Passive 6600 reaching 100c...

Wilhelm-Tell · Post by **Wilhelm-Tell** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 3:21 pm

My passive Asus 6600 is reaching 100c during gameplay. I use a Antec P150 chassi, with exhaust fan at lowest rpm. Is the temprature dangerous for the GPU? I'm not getting any artifacts or so, yet...

Strange thing is; would Asus release a pasive card that can't be used in passive mode? I've heard that the core should take 125c, true?

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 3:25 pm

as long as its stable, and you dont get artifacts, its fine.

most video card manufacturers that release passive video cards, expect them to be put into cases with good ventalation, or an open air environment.

piglickjf · Post by **piglickjf** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 3:28 pm

On my 6600GT AGP (which is not passive), using official ForceWare 83.40 drivers, the "Temperature Settings" tab has a default core slowdown threshold of 145C.

It probably wouldn't hurt to cool it down a bit if you can, but it seems that it should be well within safe operating temperatures. (You may want to check that tab yourself and see if your card has a different threshold though).

PigLick

Wilhelm-Tell · Post by **Wilhelm-Tell** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 3:35 pm

Thanks for your fast reply =)

Thing is, I hate fans... So I rather keep it as hot as possible, while not burning it up. I guess I'll just wait and see if it turns bad.

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 3:36 pm

Piglick - you card would have crashed way before it reaches anything close to 145C.....

Wilhelm - 100C is high but not necessarily excessively so for a card of that type. If you're concerned, then take it apart and reseat the heatsink with something like Arctic MX1 or Arctic Silver 5. The manufacturers usually use crappy adhesive or no thermal past at all. You'll void the warranty though. Although you've got an Asus, it would be worth searching the forums for 'Gigabyte 6600' for examples of people who have taken apart those cards.

Wilhelm-Tell · Post by **Wilhelm-Tell** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 3:46 pm

davidstone28 - thanks, smart tip.

I have got some Silver 5, taking it apart is no big deal. Will report back later...

tjpark1111 · Post by **tjpark1111** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 4:15 pm

if u dont have any intake fans, it obviously is going to reach erroneously high temps. I would think those temps are shortening the life of your card.

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 5:04 pm

If you haven't done so you could remove one or more PCI slot covers to see if it will help in lowering the temperature, but maybe it wont do much since your case already has an opening near the PCI slots.

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 6:18 pm

tjpark1111 wrote:if u dont have any intake fans, it obviously is going to reach erroneously high temps. I would think those temps are shortening the life of your card.

the only thing an intake fan would do is direct airflow over the card better, it wouldnt increase flow rate through the case any. the whole point of having a passive video card is so you dont need a fan directing air over it to keep it cool, so putitng in a front fan would negate the whole "passive cooling" concept.

if your really worried about the temps, and you want to keep it completely passive, an aftermarket cooler like the thermalright v-1 or v-1ultra would fix your problem.

as far as lifespan of the card. asus has a 3 year warrenty on all their vga cards. from the looks of it, your not doing anything with it or to it currently that would void that warrenty. so the only question you need to ask yourself is "are you gunna be using this card for more than 3 years?" if yes, then mabey you should look into alternate heatsinks or possibly a fan to direct airflow over the card. if no, then dont worry about it. if it does fail prematurely, it will still be covered on the warrenty and you can get a brand new one.

Wilhelm-Tell · Post by **Wilhelm-Tell** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 4:40 am

Taking it apart wasn't as easy as I thought, the sink is glued to the RAM-modules and feels very solid attached. So I'll skipp that.

Aris - well said.

Techno Pride · Post by **Techno Pride** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 6:24 am

100c is not right.

I have a 6600 (oc'ed to 450/625) with a zalman zm80a-hp. Doesn't break 80C on load, playing NFS most wanted.

since you're having problems with a stock cooler, you might want to rma it instead of taking the trouble to take the whole thing apart.

Ackelind · Post by **Ackelind** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:46 am

I've reached well over 100C with my Leadtek 6600GT with the stock cooler in a SFF (KlossPC) that was effectively cooking my card. I was running overclocked at the time and reached about 120C before artifacts appeared! That quite amazing. Now I've reverted to a P180 tower, with passive cooling of the card and reaching temps of 71C instead.

sanse · Post by **sanse** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 10:20 am

Wilhelm-Tell wrote:My passive Asus 6600 is reaching 100c during gameplay. I use a Antec P150 chassi, with exhaust fan at lowest rpm. Is the temprature dangerous for the GPU? I'm not getting any artifacts or so, yet...

Strange thing is; would Asus release a pasive card that can't be used in passive mode? I've heard that the core should take 125c, true?

problem with your card is that the heatsink is solely attached to the underside of the card. convection doesn't work well that way. the rear-exhaust fan of the p150 is not very effective now in sucking the heat away from the card.

the most elegant way imho would be an ac silencer cooler, which blows the heat out through the next pci-slot.

another way would be a pci-fan mounted next to the heatsink of your card, which also could blow the heat of the card out of the case through a pci-slot.

and lastly you could do just nothing. 100 C is not a problem for a modern gpu.

Wilhelm-Tell · Post by **Wilhelm-Tell** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 10:41 am

Indeed, and it isn't very large. I asume Asus know what they are doing...

JimX · Post by **JimX** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 12:06 pm

I have a similar question. Do you think that an Asus N6600 can be passively cooled with an NB47 in a P180? It will only be used in 2D, no gaming.

Should I try it? It's supposed to consume less than 30 watts.

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 12:10 pm

JimX wrote:I have a similar question. Do you think that an Asus N6600 can be passively cooled with an NB47 in a P180? It will only be used in 2D, no gaming.

Should I try it? It's supposed to consume less than 30 watts.

any 6600 can be passivly cooled in 2D. and if you have a well ventalated case in 3D also.

Copper · Post by **Copper** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 12:58 pm

JimX wrote:I have a similar question. Do you think that an Asus N6600 can be passively cooled with an NB47 in a P180? It will only be used in 2D, no gaming.

Should I try it? It's supposed to consume less than 30 watts.

You can try it. I breifly put one on my X1600Pro and it went to well over 100C, like 115-120C under load (3D). I don't now the watt rating, though, nor do I remember what the temps were idle.

flyingsherpa · Post by **flyingsherpa** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:12 pm

if you have some spare PCI slots you can do what i did: i used some zip ties to attach an 80mm panaflo to a PCI slot cover. i bent it up so it does not touch the PCI slots below it, and i use a rubber washer so it doesn't vibrate. i run it at 5V so it is inaudible, yet still provides MUCH better cooling than totally passive. that is a 9600xt with a NB32J on it... passive it would go 70+ easily, but with just that panaflo there it stays at 47C max.

Copper · Post by **Copper** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:18 pm

That's pretty slick, flyingsherpa.

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:44 pm

Here's another example of 9600XT cooling with the use of a Zalman northbridge heatsink, there's not a big difference in power consumption between a 9600XT and a 6600 so with sufficient case airflow or a supplementary fan it will probably work.

flyingsherpa · Post by **flyingsherpa** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 3:00 pm

Copper wrote:That's pretty slick, flyingsherpa.

thanks Copper

. I was inspired by many posts by wumpus where he went into great detail about his passive 9600's. he used zm-17cu's though, which are definitely better, but have to be mounted with adhesive (permanent). i didn't want to go with a permanent mount and since i had an extra nb32j sitting around, i tried it and it works well.

JimX · Post by **JimX** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 5:12 pm

flyingsherpa, good job!
Tephras, thanks for the Larsp mod.
Copper, the X1600 is consuming more than 40W and the 6600 near 28W, according to the X-Bit article. 100c is not a good sign though, if we extrapolate.

The problem is, Asus boards have 3 PCI slots near the VGA and 2 PCI-E lower down. I need at least 2 PCI slots.

What I thought was something like the NB47 mod on nVidia northbridges. Bend the fins, leave one slot cover open (my old 9250 dropped 5c with this) , maybe have a 5V fan blowing front to back.

I have one NB47, one NB32 and a Nexus 80mm here. The ZM-17Cu would be perfect, but I definitely don't want to glue it on, and it costs as much as a VF700!

I will sleep on it and post results tomorrow!

JimX · Post by **JimX** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:50 am

The NB47 doesn't fit, even with bent fins.

But the NB32 does! (barely)

The normal mounting holes were too far apart, so I had to "enlarge" the inner holes with the screws...

The system is idle on free air for half an hour and the NB47 is at 60c. No artifacts. What would the chip temp be? The N6600 doesn't have temp monitoring. I will need a fan...

Wilhelm-Tell · Post by **Wilhelm-Tell** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:46 am

JimX

That heatsink is way too small.

JimX · Post by **JimX** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 2:49 am

Wilhelm-Tell,

What I'm testing now is a 5V 80mm Nexus blowing from the side. It's working, and it's inaudible. I have to find a nice way to mount the fan though.

JimX · Post by **JimX** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 1:06 am

An update.

The card has been working fanless for a week in the P180. Idle NB32 base temp is 41-42c and load with rthdribl for 30 minutes is 61-62c. Room temp 22c. No artifacts.

I removed the slot right below the card, so there is some airflow, along with a little dust. Are there any mini filters to put there?

rei · Post by **rei** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 8:27 am

I've wondered if they sell the PCI slot covers with vents separately. Like the ones that come on those awful PCI slot coolers but without the fan.

JimX · Post by **JimX** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 6:27 am

rei, thanks! I had one slot cooler I removed from a friend's PC. Temps are up a couple degrees, but it's nicer!

Wilhelm-Tell · Post by **Wilhelm-Tell** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 6:04 am

I did the same thing... blocked the vents and opened a PCI slot.

Temp dropped from 104c (max) to 80c...

Nexus at 7v.

The card is also overclocked, running at 400 core and 600 memory. (stock 300 and 550)

100% stable

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 10:19 am

Nice, I've found the opened PCI slot to be one of the most effective ways to cool passive video cards without adding any extra fans. Has worked beautifully for my Radeon 9600, X800GTO, and now 7900GT.

If you wanted to build a duct of sorts you could probably get even better temps, but I'd say 80*C is good enough, I'd just call it good.

Passive 6600 reaching 100c...

Passive 6600 reaching 100c...

Re: Passive 6600 reaching 100c...

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