How hot is too hot?

[Rhett]

I'm hoping to mine Litecoin 24/7 on this machine.
(2x Radeon 7950)

What max temperature would you be happy running gpu at?

(Using HWMonitor to gauge)

[lostmach]

70C, but cooler is always better for long term stability.

[JohnnyPone]

70C? There are people saying they're happily mining at 75, 79..

Mine runs at around 69 - 74, as far as I know that's pretty decent isn't it?

[c789]

I've seen a lot of people on here running theirs at 75 to 80 with no problems. Mine run at 75, no problems yet.

If you use cgminer it will show you the temp of each GPU (constantly updated) in the display.

[paul21]

80c for the 7950
If you leave the fan on auto and it is less than 90-100% then it's working as designed. Some people like to keep it cooler in hopes of preserving longevity, and that's fine but you'll have to control the fans in cgminer or some other app.

[Moonchopper]

I'm mining with a GTX570 (Since I already had that on hand - not planning to dump a bunch of money into this mining thing), and I run at about 77-80C overclocked to 850mhz. Shouldn't be a problem at this level.

[klondike_bar]

most cards should not go above 70 degrees, or the risk of overheating or failure increases dramatically. 79xx series cards might handle 75 okay.

anything higher is straying into the danger zone, and may work for a while but pre-mature failure can be several times more likely at 80c vs 75c


also, rapid heating or cooling of the card can create issues. (ie: starting the miner immediately after turning on the system, or vice versa, without allowing a low amount of load to run for a while and bring the card to a moderate operating temperature (40-50c) and warm up before taking it to extremes, mostly due to thermal expansion being able to create gaps between the heatsinks and chips or having the chips flex away from the PCB and break connection.


I found I could run a 6850 at 63c and 95% fan for a consistent 200Mhash, and am not planning to push it much further in overclock unless the heat level stays the same or can be dropped (mem/voltage underclock)

[grottenolm]

Of course lower is better: Arrhenius' rule (google it) estimates roughly double lifetime for every 10K lower temperatures. 70°C sounds like a very sane, even conservative value for not-too-recent GPUs.

Background: For the silicon itself even over 100°C is no problem. For the interconnects (bumps between die and substrate), underfill, PCB etc. of course it is - but since you don't have an Nvidia card, a company which is infamous for f*ck-ups with heat related underfill/interconnect issues, your longevity might be OK. 

Finally, depending on who made your card, the quality of the components (mostly the electrolytic capacitors) and the related design (for how many working hours at what ambient temperature the voltage regulator design was calculated) will vary. Still, broken capacitors can be fixed much easier than a broken chip - so this should not be the biggest concern either. But still: Be aware that you are going to use for 24/7 a card that was most probably designed for at most 8 hours per workday, since it is a consumer product!

From my point of view, the biggest thing to look out for is thermal throttling: At some temperature your cards will start slowing down to avoid overheating.

To check this, keep an eye on mining speed as the temperatures go up. If you hit a thermal throttling barrier, you will see a sharp decline in speed.

To sum it up: Don't worry, most halfways modern GFX chips will typically take care of themselves not to get so hot that they are actually damaged. Just make sure you get the ebst performance by having them not throttling. Also, keeping the card cool will help with the lifetime of the capacitors - but these can be exchanged more or less easily in case of trouble.

[mrchu001]

So if I'm running my 7870 at 70C 24/7, am I shorting its lifespan? If so, by how much? It's my only gpu and I'd like to keep it for a bit while longer lol

[grottenolm]

So if I'm running my 7870 at 70C 24/7, am I shorting its lifespan? If so, by how much? It's my only gpu and I'd like to keep it for a bit while longer lol

Well, you are always "shortening its lifespan" if you use it, at least vs. not using it. But the point is: Will it last "long enough" for you? My guess is probably yes - unless you care about it still in 3-5 years or so from now, when it's hopefully outdated. 70°C chip temperature feels rather low for me, should be fine I guess.

[Jay0646]

70C is about as high as I would go.

[mrchu001]

So if I'm running my 7870 at 70C 24/7, am I shorting its lifespan? If so, by how much? It's my only gpu and I'd like to keep it for a bit while longer lol

Well, you are always "shortening its lifespan" if you use it, at least vs. not using it. But the point is: Will it last "long enough" for you? My guess is probably yes - unless you care about it still in 3-5 years or so from now, when it's hopefully outdated. 70°C chip temperature feels rather low for me, should be fine I guess.

Awesome, thank you for the reply man

[duketogo]

I've been running one of my cards 24/7 for a month at 75...no ill effects yet. I do need to ventilate better though.

[AlexanderB]

Running my HD5870 at 80~85 degrees here.. Never had problems with ATi products running around those temperatures.. Will go back to watercooling soon, mostly for silence.

[Marv21]

everthing under 90C° is fine, look at the fan in automatic mode. If it spins 100% all the time, its to hot

[klondike_bar]

Some cards might handle 90c or higher, but that is dangerous to some, and depending on the setup can also affect other components (an open-air rig would be a different story however, and can run a bit hotter so long as the air vents away properly)


the other thing is, as i mentioned, rapid heating or cooling will do the most damage. running at 70c 24/7 is okay so long as the card isnt forcing 95%+ fanspeed (indicator that temps are VERY high), and a constant temp is fine for hardware. however, if after 24hrs you turned off the PC and walked away, the card could cool from 70c to 30c fairly fast, causing metal heatsinks and traces to flex every so slightly as they shift/contract. Same thing heating up from room temp to full operation too quickly. It can effectively open a solder point and disrupt the data/power flow of the entire chip.

[wrastler6]

I mine at 68-71 and have had no problems

[AlexanderB]

Some cards might handle 90c or higher, but that is dangerous to some, and depending on the setup can also affect other components (an open-air rig would be a different story however, and can run a bit hotter so long as the air vents away properly)


the other thing is, as i mentioned, rapid heating or cooling will do the most damage. running at 70c 24/7 is okay so long as the card isnt forcing 95%+ fanspeed (indicator that temps are VERY high), and a constant temp is fine for hardware. however, if after 24hrs you turned off the PC and walked away, the card could cool from 70c to 30c fairly fast, causing metal heatsinks and traces to flex every so slightly as they shift/contract. Same thing heating up from room temp to full operation too quickly. It can effectively open a solder point and disrupt the data/power flow of the entire chip.

Thats basiclly how every nvidia card since the 8xxx series dies 2 weeks after warranty expires..

[Rhett]

Hmmm. I'm running 100C but fan is not 100% yet.

[Correction update] Sapphire Trixx tells me. 90C and 99% Fan.
GUIMiner-scrypt on 'low usage' setting at these temperatures. Man, what's up?

[CtrlAltBernanke420]

adding posts. checking things out. Chillin. Peace.