FFXIV Temps on GTX460

[Noctura]

Sorry in advance for the wall of text. I just wanted to share my experiences and results with overheating in case it can help anyone out. Still new to a lot of things hardware wise so any suggestions/corrections are welcome. ^-^
This is what happened to me.

Background info:

Shortly before XIV came out I built my first computer. So I was still new to it all when this happened. I didn't know about incredibly high temps yet. This game has taught me more about my computer hardware then I ever thought I would know.... because playing it made a lot of the hardware stop functioning. I used to have a GTX 275 when I bought FFXIV. After running the game for 30 minutes on low settings my machine overheated and wouldn't turn back on. The card was completely fried, as well as a few other parts it must have taken with it. It was pretty new, and had played every other game I had flawlessly. I don't totally blame the game.... but I was pretty shocked.

I had to save up for months so I could get replacement parts. I couldn't wait to try again but I was really paranoid. I hoped that they had fixed the game to run better in the time I was unable to play.

So I got a GTX 470 to replace my card. I would have gone higher but my budget barely allowed much room since I had to replace more then one part. This time I made sure to watch the temps. When I ran the game with this card the temps got up past 100 in 5 minutes. It had the same FPS and lag as when I had the GTX 270. I tested it with every other game I had, and the temps never got above 80 and I had amazing fps. I used all the stress test programs I could find and nothing was able to bring my card up that high besides that game... so I spent a while testing out a lot of graphics settings on FFXIV and how they affected my machine.

Overheating Tests:

I opened my pc, cleaned out all dust, rearranged the cords, and hooked in an extra fan. I was so new to this overheating issue I had no idea what else to do. Even after this my problems persisted with the overheating.. I was so frustrated.
At this point i could not afford more cooling options. I had to open the tower and place a large fan next to the computer during the times I experimented with FFXIV. With the fan and open tower it didn't get past 100 like before... but 96 is still too hot. So issue #1 = my tower is terrible for airflow. (/Starts saving again)

I REALLY wanted to play this game, safely, and without damaging anything else, so I dug around online for answers. After hours of googling, reading, and applying 20 unsuccessful methods, I tried undervolting my graphics card slightly to see if it would help with heat. The temps went down. I tested this on low graphics in the game. Still an improvement but I wanted it lower then 86-88, so I continued my search.
Undervolting the card made a huge difference, as did realizing the air flow in my tower is inadequate.

Final Results:

I was discouraged because I thought I couldn't play the game without my card making my apartment into an oven... The game seemed like it was too much for my pc and/or graphics card and too laggy even on lowest settings. I then remembered I had seen this same quote in quite a few forums during my google searches. "The game glitches on lower graphics." I really didn't think this was the case, but I tried it anyway as my last effort to improve this situation.
I ran the game on these settings (MUCH higher then what I had it set before):
---
1920x1080 - 8Qx - 8 General - 4 backround - shadows high -quality high - filtering high
No ao, no depth.
---
After doing this....
My temps never got over 82 and are usually under 80 now. My fps is 45-60, and I have no issues playing now. The only lag I get is in towns when there is a lot of npcs or people.
I am saving up my money for a new cooling system for my graphics card, and a new case so I don't have to open the tower and put the fan on it. Until then, doing all this has made the game playable for me without frying my hardware.

^-^
/cheer

Note: I shared this with 2 others so far and they have successfully lowered temps and improved in game performance. In one case it helped in solving the error "Display driver quit responding and has recovered." He no longer gets this error and is now an active player.

[Coldfire]

That's an interesting result. I knew the game caused lots of cards to overheat on low or medium settings. Couldn't really test it with my watercooled GPU though.

[Beeli]

I doubt it will help. Instead it will give you more stuttering in form of micro stuttering ^^
And your PSU probably won't be able to support two cards.

Awwh. :c Well, my power output is 460 watts--I'm not sure what range that falls into. If a second GC won't do the trick, I'm not sure where to go from here. I couldn't figure out origamikitsune's original suggestion, and I'm not sure how to alleviate the stuttering. Any more suggestions?

Also, Noctura--when you finally applied the new settings to the FFXIV configuration, did you still have an undervolted GC and the extra fans, or were you able to do away with them? I've tried settings very similar to those myself, but I've had no such luck in-game. However, I don't have extra fans or an undervolted GC.

[Coldfire]

Two more ideas:
1. Set the energy settings to high performance
2. Run a GPU benchmark and compare it to benchmarks online with the same GPU model (maybe your GPU is broken)

[Noctura]

Also, Noctura--when you finally applied the new settings to the FFXIV configuration, did you still have an undervolted GC and the extra fans, or were you able to do away with them? I've tried settings very similar to those myself, but I've had no such luck in-game. However, I don't have extra fans or an undervolted GC.

I didn't remove the extra fan I put in, but honestly I think my cooling was inadequate in the first place and calling it "extra" might not be correct. (New to this stuff. >.< No one has ever looked at my computer I built to tell me what's wrong/right) My card needed to be under volted or it would get past 90 degrees within 5 mins of game time. I really think this step is what made the biggest difference. So, all of that is done when I run the game on those settings. I barely even changed the voltage. I used MSI afterburner, and turned it down from 1000 to 925. My computer even runs faster now not just with ffxiv. I know you have to be careful that you give it enough power and all to perform, but it honestly seemed like this game and/or similar card models demand too much power that it didn't even need... and it made the card work harder then it had to. When the temps got to 90 it would go into a low performance mode to try and save itself from what I can tell. I did benchmarks with both settings. Without my changes at temps of 90-97 I got a score of about 3200 and after the changes and the card running under 80 the score was 4000.

I have been in game the last few days with temps of about 65-75 for about 5 hours straight. No problems, only lag is in town, and it's not that bad. My apt isn't an oven, and I can actually enjoy this game now.
I was actually considering getting this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118065

There are a lot of similar products for all types of cards. I haven't researched it a lot yet but it looks pretty good so far. (Advice and opinions are more then welcome) I have no idea if they work but I still have to keep my tower open to help with airflow to keep the card cool, and I really don't want to do that long. Have you tried taking the case side off to see if it's bad airflow in there? (Sorry didn't have time to read all of the posts yet) Mine was awful and the cords blocked a lot of air flow in the tower. I literally had to take a tool and poke vents because there are only 3 total on that tower. Being totally inexperienced I guess I should have researched towers more.... I didn't realize it was such a big deal but seeing the temps before undervolting with the tower open kinda showed me it was adding to my problem.

[Coldfire]

If you're rich I recommend a watercooling system. Got one myself since ages and it's pretty safe. Never had major problems with it. Expect to spent at least 300 bucks on it though xD

[Zephir]

Awwh. :c Well, my power output is 460 watts--I'm not sure what range that falls into. If a second GC won't do the trick, I'm not sure where to go from here. I couldn't figure out origamikitsune's original suggestion, and I'm not sure how to alleviate the stuttering. Any more suggestions?

.

460W-->NO multi VGA ^^

And if you PSU is not Enermax/Corsair/Akasa/Antec/ ecc. you don't have really 460W

[Beeli]

Two more ideas:
1. Set the energy settings to high performance
2. Run a GPU benchmark and compare it to benchmarks online with the same GPU model (maybe your GPU is broken)

Do you have a suggestion for the particular software I should use to run the benchmark?

And Noctura, thank you for the reply! I might have to invest in an additional fan. I'm not sure that will completely solve my problems, but at least my GC won't explode.

[Coldfire]

The only benchmark that comes to mind with lots of systems to compare the result with is 3dmark.

[Zephir]

Heaven benchamark