"Mr.E Solved!" wrote in message
. ..
Charles C. Shyu wrote:
A couple months ago I posted my 6800GT (inside a Dell XPS Gen 3, WinXP)
temps (according to NVIDIA Control Panel):
Ambient temperatu 56 deg C
GPU Co 81 deg C
Slowdown threshold: 135 deg C

Now I've found that if even a simple program like the 3D Pipes
screensaver comes on, the temps jump to:
Ambient temperatu 72 deg C
GPU Co 112 deg C
Slowdown threshold: 135 deg C

The numbers will quickly drop to "baseline" levels once the screensaver
is stopped, and will spike again if the screensaver is activated. In the
NVIDIA Control Panel, when the temp goes above 100 deg C or so it will be
shown in yellow instead of green, presumably indicating that this is not
a good temp to be running at.

I haven't noticed any symptoms with my system (locking up, reboots) at
all, but surely this can't be normal operating temp, right? Perhaps the
fan on the video card is malfunctioning? I did open up my case and
de-dust the thing, but the temps haven't budged. What gives?

Thanks!


Run the same test with the PC case open, and see if the temperatures
change.

That the temperature drops quickly is by design, due to the differing
speeds of the card's components depending on what the application is
doing. (Rendering or Rastering)

That you are reporting 112c under load on a 6800GT means something is not
right. While it might work fine today, eventually that temp (and the
ambient temp of 72c) will dry out capacitors and possibly damage traces
from expansion/contraction.

Thanks for the suggestion. I ran the computer with the case fully opened,
and first found that the "idle" temps seem to be the same:
Ambient temperatu 56 deg C
GPU Co 78 deg C

Mind you, my apartment temperature is 73 deg F = 23 deg C.

Upon loading the 3D Pipes screensaver, the temp went to:
Ambient temperatu 66 deg C
GPU Co 94 deg C

So the "idle" temp doesn't seem to change much with the case open, but the
"load" temp does seem to significantly drop.

Firstly, I'm wondering if the temperature shown by NVIDIA Control Panel is
even correct. How the heck can the "Ambient temperature" be 57 deg C when
my room is only 23 deg C? I put my hand in the case and it only feels
slightly warmer than outside the case.

Secondly, is there another way to verify these temperature numbers? If the
reading is incorrect to begin with, I may be trying to diagnose something
that's not even there.
--
Charles C. Shyu
http://home.earthlink.net/~shyuc/shyu.html