Don't see what the big deal is, now while my card may be a bit older than most of yours and come from an age where in order to go fast you had to be warm and toasty. Your newer card should at the very least be able to handle standard running temperatures of a 3 year old card right, least one would think. Now my 2900XT generally idles at 65 and runs at 90+ all the while the fan only runs at about 50-60%. Only time I've heard it go over that was, no not playing this game, but rather playing eve online. By then the temperatures were at 95-105s and the fan still would only blow at about 80%. Only time I've heard it at 100% was by manually setting it at 100%, though it's not something you'd like to hear. But these days your cores are smaller and for the most part draws less wattage, surely you can stand at least 80 degrees without melting down.
Don't see what the big deal is, now while my card may be a bit older than most of yours and come from an age where in order to go fast you had to be warm and toasty. Your newer card should at the very least be able to handle standard running temperatures of a 3 year old card right, least one would think. Now my 2900XT generally idles at 65 and runs at 90+ all the while the fan only runs at about 50-60%. Only time I've heard it go over that was, no not playing this game, but rather playing eve online. By then the temperatures were at 95-105s and the fan still would only blow at about 80%. Only time I've heard it at 100% was by manually setting it at 100%, though it's not something you'd like to hear. But these days your cores are smaller and for the most part draws less wattage, surely you can stand at least 80 degrees without melting down.
Wow, your card is cooking, my 9800GTX+ idles around 50c and since I've cleaned out my system of excessive dust, I'm getting around 60-65c under stress.
I'm using this on the default high settings and have had no problems with overheating, or any significant graphical glitches. To boot, this card is passively cooled. Granted, my tower has sufficient airflow.
go to OPTIONS then click on vido then clcik on advanced then click on trubel shooting . then slide the slide bare down again. then you should see an options that will say reduce cpu/gpu usage turn it on . and then set your fps to 60 try that
They didn't admit anything, nor do they need to. They gave you people with overheating PCs an option to reduce GPU usage and a default limit FPS option because of the people complaining about it. They went out of their way to help those when it's not Cryptic's problem. That's meant to help people with overheating PCs, but it doesn't magically solve problems with a GPU that overheats at full load.
As for a response from Cryptic, don't hold your breath. It's not their issue, it's yours. Thousands of others run your card and STO without any overheating issues. Why? Because it's still the fault of your own PC and/or video card. You're blaming software developers for hardware issues.
The code for STO can really stress your video card because it will use your GPU to process more than LOTRO, COD4, and other titles. This may be due to it actually doing more in the client or just bloated code that runs more processes than it needs to run.
70C for a 9800 GTX is fine. I'd worry if you hit 80+C. If you have the stock cooler, you probably idle at 40C temps. I used to run 8800 GTX cards and 70C is no big deal, even for years. I now run a GTX 295 Co-Op and I hit 60C temps in exploration clusters and 50C temps in regular space, as my GPUs are being worked quite a bit.
STO, just like Furmark or another GPU stress/torture software, will really put your cooling to the test. Turn down your settings, limit your FPS, and/or improve your cooling.
LOL yeah STO is super powerful. In fact according to a dev its the most powerful game on the market and that is the cause of overheating. Seriously at least wheen you stick to high road trolling about cooling you can sound almost believable but asking ppl to doubt their own eyes annd system specs is not going to happen.
Dude i really wonder if you work for cryptic sometimes because there is no way sto is so powerful its not even DX!). And what about its required and recommended system specs it told its customers if its so powerful? So basically the specs are they listed are not true and u need a 4000 dollar rig to play?
No it was STO not peoples rigs. Let this go man they fixed the issue anyway and i still believe more graphical optimization is on the way.
People have the right to know the truth so they didnt lose their rigs like some unfourtunate players and you should respect that. After all you wouldnt want to lose your computer.
Now lets stop with the cooling posts cipher its a mute issue.
ATI 3850 - 512meg , in a Macpro. It is running under bootcamp in Win7.
I have the Mac fans cranking but my game will still crash to blackscreen
Have you tried using the in-game frame limit option under Graphics options and the Troubleshooting header at the bottom? If that doesn't work, have you done anything for cooling in your Mac? Fans, clean out dust, organize cables, etc.?
Also, what temps are you seeing for the card? You can use ATI's Catalyst tool to check. I'd also run Furmark (free stress test) and see what you get with your card.
How hot does the temperature needs to be on a computer before it's considered to start overheating anyways? When I play STO, it goes from 109 degrees F (42c) to around 117 - 119 degrees F (47c - 48c) and that's with graphics settings maxed out.
How hot does the temperature needs to be on a computer before it's considered to start overheating anyways? When I play STO, it goes from 109 degrees F (42c) to around 117 - 119 degrees F (47c - 48c) and that's with graphics settings maxed out.
48C is nothing for a GPU, but you didn't mention if this is ambient temp, CPU temp, or GPU temp. And all temperatures for computers are measure in Celsius among the overclocking and IT communities (yes, even in the US).
If your GPU is only getting to 48C under load, then either you're running a water-cooled PC or have an insane number of fans and your GPU cooler at 100% fan speed all the time. I'd guess that 48C is really a measurement of something else in your PC.
Overheating usually means that the GPU is starting to churn out incorrect calculations and/or shuts down due to its thermal limits being reached and the internal thermal protection kicking in.
48C is nothing for a GPU, but you didn't mention if this is ambient temp, CPU temp, or GPU temp. And all temperatures for computers are measure in Celsius among the overclocking and IT communities (yes, even in the US).
If your GPU is only getting to 48C under load, then either you're running a water-cooled PC or have an insane number of fans and your GPU cooler at 100% fan speed all the time. I'd guess that 48C is really a measurement of something else in your PC.
Overheating usually means that the GPU is starting to churn out incorrect calculations and/or shuts down due to its thermal limits being reached and the internal thermal protection kicking in.
Is there a program out there I can use to check the actual GPU temp? I checked and the temps I posted are the cpu temperature, sorry about that. Video card's a EVGA GeForce 9800gt
i use EVEREST Ultimate Edition. it dipslays all my temps. and the temp of each of my cores on my qwade core . and it runes on win 7 or vista side bar here is a small pick of it http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4571/31970179.png
Here is my gear
Mac Pro - early 2008 model
10gb Ram , ATI 3850 , Windows 7 Enterprise
3 - 2tb drives and 1 - 1tb boot drive
Idle temps are around 50c on my card , during game and not doing anything it hit 90c which is pretty hot.
Even playing Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect it doesnt get as hot.
Any suggesttions? There doesnt seem to be any way I can increase the cards fan speeds.
I run SMCfancontrol on mac side and cranked up the fans but doesnt seem to help much.
GPU temperature for me stays around 43 C when I'm not doing anything, when I play STO, it'll jump up to 71C. That's alright isn't it, or should I try to get a better fan for it? Video Card's a evga GeForce 9800gt. Running game with pretty much everything maxed out. Found the free program Speedfan and used it to figure out the actual temperature.
i use EVEREST Ultimate Edition. it dipslays all my temps. and the temp of each of my cores on my qwade core . and it runes on win 7 or vista side bar here is a small pick of it http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4571/31970179.png
Yup. They have a free trial version, but not sure of the limitations since I don't use it.
Just use the free software Speedfan instead everyone: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php. I know it works with NVIDIA cards, but not sure about ATI cards (I assume it would).
I have a Nvidia 9600GT that runs on a Gigabyte AMD 64 X2 5200+. I usually run Linux for most of my needs and dual boot into Vista Ultimate for my games.
First off, there are some outstanding free tools in Linux to monitor you temps, fan speeds, etc and what I've noticed is that everything runs cooler under Linux than Windows. Even with all of the eye candy turned on in Linux, the mem usage a well as the temps are much lower. Considering how bloated that Windows is thats no surprise.
In Vista, my card temps ... I use speedfan ... would jump to around 85 in STO and hit 79 in AoC. This was a big change for me since I just installed Vista (someone gave me a copy) because last week when I was running XP my temps would hover around 69c in STO and 64 in AoC. The idle temps were the same from XP to Vista at around 48-52.
Since I am a firm believer in the "divide and conquer" school of PC geekdom, I looked at the idle temps ... which once again were the same ... and figured the big difference was in the drivers. In XP, I was using the 182 drivers while in my new Vista install I was using the latest and greatest.
I removed the New Nvidia drivers and downloaded/installed the 182 drivers for Vista and sure enough, the temps went back down to my XP settings.
IMO, the problem isn't the game, even though it does use more GPU power than what many might think, but the drivers from Nvidia. If you are having problems, I would suggest that you downgrade to the 182 drivers first and then see where you are. This isn't the first time that Nvidia drivers have run amok and it won't be the last. Personally, I never upgrade video drivers unless there is s good reason to.
Also, I have no doubt that there are many players out there who might be Trekkers/Trekkies but not necessarily gamers. For those people please keep in mind that games like this will stress your system far more than the average run of the mill programs. Your PCs need to be kept cool and for the most part store bought PCs from Dell and HP just wont cut it. You may need to add extra fans or even open the case up and blow air on it form an outside source like a small box fan. There is a big difference between gaming and net surfing in power used and heat generated. Just be aware as you keep playing and keep an eye on your system.
IMO, the problem isn't the game, even though it does use more GPU power than what many might think, but the drivers from Nvidia. If you are having problems, I would suggest that you downgrade to the 182 drivers first and then see where you are. This isn't the first time that Nvidia drivers have run amok and it won't be the last. Personally, I never upgrade video drivers unless there is s good reason to.
There's the rub: the latest drivers fix problems with stuttering in ground combat in STO, let alone many other things since 182.xx version drivers. There is almost always a good reason to update video drivers, even if it's just for added performance.
Also, I have no doubt that there are many players out there who might be Trekkers/Trekkies but not necessarily gamers. For those people please keep in mind that games like this will stress your system far more than the average run of the mill programs.
QFT. And there are also gamers who are not IT people/hardware enthusiasts as well.
There's the rub: the latest drivers fix problems with stuttering in ground combat in STO, let alone many other things since 182.xx version drivers. There is almost always a good reason to update video drivers, even if it's just for added performance.
Agreed. You have weigh the benefits to upgrading which is far different than what some do ... upgrade just because its newer.
Now, I never had a problem with the 182 drivers at all. Some might have a different experience. At the same time, some may be just fine with the new drivers. Many times its not an individual program causing problems but instead its a combo of programs/drivers/fixes that don't work well together. I deal with this everyday and no matter how you build machines, there is always a "gotcha" in there somewhere.
It used to be that gamers were the best techies around. You simply had to be because back in the day in order to run a game you had to make some intense changes. While its nowhere near as bad as it used to be ... remember having to spec expanded vs extended RAM on the fly? (just showed my age) ... it can still be tricky sometimes.
I always test things myself just to make sure and prepare a way to backtrack just in case. I strongly suggest everyone else do the same if for nothing more than to save what works now.
If nothing else, a person with little experience in tech matters can get a crash course in a game like this. Learning something is never a bad idea.
insane overheating here.. I just loaded up my ATI catalyst thing and it said my GPU temp was 100c O_O
what the heck?! I've even got the GPU fan to run at 30% manually rather than let it auto-adjust the fan because it never seems to take it above 20% no matter what temperature it is.
what the heck?! I've even got the GPU fan to run at 30% manually rather than let it auto-adjust the fan because it never seems to take it above 20% no matter what temperature it is.
Your video card fan is wayyyyy toooooo sloooowww. 20-30%? Sounds like your card's firmware isn't adjusting the fan properly. If your GPU is running at 100C that fan should be at 100%. Set it manually to 60-80% and see what temps you get.
Your video card fan is wayyyyy toooooo sloooowww. 20-30%? Sounds like your card's firmware isn't adjusting the fan properly. If your GPU is running at 100C that fan should be at 100%. Set it manually to 60-80% and see what temps you get.
if I set my fan speed to higher than 35% it sounds like a wind turbine, literally, it is VERY loud, that's just how these high end cards fans are, they are running fast even when the speed % "SEEMS" low.
if I put it to auto, the speed doesn't go above 22%, so I leave it manually at 35%.
STO is the only game which causes it to run so high.. it's ridiculousm what is wrong with the game?
Not sure if this has been mentioned earlier, but people running nVidia cards should NOT use the 196.75 drivers! Known issues with fan control causing high temps - not specific to STO. If you're running that version, drop back to 196.21 ASAP.
if I set my fan speed to higher than 35% it sounds like a wind turbine, literally, it is VERY loud, that's just how these high end cards fans are, they are running fast even when the speed % "SEEMS" low.
if I put it to auto, the speed doesn't go above 22%, so I leave it manually at 35%.
STO is the only game which causes it to run so high.. it's ridiculousm what is wrong with the game?
I'm not sure what model you have, but I've had these top end cards at one point or another...
GTX 295 Co-Op, I run at 70% when gaming and it's not loud (not quiet, but easily drowned out when I play games and have my music running). 100% is loud. 40% is minimum and start-speed for auto. 40% is quiet when using my PC for work or other tasks. .
GTX 285 SC, I ran at 60-65% when gaming and it's not loud, same as GTX 295. Actually, the 285's fan was a touch quieter at 60% than my GTX 295. .
GTX 285 SC with aftermarket AC Accelero cooler that uses open air flow and three fans. I could set that cooler to 100% fan speed and it was super quiet. .
8800 GTX, I ran two of them at auto speed for years. Sure enough, one of them died after 1.5 years of auto speed with high temps in other games. Lifetime warranty, so EVGA replaced it for free. I now have them on my second PC and run the fans at 80% when gaming (ie: dual boxing in other MMOs, etc.). At 80% they're as quiet as my GTX 285 at 60%. And I could run 100% on those 8800 GTX cards without being annoying like other coolers.
Yes, you ca run top-end cards at higher fan speeds without it being too loud. But it also depends on what's "too loud" for each individual. I am very sensitive to it since I have my PC on my desk instead of on the floor. I don't even like my 120mm Scythe S-Flex fans to run at 100% voltage (or pulse), so I use a fan controller and have them around 7 - 10 volts each all the time.
So, on one hand you have your overheating GPU and the other hand you have an annoying loud (to you) cooler and (I assume) no overheating GPU? Either you learn to live with it, get an aftermarket cooler that's much quieter, or switch cards. Point is, 20-30% fan speed of ANY cooler is too slow when your GPU is hitting 100C temps. Your issues, you choose how you want to fix it. I gave only advice and options I know about.
I don't think you quite understand what I mean when I say it sounds like a wind turbine. It is literally like a hairdryer in your PC, i'm not just talking about a few decibels. this is just how the cooling on these cards is. This isn't about being sensetive to a bit of fan noise. I've got 7 fans in my PC including the GPU fan, I know what fan noise is.
The fact of the matter is I can run games such as CoD4 on max settings and the temp won't go over 70c, but STO just runs it up to 100, now I recall during / shortly after beta a lot of people were complaining that STO melted their cards (broke them) and was causing overheating issues (and there's even this large topic on the issue)) that the problem is not just my setup, but the game.
Edit: here, I found a video of my graphics card on youtube where someone changes the fan speed to 100%, you can see what I mean by wind turbine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehABp48vA1k
So yeah, like I said, 30% or so fan speed for this card is adequate cooling, except for STO it seems.
I don't think you quite understand what I mean when I say it sounds like a wind turbine. It is literally like a hairdryer in your PC, i'm not just talking about a few decibels. this is just how the cooling on these cards is.
This isn't about being sensetive to a bit of fan noise. I've got 7 fans in my PC including the GPU fan, I know what fan noise is.
I have five 120mm fans and two 80mm fans in my PC for a total of seven too. I have many fans so that i can turn their voltage/pulse down to make my PC quiet overall. You only need insane fan quantities to reduce noise levels (sounds ironic, I know), as fewer fans = need to spin them faster to achieve the same airflow.
The fact of the matter is I can run games such as CoD4 on max settings and the temp won't go over 70c, but STO just runs it up to 100, now I recall during / shortly after beta a lot of people were complaining that STO melted their cards (broke them) and was causing overheating issues (and there's even this large topic on the issue)) that the problem is not just my setup, but the game.
Just a reminder: nothing in the game can control how hot your cards get. There is no "bug" or oversight in the game code that causes GPUs to overheat. Only DirectX and your video card drivers can control how much processing is thrown at your GPU. If your GPU is overheating with playing STO, then that's a failure on your end (in this case running 20% fan speed when a GPU is at 100C). Your GPU has built in thermal limits that shut down the GPU at a specific temperature threshold. Even then, I wouldn't want to run my GPU at 100C as that's bound to shorten its life.
It does not matter if games X, Y, or Z run with your GPU at cooler temps. STO just requires more GPU processing. But it's not because it's pretty or advanced; it's most likely due to bulky, bloated rendering code that has yet to be streamlined. Even with that fault on STO, heat management is on your end. In software you can limit the framerate yourself, but ultimately the source of your problem is running a 100C GPU at 20-30% fan. That's the key problem. Your auto fan sensor/firmware isn't working correctly. It's as simple as that.
Edit: here, I found a video of my graphics card on youtube where someone changes the fan speed to 100%, you can see what I mean by wind turbine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehABp48vA1k
And what does that have to do with STO? You selected and opted to run those cards, no one else. Didn't you read reviews of how hot they can get? The high-end spectrum of the ATI 4000 series does run fairly hot. I run a GTX 295 without that kind of awful fan noise. I'd recommend going up to the 5000 series, such as 5850s, 5870s, or a 5970. Otherwise I'd run your fans manually at 60-70% and see what GPU temps you get.
but ultimately the source of your problem is running a 100C GPU at 20-30% fan. That's the key problem. Your auto fan sensor/firmware isn't working correctly. It's as simple as that.
again.. you fail to understand that % is a value in proportion relation to a whole, 35% speed in one thing is not the same as 35% in another.
35% speed on these cards is running the fans at like 3000 RPM, which would be 120% fan speed on another card.
you can't expect your users to cool their graphics cards with liquid nitrogen, there has to be a line drawn somewhere, and the FACT is, STO runs graphics cards MUCH hotter than any other game, no doubt due to poor code.
I'm not posting here for any kind of armchair-engineer help from you or anyone else because I know what the problem is and I know the only way to solve it is for cryptic to fix their game.
35% speed on these cards is running the fans at like 3000 RPM, which would be 120% fan speed on another card.
Why do you think ATI put faster fans in those cards? Hmmm? May be because they run hotter and you failed to read reviews and choose wisely when purchasing that/those cards when you dislike the fan noise?
you can't expect your users to cool their graphics cards with liquid nitrogen, there has to be a line drawn somewhere, and the FACT is, STO runs graphics cards MUCH hotter than any other game, no doubt due to poor code.
You don't need liquid nitrogen, lol. Fail at drawing the line ridiculously far in your quantification of the situation. Just run your fan at 60-70%, get aftermarket coolers, or buy a new card if your fan noise bothers you. Games don't "run graphics cards MUCH hotter"... your drives and hardware handle processing loads, not games. Again you simply fail to grasp this.
Works fine on thousands of other people's PCs at GPU temps much lower than yours, and without a lot of cooler/fan noise.
I'm not posting here for any kind of armchair-engineer help from you or anyone else because I know what the problem is and I know the only way to solve it is for cryptic to fix their game.
Ok, I'm taking off the nice guy gloves. Sorry, but you crossed the line. Don't like? Then don't do that same to others on the forums. You started it.
QQ some moar, please. Complaining about things actually related to STO is one thing, but complaining about something where you're completely ignorant about the topic is another. If you just want to have a p*ssing content, take it elsewhere. Next time, try to call someone an armchair-engineer who actually is one since I've probably been working with PCs, servers, and networks for longer than you've been a part of the workforce.
If all you want to do is moan and whine about how hot your GPU gets when gaming, then go to hardware forums. Take it there, not at an MMO forum. What makes it worse is that you actually want to blame the game for your pathetic choice of hot-running, loud cooler video cards. Seriously, if all you want to do is moan, complain, and blame everyone else for your problems, then you're better off not being here and this thread locked.
Comments
Wow, your card is cooking, my 9800GTX+ idles around 50c and since I've cleaned out my system of excessive dust, I'm getting around 60-65c under stress.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143169
Ok will also do that when I get home. Thanx.
ATI 3850 - 512meg , in a Macpro. It is running under bootcamp in Win7.
I have the Mac fans cranking but my game will still crash to blackscreen
This post has been edited to remove content which violates the Cryptic Studios Forum Usage Guidelines ~Dionaea
LOL yeah STO is super powerful. In fact according to a dev its the most powerful game on the market and that is the cause of overheating. Seriously at least wheen you stick to high road trolling about cooling you can sound almost believable but asking ppl to doubt their own eyes annd system specs is not going to happen.
Dude i really wonder if you work for cryptic sometimes because there is no way sto is so powerful its not even DX!). And what about its required and recommended system specs it told its customers if its so powerful? So basically the specs are they listed are not true and u need a 4000 dollar rig to play?
No it was STO not peoples rigs. Let this go man they fixed the issue anyway and i still believe more graphical optimization is on the way.
People have the right to know the truth so they didnt lose their rigs like some unfourtunate players and you should respect that. After all you wouldnt want to lose your computer.
Now lets stop with the cooling posts cipher its a mute issue.
Have you tried using the in-game frame limit option under Graphics options and the Troubleshooting header at the bottom? If that doesn't work, have you done anything for cooling in your Mac? Fans, clean out dust, organize cables, etc.?
Also, what temps are you seeing for the card? You can use ATI's Catalyst tool to check. I'd also run Furmark (free stress test) and see what you get with your card.
48C is nothing for a GPU, but you didn't mention if this is ambient temp, CPU temp, or GPU temp. And all temperatures for computers are measure in Celsius among the overclocking and IT communities (yes, even in the US).
If your GPU is only getting to 48C under load, then either you're running a water-cooled PC or have an insane number of fans and your GPU cooler at 100% fan speed all the time. I'd guess that 48C is really a measurement of something else in your PC.
Overheating usually means that the GPU is starting to churn out incorrect calculations and/or shuts down due to its thermal limits being reached and the internal thermal protection kicking in.
Is there a program out there I can use to check the actual GPU temp? I checked and the temps I posted are the cpu temperature, sorry about that. Video card's a EVGA GeForce 9800gt
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4571/31970179.png
Mac Pro - early 2008 model
10gb Ram , ATI 3850 , Windows 7 Enterprise
3 - 2tb drives and 1 - 1tb boot drive
Idle temps are around 50c on my card , during game and not doing anything it hit 90c which is pretty hot.
Even playing Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect it doesnt get as hot.
Any suggesttions? There doesnt seem to be any way I can increase the cards fan speeds.
I run SMCfancontrol on mac side and cranked up the fans but doesnt seem to help much.
After about 10-15mins I crash to Black Screen btw
keep in mind folks it's $39.95
Yup. They have a free trial version, but not sure of the limitations since I don't use it.
Just use the free software Speedfan instead everyone: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php. I know it works with NVIDIA cards, but not sure about ATI cards (I assume it would).
First off, there are some outstanding free tools in Linux to monitor you temps, fan speeds, etc and what I've noticed is that everything runs cooler under Linux than Windows. Even with all of the eye candy turned on in Linux, the mem usage a well as the temps are much lower. Considering how bloated that Windows is thats no surprise.
In Vista, my card temps ... I use speedfan ... would jump to around 85 in STO and hit 79 in AoC. This was a big change for me since I just installed Vista (someone gave me a copy) because last week when I was running XP my temps would hover around 69c in STO and 64 in AoC. The idle temps were the same from XP to Vista at around 48-52.
Since I am a firm believer in the "divide and conquer" school of PC geekdom, I looked at the idle temps ... which once again were the same ... and figured the big difference was in the drivers. In XP, I was using the 182 drivers while in my new Vista install I was using the latest and greatest.
I removed the New Nvidia drivers and downloaded/installed the 182 drivers for Vista and sure enough, the temps went back down to my XP settings.
IMO, the problem isn't the game, even though it does use more GPU power than what many might think, but the drivers from Nvidia. If you are having problems, I would suggest that you downgrade to the 182 drivers first and then see where you are. This isn't the first time that Nvidia drivers have run amok and it won't be the last. Personally, I never upgrade video drivers unless there is s good reason to.
Also, I have no doubt that there are many players out there who might be Trekkers/Trekkies but not necessarily gamers. For those people please keep in mind that games like this will stress your system far more than the average run of the mill programs. Your PCs need to be kept cool and for the most part store bought PCs from Dell and HP just wont cut it. You may need to add extra fans or even open the case up and blow air on it form an outside source like a small box fan. There is a big difference between gaming and net surfing in power used and heat generated. Just be aware as you keep playing and keep an eye on your system.
Just a few thoughts ..
There's the rub: the latest drivers fix problems with stuttering in ground combat in STO, let alone many other things since 182.xx version drivers. There is almost always a good reason to update video drivers, even if it's just for added performance.
QFT. And there are also gamers who are not IT people/hardware enthusiasts as well.
Agreed. You have weigh the benefits to upgrading which is far different than what some do ... upgrade just because its newer.
Now, I never had a problem with the 182 drivers at all. Some might have a different experience. At the same time, some may be just fine with the new drivers. Many times its not an individual program causing problems but instead its a combo of programs/drivers/fixes that don't work well together. I deal with this everyday and no matter how you build machines, there is always a "gotcha" in there somewhere.
It used to be that gamers were the best techies around. You simply had to be because back in the day in order to run a game you had to make some intense changes. While its nowhere near as bad as it used to be ... remember having to spec expanded vs extended RAM on the fly? (just showed my age) ... it can still be tricky sometimes.
I always test things myself just to make sure and prepare a way to backtrack just in case. I strongly suggest everyone else do the same if for nothing more than to save what works now.
If nothing else, a person with little experience in tech matters can get a crash course in a game like this. Learning something is never a bad idea.
mine was free piret bay :P
what the heck?! I've even got the GPU fan to run at 30% manually rather than let it auto-adjust the fan because it never seems to take it above 20% no matter what temperature it is.
Your video card fan is wayyyyy toooooo sloooowww. 20-30%? Sounds like your card's firmware isn't adjusting the fan properly. If your GPU is running at 100C that fan should be at 100%. Set it manually to 60-80% and see what temps you get.
if I set my fan speed to higher than 35% it sounds like a wind turbine, literally, it is VERY loud, that's just how these high end cards fans are, they are running fast even when the speed % "SEEMS" low.
if I put it to auto, the speed doesn't go above 22%, so I leave it manually at 35%.
STO is the only game which causes it to run so high.. it's ridiculousm what is wrong with the game?
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index5.aspx?lang=en-us
http://www.nvidia.com/object/196.75_customer_support.html
Update: nVidia just released new drivers: version 197.13 resolves the fan speed issue.
http://www.hardocp.com/news/2010/03/17/nvidia_19713_drivers_resolve_fan_speed_issue/
I'm not sure what model you have, but I've had these top end cards at one point or another...
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Yes, you ca run top-end cards at higher fan speeds without it being too loud. But it also depends on what's "too loud" for each individual. I am very sensitive to it since I have my PC on my desk instead of on the floor. I don't even like my 120mm Scythe S-Flex fans to run at 100% voltage (or pulse), so I use a fan controller and have them around 7 - 10 volts each all the time.
So, on one hand you have your overheating GPU and the other hand you have an annoying loud (to you) cooler and (I assume) no overheating GPU? Either you learn to live with it, get an aftermarket cooler that's much quieter, or switch cards. Point is, 20-30% fan speed of ANY cooler is too slow when your GPU is hitting 100C temps. Your issues, you choose how you want to fix it.
The fact of the matter is I can run games such as CoD4 on max settings and the temp won't go over 70c, but STO just runs it up to 100, now I recall during / shortly after beta a lot of people were complaining that STO melted their cards (broke them) and was causing overheating issues (and there's even this large topic on the issue)) that the problem is not just my setup, but the game.
Edit: here, I found a video of my graphics card on youtube where someone changes the fan speed to 100%, you can see what I mean by wind turbine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehABp48vA1k
So yeah, like I said, 30% or so fan speed for this card is adequate cooling, except for STO it seems.
BTW, you might enjoy this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdExkuvGySE
I have five 120mm fans and two 80mm fans in my PC for a total of seven too. I have many fans so that i can turn their voltage/pulse down to make my PC quiet overall. You only need insane fan quantities to reduce noise levels (sounds ironic, I know), as fewer fans = need to spin them faster to achieve the same airflow.
Just a reminder: nothing in the game can control how hot your cards get. There is no "bug" or oversight in the game code that causes GPUs to overheat. Only DirectX and your video card drivers can control how much processing is thrown at your GPU. If your GPU is overheating with playing STO, then that's a failure on your end (in this case running 20% fan speed when a GPU is at 100C). Your GPU has built in thermal limits that shut down the GPU at a specific temperature threshold. Even then, I wouldn't want to run my GPU at 100C as that's bound to shorten its life.
It does not matter if games X, Y, or Z run with your GPU at cooler temps. STO just requires more GPU processing. But it's not because it's pretty or advanced; it's most likely due to bulky, bloated rendering code that has yet to be streamlined. Even with that fault on STO, heat management is on your end. In software you can limit the framerate yourself, but ultimately the source of your problem is running a 100C GPU at 20-30% fan. That's the key problem. Your auto fan sensor/firmware isn't working correctly. It's as simple as that.
And what does that have to do with STO? You selected and opted to run those cards, no one else. Didn't you read reviews of how hot they can get? The high-end spectrum of the ATI 4000 series does run fairly hot. I run a GTX 295 without that kind of awful fan noise. I'd recommend going up to the 5000 series, such as 5850s, 5870s, or a 5970. Otherwise I'd run your fans manually at 60-70% and see what GPU temps you get.
Again, it's not STO's fault.
again.. you fail to understand that % is a value in proportion relation to a whole, 35% speed in one thing is not the same as 35% in another.
35% speed on these cards is running the fans at like 3000 RPM, which would be 120% fan speed on another card.
you can't expect your users to cool their graphics cards with liquid nitrogen, there has to be a line drawn somewhere, and the FACT is, STO runs graphics cards MUCH hotter than any other game, no doubt due to poor code.
I'm not posting here for any kind of armchair-engineer help from you or anyone else because I know what the problem is and I know the only way to solve it is for cryptic to fix their game.
And you fail at putting words/thoughts into my posts that were never there.
Why do you think ATI put faster fans in those cards? Hmmm? May be because they run hotter and you failed to read reviews and choose wisely when purchasing that/those cards when you dislike the fan noise?
You don't need liquid nitrogen, lol. Fail at drawing the line ridiculously far in your quantification of the situation. Just run your fan at 60-70%, get aftermarket coolers, or buy a new card if your fan noise bothers you. Games don't "run graphics cards MUCH hotter"... your drives and hardware handle processing loads, not games. Again you simply fail to grasp this.
Works fine on thousands of other people's PCs at GPU temps much lower than yours, and without a lot of cooler/fan noise.
Ok, I'm taking off the nice guy gloves. Sorry, but you crossed the line. Don't like? Then don't do that same to others on the forums. You started it.
QQ some moar, please. Complaining about things actually related to STO is one thing, but complaining about something where you're completely ignorant about the topic is another. If you just want to have a p*ssing content, take it elsewhere. Next time, try to call someone an armchair-engineer who actually is one since I've probably been working with PCs, servers, and networks for longer than you've been a part of the workforce.
If all you want to do is moan and whine about how hot your GPU gets when gaming, then go to hardware forums. Take it there, not at an MMO forum. What makes it worse is that you actually want to blame the game for your pathetic choice of hot-running, loud cooler video cards. Seriously, if all you want to do is moan, complain, and blame everyone else for your problems, then you're better off not being here and this thread locked.