HOW TO CHECK THE VIDEO CARD TEMP

[Nick N]

I was asked recently to explain the process of overclocking a video card. In that thread I expressed concern for someone who is not experienced to do such things. There is nothing wrong with learning how to tweak hardware however the first thing one must learn is how to monitor temperatures of the system and GPU.

I am not going to post the overclock process however I am going to post how to check the GPU temp during high loads.


Nvidia has seen fit to remove their GPU temp monitor from their latest driver releases and force the user to download and install NTUNE. The problem is, if you do not have a Nvidia chipset motherboard, NTUNE will refuse to install and if it doe happen to install on a non-Nvidia chipset board it may crash or not function correctly. With some older ATI cards temp monitoring is not possible in the drivers. The solution is to use a 3rd party tool which will work on any motherboard platform.


There are several programs out there that will monitor the ATI and Nvidia GPU diode. ATI TOOL and RivaTuner are the two best.

WARNING: Both of those tools are designed for more than just monitoring a GPU. They are primarily designed to overclock the card. DO NOT USE THE OVERCLOCK FEATURES OF THESE SOFTWARE TOOLS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING


I prefer RivaTuner v2.02 for Nvidia products and ATI Tool for ATI products but BOTH software packages will work for both brands of card. For temp monitoring I prefer RivaTuner over ATI Tool simply because RivaTuner supplies you with a 10 minute time graph which allows you to run your application and under areas of high stress you can drop to the desktop and check the temp to see how the card is doing for the past 10 minutes. ATI

[Nick N]

I hope this helps anyone who may be curious about how cool their video card is running. Heat shortens the life of components. The cooler they run, the smoother they run and the longer they last. And of course the cooler they run, the higher you can clock them.

[a1]

Wow thanks Nick once again.

My core temp is around 67*C.

Anything else you want to tell me abou this subject please PM me.

[Nick N]

Wow thanks Nick once again.

My core temp is around 67*C.

Anything else you want to tell me abou this subject please PM me.

I would play a game for a good amount of time and really heat they system up good, say at least 1/2 hour or more, then drop to the desktop and check the temp. If it remains below 80c, you are fine.

I decided it was best to share the information with everyone. That way everyone may benefit from it and if the question ever comes up, this thread may be referred to.

[Nick N]

Clarifications:

In case you are having trouble locating the hardware monitor in RivaTuner, please refer to the images below:






NOTE:
Check the CORE SPEED of your video card when you check the temperature after a load. Modern video cards have an THROTTLE DOWN system which reduces the CORE speed of the card if the temperature exceeds certain specifications as defined by the BIOS of the video card.

IF THE TEMP IS HIGH AND THE CORE SPEED ON THE GRAPH REDUCED, YOUR CARD IS GOING INTO A SAFE MODE WHICH WILL ALSO CAUSE YOUR GAME TO STUTTER AND TEXTURES TO BLUR.

[a1]

Wow thanks Nick once again.

My core temp is around 67*C.

Anything else you want to tell me abou this subject please PM me.

I would play a game for a good amount of time and really heat they system up good, say at least 1/2 hour or more, then drop to the desktop and check the temp. If it remains below 80c, you are fine.

I decided it was best to share the information with everyone. That way everyone may benefit from it and if the question ever comes up, this thread may be referred to.

Of course and once again I learned a great deal from all of this.

Oh yeah I need around 2Gb of RAM to run BF2 Maxed out. Just figured it out on the net. I love Google. I found out that my card is capable of handling BF2 on high settings but it also needs RAM. That's for another day for me to figure out. Right now I'll settle for Medium-High.

[Nick N]

Wow thanks Nick once again.

My core temp is around 67*C.

Anything else you want to tell me abou this subject please PM me.

I would play a game for a good amount of time and really heat they system up good, say at least 1/2 hour or more, then drop to the desktop and check the temp. If it remains below 80c, you are fine.

I decided it was best to share the information with everyone. That way everyone may benefit from it and if the question ever comes up, this thread may be referred to.

Of course and once again I learned a great deal from all of this.

Oh yeah I need around 2Gb of RAM to run BF2 Maxed out. Just figured it out on the net. I love Google. I found out that my card is capable of handling BF2 on high settings but it also needs RAM. That's for another day for me to figure out. Right now I'll settle for Medium-High.

Yes, I am aware of the need for 2GB, or more, in BF2. I did not realize you were only running 1 until now. None then less, the frame buffer on the video memory is restricted. Modern games like to see at least 512 or more but another gig of system memory will serve you well and is a recommended upgrade.

[a1]

Wow thanks Nick once again.

My core temp is around 67*C.

Anything else you want to tell me abou this subject please PM me.

I would play a game for a good amount of time and really heat they system up good, say at least 1/2 hour or more, then drop to the desktop and check the temp. If it remains below 80c, you are fine.

I decided it was best to share the information with everyone. That way everyone may benefit from it and if the question ever comes up, this thread may be referred to.

Of course and once again I learned a great deal from all of this.

Oh yeah I need around 2Gb of RAM to run BF2 Maxed out. Just figured it out on the net. I love Google. I found out that my card is capable of handling BF2 on high settings but it also needs RAM. That's for another day for me to figure out. Right now I'll settle for Medium-High.

Yes, I am aware of the need for 2GB, or more, in BF2. I did not realize you were only running 1 until now. None then less, the frame buffer on the video memory is restricted. Modern games like to see at least 512 or more but another gig of system memory will serve you well and is a recommended upgrade.

Didn't you read it in my sig? I will up date the memory when school starts and at the first sign of good grades.

[Nick N]

Wow thanks Nick once again.

My core temp is around 67*C.

Anything else you want to tell me abou this subject please PM me.

I would play a game for a good amount of time and really heat they system up good, say at least 1/2 hour or more, then drop to the desktop and check the temp. If it remains below 80c, you are fine.

I decided it was best to share the information with everyone. That way everyone may benefit from it and if the question ever comes up, this thread may be referred to.

Of course and once again I learned a great deal from all of this.

Oh yeah I need around 2Gb of RAM to run BF2 Maxed out. Just figured it out on the net. I love Google. I found out that my card is capable of handling BF2 on high settings but it also needs RAM. That's for another day for me to figure out. Right now I'll settle for Medium-High.

Yes, I am aware of the need for 2GB, or more, in BF2. I did not realize you were only running 1 until now. None then less, the frame buffer on the video memory is restricted. Modern games like to see at least 512 or more but another gig of system memory will serve you well and is a recommended upgrade.

Didn't you read it in my sig? I will up date the memory when school starts and at the first sign of good grades.

a1, I probably respond to 30 posts and 15 PM's a day, on a slow day so yes, I did miss your sig. Shame on me for not looking.

[JBaymore]

Nick,

Another great tutorial for everyone here at SimV.  Thanks.

It is amazing that you can keep track of all the stuff that you do when you converse with multiple people in multiple threads simultaneously, and given the volume.

best,

......................john

[a1]

Woops sorry if the rolling of the eyes was bad. I never meant it to be serious.

I never ment it to go against you Nick and make you look bad in anyway.

[Nick N]

[quote]Nick,

Another great tutorial for everyone here at SimV.

[Nick N]

Woops sorry if the rolling of the eyes was bad. I never meant it to be serious.

I never ment to to go against you Nick ar make you look bad in anyway.

LOL

Relax

There are so many sigs around here and many of them have outdated information so I really do not pay attention to them. Its usually best to either post the current specs in with a question, or, post that the current specs are in the sig as a heads up

no biggie