Acceptable temperature to mine GPU's with?

[KimLan]

Hey all,

A couple of things, I have seen a few postings about cgminer and checking out the temperatures that the GPUs are running at.
Usually it is about 75-80C? However, my GPUs are running quite hot between 95-99C?

1. What is the maximum acceptable temperature you should allow each GPU to run at?
2. How can I get my GPUs to run at a cooler temperature?

For question 2, I have following set up:
- Power Supply: Corsair AX1200i Digital ATX '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply
- GPU: 2 x Sapphire AMD R9 280X 3GB 384 Bit GDDR5 OC Full Retail Pci-E Graphics Card
(SAPPHIRE Dual-X R9 280X 3GB GDDR5 OC) 11221-00-40G
- CPU: AMD Piledriver FX-6 6300 @ 4.2GHz Six Core CPU
- Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard
- Memory: TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
- Cooler: Akasa AK-CC4013EP01 Nero 3 V2 Premier CPU Cooler
- Case: Lian Li PC-8NB Midi Case - Black

What suggestions can you make to improve things?

[BookLover]

1. The hoter you run your GPU's, the more stress they will be under and the sooner they will fail.  That being said there is no one perfect temperature or temperature range.  As you have seen most people (including me) prefer to run there GPU's at 75-80C.

2. Here's a few ways to lower your GPU temperature: put the computers in a cooler environment, add fans to increase air movment (you can also remove the case sides and add external fans), lower the GPU clock and voltage settings, and cgminer may have some options you can use.

[EvilPanda]

99*C on GPU core is acceptable, although not recommended. I had a passive cooled one that used to run ~110*C, and I still have it running on another PC (over 3 years now).
Try to keep the gpu's as far from each other as possible, and make sure you have a way to pump hot air out of the room.

[KimLan]

Many thanks for responses and they are all useful to try and play with. It appears opening one side case and putting a fan on medium speed seems to do the trick (I should try low speed) and am running at 72C and 76C now.

I was hoping for a solution where I can keep everything enclosed. The Lian Li case has a fan at the back and what appears to be a front cooling kit in the front at that the bottom but not other fans embedded into the case. The 4x 5.25 bays in the front are not used.

I was wondering if something like another a front cooling kit can be placed in the 4 bays at the top of the front of the case (however lian li have discontinued this kit?) What additional fans could I put in and where?

[bitgeek]

I checked the case and it's really bad for extreme cooling. It doesn't have any side, top or bottom fan mounts, in fact allows only 2 fans. You could mod it a bit by cutting a hole in the bottom, below the cards and mounting a 140 mm fan, this would solve your problems and be completely invisible from the outside.
Option 2 is to sell the current case and buy something with better cooling.
 

[vnvizow]

40C-50C is acceptable

[bitgeek]

40C-50C is acceptable

40*C On mining equipment 24/7 Maybe if you have AC in the room or watercooled cards...

[Gabi]

40C-50C is acceptable

Doable if you live in a polar region and the pc is outside 

The modern gpus run hotter than older ones, 90 is ok. Opening the case is not a bad idea. Also remember to clean the pc and the gpu from dust every like 6 months or so! There will be a LOT of dust.

[bitGun]

my gpu is around 89C

[EvilPanda]

My card is around 49*C in idle with 22*C in the room, closed case with good cooling. It reaches twice that under full load.

[SwitchMyCoins]

Waouh !
95-99 is too high !

[bitgeek]

Waouh !
95-99 is too high !

No it's not! You apparently haven't been mining much.