Hey again. So Jero responded and, his response hasn’t changed (which is quite surprising). I still feel though, he’s quite tired and not able to think straight. But he feels he’s ‘said all he can’ and there’s ‘nothing else he can tell me’. And he won’t even tell me what dips would definitely show the signal of thermal throttling, which irks me. I told him what I’ve seen, the dips and the core clock occasionally dropping below 1000 MHz, and how this is not a game (it’s a stress test).
But it seems nothing I’m saying is convincing him that I might have a problem with those temps. Literally everyone I’ve spoken to says those are dangerous temps, even
fucking FurMark itself shows the temp being in the red!! …He’s the only one that
says “nothing’s wrong with it”. And I wish I could believe him.
However, after just recently doing a much longer than usual (10 minute) FurMark stress test, I have to agree to the naysayers (sorry, Jero). As soon as it gets close to 90c, I see dips. Big dips. And if that’s not proof enough, the FPS was going down as the test continued. The lowest it got was 50 FPS.. and it was very noticeable.
It IS thermal throttling. I finally see the proof right infront of me. The FPS drops were enough to convince me.
Okay, now that I have confirmed thermal throttling, I have to put some options on the table of either mitigating, bypassing, or just flat out ignoring the problem until I see a game I play begin to freeze/crash due to the heat.
Now these options aren’t from anyone I’ve spoken to about this, or saw online either through a YouTube video or a website. These are coming from myself.
And my options are…
ATTEMPT TO FIX THE PROBLEM (with fresh paste)
1. Call every PC repair company around me, and see if they’ll be willing to do
an in-home visit to replace the paste, check for throttling after it’s done, and let me know if I need to add more fans to the case (or get a new case).
1a. If an in-home visit won’t work, then I will go to them (via Uber). Need to buy a travel bag first for the case, to not scratch up their vehicle.
1b. If the Uber thing will not work for me, I’ll have to man up and do it myself. However I’ll be looking for another card to use as a ‘fail-safe’ incase I fuck it up.
MITIGATING THE PROBLEM (going to see if any tech guy can help with this)
1. Purchase and install two 120mm fans on the top of the case.
1a. Do what Jayz2Cents did in this video, of adjusting the RPM of my exhaust fan to make sure there’s equal pressure in the case.
BYPASSING THE PROBLEM
1. Look for and buy a new graphics card (I was recommended the 6600 XT to be the most compatible with my existing hardware, and a fairly cheap $300).
IGNORING THE PROBLEM (Risky)
(Don’t need to explain this as I already have)
NOTE: I’ve tried a step that used to be here, but I removed it due to failure. And that was to see if undervolting could be used to lower the temp. And the answer is Yes and No, with a mix of the game I was playing to test.. freezing up my entire computer.
So I tried three different tests, using Planet Crafter as my stress test, @ 1920×1080 with VSync on. I was suggested to set the core clock to 1200 MHz and then set the Core Voltage to -200mV (which is 0.950V).
And these are the results;
Test 1: 1200 MHz at -200 Core Voltage | FAIL (game froze my computer in 45 seconds)
Test 2: 1200 MHz at -100 Core Voltage | FAIL (game froze my computer in 15 minutes)
Test 3: 1200 MHz at (no Core Voltage) | FAIL (card went above 85c)
The second test, the card went to 83c yet stayed there. This was surprisingly good (yet still hot).. but the game froze.
With that colossal failure, I’m now trying to contact people around me. There’s one that’s fairly close to me (that I could walk to them).. but going by the reviews, it seems they only work on laptops. Still, I asked and hopefully I’ll find out one day.