I just updated my 2006 Mac Pro (4 cores) with an ATI Radeon HD 5770. The card's fan almost never comes on during normal use but it runs continuously when SETI@HOME is running. My old GPU wasn't used by SETI so this issue never came up before. Simple question - will running SETI about 12 hours a day shorten the life of the GPU significantly?

I just updated my 2006 Mac Pro (4 cores) with an ATI Radeon HD 5770. The card's fan almost never comes on during normal use but it runs continuously when SETI@HOME is running. My old GPU wasn't used by SETI so this issue never came up before. Simple question - will running SETI about 12 hours a day shorten the life of the GPU significantly?

It could. Watch your temps for a better idea.

That said, If you use your GPU for other activities, it will probably live longer than your desire to keep it does. It was not so long ago I was in hog heaven with 64MB on a video card. These days that would not allow many things to even start.

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Janice

Realistically speaking, as long as the cooling solution works and keeps the card's components within operational spec you will replace it long before it "wears" out.

Typically the weakest link will be the fan on the heat sink and if you keep it from getting tangled in dust and hair that should last years.

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AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE with 4x manufacturer OCed GTX260-216.
GPUs continuously ~ 1 ½ years 24/7.

Intel Core2 Duo E7600 with manufacturer OCed GTX260-216.
GPU continuously ~ 1 year 24/7.

Automatic fan control.

Until now all fine.

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This is true for me, for sure. I bought a GTX 460 768mb in September and I'm already salivating at the new 570's. Lately I've been getting the replacement itch within a year of buying a new board.

The one before this one was a 9800 GTX+ and I had it less than a year.


Hello, my name is Will and I'm an upgrade-aholic. :)

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Man's future lies in the stars, not on Earth. It is each successive generation's responsibility to humanity to expand the knowledge and understanding of our Universe so that we may one day venture forth to meet our neighbors.

Houston, Texas

Some of the Nvidia cards run far too hot, but the ATIs seem to be able to keep themselves cooler. My 3870 has been full bore for 2 years and is still going strong as long as i clean it once in a while. My GTX 280 blew after 10 months even kept clean (They are a pain to take apart for a proper cleaning)

Take a look in catalyst at what the temps are running at. If they are in the 70s you are probably fine, much higher and the card will be "wearing out" faster.

Better yet install Rivatuner and set up a custom fan speed profile....(Is there a Mac version????)

Some of the Nvidia cards run far too hot, but the ATIs seem to be able to keep themselves cooler. My 3870 has been full bore for 2 years and is still going strong as long as i clean it once in a while. My GTX 280 blew after 10 months even kept clean (They are a pain to take apart for a proper cleaning)

Take a look in catalyst at what the temps are running at. If they are in the 70s you are probably fine, much higher and the card will be "wearing out" faster.

Better yet install Rivatuner and set up a custom fan speed profile....(Is there a Mac version????)

I'm not seeing your reasoning. With my 480 crunching two at a time I'm only running 70c now? In fact it doesn't run much hotter than my GTS 250 or my 8800 under load from Seti. Under full bore stress testing like furmark it can climb as high as 80c. Thank god for cool ambient temps and great fans? Sometimes the review complaining about how high these cards run in temps are laughable when you see the cases they are running these things in, IE no push pull fans, much less a top vent.

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Traveling through space at ~67,000mph!

I just had to cash in a GTX260 for warranty replacement from EVGA...
The new one is due here tomorrow.

I think it lasted less than a year. I do luv lifetime warranties.

A couple of the cores on my GTX295s will no longer OC as well as they used to, I have had to back them off. But until they fail outright, or can't stand up at their stock speed, they are not candidates for replacement.

Many folks have wondered how long these things can possibly hold up at the blistering temps they run at.

But, they help heat the home.

I suppose a bit of nichrome wire would be a cheaper way to turn electricity into heat, but it don't crunch.......

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

Water cooling is awesome. My two 480's are heavilly over clocked running 3 wu's each, and the temps never get above 50°C. I hope I get several years out of them, but time will tell.

Steve

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Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

My GTX295 is still boxed and in pristine form. Forever, I think as I'm seriously doubting to put it into my system. Not only because it'll take close to 500W under load, but also because minimum PSU is 700W needed for the GTX295 alone, any other videocard in there as well and add 300W. I only have 700W and a good gaming ATI. :-)

(That one GTX295... thing is, no one says how heavy it is, I wonder if the PCI-E slot can hold it. ;-))

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My GTX295 is still boxed and in pristine form. Forever, I think as I'm seriously doubting to put it into my system. Not only because it'll take close to 500W under load, but also because minimum PSU is 700W needed for the GTX295 alone, any other videocard in there as well and add 300W. I only have 700W and a good gaming ATI. :-)

(That one GTX295... thing is, no one says how heavy it is, I wonder if the PCI-E slot can hold it. ;-))

Kitties want your 295......

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

I just updated my 2006 Mac Pro (4 cores) with an ATI Radeon HD 5770. The card's fan almost never comes on during normal use but it runs continuously when SETI@HOME is running. My old GPU wasn't used by SETI so this issue never came up before. Simple question - will running SETI about 12 hours a day shorten the life of the GPU significantly?

Speaking from some experience in the chip industry, the lifetime specs once were set using a criterion of a certain number of fails in seven years. But, seven years became five years (perhaps shorter for some companies) because obsolesence became the lifetime limiter and the companies could justify the costs of an occasional "early" fail in consumer products. Also, fails in reliability testing are defined in terms of use conditions, where computing Seti 24x7x52 is most likely not ever considered a normal use condition. In which case, expect failure earlier. Therefore, cooling to the manufacturer spec is not going to help per se, and a lower temperature may be the only recourse.

But as boards, they are likely to fail even earlier than that due to the fact boards are systems of chips and discretes. The failure probabilies compound. But recently and more importantly, fradulent counterfeit parts recycled in Asia are being used; this is especially a problem for discretes. For example, has anyone noticed the increased number of switching power supplies and motherboards going belly-up due to discretes, especially capacitors? This is a real problem with various industry groups and government trying to contain it for various reasons. The soution here is to better vet our suppliers, but as consumers our abilities are limited.

I just updated my 2006 Mac Pro (4 cores) with an ATI Radeon HD 5770. The card's fan almost never comes on during normal use but it runs continuously when SETI@HOME is running. My old GPU wasn't used by SETI so this issue never came up before. Simple question - will running SETI about 12 hours a day shorten the life of the GPU significantly?

So I finally downloaded a temperature sensor and now I'm really puzzled. The Northbridge temp is about 84C when no fans are running, but after running SETI, it drops to 54C. Could SETI actually be helping?

Sounds like you have messed up temp gauges, or a bad air flow case so when the fans kick up higher it's doing something.

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Traveling through space at ~67,000mph!

Sounds like you have messed up temp gauges, or a bad air flow case so when the fans kick up higher it's doing something.

A thorough cleaning seems to have knocked about 5 degrees off ;-)

Sounds like you have messed up temp gauges, or a bad air flow case so when the fans kick up higher it's doing something.

A thorough cleaning seems to have knocked about 5 degrees off ;-)

Every cruncher needs a can of compressed air. I just blew the dust out of my radiators and chiller again, which I do every 3 or 4 days. Once every couple of weeks, I open up the case, and clean out the whole rig. Heat is the enemy.

Steve

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Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

I clean the inside of my case every 3 months or so, which there is never much in there thank good for dust filters! Then about once a week or so I pull all my dust filters and clean them really good. I also make sure to hit up my power supply vents really nice it seems to attract more than anything and especially make sure you clean those fan blades ever so often. When they start building up dust on the blades it causes irregular turbulence in the air meaning less throughput on the fans.

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Traveling through space at ~67,000mph!

Just don't shoot the compressed air into free spinning blades - the resulting rpm's can be high enough to damage the bearings.

I did have a GT8800 die because of constant overheating - lifetime replacement gave me a GTS250 that now I don't use for crunching anymore.

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Just don't shoot the compressed air into free spinning blades - the resulting rpm's can be high enough to damage the bearings.

I did have a GT8800 die because of constant overheating - lifetime replacement gave me a GTS250 that now I don't use for crunching anymore.

I generally wipe mine down with Alcohol soaked wipes. Safest and easiest way. Plus it cleans any "germs" those fans could be spreading and it makes all the dirt stick instead of smear!

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Traveling through space at ~67,000mph!

I just had to cash in a GTX260 for warranty replacement from EVGA...
The new one is due here tomorrow.

I think it lasted less than a year. I do luv lifetime warranties.

A couple of the cores on my GTX295s will no longer OC as well as they used to, I have had to back them off. But until they fail outright, or can't stand up at their stock speed, they are not candidates for replacement.

Many folks have wondered how long these things can possibly hold up at the blistering temps they run at.

But, they help heat the home.

I suppose a bit of nichrome wire would be a cheaper way to turn electricity into heat, but it don't crunch.......

I'm going to water cool Mine, I just bought a used Koolance vid-nx295s water block and I'm bidding on another one from the same seller, Of course both are used. Eventually I'll find a 3rd vid-nx295s of course.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST