High Temps and Beating the Odds

[the joint]

So, when I first got into mining in June 2011, I initially spent a lot of time worrying about my card temps.  I always made sure to keep them below 80C. 

Then, Litecoin mining became more profitable than Bitcoin mining (for my current setup, it is still more profitable).  As a result, my card temps went up along with my mem clocks.  But, I was making so much money at the time that it was worth risking damage to the cards, especially when I'm still sitting on a 4-year in-store warranty.

Long story short, I've been running 2 6970s at +100C temps for 8 months continuously.  Both cards are operating beautifully, and I have not noticed any artifacting or instability.

So, what do you think?  Are my cards beating the odds?  Has anyone else had similar luck safely running cards at +100C temps for long periods of time?

[crazyates]

Holy Balls! I always tried to keep my temps around 70C, so 80-100C is just crazy to me!

When you're running them that hot, there's no variance, is there? You don't run them for a week, and then take them offline for an hour? IIRC, thermal expansion and contraction start to become issues if you're routinely running them up to 100C, down to 20C, and then back up to 100C.

[the joint]

Holy Balls! I always tried to keep my temps around 70C, so 80-100C is just crazy to me!

When you're running them that hot, there's no variance, is there? You don't run them for a week, and then take them offline for an hour? IIRC, thermal expansion and contraction start to become issues if you're routinely running them up to 100C, down to 20C, and then back up to 100C.

Most of the time there's no variance.  Once in a while it becomes an issue when I end up doing things like switching mining settings or switching between LTC and BTC mining.  It's going to go offline again soon when I do a complete cleaning of my hardware and case.

And yeah, I know...it's awfully hot.

[Mysticperson]

I got the same thing with my 6 X 6950 farm
Also so hot but it heats the upstairs
So no heating is needed anymore

[Lethn]

Are you crazy? My tower was smelling like it was beginning to burn at 90c, even if your stuff hasn't melted yet now I wouldn't be surprised if it went over night or shorted out somehow.

[crazyates]

Are you crazy? My tower was smelling like it was beginning to burn at 90c, even if your stuff hasn't melted yet now I wouldn't be surprised if it went over night or shorted out somehow.

High temps can cause a short? What?

[exotime]

High temps can cause a short? What?

Well, many components are housed in plastic. If the plastic melted, thus reducing the insulation, that could lead to shorts.

[tcp_rst]

<snip>  Has anyone else had similar luck safely running cards at +100C temps for long periods of time?

Most of my cards hover around 84 but I have one (bad location + crummy card brand) that has been at 104 for over a year now and still going strong.  Nice to know I'm not the only nut-job out there.   

[bcpokey]

Back in the day I ran my farm of 5xxx series cards, purchased used at 90c for many moons. When the whole thing went offline due to closing up shop, the only glitch that had developed was one fan started rattling/grinding, possibly due to needing relubricating after running 70 - 100% always. Most of these bad boys survive quite happily for long periods though iexpect if you were to switch to heavy long-term 3d gaming that glitches would occur. Or not, luck of the quanta.

[DirtAddsHP]

ive been running my Caymens in the low 80s for about a year now.. no issues yet.

[SgtSpike]

Usually, cards are safe up to 110C.  Obviously, the lower temperature, the better if you're concerned about longevity, but you won't immediately kill the card every time unless it reaches somewhere in the 120-125C range.

Having them on at a high temperature, then turning it off and waiting for it to cool, then repeating again and again can be the more damaging activity, as you begin to develop micro-fractures in the traces and soldering from the heating/cooling expansion/contraction.