Vertical vs Horizontal PC performance

[Urban Chaos 2.0]

Sup folks. I've got a very unusual proposition to make:

There seems to be a problem with most PC cases and GPUs. I started encountering problems some time ago when my PC would BSOD during gameplay (any game), and GPU temps would shoot through the roof. I did all kinds of things to figure out what the fuck was going on, but to no avail. I then had the bright idea to place my computer on its side. That ended the BSODs and boosted gameplay performance by at least 20fps. Somehow my display driver would crash and recover periodically when the my case was upright and normal, but placed on its side, things were fine. I had an MSI Twin Frozr GTX 770 and an EVGA GTX 460 Superclocked (physx) in the system. Eventually, the PC broke completely. Before it broke, it would fail to POST upon booting 9/10 times, but would always be able to resume windows if I put the PC to sleep instead of shutting it down. I suspected the motherboard was damaged, and when the PC failed to POST after the power went out one day, and I tried booting the PC 50 times or so, I through both the board and the case away. The operating system was Windows 8.1. I had downgraded from Windows 10 after experiencing problems and falsely blaming it on the OS.

Anyway, after the PC broke, I went and installed the GTX 460 in an older, windows 7 machine. Things seemed OK but stutter in GP Bikes and even Youtube videos was fucking insane. Really bad. I suspected the PC's disgustingly weak 2.8GHz Dual Core, but things got worse and the display driver started crashing again. I placed the PC on its side again, and the crashes stopped. Not only that, but temps dropped, and performance increased. Very strange.

Now, I wanna try a new PC and a GTX 1070, but it's much heavier than even a GTX 770, and I fear I'll have the same issues. Somehow it seems gravity pulls the cards down in a way that affects contact with the PCIe slots.

So here's my proposition: Could some of  you guys whip out GPU monitering software and see what happens when you place your PCs on their sides as opposed to standing the cases up vertically? I wanna know if anyone else has been having performance issues and yet not realizing the cause.

[janaucarre]

It seems like there is a bad cooling in the case.
Do you have enough fan?
Are they in the right position to extract the warm air out of the case?
Have you try to change the matter between cpu and the socket?
Did you clean the entire case, motherboard...?
Some cpu fan are known to be unsuficiancely to cold the cpu, even if its delivered with cpu
Could you post some screenshot of the pc, interior, exterior and all caracteristics?

[h106frp]

The orientation of PCI cards is not very clever and hot air can become trapped in the bottom of the case below the video card when the case is vertical. This warm air is then re-circulated by the video fan causing temps to rise.

When you rotate horizontal you are allowing the hot air to rise vertically away from the card drawing fresh cool air in and reducing temps.

The only solution I have found for this arrangement when I had a SLI setup was a big fan in the front of the case blowing air into the bottom of the case to force the stale air out.

[Urban Chaos 2.0]

In my case the GTX 770 was being pulled down and inadequately connected to the PCIe slot. When I flipped the case to its side, I saw that the GPU was being thermal throttled heavily. From an expected 1368Mhz (OC) to 900Mhz. In the upright position it throttled to 600Mhz. When on its side, I pushed the GTX 770 to the right even further by hand, and suddenly core clocks shot back up to 1300Mhz+. If I pushed too far, the card would throttle down a tiny bit, or it would crash the system.

I really don't know how things got that bad, but if GPU weight is the cause, I fear I would have no choice but to place the case on its side when I get the GTX 1070. A 1070 I can imagine, is a much heavier card.

[HornetMaX]

A 1070 I can imagine, is a much heavier card.

Same weight for a 770 and a 1070 (unless you compare wildly different models with very different coolers).

[Urban Chaos 2.0]

A 1070 I can imagine, is a much heavier card.

Same weight for a 770 and a 1070 (unless you compare wildly different models with very different coolers).

You sure? I had a pretty good look at MSI's 1070, and I'm pretty sure it's heavier than their 770. I can't find the numbers online, but maybe you have. Care to share them? Also, have you tried placing your case on its side and noting any differences in performance? It can't just be be me can it?

[h106frp]

The card should be deep enough into the slot that the case screw/slot key and retainer clip hold it in place.

If it will not go back fully then it is usually because the case is too shallow (or the stand-offs are too tall) or the card bracket  is too short  - you can sometimes slacken the screws and win a bit on the card bracket.

[HornetMaX]

A 1070 I can imagine, is a much heavier card.

Same weight for a 770 and a 1070 (unless you compare wildly different models with very different coolers).

You sure? I had a pretty good look at MSI's 1070, and I'm pretty sure it's heavier than their 770. I can't find the numbers online, but maybe you have. Care to share them?

Yes I'm sure. I googled the cards specs, not surprisingly I found them on the MSI website. 1065gr for the 770, 1094gr for the 1070.
Why would you think the 1070 weights more ?

Also, have you tried placing your case on its side and noting any differences in performance? It can't just be be me can it?

Didn't try. I have a vertical case and never experienced a problem with a GPU throttling due to thermals. Not even what I had a crossfire of 6850.

[Urban Chaos 2.0]

1070's still heavier, lol.

[HornetMaX]

1070's still heavier, lol.

?

[matty0l215]

None of the major GPU Distributors would make a graphics card currently for a vertical only mounted Graphics card. (e.g. with an air cooler to heavy to mount sideways)

Air cooling will only take a graphics card so far and when the wieght gets to high they will put water cooling loops on (Club 3D AMD R9 Fury or MSI Seahawk line for example)

If you are that worried about GPU "Sag", get a support for it.  (Cable tie the back of the GPU to the top of the case, or they make an adjustable leg)

Also, have a look at this (Skip to 2M 20S)

https://www.youtube.com/v/sjiJ_B0yIMw&feature=youtu.be&t=2m20s

[Urban Chaos 2.0]

I  thought of going "ITX", but Mini-ITX cases are great alternatives to ATX for my ideal setup, but being limited to a single-GPU motherboard and 2 DIMM slots is so damn unappealing.

It seems like there is a bad cooling in the case.
Do you have enough fan?
Are they in the right position to extract the warm air out of the case?
Have you try to change the matter between cpu and the socket?
Did you clean the entire case, motherboard...?
Some cpu fan are known to be unsuficiancely to cold the cpu, even if its delivered with cpu
Could you post some screenshot of the pc, interior, exterior and all caracteristics?

I threw the case and motherboard away, so I can't give pics. The old, test machine I plugged the 460 into suffered from GPU temperature problems at first, but that magically disappeared after a day or two. Whether upright or on it's side, the system runs cool. However, on occasion the display will still crash for no reason. I'll try and find yet another machine to test things on and see, but I see this situation as highly unusual. As for CPU temps, they're fine. My previous system had a 4.2Ghz i5, and the thermal paste on it was indeed old and worn, however that did not account for the GPU issues I was having with the 770. Issues quite similar to what I'm seeing with the 460. I see no point in inserting a 770 into a machine with a 2.8Ghz dual core, so I've not tested the card in the old test machine yet.

Edit: All the testing I performed demonstrated that the motherboard was faulty, and causing issues with the 770. Somehow, even the overheating was a result of the bad connection to the PCIe slot. When I adjusted the seating, everything was fine. The motherboard had some kind of problem which included preventing the system from posting from a cold boot. I would have to try several times, before the board would post. However, whenever resuming windows from sleep mode, it always started up the first time. Eventually stopped working completely, and I tossed it.

[Urban Chaos 2.0]

I just went ahead and ordered the new system. I really need to be able to play The Witcher 3 again. I've been suffering Witcher 3 withdrawal, lol.

[Dented_Can]

Nobody mentioned this, but MSI has a software program free called MSI afterburner. Basically allows you to create a custom fan profile for your GPU. Kinda was having same problem. Found that my GPU fan never spun up pass 50%.
Suspect this was trying to keep fan quiet.
Created profile allowing up to 90% fan rpm, selected temp range. Stopped display driver from crashing. While maintaining temperature

[HornetMaX]

If you need the GPU fan to spin at 90% to avoid crashing, there's something very wrong: wild overclock, no airflow in the case, gpu gone nuts, ...