Msi GTX 980 Ti golden edition high idle temp

[Bansh32]

Hi.
I just purchased a new msi gtx 980ti golden edition for my new pc build. Im quite happy with the performance of the card and it looks amazing.
Im just having a issue with the idle temp. Its idles on 55-60 C all the time. The load temps under demanding games is 75-85 C.

If I set the fan speed to 35 percent in MSI afterburner I get 40 C idle and if I push it to 50 percent I get 32-37 C in Idle. But I like to keep it on auto, but then I get 60 C idle temp. I know the fan shuts off until the card reaches 60 C in idle temp.
I read reviews on msi gtx 980 ti and they achieved 32 C idle temp with a load temp at 74 C.

I got a 140mm fan at the top of my obsidian 450d case pulling air in. I got a 120 mm at the back of the case pulling air in. At the front I have one 140mm pushing air out. Also above the 140mm at the front I mounted my corsair h75 radiator which has 2 120mm fans on each side also pushing air out. The air flow in the case should not be a problem. Also the cable management is good and the card has a good breathing room. There is only my sound card in the PCIe x1 slot furthest away from the graphics card.

This is the golden edition which has a copper cooler.

Is there something wrong with the card or is this normal?

 

[coozie7]

That card relies on air convection to stay cool when the fans are off: hot air rises naturally through the cooler but your system forces the airflow to move in the opposite direction effectively blocking that airflow.
Try reversing the airflow, so the front fans blow in and the top/rear fans blow out.
It's hard to tell from photos but it looks like the H75 rad will be a little below the level of the graphics card and will almost certainly blow a little warm air in its direction, to prevent this, cut a cardboard box up and use a piece of it to form a barrier/air deflector/separator that will send all the hot air up and over the graphics card. The bottom 140mm fan will provide more than enough cool air for the card and you can try running with or without the cardboard airflow separator and see if it makes any significant difference..

 

[Bansh32]

I reversed the fans like you said and the idle temp is still a problem. But thanx for the tip for better airflow anyway.

I tried the graphics card in my old build running windows 7 and I got my idle temp at 35 C with the fans shut down. First I thought it was my new hardwares fault, maybe my psu but after some search other people get this problem with windows 10 and not in windows 7. I think its a driver problem for now. I've tried reinstalling the drivers and disabled windows 10 updating my drivers but the problem is still there.

Well Im glad its not the card. Im sure the problem will be sorted out with future drivers and updates for windows 10.

Thank you.

 

[Reaper_7799]

What monitor are you running? More specifically refresh rate? I think with win 10, if it's running say a 144hz monitor the idle ends up running higher than normal, which in turn causes idle temps to rise also. I thought they said this issue was fixed in new drivers but could be wrong. Check your idle clock speeds with no browser windows up or anything and also check with browsers open.

 

[Bansh32]

Just a regular dell ultrasharp 24" 60hz. And the temp is still 60C in idle when the card idles at 135mhz.

Some one got their idle temps back to whats normal by using nvidia inspector and running multidisplay power saver even though he also only used one monitor. I tried this but didnt have any luck with that.

 

[Namesoom]

My msi gtx 980ti golden edition does exactly the same thing. When I first put it in my pc I was only using 1 benq monitor and it was exactly 30 idle all the time. I added a second monitor and my tv and now it runs at 60 idle. If I unplug the 1 monitor and the tv it goes back to 30. This is fine as the fan is on at 60 but is extremely quiet. I have to say that this card is amazing in terms of performance and it looks great too.

 

[rwick]

Use a custom fan curve in MSI afterburner and define your own fan speed/temperature threshold. I had mine running minimum 40% and a pretty sharp curve to 100% (I really don't like GPU heat, I fried a 670 and am sensitive to heat now). It makes more noise but I have my headphones on while gaming so I didn't hear it anyway.

 

[Namesoom]

Use a custom fan curve in MSI afterburner and define your own fan speed/temperature threshold. I had mine running minimum 40% and a pretty sharp curve to 100% (I really don't like GPU heat, I fried a 670 and am sensitive to heat now). It makes more noise but I have my headphones on while gaming so I didn't hear it anyway.

I just set up a custom curve and the difference is amazing. As I said in my previous post after adding a second monitor and tv my idle temp was always 60. Now that I have set the custom fan curve it has dropped to 45. I only changed the fans to run at 50% instead or 30% and it made a 15 degree difference. The fans are extremely quiet at 50% too so it has made a huge difference to temperature but no difference to noise. Thanks for the advice

 

[rwick]

Use a custom fan curve in MSI afterburner and define your own fan speed/temperature threshold. I had mine running minimum 40% and a pretty sharp curve to 100% (I really don't like GPU heat, I fried a 670 and am sensitive to heat now). It makes more noise but I have my headphones on while gaming so I didn't hear it anyway.

I just set up a custom curve and the difference is amazing. As I said in my previous post after adding a second monitor and tv my idle temp was always 60. Now that I have set the custom fan curve it has dropped to 45. I only changed the fans to run at 50% instead or 30% and it made a 15 degree difference. The fans are extremely quiet at 50% too so it has made a huge difference to temperature but no difference to noise. Thanks for the advice

No prob, glad it helped.