroud around the card so that this fan directly blows into the VRM's and memory chips?

That's exactly what the blower fan is supposed to do...
The plastic shroud and the aluminum finstack inside act as a guide, otherwise the blower fan wouldn't do anything.

 

[PcGamerFromHolland]

Where is this air coming from, though, and does it disrupt the cpu cooler?


That's exactly what the blower fan is supposed to do...
The plastic shroud and the aluminum finstack inside act as a guide, otherwise the blower fan wouldn't do anything.

I placed the fan around the height of the GPU, well above my bottom fans. It does disrupt the CPU cooler very slightly, but only 0,5cm I think. It is primarily focussed on the GPU. It seems to help a little bit in temps, although it is still quite hot for a hybrid card I guess.

Ah yeah of course, you are right. I ramped up the blower fan to 60% when the GPU starts to get hot, but still it doesn't seem like it helps much. When I run it at 30% or 100%, the temps do not change.

 

[Phaaze88]

Pics please. Use postimages.org or imgur.com.

 

[PcGamerFromHolland]

https://imgur.com/a/tT24gOh

View: https://imgur.com/a/tT24gOh

I hope this works.

 

[PcGamerFromHolland]

Okay, little update.
Temps have actually been improved a little bit. With a medium overclock and max. powerlimit, the temps settle around 66 degrees celsius after 30 minutes of Heaven benchmark. This is still with the included fan and the little blower fan on both 70%. The sustained clock speed is 1980 MHz. My Noctua fans should be here in 4 days, so I will install them and give an update. I would like to see the temps max out at around 65 degrees, but with less noise than in my current setup.

I have one other question regarding the positioning of the radiator. I currently run it as an exhaust on the rear of my case. That means that the air from my CPU cooler is directly aimed at the radiator. However, even after several Cinebench runs, the temp of the air that is coming out of the cooler is just slightly higher than ambient. Another place where I can mount the radiator is above the CPU cooler, where currently a 120mm exhaust fan sits. The distance between the CPU cooler and the actual radiator fan is quite small in that scenario, so would it be able to get enough fresh air?

 

[PcGamerFromHolland]

I was thinking about something else. I applied Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste on my gpu. Is this stuff sufficient for all the heat that the chip puts out? Or would it better to invest in Thermal Grizzly thermal paste or something else? As long as the radiator gets hot, there is proper heat transfer right?

 

[PcGamerFromHolland]

Update:
The Noctua fans came in. They are amazing. There are almost inaudible, and the temps of the GPU doesn't exceed 60 degrees. I am really happy. Thanks for all your help!