R9 270x temperature and pci questions

[ballard]

I currently have 2 monitors, one is running at 1680x1050 and the other is 1366x768. At idle my 270x runs at 52c, and under heavy gaming it gets as high as 80c. 52c seems kind of high for idle with the cooler that Sapphire put on it. My previous Sapphire 7750 idled at 36c.

Here is the card I have:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202050&cm_re=r9_270x-_-14-202-050-_-Product

This brings me to my next question. I have an Asus Xonar DG sound card in the pci slot right next to the GPU and it seems to be suffocating it a little. I know people run sli and crossfire setups like this all the time and their cards are fine. Do you think it would be worth it to take out my sound card and just use the onboard audio to allow my GPU to get some more airflow? My onboard audio chip is the Realtek ALC887. I don't really know that much about the Realtek audio chips other than they aren't usually that great. What's your guy's opinion on them?

 

[spentshells]

You likely hit the nail on the head, do you have an alternate pcie slot to use? If not can you mount a case fan to fee cool air into the graphics card?

 

[ballard]

Unfortunately I don't have any other pcie or pci slots. This is the motherboard I have. http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A78LM_LX/

I've been thinking about buying a higher end motherboard so that I could overclock my FX 6300 and breathe more life into my computer, but I don't know if the money would be worth it just to move the sound card down a slot or 2 and to be able to overclock my CPU.

If I did get a new motherboard it would probably be this one. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130790&cm_re=msi_970-_-13-130-790-_-Product

As far as MSI goes how are their motherboards? I've always went with Asus. A benefit to getting a new motherboard would be that my Samsung 830 SSD wouldn't be slowed down by my old sata2 ports since that motherboard has sata3.

I honestly don't know what to do. Would it be worth it to get a new motherboard so that I could overclock my 6300 or should I just save for a new computer? I would like those extra pci slots. I shouldn't have cheaped out on my motherboard when I first built my computer.

 

[spentshells]

Do you have the option to put a case fan on the side of the case, blowing directly on the card? If worst comes to worse you could remove the sound card and use the intergrated chip for a while, Im not sure upgrading an already working machine would be worth it just to overclock. This is up to you though.

Look at this if you want to try msi, the 970 chipset doesn't offer as much overclocking as the 990 series which won't be much more.

Me I like gigabyte if you have a decent sized case.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514&cm_re=990fx-_-13-128-514-_-Product

but if you want msi check the second board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130677&cm_re=990fx-_-13-130-677-_-Product

 

[ballard]

I have 2 80mm fans on the side panel and front for intake and a 120mm fan on the back for exhaust. I could take off the side panel and put a small box fan blowing into it since I could probably get one for pretty cheap. I could get a new case. What's a case that has good airflow?

 

[spentshells]

Are the side fans actually blowing on the gpu? most cases these days have good air flow. Can I suggest perhaps removing the card for now or is it paramount to your gaming experience? Onboard audio is pretty good these days.

 

[ballard]

I wouldn't mind removing it. I'll take it out for now and see how much my temps improve. I originally bought the sound card for it's spdif port, but since I don't have those speakers any more I don't really need it.

 

[spentshells]

There you go, it's worth a shot. 2x80mm seems odd for side fans, which case are you using?

 

[ballard]

It's a random no name case that I got from Fry's for cheap since I was on a really tight budget when I first built this computer back in 2011 when I was still using my Athlon II. I've made so many upgrades since then that I wouldn't really consider it the same computer. I guess that's the good or bad thing about AMD depending on how you look at it.

 

[spentshells]

Have you tried upping the card's fan speed? They default at 30-40 try 55% after 65% speed the fan will be noticaible.