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Area 51 + twin 5970 over heat issue
I have had this pc for nearly 2 years now and it drives me crazy, having twin hd5970 on it they heat up like a rocket ship when in xfire mode. The graphics cards are placed on the top two sockets with just a millimetre or 2 seperating them apart, I have tried moving one to the bottom, but then it is not getting picked up by the system.
Like another customers comment I have just read, I see the AMD fans just do not kick in when they are required, and they let the gpus cook (97F) over that the system just shuts down, great for heating your rooms in the winter bad for killing people in games. I have to set it to manual fans when playing any game and disable xfire, which kind of beats the point in having duel cards... Also xfire its self does not seem to be distrubuting the load over all the cards, which could be another problem, I am running all the latest drivers and have been as they came out over the past years, but am really getting frustrated with the £5k machine that is fairly Profane word removed as per TOU> for games...
Any advice is always welcome, maybe I am doing something wrong with the way it is set up? Games I played that cooked the card are GW2 (beta) and Lotro.
morblore
2.4K Posts
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July 27th, 2012 06:00
When you move one of the cards to the bottom slot does it show up in device manager? Also have you ever thought about adding extra fans to your system? I too have the Area 51 and you can add two more fans to the top and another to the rear. Doing this along with reversing the CPU fan makes a world of difference with your temps.
AwerthThawre
4 Posts
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July 27th, 2012 07:00
morblore
2.4K Posts
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July 27th, 2012 08:00
Yeah it should pick it up. To not see it at all is strange.
You should be able to run one in the very top x16 slot and the other in the bottom x8 slot. If it sees the card then most likely it's just a driver issue. If it doesn't it still can be a driver issue but it could also be the motherboard. I don't want to say it's a bad GPU since they work when installed in the top slots. Try a sound card or something else if you like to test the slot if it doesn't show. Play around with the drivers too.
Just post back when you can. If I am not here I am sure someone else will take over and help you out.
Elfiwolfe
90 Posts
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July 27th, 2012 09:00
I run the same setup I have a HD5970 card in PCI_E1 and a HD5970 in PCI_E5. Then I run a soundblaster live in PCI_E3.
PCI_E1 is x16 and the PCI_E3 and PCI_E5 are x8.
The system Originial was set up with the 2 video cards in PCI_E1 and PCI_E3 and the sound in PCI_E5
This is covered under support.dell.com/.../document
So upgrade bios to A10 or better (A11)
Call up dell and ask for a Graphic Bridge AMD (X-Fire Bridge) Part Number: XX781
I think your problem sounds like your bios is lower than A10.
Elfiwolfe
90 Posts
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July 27th, 2012 10:00
oh also check behind the front lower panel. (you can look in from the side) That is the main air feed for the Video Card bay. I had a dust bunny the size of my fist there after I moved it from the floor to a table.
Tesla1856
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July 27th, 2012 13:00
AwerthThawre
4 Posts
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July 27th, 2012 13:00
Thanks I've changed it to ports 1 & 5 it seems to work but is only picking up 3 gpus and not 4, tried serversl reboots, Im running A10, heat levels are now at 44f and not 77f, so that's a good sign still to give it a run will have to now wait till tomorrow.
Elfiwolfe
90 Posts
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July 27th, 2012 13:00
Here is some tools I use.
sites.amd.com/.../overview.aspx
www.techpowerup.com/gpuz
Should see 4 GPU. on gpuz the primary gpu is the 4th gpu down on the list on my system.
On x-fire profiles most games will only use 2 gpu (primary GPU on each card) Some games will use all 4 GPU. Depends on how AMD set the x-fire for a program.
you will see 2 GPU with no fan settings and 2 GPU with fan settings.
Elfiwolfe
90 Posts
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July 27th, 2012 14:00
only the top 2 slots can handle PCIe x16 if nothing is in slot 3(PCIe-5) the problem is the cards are so close that the top card is pulling in the heat from the bottom card and the clearence is only a few mm so the fan also cannot move enough air. The HD5970 are square so the air intake is on the bottom(side) facing the second video card.
By going with slot 1, 3 (PCIe-1, PCIe-5) you are getting x16 on slot one and x8 on slot 3. but the top card temp can drop by about 10c. The main problem is the airflow on the top card. it just cannot breath with the other card that close.
Adding more fans to case doesn't really improve airflow in the video card shroud area. You can try to force the front air intake fan to a higher speed. I think Morblore moved a heat sensor from the case to being taped right on a video card so the front fan would kick up in speed.
Just my personal view.
AwerthThawre
4 Posts
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July 28th, 2012 05:00
Ive downloaded the tech power up gpu-z 0.6.3 and its only showing 3 gpus, so something has gone wrong somewhere..
morblore
2.4K Posts
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July 29th, 2012 05:00
Try a fresh driver install. I asked my friend who had this issue and he fixed it that way. /crossfingers