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ToMI likes to make my video card overheat

ArrkhalArrkhal
edited August 2009 in Game Support
It seems to be something about the way the engine handles transparencies, that makes my video card temperature go straight into the stratosphere. Especially the island map screens on either game, the GPU temperature rockets straight to 80 degrees C, and slowly increases towards a fatal overheat from there. Reducing the resolution doesn't even help. Reducing detail works, but it has to be cranked clear down to 3 to avoid overheating.

The only other game that does this is STALKER, which I can only play in the winter with the heat off. Every other game I have consistently stays under 80 degrees, even Fallout 3 with every single graphics setting maxed (of course, the framerate is unplayable then).

I'm running Windows XP x64, and I'v got an Intel Core 2 Duo 6320 at 1.86 GHz, 2 gigs RAM, and a GeForce 9800 GT. I was running 185.85 of the drivers, and just updated to the latest ones (190.62). Still having this problem.

Comments

  • CyphoxCyphox
    edited August 2009
    Arrkhal wrote: »
    The only other game that does this is STALKER, which I can only play in the winter with the heat off.

    That sounds extremely weird. Maybe you should think about the airflow in your computer case. And about cleaning the inside of your case from dust from time to time. Especially all the fans.

    What kind of cooler do you have on your card? the stock one? please don't tell me it's completey passive with some zalman-thingy or whatever....
  • ArrkhalArrkhal
    edited August 2009
    I just cleaned my case a week ago. Video card has 100% stock cooling, as delivered by XFX. Actually, I paid a little extra for a copper heatsink, instead of the standard aluminum one. Plus the fan, which runs silently below 75 degrees, picks up a little at 76-79, and then goes "WHIRIRRRRRRRRRRR" like a vacuum cleaner at 80 degrees, so that's what I consider to be the overheat point. And I've got the fans that came with the case, a 120mm side fan, some size rear one that blows out, and 2 seperate fans in the power supply, blowing out. Airflow is fine, basically.

    And like I said, it's game-dependent, not hardware. At the one extreme, Fallout 3 with every single thing maxed out runs at about 15 fps, but is about 73-74 degrees with indoor scenes, 75-77 outdoors. Oblivion is about the same. Any settings, the temperatures are constant, with only the frame rate changing.

    Then at the other extreme, STALKER, like ToMI, has to be set down to really horrible graphics to avoid overheating.

    Source engine games (HL2, L4D, etc.) are in the middle. If I max out everything, it does about 50 frames per second, but overheats occasionally. If I leave everything maxed except anisotropic filtering and antialiasing (2x anisotropic, 2x MSAA), it runs at about 100 fps, and doesn't overheat at all.
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited August 2009
    It is definitely strange, that the island maps stress your GPU so much.

    Anyway it would be interesting to see how your GPU and its thermal solution handle high load. There is a stress test you could run:

    Download FurMark to stress test your graphics card. Start it, select "Stability Test", "Xtreme Burning Mode" and "Log GPU Temperature". Now start the test by pressing "Go!".
    While running you should be able to monitor the temperature at the bottom of the screen. Run it for 10 minutes or until the temperature seems to be stable for some minutes. If the temperature exceeds 80°C, abort with Escape.


    The log file created is called "gpu-temperature.xml". You have two options to make it accessible to us. Pick the one that works best for you:
    1. If you know how, you can zip the file and attach it to a message.
    2. You can upload it to Rapidshare and copy the link to the file into a new message.
  • ArrkhalArrkhal
    edited August 2009
    Unfortunately, the results weren't very pretty. Started out at 66 degrees (I was just playing HL2 ep 2, to see if the achievements are fixed yet, normal idle temp is 61 degrees), and it hit 80 degrees at 16.41 seconds, and 85 at 38.90 seconds. The fan goes to an even higher speed at 85, turns out. It hit 88 at 64.46 seconds, and that's when I stopped the test. 90 would definitely be too much, even if nVidia says the card isn't "officially" overheating unless it's 100 or hotter.

    This was set to windowed, and a custom 1600x900 resolution, and 2x MSAA, since that's what I set all my games to.

    Apparently I need more fans or something. There's a spot for an 80mm to blow right on the video card, and another in the front for the hard drives. Maybe I can have one blowing in from the side, and the fan at the front blowing out, as that's the direction the video card's fan seems to blow in.
  • VoodooKingVoodooKing
    edited August 2009
    Arrkhal wrote: »
    Unfortunately, the results weren't very pretty. Started out at 66 degrees (I was just playing HL2 ep 2, to see if the achievements are fixed yet, normal idle temp is 61 degrees), and it hit 80 degrees at 16.41 seconds, and 85 at 38.90 seconds. The fan goes to an even higher speed at 85, turns out. It hit 88 at 64.46 seconds, and that's when I stopped the test. 90 would definitely be too much, even if nVidia says the card isn't "officially" overheating unless it's 100 or hotter.

    This was set to windowed, and a custom 1600x900 resolution, and 2x MSAA, since that's what I set all my games to.

    Apparently I need more fans or something. There's a spot for an 80mm to blow right on the video card, and another in the front for the hard drives. Maybe I can have one blowing in from the side, and the fan at the front blowing out, as that's the direction the video card's fan seems to blow in.

    I think the heatsink is not sitting properly on the GPU. You should reseat it. I think perhaps you should get a professional to do it for you. There's no reason for the raise in temperature if the heatsink was sitting properly on the GPU.
  • ArrkhalArrkhal
    edited August 2009
    Hm, I should contact XFX and see what they say. They have pretty good customer service. I cooked one of their factory overclocked cards once (it was one that turned out to do that to a lot of people) and they replaced it without any hassle whatsoever.

    I forgot to mention, this card isn't overclocked at all, not by XFX, and not by me. 100% nVidia clock speeds.

    But anyway, it is still odd that ToMI should stress the GPU more than Fallout 3 and Oblivion.
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited August 2009
    Arrkhal wrote: »
    Unfortunately, the results weren't very pretty. Started out at 66 degrees (I was just playing HL2 ep 2, to see if the achievements are fixed yet, normal idle temp is 61 degrees), and it hit 80 degrees at 16.41 seconds, and 85 at 38.90 seconds.

    That's definitely bad. I have a passively cooled Radeon 4870 and it takes 3 Minutes from 53°C to 80°C with FurMark, even with my system fans on a very low noise level.
    VoodooKing wrote: »
    I think the heatsink is not sitting properly on the GPU. You should reseat it. I think perhaps you should get a professional to do it for you. There's no reason for the raise in temperature if the heatsink was sitting properly on the GPU.

    That sounds reasonable.
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited August 2009
    Arrkhal wrote: »
    But anyway, it is still odd that ToMI should stress the GPU more than Fallout 3 and Oblivion.

    At least when it's just showing the maps.
  • ArrkhalArrkhal
    edited August 2009
    It seems to be whenever it's showing water, though the maps are the worst. I did an unofficial time trial, and the GPU goes from 80 degrees to 85 in about 30 seconds, just showing the map in episode 2.

    Then I fire up Fallout 3, and the highest temperature I can make it get to, by fighting stuff near water (at 10 fps), is 81... Crazy. I guess Bethesda specifically programmed their engine to not stress video cards. Might explain why there are Oblivion hacks that seem to increase FPS for "free" (i.e., without changing any of the graphics).
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited August 2009
    Arrkhal wrote: »
    Then I fire up Fallout 3, and the highest temperature I can make it get to, by fighting stuff near water (at 10 fps), is 81... Crazy. I guess Bethesda specifically programmed their engine to not stress video cards. Might explain why there are Oblivion hacks that seem to increase FPS for "free" (i.e., without changing any of the graphics).

    I assume 3D action game developers focus their graphics engine development much more on efficiency.
    The opening of ToMI chapter one is probably the most graphically demanding scene in the series so far. In this kind of game it would be reasonable to focus on getting those working smoothly, from an development effort point of view.
    From the bit of OpenGL programming i've done i've learned one thing:
    It is easy to get 3D Graphics working at all. Making it efficiently is a whole different story.
  • ArrkhalArrkhal
    edited August 2009
    It looks like it was the heatsink. It seems to be glued into place, but when I put the screws back on, I tightened them more than they were. Must have vibrated loose. Now the game runs at around 77-78 degrees everywhere except maps, and holds steady at 81-82 on the maps. And it idles around 58 instead of 61. Yay!

    That still must be one inefficient transparency engine, though. The opening with the voodoo lady and all the smoke raises the temperature, too.
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited August 2009
    Arrkhal wrote: »
    It looks like it was the heatsink. It seems to be glued into place, but when I put the screws back on, I tightened them more than they were. Must have vibrated loose. Now the game runs at around 77-78 degrees everywhere except maps, and holds steady at 81-82 on the maps. And it idles around 58 instead of 61. Yay!

    That still sounds really high.

    New FurMark results would be more interesting for comparison.

    Do you have any link to the exact model of your graphics card on the manufacturers website?
  • hansschmuckerhansschmucker
    edited August 2009
    Arrkhal wrote: »
    But anyway, it is still odd that ToMI should stress the GPU more than Fallout 3 and Oblivion.

    I think Fallout 3 and Oblivion simply need a lot more CPU time than the comparably simple ToMI. So the maximum framerate is limited by your CPU. ToMI on the other hand doesn't do so much on the CPU, so there's time to calculate additional frames.
    (Just a theory)
  • ArrkhalArrkhal
    edited August 2009
    Actually, it now seems that the video RAM is overheating on this thing. HL2 is getting scrambled textures and a random texture overlaid across the screen after about a half hour of play. Looks like it's time to just get a GTX 260.

    Now I'm going to have to wait like a week to see if I can work past the achievement bug.

    Also, the CPU thing is an interesting theory, but nVidia monitor shows the CPU load at about 70% when playing Fallout 3.
  • ArrkhalArrkhal
    edited August 2009
    New video card seems to be great.

    But geeze, I still think there's some kind of huge problem with the transparency engine in ToMI. I'll post some temp logs from nVidia monitor in a few minutes.

    First, ToMI. Started out with the GPU at 50 degrees, at the desktop, fired up Siege of Spinner Cay, loaded a save game that was next to the raft, got on the raft, and let it sit for awhile. The screensaver turned on at 16:33:8, oops, so I halted testing then. It ended up close to 10 minutes. The GPU was about 55 when I got to the map screen

    Settings: 1600x900 windowed, detail 9.

    Next up is Fallout 3. I'm going to find a spot with some nice water, save, quit, let the GPU cool to 50 again, and repeat the test.

    Settings: 1680x1050 full screen (for some reason, it won't let you select 1600x900 windowed!), ultra detail, vertical sync, HDR, 4x AA (I could've sworn I selected 8, but it was apparently 4), and 15x anisotropic filtering.

    Okay, here's what I'm going to be staring at for about 10 minutes.
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/syldssuf/ScreenShot1.jpg
    Should be a pretty graphics-intensive scene. Water, ripples, architecture, trees, full reflections. Hopefully god mode keeps you from dying due to radiation poisoning.

    Must have read the clock wrong, that was a little short. Still, it's fairly conclusive data.

    ToMI's map screen took the GPU from 60 to 70 degrees C in 72 seconds. Fallout 3 took 160 seconds for the same temperature change.
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