Zotac GTX 1060 6GB mini high temps

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hellraiser06

hellraiser06

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Aug 11, 2006
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So, I have built a new Ryzen 5 based gaming/productivity system a month and a half ago. Here are my components:

AMD Ryzen 5 1600,
ASUS Strix B350-f gaming,
2x8GB GskillTrident Z RGB RAM 3000 MHz @2666 MHz
Zotac Geforce GTX 1060 6GB,
Seasonic M12ii520,
Samsung evo 750 250GB SSD,
WD Blue 500GB SSD,
1TB Hitachi HDD
Coolermaster masterbox lite 5 RGB
LG 24 inch freesync monitor @75 Hz

The issue is when I play some games on highest settings at 1080p (e.g. advanced warfare single player campaign), my GPU temps reach 83 degrees celsius which makes it throttle down which results in micro stutters. I have monitored this with MSI afterburner in which I can see in real time this phenomenon.
This doesnt happen in stress testing. Prime95 ran fine for 6 hours with the peak CPU temps of 76. Unigine benchmark ran at highest settings with 76 degrees at max for the GPU. Also, it doesnt happen in games such as paladins or wolfenstein but it does happen with e.g. elder scrolls online. Fully cranked up GTA V results in a maximum of 78 degrees on GPU and 66 on CPU. I get above 75 FPS in all these games at all times for reference (except in GTA V). But after playing for 15 20 minutes, micro stutters would start every 3 minutes or so during which the GPU temps go down to about 78 due to throttling and then start increasing till they reach 83 and it continues. Room temps are well below 25 as I have a well ventilated house and the window is pretty close to the PC case.

Things I have already tried:
1) Set my fan profile on my GPU to spin the fan at 100% as soon as the GPU reaches 50 degrees
2) Reducing the settings in affected games. Helps in Advanced warfare but not in ESO. ESO keeps running at 100 FPS and I dont want to use vsync. In game I havent found any setting to limit it to 75 FPS which my monitor supports
3) I have limited all my games now to not output more than 75 FPS without using vSync

Thing that resolves this situation:
If I leave the side panel of my case open, my CPU and GPU temps only reach 78 which gives me a smooth gameplay at any settings in any game including the affected games. My case is a bad choice for this graphics card it seems. It has 3 120 mm fans pushing air inside and one 120 mm exhaust fan. My GPU is in the nearest PCI-E slot to the CPU. What I have noticed is that the stock CPU cooler throws the hot air at the side panel and the GPU throws the hot air below itself (towards the PSU). Exhaust fan is exactly between the CPU exhaust and GPU backplate. This area gets a very hot build up of air and if I touch the side panel during gaming, this area is very hot to touch. Rest of the side panel is cool to touch. So, I suspect that the exhaust fan is not able to push the hot air generated by CPU timely due to which the backplate of the GPU gets hot and its temps rise. Also, when I remove this side panel, all the issues are alleviated. Temps dont go above 78 for the GPU and 70 for the CPU. I cannot keep this side panel open of course. Another thing that seems to help is if I remove the front panel of the case, the temps reduce by a degree or two only sometimes resulting into my problem.

So, my conclusion is that this case has a lot of positive air pressure which is not getting exhausted out properly. Please correct me if I am wrong.

If this is indeed the situation, can you guys please suggest something to get rid of it? I am now stuck with this case and would not like to invest in a new one unless absolutely necessary.

Things I wonder about:
1) Will buying a new CPU cooler help? CPU cooler will have one fan pushing the hot CPU air to the exhaust fan and may remove the hot air build up. Do you also think so?
2) Can I install my GPU in the third PCI-E slot which is farthest from the CPU without losing any performance?
 
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there are two things that causing the issue.
1. As you pointed out, it is the case. beside not having enough exhaust fans, the front panel seems to be very restrictive. try to remove it or open it while gaming.
2. the GPU choice. if you look under the fan, you can see that cooler is a simple block of aluminum similar to stock CPU coolers.

for now, removing/opening the front cover of the case, will solve the issue. If and when you are ready, you can get a case with decent airflow for under 80$. Fractal Design Define S or C and especially Meshify cases are excellent in terms of airflow, build quality and actually good looking.
 
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Actually, I have tried gaming with the front panel removed. That knocks the GPU temps to ~80 due to which throttling does not happen (this card throttles at 83). But, it will result in dust/hair build up in the case if I leave it like that. Plus, any dangling cable (from the headphone or usb) will collide with the fans. 🙁

Looks like, it was a poor choice making this GPU/case combo and I am highly disappointed with this. Anyhoo, do you think changing the exhaust fan will make a difference? If so, could you please link me to that fan? Thanks for the input
 
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IMHO, changing exhaust fan would not do anything meaningful for the GPU temps.
you can try to manually overclock the GPU. usually you can achieve the highest clocks with voltage lower than auto. if you have touched nothing, the GPU will run close to 1.063V if not thermally limited. lowering the voltage will lower the temps. My cards on auto run ~1980Mhz@1.09v while manually it does 2000@1.05v (or 2124@1.09v).
other than that, without leaving the case open, there is nothing you could do but heavily modifying the case. the cost of the mods will bring you very close to the price of the new case.
another option is putting aftermarket cooler on the GPU - high cost and probably voided warranty on the GPU as only EVGA allows changing coolers without voiding warranty.
 
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I have one more question. See, when I play GTA V, e.g, my GPU is still being utilized 99% all the time. This game only runs between 40 - 65 FPS with an occasional increase to 80s and occasional dip to 30s. If playing Advanced warfare causes my GPU to over heat, shouldn't GTA V also cause that, given both games are pushing my GPU to 99% utilization all the time? The difference between both that I can see is that CPU utilization is less in GTA V than advanced warfare (25-50% vs 70%). Due to this, CPU fan throws more heat on the side panel which accumulates just above the backplate of the graphics card (when I say backplate, I mean the back side of the PCB, my card doesnt have a proper backplate). Or, am I wrong in this deduction?

I have also noticed that it takes my card to reach 50 from 83 only like 30 seconds once I exit out of advanced warfare. If case is the culprit (like we both are thinking), shouldn't my card remain hot for more time?

And, why does it happen on ESO which I think is less resource hogging game than GTA V?

I can understand this not happening with games like Paladins for which this system is too powerful. My GPU usage hovers around 80% and frame rate is 150 constant no matter what is on screen, lol.
 
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CPU or GPU utilization does not reveal a lot of small things.
there are different blocks on the processor (be it CPU or GPU) that do different things, pull different amount of power and produce different amount of heat. So even if the utilization sits at 100% in different applications, the power draw can be very different. for example AVX instructions on CPUs produce insane amount of heat.
the quick drop in temperatures is totally fine. that's how it should work according to thermodynamics. for example, when i stop the load, my liquid cooled GPU drops 5-10C in a matter of seconds (will be roughly equal the liquid temperature) and then "slowly" (about a minute or two) dropping together with the liquid to the level of room temperature.
 
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Here's another idea also. I have a deepcool dshield case which is small. I ended up with my RX 480 having higher temps than I wanted. Here's what I ended up doing.

Get one of these.

https://m.ebay.com/itm/3-Fan-Mount-Rack-PCI-Slot-Bracket-20-Screw-4-Connector-For-Video-GPU-Card-Cooler-/201988061471?epid=20007093048&hash=item2f076d391f%3Ag%3Axs8AAOSwKoRZaKs9&_trkparms=pageci%253Ab0a919b6-b7e7-11e7-8c04-74dbd1802866%257Cparentrq%253A490d718015f0a86bd44d1a45fffe8e0f%257Ciid%253A14

Note you may find it somewhere closer on Amazon or something.

But I got that and 2 80mm high flow case fans. That bracket lets you mount the case fans in it, so what I did was punch out all the rest of the back pci slot covers from the back of my case. Place the 2 80mm fans in the bracket so that they are blowing air upward directly into the intake fans of the gpu.

Place the bracket about 1 or 2 slots below the GPU. Doing this dropped my temps about 7 or 8 degrees I think on my RX 480. Worth a shot and is not to expensive.
 
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Okay, time for an update. Before messing with the GPU voltage, I tried 2 things:
1) Changed all 3 of my front intake fans to make them exhaust out the air. As expected, it did not work. Lot of work, no good.. hehe
2) Installed my graphics card in the second PCI-E slot. CPU temps went down and there was no performance impact due to putting the card in that slot. But, during AW, temps still climbed to 83 and MSI AB OSD kept displaying "thermal limit" every few seconds. Strangely though there were no micro stutters this time. Frame time did increase by a lot, but there were no dips in FPS. Strange behavior indeed. Also, now the side panel was hot to touch in the new area where the graphics card is. So, this eliminates CPU air as a possible cause as the original area was now cool to touch. That hot built up air is now getting out via the back exhaust fan in a timely fashion which explains the CPU temps going down than previously.

I will only be able to reduce the voltage this sunday since I dont have enough time till then due to work. Now, I have one question at this point. If I continue to play with the current configuration (GPU temps hitting the ceiling without affecting the gameplay), will it have adverse effect on the life of the graphics card (assuming I keep doing this for the rest of this graphics card cycle for 2 -3 years)? I am assuming no since the temps will never go above 83, but still if someone can tell me from their knowledge, it will be appreciated.
 
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well, high temperatures do affect lifespan of the electronic components. it might be any other component in the system that will fail too early. SSD controllers for example don't like high temperatures (though the flash chips do like them).
so, honestly, even if lowering voltage will solve the GPU throttling, i'd recommend to swap the case in the near future.
 
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Now that you remind me of SSD controllers, let me put some more information on the table.

My samsung 750 evo 250 GB is hooked on to the visible side of the case just adjacent to the motherboard where the big power connector goes in the motherboard. So, this SSD gets direct air from the topmost front intake fan. Temps on this range between 36 and 46 degree c

At the dark side of my case, I have one WD blue 500 GB SSD and a Hitachi 1 TB HDD just below the motherboard on its backside. Their temps range between 43 and 50.

I hate this case.
 
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Hey @n0ns3ns3

Time for an update. I lowered down the voltage and it didnt help even one bit. I also put a 120 mm fan blowing air right on the graphics card, didnt help. I took some 3m tape and stuck the fan to the PSU shroud of the case, helped a little.

I also made one observation during all this time. And, I know I am not supposed to do this due to safety reasons, but please dont shoot me. I touched my graphics card while it was at 83 deg C. You know what I found? The damn silver colored GPU cooler fins were cool. The PCB (where the backplate should be) was hot as hell. I started my old PC that has a R9 270x in it. Ran borderlands 2 on it with max settings. Waited till it reached the highest temperature (~70 deg C). I touched the graphics card. The copper coils were hot and the PCB was cool. Both PCs are in the same room, on the same table. The other PCs case is Coolermaster HAF (912, I think). It has 2 fans for front intake, 2 at the top for exhaust, one at the back for exhaust, one on the side panel for intake.

What is the point of having a GPU cooler on a GPU if that cooler itself is cool and the GPU is hot? Am I correct in deducing that this card has serious heating issues?
 
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Unfortunately, the device you mentioned is not available in my country. I am going to mark one of your answers as correct since you helped me a lot. However, people who end up seeing this thread should know that this issue is not resolved and its the graphics card that is at fault. It reaches its thermal ceiling even if ran in breadboard. People living in mildly hot areas should avoid it. It does not have copper heatsink but just a normal useless one which requires you to keep the room temperature well below 20 deg C in order to not reach the thermal ceiling. I live in an area where outside temp is between 20 and 24 deg C which is not too hot. I dont use an air conditioner as I dont need it because of comfortable room temperatures. No point in me being cold just so the card can stay below 80... lol...

For the longevity of life of the card, I have now set the thermal ceiling at 78 deg C via MSI Afterburner after which it throttles and sometimes result in stutters depending on the game I am playing. I will take this as my destiny and live with it till the rest of this card's life..lol

Thanks again for the help n0ns3ns3. Really appreciated. :)
 
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I posted above I think, but if you can order from eBay, with my RX 480, it was getting warmer than I liked. I ordered a kit similar to this one.

https://m.ebay.com/itm/3-Fan-Mount-Rack-PCI-Slot-Bracket-20-Screw-4-Connector-For-Video-GPU-Card-Cooler/201988061471?epid=20007093048&hash=item2f076d391f%3Ag%3Axs8AAOSwKoRZaKs9&_trkparms=pageci%253A0e481912-be4b-11e7-bbaa-74dbd180a539%257Cparentrq%253A72eaf9ce15f0a9c0b1c7ba97fffad0b7%257Ciid%253A6

Along with that I bought 2 high flow 80mm fans and installed it about 1 or 2 slots below the graphics card, with it oriented so the fans were pushing air directly into the air intake of the gpu.

Doing that I think dropped my temps on my you by about 7-8 degrees. It's relatively inexpensive to try and might be worth a shot.
 
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Hey n0ns3ns3,

I have an update. I was doing it wrong. I did not do the voltage part correctly. Now, I have undervolted my card correctly and edited the curve in MSI Afterburner. 1911 MHz at around 900 mv. Temps are not going above 75 now with some performance impact as explained below. ESO still has frequent micro stuttering, but what the hell. :)

I now have one issue though. I keep monitoring my MSI AB OSD when I play games. It reaches power limit and temp limit. Power limit is around 60% now, I think, which is fine. Temp limit is at 70 degrees now, which I don't understand. I have not changed the temperature limit from 83 degrees celsius. But, in game, the OSD keeps displaying temp limit at 70, but the temps still keep increasing to 76, where it stops increasing. Do you happen to know why my temp limit is now 70 according to MSI AB and if so, why does it still climb to 76? I have double checked and checked for 1000 times, in MSI AB main screen, the temp limit is 83. I am worried that my card is now being throttled at 70 to 76 degrees, which kinda defeats the whole purpose of undervolting. In ideal case scenario, undervolting should reduce the temps and not throttle the card before 83, right?
 
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Glad you have figured out how to undervolt the card.
It is better to avoid hitting any of the limits (power and temp) because when you hitting one of them the card might/will throttle a bit.
The best way to control the power consumption without hitting the limits is with the custom curve.
Simply making the line on the voltage/frequency curve flat beyond some value ensures that the card is not going beyond them.
I have core Voltage, Power Limit and Temp Limit sliders in the MSI AB all the way to the right. my custom curve is going flat 2050Mhz from 1.05V all the way to the right. it means the card's voltage will never be higher than 1.05v and the max core frequency i'll ever see is ~2063Mhz while usually it will be just 2050Mhz.
Going too low with voltage is not a good idea since the card will try to compensate with the current and might/will still hit power limit (W = V*A).
So just set your max frequency in 1.0-1.05v range. power limit at 112% and temp limit at 83-92C. Don't worry, you are not going to see the temp that high
And really, the card can work for ages with the GPU at 84C. Other components on the card like VRM can happily operate at over 100C (typically rated for 105-125C).
So don't try to get temps lower than 80C by limiting performance. After all you bought this card to play games. The only practical reason to keep lower temps on pascal cards is to get higher frequencies. But we are talking about below 50C and 40C. the later allows only slight bump in frequency.
For normal usage, don't worry about those things. Just keep it below 84C with the frequency at around 2GHz. Once you are done with core frequency and temps, overclock the video memory to ~4.5GHz (+500 in MSI AB). This is another reason why you want the power limit all the way to the right - the limit is for total power consumption by the card - GPU, video memory, every other component on the PCB and even the fan and lighting. But when power limit is reached, only GPU will throttle. so you don't want to have stuttering just because your GPU fan is sniping faster than usual. By the way, custom fan curve also helps to keep desired temps.
 
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Hey, thanks for the reply. Please check my settings on imgur:
https://imgur.com/a/qepAD

Basically, I have set the volt curve to reach 1911 max at 900 mv.
Fan curve is to tell the GPU to run the fan at 100% after 50
On main screen, now I have changed the settings to what you see in the screenie.

While you check this, I will go play some GTA V for 15 20 mins to see if the issue is there and report back. Thanks so far.

EDIT: The above link now has a screenshot with MSI AB OSD in GTA V. Please check it out. its so weird that I am hitting my thermal limits at 73...
 
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here are my settings:
https://i.imgur.com/UgH2Yzp.png
I'm not sure how MSI Afterburner is choosing to work by curve or offset for the core frequency. So my offset is all the way left. I have no fan curve since the card is liquid cooled.
If I were you, I'd:
1. move the power limit all the way left to 112
2. move the peak on frequency curve to ~ 1-1.05v, 2000MHz (depending on where it will be stable)
3. fan reaches 100% at 80C. may be with a step of 70% at 75C.
4. +300-500 for the memory offset.
to test stability, run unigine heaven for ~20-30 minutes in loop. watch the first and last cycle to identify stuttering/artifacts. when heaven is passing nicely, do a run or two of unigine superposition. If both run fine without artefacts and under 83C, just game :)
 
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