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Raunien

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 3, 2011
541
66
Hi all,

When I have two monitors plugged into my 5770, the PCIe slot 1 temperature goes up dramatically to like 70degrees celcius. Is this normal?

When I have only one monitor plugged in, it stays cool at around 50-55 C.

What are your guys' experience?
 
It's normal as the GPU uses more energy to power up 2 monitors, specially if the monitors are 30". I have a Radeon 5770 and under heavy load can get hot even though it's TDP is low.
 
Alright, that makes sense. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to fry my Pci slot.
 
I'm not convinced it takes significantly more graphics power to drive two monitors. However, I did notice a similar situation on my 2011 imac - the idle power jumped >significantly when i hooked in a second display, and iStat Menus showed it was all gpu power.

My theory is the graphics driver disables some of the power saving measures when more than one monitor is hooked up.


You won't fry your pci slot though - 70deg is fine.
 
Quick-follow up: If I want to cool down the GPU, do I adjust the expansion slot fan speed or booster fan speed in iStat menus?
 
I'd try the expansion slot fan first - its right at the end of the card, so it should pull in more cool air if you crank it up a bit higher...
 
I'm not convinced it takes significantly more graphics power to drive two monitors. However, I did notice a similar situation on my 2011 imac - the idle power jumped >significantly when i hooked in a second display, and iStat Menus showed it was all gpu power.

My theory is the graphics driver disables some of the power saving measures when more than one monitor is hooked up.


You won't fry your pci slot though - 70deg is fine.

It is only recently AMD and NVIDIA have implemented power saving features with multiple monitors attached.

Meaning idle power draw with a multi monitor setup will be higher than with a single monitor on older cards.
 
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