SLI and Temperature

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Vezperz

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Jan 29, 2016
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I have a question about the operating temperature of my GPU. First, the hardware involved:
2x GPU (SLI): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127889
MBD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130841

While this is not my first time building a computer, it is my first time installing SLI. According to the manual for the MBD, at least as I understand it, it recommends placing the two cards for SLI in the 1st and 3rd PCIe slots, which I have done. If I'm in error here, someone please let me know.

At rest, or at least with just my internet browser running, the top card in slot one sits at about 48C, the bottom card sits at about 36C. I understand that the first card is achieving higher temperatures because there is so little (minuscule in this case) space between it and the second card.
My concern stems from when I try to run a game. Then the temperature on the first card has been hitting 91C, with momentary ticks up to 92C. I haven't been able to find a maximum temperature in an official document anywhere (I'm probably not looking in the right place), but several sites discussing the issue have stated that the maximum safe operating temperature is 92C, which I've been hitting.

My question is thus: Should I move the second video card down to the fifth PCIe slot to improve temperatures; and if I do, will this affect performance in a significant way? Are there other things I can do to manage this temperature problem?

Thank you for your time and attentions on this issue.
 
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Excellent, thank you for the resource, I have no idea why that didn't come up when I google searched it, probably poor word choice on my part in the search.

I've added a more aggressive fan profile using the afterburner software provided by MSI, and that seems to have helped a little bit. Managed to keep the temp to about 88C while running various games. This still seems very near the edge to me though.

It seems my options are thus (please let me know if I'm mistaken):


  • 1. Get more, or better case fans to move more air over the GPU. I have this installed in the Corsair Air 540, which has ridiculously good air flow. But I could get some fans that move more air and that should help.

    2. Move the bottom card to the 5th PCIe slot, which will give the card on top more room. This is what I would do, but I'm concerned that (according to the manual for the motherboard) that two cards in sli wont work with one in the 1st and the other in the 5th slot, or that it will drastically reduce performance of the SLI.

If anyone has any other options; or perhaps any expertise or thoughts on moving the second GPU to the 3rd PCIe slot, please let me know.

Once again, I appreciate any time and attention those in the community have been able to give to this issue.
 
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Well, as I already purchased and installed the two cards that I have, I'm more interested in solutions that make use of the hardware on hand.
Does anyone know if placing the second card in the 5th PCIe slot, instead of leaving it in the recommended by the manual 3rd PCIe slot, will negatively affect performance?
 
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Quoting Flobelix over on the MSI Forums:
Using slots 1 & 3 leads to thermal issues as the space to "breathe" for the top card is simply to little and the cards are heating each other. Using E1 and E5 is highly recommended. While running x8/x8 the thermal advantage alone justifies this config. It is also just a downgrade for 59xx CPU's with 40 lanes as a 5820K couldn't run x16/x16 anyway. Performance difference is about 1% or none when just looking at the PCI-E bandwidth BUT only using the x8/x8 config the cards will run at their intended performance levels as temperatures above 80°C will decrease the boost ability. At 90°C it will be down clocking. In the end for good temps and best performance use E1 and E5.
Click to expand...
 
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well I guess you got to go with what /how the board is ''wired''

''The PCIe layout of the motherboard is ultimately geared towards tri-GPU setups. I say this because in a dual GPU setup, the first two full-length PCIe slots are occupied rather than the first and third, which reduces the airflow between them. The PCIe slots are arranged such that:

40 PCIe 3.0 CPU: x16, x16/x16, x16/x16/x0/x8
28 PCIe 3.0 CPU: x16, x16/x8, x8/x8/x8/x0
This means that for the 5960X and 5930K, the third GPU must be in the bottom PCIe slot, whereas for the 5820K, the third GPU is in the third full-length PCIe slot.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8557/x99-motherboard-roundup-asus-x99-deluxe-gigabyte-x99-ud7-ud5-asrock-x99-ws-msi-x99s-sli-plus-intel-haswell-e/8


so I don't know how to take that ?? is it they mean 2 card sli has to be in the first 2 2 slots only ? seems if you get x8 on all slots at a min. NVidia requires x8 on the slot ??? so ....
all you can do is make a call on that try and see ??
 
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just to ask , how does each card run single ?? maybe one has a defective fan or not kicking in or spooling up as one should normally due to a bad sensor ?

looking at threads like this your close but slightly higher and that maybe all due to that boards slots being closer then theres as well ?? [like the anandtech review states ? ]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/3cdcuz/gtx_980_ti_sli_temperatures/
 
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Really? Any proof of that? I certainly didn't ask or tell you what cards I decided to use in SLi so how do you know this to be a "fact"? Please provide some evidence to back up this claim.
 
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says right in the link above a couple of times its all old school common knowledge on that

''The bottom card will blow hot air on the card above it which is why people say to either use blowers or watercooling for SLI. Since you have a good case with a lot of fans having 2 cards that blow their air into the case not out the back should be fine.''

''with aftermarket cards you are better off having a gap between the two cards, and plenty of case ventilation or just run an open case... in small cases without a decent gap it is sometimes better to have reference cards as they act as their own exhaust fan ''

''The general consensus these days is that 2 reference exhaust cooled cards are the way to go. I currently run 2 ref 780Ti's. They get hot and reach their max temp of 83, and as such I can't really overclock them much unless I have a fan speed above 70%, which I find too noisy to be honest. ''

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18675482

http://hardforum.com/threads/acx-cooler-vs-traditional-blower-for-sli.1796344/

reference cards meet all NVidia sli requirements and why they are reference cards aftermarket card may not venders make any changes they want to the cards and something may break sli compatibility with other cards

as for maybe example

http://forums.evga.com/Unable-to-SLI-EVGA-980-TI-Hybrid-w-MSI-GTX-980-TI-Gaming-6-Golden-Edition-m2448174.aspx

just like I proved to you with the 970's awhile back

enjoy



 
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