Warning: Overheating Video Cards

[kaynide]

Hi, this may or may not be a FFXIV thing, but figured it couldn't hurt to share information:

TL;DR, Update fried my dated video card, almost fried wife's.

TL version:

So, as soon as the update dropped, I started it up on my main PC and the video card FRIED. Overheated, burned out capacitors, electrical burn stink. The works. Maybe 15 minutes in game.

It's an older Geforce card (20xx series), so low-end-but-should-work. The Benchmark said we were well within "average".

I figured, hey, it's old.

Then, my wife's overheated (She also has a similar 20xx series card, slightly better than mine). It hasn't burned out, but it got blazing hot and eventually blue screened.

No other games give us this issue, and we have several that are comparable to FFXIV or run at higher settings no problem.

Be advised, but also it could just be coincidence. If anyone else is having similar problems feel free to add it here. Solutions if any, are welcome!

Note: I updated mine to a 4060 and it's running fine.

[Granyala]

TL;DR, Update fried my dated video card, almost fried wife's.

Depending on resolution, your card will run at maximum powerlevels.
My 3080 runs 100% @ 385W in 4K.

Make sure to keep your coolers clean, set your fan curves to something appropriately aggressive during summer and monitor your hardware's temperatures.

This is computing 101. You just learned this the hard way.

[Raven2014]

I have my 7900XTX for a years now, and I can confirm this is the very first game that kick the fans into a override.

[kaynide]

Depending on resolution, your card will run at maximum powerlevels.
My 3080 runs 100% @ 385W in 4K.

Make sure to keep your coolers clean, set your fan curves to something appropriately aggressive during summer and monitor your hardware's temperatures.

This is computing 101. You just learned this the hard way.

I mean this is a lot of assuming;

2 regularly cleaned/maintained PCs run FFXIV fine at mid-low spec, install DT Update, video cards overheat at low-low spec.

We have cats; we clean out our PCs like once a month for dust. It's not an issue of lack-of-knowledge.

There were zero problems pre-DT.

There ARE zero problems running other games at medium-low spec (I would say the "newest" being Horizon Forbidden West).

We are not running anything even remotely high-spec'd or 4k.

-that said I'm not saying this isn't my fault- it could 1000% just be old hardware and bad timing. It could just be we were hanging on by a thread pre-DT, and now the old cards are just not minimum spec.

[Edelgarde]

This is why despite having a really high end PC, I still limit my fps to 100 only. Don't need anymore than that. The more you overwork your PC, the faster your components will die.

[AnnRam]

Watch out for your CPU, because FFXIV demands a lot on congested zones. Isn't that heavy GPU.

I've a 3070 at 2k resolution and in main cities it drops to 55 fps because my cpu it's an i7 8700.

[Rekh]

Hopefully they look into this. In the end we also have to put card manufacturer's in this equation; a lot of them have really bad cooling designs; looking at you EVGA (though they no longer make cards). I personally recommend Gigabyte cards, those dudes over there really know how to make quality stuff.

I agree with OP, make sure to monitor your GPU temps; not just in xiv but in all games. But even more important than that, make sure to update your graphics drivers before you play any new game or new expansion; that will usually prevent some weird GPU operations in specific games as well.

This is why despite having a really high end PC, I still limit my fps to 100 only. Don't need anymore than that. The more you overwork your PC, the faster your components will die.

Specially with xiv with all the particle effects.

[GrizzlyTank]

Depending on resolution, your card will run at maximum powerlevels.
My 3080 runs 100% @ 385W in 4K.

Make sure to keep your coolers clean, set your fan curves to something appropriately aggressive during summer and monitor your hardware's temperatures.

This is computing 101. You just learned this the hard way.

Alternatively, limit the gpu's power level. Had some issues with coil whine on mine which was resolved by gutting it's power consumption by... 40%. And now i can still play most game in a fairly silent fan system without any issues.

3060 with i5-10600k.

[Nabril]

You should also check your power supply. It may not be able to provide all of the power your GPU is now asking for. People tend to forget about power supplies. Pro-tip: You can always go big on a P/S. It never hurts to have one bigger than you need, but it'll always hurt to have one that's not big enough.

[Lieri]

Also for people who have heat issues, dont forget to cap the fps to 60. It helps with heat for faster GPU. Mine could run up to 90 fps+ and my GPU temp would reach 90+. After I capped it to 60 FPS, it never went above 80, on average its around 65-75. Also the game physics are broken once you get into high FPS anyway...