Nvidia GeForce 6800GT working very hard.

[Clark]

My video card has a fan that changes speed depending on the temp. of the
chipset. I can easily hear it and in WinXP it would only increase speed
when I was playing a game like BF2. In Vista, it seems to run fast all the
time or at least is constantly changing speeds. I am assuming therefore,
that something in Vista is causing the Video Card to do quite a bit of work
and was wondering what it might be. Even after I put the computer to sleep,
the fan speed stayed at a high rate.

I do have Aero turned off (I think). Is there anything else I can try
turning off to cut down on the workload for the video card?

Thanks,
Clark

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Hello,

Windows Vista now uses the Video Card extensively for processing things to
display to the screen, even if you aren't using Aero Glass.

The reasoning here is to move the display-related processing to the graphics
card, so the CPU can be freed up to do more importan things.

After all ... you probably have a pretty large chunk of change invested in
your video card ... wouldn't you like to actually use it

As for the fan operating while your computer is asleep ... that is strange.
There shouldn't be anything going on there in sleep mode.

- JB

 

[Clark]

I'm not sure the sleep mode is working right now. I put it to sleep last
night and this morning it was awake.

I would like to "use" the video card, but I don't want it to die an early
death! I guess I will turn Aero back on since it doesn't seem to make that
much difference.

Thanks,
Clark

 

[Jimmy Brush]

I would like to "use" the video card, but I don't want it to die an early

death!

lol.

Actually, there is one thing you could try; however, this involves disabling
a system service and is not recommended.

- Click Start
- Click Control Panel
- Click System and Maintenance
- Click Administrative Tools
- Double-click services
- If asked for permission, click Continue
- Scroll thru the list, and find "Desktop Window Manager Session Manager"
- Double-click it
- Click STOP
- If you don't want it to start by itself anymore, click the dropdown box
and choose Manual

- JB

 

[Hank]

Don't quote me on this but I have a feeling that the fan speed is controlled
by the video card driver. It's possible that the driver is not working
correctly to control the fan (I seem to remember a threshold setting on some
driver installs) or it's not included yet in the beta driver set release in
May. Here's hoping to a new release soon!

Run Vista for awhile and then boot to XP quickly so that you can view the
temperature settings of the GPU. This will give you and idea where your
threshold is being set in Vista.

It may also be as indicated and that the card is indeed working much harder
due to the increase graphics capacity of the OS as well as more of the
processing being handled by the GPU. So your temperature may constantly be
above the threshold point. Ways to test this, along with the suggestions
already made, would be to reduce the case temperature so that the video card
temperature doesn't get too high too fast. There are several cheap way to
do this with what you have already (it's summer time and temperatures are
typically high everywhere including indoors, heheh.)

Kill the process Jimmy indicates (or unload it by choosing the Windows
Classic appearance) as well.

I have noticed that the machine runs a bit hotter just by virtue of the
increased processing and RAM requirements. Keep in mind that this may be
reduced once the OS is optimized for performance.

 

[Clark]

I will try the process suggestion to see what happens -later!

I am using the Nvidia drivers for the card, so it may have something to do
with the fan speed, I don't know either.

I have already opened the case, since this card seems to get warm fairly
easily. It may just be this brand of card is not designed well.

Thanks,
Clark