GPU temperature is too high after latest Nvidia update?

[YVictorII]

I have the GTX 970, in the last few days that I've been playing SWTOR (been playing it for the last month or so) my PC started to randomly restart out of nowhere after around 30~ minutes of game time, immediately turns itself off & on without the Windows restart screen. I started tracking my GPU temp with SpeedFan and in idle time it's around 57C, thought maybe it's overheating even when on the idle state. Any opinions on the matter? Has anyone else been experiencing this problem?

I ran "Open Hardware Monitor" and this is the temps I got when it crashed, running i7-6700:

CPU-0: 66C

CPU-1: 72C

CPU-2: 62C

CPU-3: 56C

CPU-PACK: 72C

GPU: 73C

[Ramell]

57c is high for an idle temp, but 73c while playing shouldn't cause any problems for a GTX 970. Your CPU temp might be on the high side for that CPU though. If your problem started after installing a new driver, I'd recommend looking at that first. Try reinstalling, if that don't help, then install an older version.

Also check your settings in the nvidia control panel, power should be set to maximum performance. Dust in your computer might also cause problems and definitely contributes to overheating, so you could have a look at cleaning it out. And if you're opening it up, you should check all power cables, make sure they're seated properly, just to be sure.

[Aries]

I run 2 980 GTXs in SLI and SWtoR doesn't like them much either. This game is a single thread CPU heavy game as well.

 

If you've recently had a graphics driver update by NVidia and performed a "clean" installation, this resets all customizations you've made. There is no reason to have your game's FPS well above your monitor's refresh rate. (i.e. 60Hz monitor, slightly above 60 FPS is ideal.)

 

You can see swtor's fps by hitting ctrl, shift, F all at once in game. Usually your card will push its max FPS based on your graphics options in swtor, especially after a "clean installation" of a new NVidia graphics driver. I found my card's were pushing +200fps on a 60hz monitor, which was ridiculous, cooking my cards for no reason.

 

The frame limit option in game doesn't work for me (unsure it works at all), I had to force swtor to limit it's FPS using NVidia Control Panel > Manage 3D settings > Program Settings Tab > Select SWtoR > Max Frames set to 80-90. Vertical Sync doesn't seem to work for me either.

 

Also, since I was using EVGA's super clocked 980GTXs in SLI, swtor doesn't seem to like max boost clocks for the GPU, so I run them in debug mode again using NVidia's Control Panel > Help > Debug Mode checked. This stopped all Nvidia driver crashes in SLI. If debug mode isn't present, your GPU clocks aren't boosted, so don't worry about it.

 

I am no computer guru, but I researched all these options and these seemed to fix all my graphics problems and crashes, hope they fix yours.

[TrixxieTriss]

Check to make sure no dust bunnies or fluff is blocking your ventilation into and out of the PC. Also make sure you don’t have any in the PC. (This should be something people regularly check, but don’t).

 

It’s definitely possible that the Latest driver isn’t optimised for your card properly, I would suggest you uninstall and go back to the previous driver you were using to see if that improves temps,

[Decalin]

Unlikely its SWTOR with that idle temp, the above posts have good info, but IMO the most likely issue will be dust in the heatsink or a broken fan, I wouldn't push anything too hard until you check these first.

[YVictorII]

I've checked for dust (cleaned everything I could) and installed an older version of the drive and I still have the same problem. I played SWTOR for a month before it started happening

[JediQuaker]

I'd suggest that neither the CPU nor the GPU is "overheating" as such, but the combined heat may be over loading your systems cooling and causing hot spots resulting in some component having a 'thermal fault'.

 

Or it could be that the combined power draw is too much for your power supply to handle and it's tripping some over-current or thermal limiting circuit.

 

So first thing to do is to open up the computer and clean the dust out. Make sure all cooling fans are working properly. You may want to add an exhaust fan at the rear of the case, if there isn't one.

(If it's a laptop or AiO check that the cooling vents are clear and cooling fan(s) is working.

 

To reduce the amount of heat generated and/or the total power draw on the PSU, try turning the graphics settings down a bit. Turn on "vsync" to reduce the framerate.

 

Try a different power supply, 500 watts or so.

 

Edit - the "turns off and on without the restart screen" sounds like a graphics driver reset which is usually caused by overheating, or a fault in the graphics card. Reducing the graphics settings or improving the overall cooling might fix that.

Edited January 12, 2021 by JediQuaker

[snordoc]

I updated my NVIDIA driver a few days ago and noticed that there are some customizable parameters for the fan speed and temperature control. You may want to check these parameters and make sure they're not limiting your computer cooling capacity.

[Decalin]

I've checked for dust (cleaned everything I could) and installed an older version of the drive and I still have the same problem. I played SWTOR for a month before it started happening

 

What I would do next is install GPU-Z or preferred GPU monitoring app (I would set it to log all the info from the sensors), then play until it cuts out the video again.

 

This will give you more info specific to the GPU such as power draw, mem usage, etc. (I seem to remember the 970 had 512MB of ram on a different controller or something like that, which could cause issues at times?).

[xordevoreaux]

Old driver, new driver, I seem to be ok. Sitting on a 1050TI.

I keep the ambient temperature of the room the computer is in to about 70F and the GPU right now is sitting at 35C, well below its max.

[Kaveat]

What I would do next is install GPU-Z or preferred GPU monitoring app (I would set it to log all the info from the sensors), then play until it cuts out the video again.

 

This will give you more info specific to the GPU such as power draw, mem usage, etc. (I seem to remember the 970 had 512MB of ram on a different controller or something like that, which could cause issues at times?).

 

I have used CPU/GPU-Z, SpeedFan, and a few others, but these days I mainly use MSI Afterburner for monitoring and profiling performance cooling curves

-yes it works on non-MSI GPU's

[TrixxieTriss]

I have used CPU/GPU-Z, SpeedFan, and a few others, but these days I mainly use MSI Afterburner for monitoring and profiling performance cooling curves

-yes it works on non-MSI GPU's

 

Agreed

[Decalin]

I have used CPU/GPU-Z, SpeedFan, and a few others, but these days I mainly use MSI Afterburner for monitoring and profiling performance cooling curves

-yes it works on non-MSI GPU's

 

I do use afterburner if actually OC'ing, but don't normally recommend it to people who are unfamiliar with OC'ing themselves. Just a wee tad to easy to change things you shouldn't if you don't know what you are doing with it IMO.

[Kaveat]

.

 

Yes the OC functions are there, but it is up to the user to determine if such functions of the tool suits their need/want. One does not need to contemplate Over Clocking to use Afterburner. Warning people off of AB just because of its included OC tools, without considering its basic (and IMO well designed) monitoring and profile control attributes, is both presumptive and alarmist.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Kaveat

[Decalin]

Yes the OC functions are there, but it is up to the user to determine if such functions of the tool suits their need/want. One does not need to contemplate Over Clocking to use Afterburner. Warning people off of AB just because of its included OC tools, without considering its basic (and IMO well designed) monitoring and profile control attributes, is both presumptive and alarmist.

 

That's a rather strong response to a difference of opinion over GPU monitoring software... but I'll bite;

 

There is a big difference between warning someone off of using afterburner and choosing to recommend GPU-Z specifically in regards to novice users.

 

I not only believe is safer for novice users, as over the years I have seen my share components bricked by people incorrectly configuring things which they should not have be messing about with in the first place, but it is also my personal preference if only monitoring as you can view everything in one simple list, rather than afterburners very graphics heavy GUI.