Invisible wrote:

>> Try touching a VRAM chip (very briefly) while the game is running.
> 
> Wouldn't simply having the case open radically alter the operating 
> temperature of the components inside? ;-)

Also, I've read somewhere that that is a very bad thing to do. (Touch an 
operating chip to check its temperature) it has something to do with 
heat saturation at the point of contact and can cause a chip that was 
operating within its parameters to actually overheat.

Of course, that's just hearsay...

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Invisible wrote:

> 
> Ooo... Maybe I should use my IR thermometer? :-D
> 

Now you're thinking :)

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Chambers wrote:
> Very hot to touch, not so hot to run.  IIRC, most chips are fine up to
> 65-70C, and several can go higher w/o a problem.

My Pentium IV used to be at 72C constantly (full load; I never let a CPU
idle :P). According to specs, 75C is the limit.

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>> Compare it to your CPU temperature. I dunno about my GPU, but my CPU is 
>> close to 55 just sitting idle.
>


Where is that temperature measured though?

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> 
> Where is that temperature measured though?

I don't know. I assume it's an on-die heat sensor. AFAIK, most modern 
CPUs have them, so that they can turn up the fan speed or go into lower 
power states if the die temperature gets too high...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>>> Apparently the nVidia control panel no longer tells you your GPU 
>>> temperature; you have to download and install an additional tool. 
>>> Anyway, having just stopped using the GPU, the temperature was 


>>
>> Try showing the temperature in parallel with running the GPU (eg 3D 
>> game in a window), IIRC when I did those sorts of tests before, the 
>> GPU temperature dropped rapidly very quickly (eg 10-15 degrees in just 
>> a second after exiting a game).
> 



OK, I was just playing TF2 and noticed a few stray polygons. (I.e., the 
driver update hasn't fixed this.) When I quit the game, I opened up the 


Next time I play TF2, I must remember to open the monitor *first*. ;-)

I wonder why it gets so much hotter running a real game (which is 
optimised to run smoothly) than running a stress test (which is designed 
to use up as much GPU resources as possible)...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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> Next time I play TF2, I must remember to open the monitor *first*. ;-)

Can't you play TF2 in windowed mode?  Or download some game demo that can be 
played in windowed mode.

> I wonder why it gets so much hotter running a real game (which is 
> optimised to run smoothly) than running a stress test (which is designed 
> to use up as much GPU resources as possible)...

I guess the stress test wasn't written very well, or without the knowledge 
of your particular card.  Lots of things in the GPU can be the bottleneck, a 
well-written stress test should work this out and adjust the test details so 
that every part is almost at maximum throughput.  If it's not very well 
written, then - for example - the vertex shader might be loaded at 100% 
while the pixel shader and texture lookup units are sitting idle for 90% of 
the time.

BTW what is the CPU load during the stress test and TF2?  Maybe that is 
affecting the GPU temperatures?

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scott wrote:
>> Next time I play TF2, I must remember to open the monitor *first*. ;-)
> 
> Can't you play TF2 in windowed mode?  Or download some game demo that 
> can be played in windowed mode.

I guess I could - but it would be very hard to play it and enjoy it.

FWIW, last time I played, I did remember to start up the monitor. I've 

Which sounds pretty damned hot to me, but hey...

>> I wonder why it gets so much hotter running a real game (which is 
>> optimised to run smoothly) than running a stress test (which is 
>> designed to use up as much GPU resources as possible)...
> 
> I guess the stress test wasn't written very well, or without the 
> knowledge of your particular card.

Given that it's an nVidia GPU running a stress test written by nVidia, 
you'd think so. ;-)

> BTW what is the CPU load during the stress test and TF2?  Maybe that is 
> affecting the GPU temperatures?

AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+ socket 939.

(When I built the system, everybody said that socket 939 was going to be 
the future. Now it appears that actually it's AM2... oh well!)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> BTW what is the CPU load during the stress test and TF2?  Maybe that is
>> affecting the GPU temperatures?
> 
> AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+ socket 939.
> 
> (When I built the system, everybody said that socket 939 was going to be
> the future. Now it appears that actually it's AM2... oh well!)

That's the CPU model; and the load while playing the game? :)

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>> Can't you play TF2 in windowed mode?  Or download some game demo that 
>> can be played in windowed mode.
> 
> I guess I could - but it would be very hard to play it and enjoy it.

I meant just so you could see the temperatures while playing.

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