GeForce FX 5950; Power computer ventilation advisory(ies)

The GeForce FX 5950 Ultra is an absolutely wonderful card, and I would recommend getting it, but as a WARNING to anyone who is planning on getting one, I would seriously advise the following: (This applies to all vendors, but especially ASUS)

Please, for the love of Jesus, make sure you install a CHASSIS FAN IN YOUR PC! Also, get a large(r) case if you're building a new computer, like I did (I have an Antec full-tower case). Spacious cases allow for better air flow and heat dissipation.

Try to keep PCI expansion slots adjacent to the AGP FREE of components that give off a lot of heat (for example, an Adaptec Ultra320 SCSI host adapter that has an Intel processor on it). While you may not think it would make a difference, believe me, that SCSI adapter pumps out enough heat through that processor and it gravitates RIGHT INTO THE GPU of the graphics card.

Optional cooling components can be installed, although the dual (15 mm?) fans work well enough, but the orientation dictates the card's fans will face downward, and thus the heat pumped out will rise. Like I said, please make sure to install a chassis fan to suck the air out.

If you can, install yet ANOTHER aux. fan in the front of the case, with the air intake pointing to the BACK of the case (sucking air inside the PC). The increased airflow will help cool the components.

Download the latest nVidia drivers (56.72 I believe) and get a heat monitor for all of your internal components, INCLUDING the FX 5950. The GPU core slowdown temperature threshold is remarkably high in ASUS models (130 degrees celsius) but I have noticed that for some reason with older drivers, when the temperature reaches about 62 degrees celsius, some performance issues will arise. This can be prevented by VENTILATING YOUR CASE CORRECTLY.

Yes it's a rant, but I am imparting valuable knowledge to you fellow Doom 3 hopefuls, because the biggest heating issues occurred when running a game that was very graphics-intensive for a sustained amount of time. Granted, I was still short of a chassis fan, some (read: many) people do not find the additional rear-mounted chassis fan to be essential. For heavy-duty gaming and processing purpose computers, (lots of RAM, fast and HOT CPU, lots of components) you really do need to VENTILATE YOUR CASES!

P.S: I am baked.

This is why I have an ATI card. God.

My ATI card cooked itself.

Don't most newer nvidia cards come with GPU heat monitoring shit anyway? Hell, my mobo did even.

Sad thing, my fx5900 ultra was running at what i thought was way too hot (~70C)...I took the fans and heatsink off and had to reapply a bit of thermal paste because there was hardly any on to begin with...cooled it down substantialy

Linguica said:

This is why I have an ATI card. God.

Yep. No bullshit at all like Nvidia. And Nvidia cards do fry too fraggle.

oh god! two cats are fighting infront of my house, oh wait i think it is a Nvidia vs ATI flame war, with cats and fire!

i had a geforce 4 but got a ATI 9600. so i think i will do alright for now.

however i have always took over heating seriously. i am well set for that. got a vantec tornado installed above the CPU/AGP area. i did find a industrial electronics fan that puts out a massive 480 CF (over 4 times the output of my tornado) it is a 24 volt fan.

however i dont need that kind of power, would need a powersupply just for it! maybe in the furture, if i build a really ass rapeing system

its a good thing i dont have to worry about overheating graphics card. my NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 is a frozen hunk of worthless metal and plastic......

I have a 9800 Pro and two 120mm case fans (exhause and intake). Havn't had any heating problems before..

Seph: Is a 24 volt (or did you mean watt?) fan really neccessary??

MR. Chris: do you have round IDE cables? Flatcables really tend to fuck up the airflow. I'm hoping to scrape some cash together and get a 120mm fan, a 92mm fan and some round IDE cables too. I have an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ and I'm having some minor stability problems.

Nope, I don't have round cables...it's a mess to be honest..

I've added a second hard drive since I took this photo.

MAXIMUM image size is 640x480.

http://www.furnation.com/chrisdragon/hardware/1-openprimary.JPG

My other machine is worse:

http://www.furnation.com/chrisdragon/hardware/1-secondaryopen.JPG