Graphics card gets very hot very quickly?

[lugoteehalt]

nVidia GeForce 8400GS 256MB, GeForce 8 series.

Computer started making a lot of noise. Seem to have sorted that by cleaning the fan blowing air out of the back.

Noticed the fan on the graphics card spins *relatively* slowly, wild guess: 100rpm - the paper logo in the middle of the fan visibly wobbles, whereas on the other fans it blurs. Quickly the plastic housing to the fan becomes too hot to touch.

Hope this isn't a silly question but does this sound right. As far as I know there is no problem now the noise is fixed.

[Nagarjuna]

Do you know if you are using the proprietary drivers or the open-source drivers?

See if you can check the status of your card with the following commands and post them here:

nvidia-settings -q gpucoretemp -t
nvidia-smi -a

They should tell use more about the cards fan speeds, temperature and other various statistics.

[lugoteehalt]

Do you know if you are using the proprietary drivers or the open-source drivers?

See if you can check the status of your card with the following commands and post them here:

nvidia-settings -q gpucoretemp -t
nvidia-smi -a

Thanks, sexy commands.

nvidia-settings -q gpucoretemp -t
91
nvidia-smi -a

==============NVSMI LOG==============


Timestamp                       : Sun Apr  3 00:06:38 2011

Driver Version                  : 260.19.29


GPU 0:
        Product Name            : GeForce 8400 GS
        PCI Device/Vendor ID    : 40410de
        PCI Location ID         : 0:5:0
        Board Serial            : 225990190321
        Display                 : Connected
        Temperature             : 93 C
        Fan Speed               : 30%
        Utilization
            GPU                 : 42%
            Memory              : 33%

They should tell use more about the cards fan speeds, temperature and other various statistics.

Proprietary drivers.

[Nagarjuna]

I'm no hardware or temperature management master, but 93C is a very high temperature in my book. I believe normal idle temperatures range from 55-70C your everyday nVidia cards.

It says your cards fan is spinning at 30%. This may be a little low, as my card is running at 43% with a core temperature of 62c while having a couple graphical applications open. Here is a straight-forward article for increasing your fan speed. Maybe you'll want to experiment a little with it: Adjust the Fan Speed on Your NVidia Graphics Card | Linux Journal

I'm afraid that's all I have for you at the moment. Perhaps a more knowledgeable person here in the community will have a few things to add. Let us know if you see any results from configuring your fan.

And not to get off topic, but great video in your signature

[lugoteehalt]

I'm no hardware or temperature management master, but 93C is a very high temperature in my book. I believe normal idle temperatures range from 55-70C your everyday nVidia cards.

It says your cards fan is spinning at 30%. This may be a little low, as my card is running at 43% with a core temperature of 62c while having a couple graphical applications open. Here is a straight-forward article for increasing your fan speed. Maybe you'll want to experiment a little with it: Adjust the Fan Speed on Your NVidia Graphics Card | Linux Journal

I'm afraid that's all I have for you at the moment. Perhaps a more knowledgeable person here in the community will have a few things to add. Let us know if you see any results from configuring your fan.

And not to get off topic, but great video in your signature

Thanks. I'll do that and get back.

Incidentally, again not to get off topic, but the horrifying thing is that the video is true in all its essentials.

[lugoteehalt]

Installed nvclock from the Debian repository, as opposed to suppository, in the normal way.

$ nvclock --help
NVClock v0.8 (Beta4)

Using NVClock you can overclock your Nvidia videocard under Linux and FreeBSD.
Use this program at your own risk, because it can damage your system!

Usage: ./nvclock [options]

Overclock options:
   -b  --backend backend        Backend to use: coolbits/coolbits2d/coolbits3d/lowlevel (NV3X/NV4X/NV5X only)
   -m  --memclk speed           Memory clock in MHz
   -n  --nvclk speed            GPU clock in MHz
   -r  --reset                  Restore the original speeds
   -s  --speeds                 Print current speeds in MHz
   -d  --debug                  Enable/Disable clock related debug info
Hardware options:
   -c  --card number            Number of the card to use
   -D  --Debug                  Print detailed debug information
   -f  --force                  Force support for disbled hardware
   -F  --fanspeed speed         Adjust the fanspeed; speed is a value between 10 and 100, a delta +10/-10 or 'auto'
   -P  --punit mask             Activate extra pixel pipelines. (NV4X only)
   -Q  --deviceid digit         Adjust the last digit of the pci id.
   -S  --smartdimmer level      Adjust brightness of the backlight; level is a value between 15 and 100 or a delta like +10/-10.
   -T  --temperature            Show the GPU temperatures.
   -V  --vunit mask             Activate extra vertex pipelines. (NV4X only)
   -i  --info                   Show detailed card info.
NVControl options:
   -a  --assign                 Set an option to a value: -a fsaa=4 or -a vibrance[crt-0]
   -q  --query                  Get the value for an option: -q fsaa or -q vibrance[crt-0]=63
   -l  --list                   Show all available options
   -x  --xdisplay               Choose another X display
Other options:
   -h  --help                   Show this help info

$ nvclock --info     
-- General info --
Card:           nVidia Geforce 8400GS
Architecture:   G84 A2
PCI id:         0x404
GPU clock:      459.000 MHz
Bustype:        PCI-Express

-- Shader info --
Clock: 1836.000 MHz
Stream units: 16 (10b)
ROP units: 4 (01b)
-- Memory info --
Amount:         256 MB
Type:           128 bit DDR2
Clock:          351.000 MHz

-- PCI-Express info --
Current Rate:   16X
Maximum rate:   16X

-- Sensor info --
Sensor: GPU Internal Sensor
GPU temperature: 93C
Fanspeed: 30.5%

-- VideoBios information --
Version: 60.84.68.00.00
Signon message: GeForce 8400 GS VGA BIOS
Performance level 0: gpu 459MHz/shader 918MHz/memory 350MHz/1.32V/100%
VID mask: 3
Voltage level 0: 1.20V, VID: 0
Voltage level 1: 1.32V, VID: 1

$ nvclock --fanspeed auto
Error!
While NVClock can adjust the fanspeed of your videocard this features is disabled by default because of safety reasons.!
If you really know what you are doing you can enable it by adding the -f switch to the nvclock command.

This is not reliable information but get impression that fan speed should go to 100% when temperature rises to 100C. 105C seems to be the temperature at which the thing is in trouble. The thing has been working for about 3 years.

So I'm leaving it alone. But if anyone knows better *please* say.

[Rubberman]

Well, I run an 8800GT (PCI-X 16x) card w/ dual displays attached (and used). It is running at 55C and fan speed is 1724rpm. So, I think your card is running hot, but not yet into the "red". If you can crank the fan up somewhat, it should bring the temperature down to more reasonable levels.

[MASONTX]

Some things to check: Have you installed any new cards, cabeling or other devices which may be blocking the air flow on your graphics card or adding heat to your case? Are the air vents clear and the dust blown out? Take the case off and run for awhile to see if that solves your problem, if it does you need a new fan with better output or additional case fans.

[lugoteehalt]

Great thanks.

You're right it is running too hot isn't it. Have, at least according to the software increased the fan speed to 100 percent and things have not really improved:

$ nvclock --info
-- General info --
Card:           nVidia Geforce 8400GS
Architecture:   G84 A2
PCI id:         0x404
GPU clock:      459.000 MHz
Bustype:        PCI-Express

-- Shader info --
Clock: 1836.000 MHz
Stream units: 16 (10b)
ROP units: 4 (01b)
-- Memory info --
Amount:         256 MB
Type:           128 bit DDR2
Clock:          351.000 MHz

-- PCI-Express info --
Current Rate:   16X
Maximum rate:   16X

-- Sensor info --
Sensor: GPU Internal Sensor
GPU temperature: 85C
Fanspeed: 100.0%

-- VideoBios information --
Version: 60.84.68.00.00
Signon message: GeForce 8400 GS VGA BIOS
Performance level 0: gpu 459MHz/shader 918MHz/memory 350MHz/1.32V/100%
VID mask: 3
Voltage level 0: 1.20V, VID: 0
Voltage level 1: 1.32V, VID: 1

So will try taking the side of the case off and see what happens. Then if necessary blast it with compressed air. Then, if that does not work, see if it can be underclocked.

[Rubberman]

Well, at least it looks like the temperature has dropped about 10C, which is something. I know that some of the older nVidia cards were not a power-efficient as the newer ones are. I purposely bought the 8800GT card at the time because the specs showed that it was much better in the heat and power consumption area than others, which for a system that is on 365x24 is important to me.