Good day everyone, My GPU has been running a little on the hot side for a while and I finally bought some fans for the side and bottom to alleviate the issue. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have helped that much so I assume something is wrong with my airflow/fan setup. I usually run my GPU at 150% tdp and 100% core voltage with MSI Afterburner, no clock speed OC though. With those settings I hover from 83-87C at max load and Idles around 40-50C. If I run with default settings (100% tdp), it runs around 74-77C at max load. My current airflow/fan setup is currently as follows: Top = 200mm 800rpm exhaust with top cover Rear = 140mm 1000rpm exhaust with no filter, not sure on the rpm for this one Front (at the bottom) = 200mm 800rpm intake with filter Bottom = 120mm 1500rpm (new fan) intake with filter Side = 200mm 800rpm (new fan) intake with filter I've flipped my PSU so that the fan is facing the floor to see if that helped as it was previously the other way around, though I'm not certain if that's intake or exhaust? I'm thinking it's an intake. As for my CPU cooler fan is facing the front as an intake though I'm unsure about this too. Specs: CPU: i7-7700K 4.2GHz stock speed GPU: Aorus Gigabyte 1080ti Xtreme RAM: 2x8GB DDR4-1333 PSU: Thermaltake M850W Smart Case: Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 Going from there, what would be your suggested fan setup to lower my GPU temps to maybe around 75C?
It tends to depend on many factors. There's a guide on the forums https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/case-fan-guide-for-better-temperatures.304051/
I read the guide, there's some nice pointers though the pictures are missing it seems. I made a quick picture in paint of my current airflow to give a better idea. I'm assuming the GPU is exhausting hot air through the bottom fans and back and CPU right side fan is intake but I'm unsure. https://imgur.com/a/z1e4Ex1
That would depend on which way the respective fan intakes are facing, and may require checking the direction using a piece of paper, for e.g. Generally speaking, fans are used for intake on major components like the GPU, while case fans can be subjectively placed to follow a direction based intake. Unusually, of air being pulled in from one side of the case, and pushed out from the other. Looking at the picture, all fans appear to follow a standard placement pattern, but the depicted air flow directions appear to be off.
Yeah I guess GPU being intake makes more sense so it probably is that then. As for CPU, I installed the Cryorig H7 tower fan following the default instructions so I'm fairly sure it's intake. Can you please elaborate on what appears to be off about the airflow? Maybe I can reverse some fans to make it better?
I meant the arrows being used to show air flow from each component, which appear to show exhaust in both directions.
The CPU blue square represents the heatsink, as for the GPU it;s just intake afterall. Knowing this, is there any suggestions to make the airflow better?
For the most part, it all looks pretty standard. The only slight adjustments could be to look at changing air pressure, i.e. between more air coming in and less going out, and vice versa. Quite often, less fans pulling air in and more pushing out works best, but it would still depend on the particular case. Other than that, assuming all fans are working correctly, there isn't much else that can be done, beyond making drastic changes to the case and fans.
I actually improved cable management and re-organized the hard drive so that the front intake fan isn't obstructed as much then took off the bays that are empty. It lowered the general operating temperature of the GPU by 4-5C so that's a plus. Though I would still like to lower it even more. Could it be the GPU thermal paste that needs changing? And what would those drastic changes for the case and fans be?
It really does depend on the paste used, and the better pastes never really need to be changed unless fitting different cooling. By drastic, I mean completely changing out the fans and case.
I'm willing to change out fans but not the case though. What would you suggest for fans in that case then?
Fans work as you'd expect. The bigger, faster ones create more air flow, but at the expense of noise. It really comes down to personal preference, budget and case dynamics. Of course, reading reviews for comparison would be the only suggestion, as a topic that vast can't be discussed easily. That said, I think the important point here is that there isn't a huge lot that can be done if the power requirements of your components necessitate higher temperatures, and your general case design and fan lay out is mostly well planned and balanced. Perhaps take the side off the case, and see if it really does make a big difference. Frankly, it's probably a lot of trouble for likely very little gain.
