Is my GPU's airflow getting blocked?

[Wally Mangiliman]

I have SLI 980 Tis and one my GPU would peak at 83, not all the time and not for long, mostly around 75-80 during gameplay. I have had times where it hit 88+. This keeps happening when I forget to close Overwatch and leave it at the main menu. My concern is that my SSD is blocking the airflow and it's what's causing the heat buildup, I have the Intel SSD 750 on slot 5. I have tried using custom fan curves but it hasn't helped, it may have actually made it worst. Do I need to get new fans for my system to get better airflow altogether? Right now it has the stock that came with the Corsair Air 540 case. I'm thinking about getting three 140 mm Noctua fans. Placing one in the rear, two in the front and moving the two stock in the front to the top. Or maybe get three 120 mm Noctua fans and have three in the front and one 140 mm in the back and still moving the stock two fans to the top.

I have read somewhere that 83 is normal and is perfectly safe. But the having it reach 88+ sometimes is a bit scary.

These are the fans I'm Considering.

>>140 mm
>>120 mm

Here is another picture. I have to use zipties temporarily to elevate the bottom GPU because it has started to sag, the GPU's fan was touching the SSD. The top one also has zipties just because.

 

[pete_101]

It' not ideal having your SDD that close, however it's usual the top card that will have the cooling issues as it's sucking in hot air from the lower card. Do you actually know which one is running hotter, or are you guessing?

 

[Wally Mangiliman]

GPU 2 is running hotter. I thought that was the bottom one.
So GPU 1 would run at 65 to lower 70s, GPU 2 would run 70-80 would peak at 83 but like I wrote, it would sometimes shoot up to 88 from time to time. I'm guessing it's when I leave Overwatch in the main menu but I have to replicate it to confirm but it's when that's when the temps would get really high for me.

It's an PCIE SSD so it has to be there, would it make a difference if I put it in slot 2?

 

[pete_101]

GPU 2 is running hotter. I thought that was the bottom one.
So GPU 1 would run at 65 to lower 70s, GPU 2 would run 70-80 would peak at 83 but like I wrote, it would sometimes shoot up to 88 from time to time. I'm guessing it's when I leave Overwatch in the main menu but I have to replicate it to confirm but it's when that's when the temps would get really high for me.

It's an PCIE SSD so it has to be there, would it make a difference if I put it in slot 2?

Do you know that GPU 2 is the bottom card? Because it's up to how the BIOS is set as to which is GPU 1 and 2. From what I can see the SSD isn't blocking enough to make that much temperature difference, but the top card sucking in hot air from the bottom would explain the high temperature.

By slot 2, do you mean between the two graphic cards? This sounds like a bad idea, especially if it's the top card that's running hot.

I think you've found one of the issues with SLI, unless you use water cooling or blower/reference style cards, you'll always see one card running hotter than the other.

 

[Wally Mangiliman]

So it seems that the EVGA software is mixing up the GPU numbering, cause I was pretty sure that the closest GPU to the CPU is numbered 1. I used GPU-Z to match up the temperature readings with EVGA PrecisionX and it is definitely mixing up the two GPUs. I also manually adjusted the fan speeds on both GPUs with EVGA PrecisionX then visually checked to see which one it was controlling, and yes, it was mixing them up.

So you were right about the SSD not doing much in blocking airflow for the bottom card, that's good. I read about about how the top card sucking hot air from the bottom one that's why I was confused why GPU 2 was running hotter. It's just a software bug.

Anyways, so how would I go getting more airflow cooling for the cards? Is there a way without water cooling?