Zotac GTX 1080 Running High Temps and Underpreforming.

[piggyplayz]

So I recently got a brand new 1080 as an upgrade from a 960. I got the AMP! Edition by Zotac (link) and it hasn’t been preforming as I’ve seen a few of my friend’s 1080s preform.

First of all temps are really high. At idle it is 55C which is understandable but at high load it gets up to 88C in just 20 minutes. All other online videos refer to 88C as high temps and the same card ran at 75C in a video by Bitwit. I have 4 case fans and room temps are usually around 22C before I start using it then it rises a bit. Any ideas why the temps are so high and how can I lower them? Or should I send the card back? It is not overvolted and I added an extra 80Mhz on the core clock but even before that the temps were the same. I have got a custom fan curve too so by 88C the fans are at 100% speed.

Secondly the card is underperforming compared to other gtx 1080 benchmarks I found across several different sources. I have a i7-6700k OC to 4.4Ghz, 16GBs of RAM at 3200Mhz frequency, so i dont think there are any bottlenecks. I tested fps in most the games I could dig up from my files and compared them to online benchmarks with the same system specs:

Witcher 3 (1080p Everything Max):
Other systems: 100fps
My system: 70fps

CS:GO (1080p everything max):
Other systems: 400fps
My system: 250fps

Minecraft with shaders (x1 render scaling no AA, 1080p)
Other systems: 130fps
My system: 90fps

For honor: (1080p Extreme Preset)
Other systems: 170fps
Mine: 115fps

The only game it got the same benchmarks in was Rainbow 6.(edited)
It was also underperforming in Unigine Heaven (by around 10fps) and in 3Dmark firestrike (I got 17k). Do any of you know why this could be? Also if you could it would be great if you could provide me with some benchmarks to see if my system is really underperforming. If that is the case is there a way to fix it or should I send it back? Don’t get me wrong it is an amazing card and I am lucky to have one it’s just that I’ve been saving for over a year and I’m a perfectionist so I would like to get the best out of the money I payed for it. (£550)

Also it has been giving out some weird and loud noises (especially under load) which I cant describe in words and no its not the coil whine... could somebody give me some examples of normal sounds a GPU makes?

Finally i tried to OC the card but it wasn’t stable after only 90Mhz on the core clock and 0Mhz on memory. I even tried putting an extra 100Mv on it and tried stress testing it with that but it still crashed after a minute so I just took the extra voltage off. The highest it could do without crashing was 85 on the core clock and 0 on the memory as I haven’t got around to overclocking that.

Thanks for you help in advance!

 

[SkyBill40]

Given the numbers as tested on your rig are that much lower than the online numbers in addition to there being a strange noise that's not what would be recognized as coil whine, it may be worth considering an RMA. Did you do a fresh driver install or just install over what you already had with your old card? DDU is a great piece of software but does require extra care be taken when using it.

It's hard to be truly specific when comparing your setup to those used by others. Differences, albeit subtle, could lead to variances across the board... but I wouldn't imagine to the degree you're seeing.

Reset everything back to stock levels and see how it is before doing anything else.

 

[toshibitsu]

I've found that Gigabyte and Zotac seem to make heatsinks that look/feel "cheaper" compared to other brands. The best built one I'd say is that MSI Gaming X one. The fans on any of the video cards though will kick in and get noisy while gaming(it can get really loud depending on the card & if it's a demanding game).

 

[piggyplayz]

I've found that Gigabyte and Zotac seem to make heatsinks that look/feel "cheaper" compared to other brands. The best built one I'd say is that MSI Gaming X one. The fans on any of the video cards though will kick in and get noisy while gaming(it can get really loud depending on the card & if it's a demanding game).

So would you say that I shouldn’t worry about the temps?

 

[piggyplayz]

Given the numbers as tested on your rig are that much lower than the online numbers in addition to there being a strange noise that's not what would be recognized as coil whine, it may be worth considering an RMA. Did you do a fresh driver install or just install over what you already had with your old card? DDU is a great piece of software but does require extra care be taken when using it.

It's hard to be truly specific when comparing your setup to those used by others. Differences, albeit subtle, could lead to variances across the board... but I wouldn't imagine to the degree you're seeing.

Reset everything back to stock levels and see how it is before doing anything else.

I didn’t do a clean software and driver installation so I will try doin g that and let you know how it was.

 

[toshibitsu]

According to nVidia, as long as it does not exceed 105C you should be fine. I would make sure the card has plenty of breathing room and you have the appropriate case fans installed(don't have another big/bulky card right next to the video card)

 

[Eximo]

What are the clock speeds at those temperatures? If it is throttling, of course it will output less than other cards.

Overclocking: 80Mhz on top of what original boost values? Most cards might reach 2050Mhz quite easily. Common high end boost clock you'll see out of the box is 2012Mhz, so 80Mhz on top of that would be putting you well up there.

If you don't feel like disassembling the card and seeing if a re-apply of thermal compound will help out, I agree on an attempt at an RMA. But if it is just thermal throttling, then you may need to re-examine how you have your cooling arranged. The key with Axial cards is to get the heat out of the chassis quickly. That means good intake and exhaust. If the hot air is just sticking around and being recirculated then it will overheat quickly.

 

[piggyplayz]

What are the clock speeds at those temperatures? If it is throttling, of course it will output less than other cards.

Overclocking: 80Mhz on top of what original boost values? Most cards might reach 2050Mhz quite easily. Common high end boost clock you'll see out of the box is 2012Mhz, so 80Mhz on top of that would be putting you well up there.

If you don't feel like disassembling the card and seeing if a re-apply of thermal compound will help out, I agree on an attempt at an RMA. But if it is just thermal throttling, then you may need to re-examine how you have your cooling arranged. The key with Axial cards is to get the heat out of the chassis quickly. That means good intake and exhaust. If the hot air is just sticking around and being recirculated then it will overheat quickly.

While under lower loads but below 70C so no thermal throttling I get 2012Mhz on the core clock, and that’s including the +80Mhz. The value doesn’t change all the way to 85C where it slowly starts to drop all the way down to 1950Mhz but in most games it won’t go below 2000Mhz. I have 4 fans in the NZXT S340, 2x140mm intake at the front, 1 exhaust at the top and one exhaust at the rear top. I only have 1 thing in my PCI-E slots so there should be plenty of breathing room for the card. I might check and do a reapply of the thermal paste not sure yet as if I take it apart they won’t take an RMA.

 

[piggyplayz]

According to nVidia, as long as it does not exceed 105C you should be fine. I would make sure the card has plenty of breathing room and you have the appropriate case fans installed(don't have another big/bulky card right next to the video card)

I have 4 fans in my NZXT S340 2 intake at the front at 2 exhaust, one top one rear. The only thing in the PCIE slots is the card

 

[toshibitsu]

You should be fine then.