Graphics Card Temperatures

Graphics Card Temperatures

So here we'll have a look at GPU temperatures. First up, IDLE (desktop) temperatures.

IDLE temperatures are always a tiny bit tricky to read out as Windows Aero could have an effect on this. Overall anything below 50 Degrees C is considered okay, anything below 40 Degrees C is very nice. We threw in some cards at random that we have recently tested in the above chart. But what happens when we are gaming? We fire off an intense game-like application at the graphics card and measure the highest temperature of the GPU. 

So with the cards fully stressed we kept monitoring temperatures and noted down the GPU temperature of the hottest card.

• GeForce GTX 980 SLI x2- The temperature under heavy game stress for the card stabilized at 80~83 Degrees C. Nvidia has set its limiter to that threshold with reference cards. Board partner cards will have lower temperatures in general.
• GeForce GTX 980 SLI x3- For the 3rd card we used a board partner card. Hence we can not reliably mention the temperature objectively, it is a much lower then reference temoerature. We just noted down 83 Degrees C as reference temperature, which NV limits these cards at.

Please make sure your PC is extremely well ventilated at all times, this will seriously help you on the overall GPU temperatures.

For SLI installation we recommend to leave as much space in-between the cards as possible. We deliberately place them close together in the review though to emulate a more worst case scenario. You will also notice that the card that is closed in airflow wise runs hotter.

Note, the board-partner cards have more advanced coolers (mostly) over the reference design, hence the results will be much better. Please look carefully with board partner cards if the SLI connectors are not blocked by coolers etc though.