Hey guys... just wanted to get your opinion on something.... i'm running zotac 970 omega... since i'm running stock (not planning to oc) the card seems to be running quite hot in comparison to many reviews that claim low 70's or even 60s? with standard case fans.... one large intake fan at the front, one large exhaust fan at the back the card tends to hit 80C into the game.... did a little experiment... put in two extra fans underneath the card that blew the air upwards towards the card and in BF3 the card topped out at 79 and avg at 77.... i've noticed the card clocks are always higher than default clocks... so the card is constantly boosting.... also I'm running stock fan curve is 80C good enough for this card? i understand that past 80 the card starts to downclock to prevent damage.... can other zotac 970 omega owners chime in? what's your temps like? case/gpu fan configs? Ps... the case is an older thermaltake kandalf full size and no other cards in pci slots. the cpu is i4790k with a noctua fan and that doesn't break 55C. the board is Asus Sabertooth Z97 mark2... and psu is a corsair tx650
Most of the newer nvidia cards run hot on stock settings. Go download EVGA Precision X 16. Un-link the power and the temp setting and turn the temp down to 70 degrees. Leave the power at 100%. Now set the fans to 50% or higher manually and leave them there (as long as the noise levels are acceptable) This should stop the card from ramping up to its boost clocks and therefore making it hotter. My GTX 760 never goes past 69*F now and my clocks stay at the stock 1084 MHz instead of boosting to 1280. My friends card was constantly hitting 80 before he did this.
i have 2 gigabyte 970 g1's my top card runs at 80c under full load, its fine i wouldn't worry about it. according to bittech the limit is 91c http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-review/12 but i will correct them lol its 98c max limit http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-970/specifications i wonder in theory, if the 970 had the same power phase as an 980, would the 970 overclock higher due to less cuda cores, not reaching its thermal limit as quick as the 980?
My crappy overclocker voltage hungry 780 doesn't even reach 80 degrees and thats with a softmodded voltage of 1.250v. @biggerx that's a terrible way to solve a temp problem. It's like having a defective card that runs stable only if you lower the stock frequency, and you decide to keep it running at that frequency instead of RMA-ing it. @stevenicks you do have SLI though, and yes while 80c might be ok i think he can lower the temps with better airflow. His case seems quite large for just two fans, especially if he uses low CFM ones.
I've tried with case side off extra case fans (which i have removed now) still gets to 80c just takes about 5mins longer to get there. the gpu is good for 98c before taking damage i guess according to NVidia specs so 80c is fine in my books. you only have to ask your self why would they build a gpu with a max limit of 98c if running at 80c would damage or wear it out quicker ? it just would not make sense, not to me anyway lol.
I'm sorry what's wrong with a card running at stock speeds and why would I RMA it? I never said to underclock it. Just let it run at its stock clock. Nvidia cards get hotter when they boost. Usually the boost is 200+MHz over the stock clock. If you don't let it boost it stays cooler. Simple stuff really. Also you can take the temp target down and still let it hit its boost clocks. I just let my card boost and It's only hitting 65 while playing SWTOR, so I'm in agreement that he's got an airflow problem going on too.
I have the 980 Omega. Have got it overclocked stable at 1500mhz boost/8ghz effective. It stays silent and relatively cool under heavy load I mostly average 60-70c on air, though I've seen peak temps hit 80c on occasion under extremely heavy load. It idles at around 30c. It's the first card from Zotac that I've purchased and won't be the last, quite happy with it so far.
Yeah I thought about setting the target temp to below 80 but then the card would never really boost... losing advertised features then no? did a lil experiment tonight.... opened the case with the 2 extra fans at the bottom blowing at the card... temps were about 68C..... closed the case with fans the temps went to 74..... kept case closed and turned off the fans... temps hit 80 but no more than that. mind you the ambient was about 20C inside so it was a pretty cool evening. ugh... not sure how im gonna set up enough fans to blow and exhaust enough cool air to mimic closed case with fans without sounding like a jumbo jet... i imagine an average consumer will have setup similar to mine in which case many people out there are gonna run fairly hot (or hot enough to not boost all that often after getting into game for a few minutes).
I don't have a Zotac but my EVGA 970 has yet to even hit 70 degrees. Upper 60s is as high as I've seen yet. (case has 2x 120mm fans and 1x 150mm) Under load, this is the coldest GPU I've ever owned (air).
Good cards bang for buck wise, i have the Zotac 760 and it was also in the 80c under load, but if you go into the wee zotac monior program firestorm,(HA, ironic or what. lol), you can set the fan profile to kick in sooner, i did this a few month ago and now under load i do not go higher than 66c.
again there is nothing wrong with 80C ... if I play games like world of tanks then yes my top gtx970 will only max out at 62-64c but if I run say metro last light built in benchmark with all the eye candy set to max then this game can make the temps go as high as 80c wich is well below the max 98c of the 970's gpu. so it depends on how hard the games you play push the card I guess
Even with vsync in metro last light temps still go pretty high. I have the same thing card reaches 80 to 83 c in metro lastlight, but in borderlands the pre-sequel, its not even going past 65 c lol.
I own two in SLI. Same temp with your (OP) originally, but once I reapplied TIM and added some washer, temp never goes more than 78C (first card on the top) on 5 min Furmark. Gaming wise, it hovering at 75C. I'm doing the above based on below. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_670_Amp_Edition/ I own GTX 670 AMP as well, but temp never went above 65C. I guess it is hit and miss when it comes to heatsink contact on Zotac cards. I'd suggest you to do the same mod as I did. It really not hard, only 7 screws and 10 min of your time (20 for me as I have 2).
OK... i'm a little scared to take this stuff apart at the risk of botching reapplication of the compound... BUT i tightened the screws at the bottom that keep the cooler in place and with my 2 extra fans at the bottom the temp never broke 68C.... yesterday was a cool evening about 18C inside.... Crysis 3 maxed out at 66... My take is that the cooler is likely sufficient but the way its attached is probably not optimal... too much compound.... too little presssure. i dont know... wondering whether i should risk taking this stuff apart or just live with what i've got... it sure would be nice not having to run 2 fans at the bottom due to lot of noise.
Have you ever apply TIM on processor and install processor cooler before? If yes, then it's a cake walk. When I reapply TIM on my cards, it was my first time. Really, it's not that hard. There's only seven screws in total, and the process is simpler than installing processor cooler. Your temp seems fine, but if those fans are bugging you, then i'd suggest to reapply TIM and add some washer on the four screws. Offcourse, do it at your own risk