Wondering why my video card which normally ran around 30-34 Celsius is not peaking around 50 Celsius running swtor.

It is not like swtor uses a video card like most other games due..

I have a fairly new msi 980 twin frozr 6 gig TI

 

Nothing that special was done to the graphics in 5.0 to make my card make more heat for nearly nothing extra.

 

Normally I run around 40ish in RIFT which uses a video card far more then SWTOR does and multicores to boot real nice for sure..

 

Nothing is wrong with my system so i cant figure out why swtor is making my video card run warm for no reason.

Even when i manually crank the fans to 100% it still stays warm and I dont even need to run them at 100% in warthunder which puts a huge demand on CPU and GPU

 

Anyone techs who can figure what is diiferent in 5.9 to put a demand on my video card?

 

Len 2017

Frankly, 50 degrees peak on GPU is nothing. That card could probably withstand twice as much if necessary. I wouldn't worry about it.

Nothing that special was done to the graphics in 5.0 to make my card make more heat for nearly nothing extra.

 

Go back and read the 5.0 patch notes. They DID make quite a few performance adjustments to the client, and many people have noted improved frame rates from it. AND.... with improved frame rates comes higher load on the GPU.

 

Personally, I lock my frame rate to 60 in the preferences, as this prevents runaway frame rates that can happen in idle areas. Prior to 5.0.. I would see 45-60 fps consistently, with the variations depending on where I was and what was going on. With 5.0, I now see 59-60 fps no matter where I am or what is going on. My GPU temps have gone up about 7 degrees C on average as a result. Fan nevers gets above 50% though... so with system settings as is... my PC is not worried or it would be boosting fan rpms...... and neither am I.

 

You will also notice quite a few shading, lighting, and texture changes in 5.0.

 

Overall, 5.0 was a nice performance boost.

Edited December 13, 2016 by Andryah

Another consideration, is if you're using Win10, the anniversary ed. has some well-documented issues with added system load.

 

You may not have noticed the problem before, but with the changes to the engine it might have exacerbated the problem.

Also, make sure you are cleaning the dust out of your computer on a regular basis.

 

The Witcher 3 made my video card get really hot. When I got down and looked underneath I noticed it was caked with dust that escaped my dusting with compressed air.

This is an issue for me too. Yesterday my computer did a hard shut down in the middle of a heroic boss fight on hoth because the video card ran too hot. I've been playing Swtor for 5 years and I've never ever had that happen. Also sometimes I notice the background flickers. It wasn't doing that before the update. Edited December 13, 2016 by Aeristash

likes other have said. Make sure your card is dust free.

 

GPU's are designed to remain stable at default clock speeds into the 90's°C. 60-80°C on air at peak load is usually considered normal.

 

My 980ti is sitting at 32°C on AIO water. It's also getting colder in my room...Which reminds me. Check your ambient temps.

The release of 5.0 saw a massive improvement in the system performance as a whole and I noticed my GPU went from about 40-50% usage to well over 80%, obviously based on cooling and airflow in a case will depend on how much increase in temps you will find. But 50C is really nothing to worry about since I know NVIDIA cards will start throttling performance as it approaches 90C, don't know what it is for AMD, sorry.

Thanks for all the good comments.

My frame rates are insanely in the middle 200s and rarely go below 150

I should lock them as stated .

I blow my computers out once a month and use 80+ pounds of air per system

Got to love a air compressor "CAN of AIR wish i thought of that money making deal "

P.S. yes it is dial down to 30 psi which isnt going to hurt anything and yes when it is cold I let the system warm in room heat before i turn it back and and I have 2 water separators.. I value my air tools lol

 

I didnt think with the 2 bit engine they are using they could do much to performance since the engine was outdated when they got it...Tablets are running 32 bit now like SWTOR.. Not sure why we are stuck with such a WOW style engine .

 

Thanks for the comments

 

Len 2017

I have a temp sensor on my gpu and have not noticed any major change in temps. They seem rather normal overall.

 

I did notice the massive fps increase. Use to be peaks about 112-115fps now. Avg is 130fps with peaks up to 230fps. Along with the improved look in the game.

Edited December 14, 2016 by Vyerix

I have a temp sensor on my gpu and have not noticed any major change in temps. They seem rather normal overall.

 

I did notice the massive fps increase. Use to be peaks about 112-115fps now. Avg is 130fps with peaks up to 230fps. Along with the improved look in the game.

 

Yeah... it took them 5 years, but I think they may have finally nerfed all the "game engine sucks" threads with this patch.

This is an issue for me too. Yesterday my computer did a hard shut down in the middle of a heroic boss fight on hoth because the video card ran too hot. I've been playing Swtor for 5 years and I've never ever had that happen. Also sometimes I notice the background flickers. It wasn't doing that before the update.

 

Either your card needs a clean, you've overclocked it or there is a rather major issue with your software/driver in how it's handling it's fan/cooling policy.

 

Beyond that you should never get a card overheating with 100% fan speed. It's most likely the fan/cooling policy not actually pushing the fan up as the temps rise correctly. I run my own policies for this using MSI Afterburner so it cranks up to certain % of fan speed depending on the temperature and have never had issues ( except when for whatever reason MSIA hasn't loaded on boot and I hit top end temps at which time my gpu downclocks itself and I notice performance hits but reload the app and problem solved ).

Probably poor optimization. Grassy areas in Taris used to lower my fps, but I haven't been in those places in some time.

Either your card needs a clean, you've overclocked it or there is a rather major issue with your software/driver in how it's handling it's fan/cooling policy.

 

Beyond that you should never get a card overheating with 100% fan speed. It's most likely the fan/cooling policy not actually pushing the fan up as the temps rise correctly. I run my own policies for this using MSI Afterburner so it cranks up to certain % of fan speed depending on the temperature and have never had issues ( except when for whatever reason MSIA hasn't loaded on boot and I hit top end temps at which time my gpu downclocks itself and I notice performance hits but reload the app and problem solved ).

 

Good advice. I'm too scared to overclock but I think you're right about it needing a clean so I went ahead and ordered a vaccumer & fan coolant system from Amazon this morning. While I wait I'll just keep my setting on low. That seems to help some.

Edited December 14, 2016 by Aeristash

Good advice. I'm too scared to overclock but I think you're right about it needing a clean so I went ahead and ordered a vaccumer & fan coolant system from Amazon this morning. While I wait I'll just keep my setting on low. That seems to help some.

 

Manually crank your fan to 100% also while gaming if it's not hitting that level already. Plenty of software out there that does that as well as usually being able to do it at driver level ( unless things have changed, I've not looked in a long time since I use MISA to do it all ).

The OP has a point. My card is the same way, ran perfectly nice and cool with great framerates the day before 5.0, after the expansion, at the exact same settings, the fan is going wild all of the time. Performance tuning does not mean higher framerates at higher GPU usage, it means higher framerates at similar GPU usage.

 

Maybe they helped people with the most modern GPUs (that can gobble up the extra demand without burping), but for some of us with older cards/systems, we can no longer get the quality of eye candy we used to without a heavier GPU load and hotter temps.