Was looking at my system temperature monitoring software and noticed that my GPU is idling (no GPU-intensive applications beyond Windows Aero) at 62 degrees Celsius. It's an Asus-Nvidia ENGTX260-Core216 running two monitors (1920x1080, 1600x900).

Is it supposed to idle this high? I just used MSI Afterburner to turn the fan up, and cool it to roughly 50 degrees. Doesn't seem like giving the fan more oomph than 61% really does anything.

On a side-note, anyone know of any free software similar to Asus' EPU-6 engine for automated power/fan/clocking management (for the computer in general, CPU/RAM/etc)? I'm not really sure it's doing the best job of keeping my computer's parts in good order after this spell.

Yeah that's pretty high. My new 560ti 2GB idles around 40-45*C. It used idle in the high 50's (and like 75-80*C in games) before I download EVGA's graphics card tool that has a basic fan profile that increases the speed as it gets hotter. It's called EVGA Precision, but I'm not certain if it's compatible with non EVGA brand cards.

@MrKlorox said:

Yeah that's pretty high. My new 560ti 2GB idles around 40-45*C. It used idle in the high 50's (and like 75-80*C in games) before I download EVGA's graphics card tool that has a basic fan profile that increases the speed as it gets hotter.

The lowest I can jam mine is to 48 degrees C, and that's only if I put the fan to 100% (i.e. it makes a bloody racket in my apartment). I have it scaling like that now on MSI's software, but I don't really know why it's running so hot.

Could it be my case in general? EPU seems to do a pretty rubbish job, but I haven't found replacement software and everything looked normal last I checked.

I use EVGA precision for watching that stuff and OCing. 
 
Technically as long as its not going over 90c (I think 110 is max before you do start to do damage if I recall but why would you want to hit the ceiling of heat? haha) at any given time you should be fine. 
I don't know what the idle temp should be for that card, sorry, I have a EVGA NVidia GTX 560 ti 448 and it idles at about 45c on average (give or take).  
Since you have 2 monitors I can only speculate but maybe thats why it idles so high(?). I dont really know. Just a guess.

Just some suggestions: Be sure to clean out your case every once in a while, I blow it out with air once a week. All that dust doesn't help the temps. Also, having case fans helps to circulate the air into and out of the case. I'm not sure exactly the best way to do this, so I would suggest researching where to place the fans, and which direction for them to blow. I've just stuck with where the case manufacturer installed the fans, and it works fine. Mine is currently idling at 35*C

Edit: One more suggestion is to keep the case in a well ventilated area.

60C is pretty high if it's just idling, I'd look at getting some extra case fans. You could also get some compressed air and blow some dust out of everything. That will help to reduce heat in the case. Just make sure the computer is off when you do it and make sure not to overuse the air, it gets cold and starts spitting out liquid shit. Good way to fry some components.

Edit: Some cards just naturally idle hot and only go like 20-25 degrees hotter under load. Some cards idle low but skyrocket when subjected to load. Check and see what your temps are under load, it could be your card just runs hot idle. Still, it's a good idea to clean it with some compressed air.

@Bwast said:

Edit: Some cards just naturally idle hot and only go like 20-25 degrees hotter under load. Some cards idle low but skyrocket when subjected to load. Check and see what your temps are under load, it could be your card just runs hot idle. Still, it's a good idea to clean it with some compressed air.

Under load, I haven't seen it exceed 75, running the most GPU-intensive games I have (Saints Row 3 and Skyrim).

I just thought the idle seemed a bit high.

@Aus_azn said:

@Bwast said:

Edit: Some cards just naturally idle hot and only go like 20-25 degrees hotter under load. Some cards idle low but skyrocket when subjected to load. Check and see what your temps are under load, it could be your card just runs hot idle. Still, it's a good idea to clean it with some compressed air.

Under load, I haven't seen it exceed 75, running the most GPU-intensive games I have (Saints Row 3 and Skyrim).

I just thought the idle seemed a bit high.

if you're not going over 75 in saints 3 or skyrim that seems pretty good. But yeah that idle temp seems high. I've never seen my idle temp over 40C on my 560ti. but I have aero turned off and it's only driving my 1080p TV.

I've got a 560ti and an i5 crammed into one of those little Shuttle cases with a 500W supply. The card gets to about 80-85C in saints and skyrim with max gfx settings. Pretty terrible airflow. It's never locked up or shut down tho and the CPU cores stay pretty low.

@Aus_azn said:

Was looking at my system temperature monitoring software and noticed that my GPU is idling (no GPU-intensive applications beyond Windows Aero) at 62 degrees Celsius. It's an Asus-Nvidia ENGTX260-Core216 running two monitors (1920x1080, 1600x900).

Is it supposed to idle this high? I just used MSI Afterburner to turn the fan up, and cool it to roughly 50 degrees. Doesn't seem like giving the fan more oomph than 61% really does anything.

On a side-note, anyone know of any free software similar to Asus' EPU-6 engine for automated power/fan/clocking management (for the computer in general, CPU/RAM/etc)? I'm not really sure it's doing the best job of keeping my computer's parts in good order after this spell.

When I had a GTX 260, it usually idled around 50 C and peaked at 70 C under load. And that's with the fan never going below 60%, so you're numbers aren't that far off. Also notice that when you're running dual monitors that have different resolutions, your GPU will never go into a power saving mode (unless you have in your power settings to power off your monitors after a certain period of time.) so it will be running at full 3D clocks all the time, unless you use MSI Afterburner (or other apps like Rivatuner) to specify lower 2D clocks. MSI Afterburner is also useful in creating custom fan profiles based on temperature.

Mine idles at 31 C, so I'd say yours is getting pretty high. Obviously, not having two monitors myself makes it easier on my card, but I don't think yours should be that high. Does your case have good airflow?

Edit: 75 C doesn't like that big of a jump for when you're playing games though.

@MrKlorox said:

@Aus_azn: 75 doesn't seem terrible under 100% constant GPU load like SR3 or Skyrim (with SSAO and FXAA on). Do you experience artifacting or stray polygons or other side effects of overheating?

Nope. And I pretty much max Skyrim, as inadvisable as that sounds. SR3 barely runs on high. No real problem there.

@tourgen said:

I've got a 560ti and an i5 crammed into one of those little Shuttle cases with a 500W supply. The card gets to about 80-85C in saints and skyrim with max gfx settings. Pretty terrible airflow. It's never locked up or shut down tho and the CPU cores stay pretty low.

Mine's only done that on a couple of occasions, where Skyrim just blacks out the screens and the computer stops responding. I think that's more of a Skyrim issue, though, since it's the only problem game that I have.

@spazmaster666 said:

When I had a GTX 260, it usually idled around 50 C and peaked at 70 C under load. And that's with the fan never going below 60%, so you're numbers aren't that far off. Also notice that when you're running dual monitors that have different resolutions, your GPU will never go into a power saving mode (unless you have in your power settings to power off your monitors after a certain period of time.) so it will be running at full 3D clocks all the time, unless you use MSI Afterburner (or other apps like Rivatuner) to specify lower 2D clocks. MSI Afterburner is also useful in creating custom fan profiles based on temperature.

That's exactly what I'm doing now: Fan with MSI AB where the fan speed is set to 10 percent higher than the temperature that the card currently is. Your experience makes me feel a bit better, since that's exactly what I get now.

What made you get rid of your 260, BTW? I'm still relatively new to building my own rig (i.e. this was my first, which was an OEM skeleton with selected parts upgraded, from back when the 260 first came out).

That is fairly high for idle. That card should be around 45-50 idle (depending on room temperature). To give you an idea my GTX 570 idles at 33 c and load at 50-55, and that is with an overclock running a single 1920 x 1080 monitor, I then have a GTX 9800+ running a 1600 x 900 monitor and it idles at 35 c, both with automatic fan settings. It all depends on your case/ambient temperatures to be honest, but the 260 (which I had until it died) was a hot card.

@Aus_azn said:

What made you get rid of your 260, BTW? I'm still relatively new to building my own rig (i.e. this was my first, which was an OEM skeleton with selected parts upgraded, from back when the 260 first came out).

The performance was suffering (especially at 1920x1200) so I replaced it with a HD5870 in back in August of 2010 (right around when Starcraft 2 came out). I mean it's still a decent card (I was still able to play Crysis 2 on it at a decent FPS when I was waiting for my GTX 570 after selling my HD5870s) and I did use it for my pseudo-HTPC (though I have since replaced it with a GTX460 and handed it off to my parents for their PC).

Depends on the card; different ones have kinda different max temps. Though, as others have said, idling in the 60s is bad regardless. My EVGA GTX 560 Ti idles at 32, for example. Gets up into the 80s during games. My EVGA GTX 275 ran in the high 80s/low 90s during especially intensive games.