GPU Temperatures Playing Valheim - Burned two 3090 Cards in 4K

[CmeFragU]

Hey there fellow Valheim lovers. I am a huge fan of the game and the work. The timing of my new PC build that began in December culminated with finally getting an RTX3090 last week from Microcenter. So I did what any other gamer hooked on Valheim would do, I booted up my new drive, installed Steam and Valheim and dove in to my seed.

My port town that caused my old Intel I7 and Asus 1070Ti to churn out 6 to 10 frames per second now was running in 4K with all the settings cranked up to High (ultra) and delivering at least 30 FPS. I know the game is not even optimized yet, and there is literally only one programmer (Odin Bless your hands). However, I was not monitoring my GPU temps or even considered needing to do this. My first card blacked out, screens blacked out. This was a Gigabyte 3090. I was able to get the PC back online and the video restored, but soon as i booted Valheim again. The Card had enough over temp abuse and blacked out. The PC would not post with the card installed.

The next day and $500.00 more, they had another Gigabyte RTX3090 OC (Vision) available. So I shelled out the extra money and brought that card home. Now before you go judging me (you can laugh at me though), I installed the new card and didn't even consider that the Game was the issue overheating my new card. I thought the card just had a failure. Well that was not the case. My new RTX3090 only lasted a total of 3 hours before it blacked out once, and blocked my PC from posting again.

So my sons, also avid gamers in their late 20's all agreed that I need to monitor the temps for Valheim. So I fired up my trusty MSI Laptop (use mostly for work and pre-Covid Travel.) Installed Valheim, Installed GPUz and MSI's tools for monitoring CPU and GPU performance and temperatures. Fired up Valheim on the recommended 1080p resolution at 120 mHz. It only took a good 1/2 hour walking around my town to get the card up to 90 deg C. before I stopped my log and testing. I let the PC cool down, restarted again in a fairly empty seed I use for Ore transport, and it didn't matter if I was in the Meadows or anywhere else remote in the game, the video temps start to climb and peak up over 80 deg C.

I am guessing this is just a function of the program not being optimized? I can plan other much more graphically challenging titles like FS 2020, Cyberpunk 2077, etc. and I don't get these types of temperatures.

My sons and his friends that also have Valheim installed, logged in and recorded their temps. They were all running in 1080p and all got to within 5 degrees of cuttoff temperatures.

Has anyone else burned up a card (let alone two cards) playing Valheim?

For those curious, the build is as follows:

Aorus X570 Mater
32 Gb Corsair Vengence 3600Mhz DDR 4 ram
EVO 940 1 TB M2 HD (in third slot. not shared with Graphics card)
3 x 1 TB various SSD (two Crucial and one Samsung)
850 Watt Platinum Powersupply (Seasonic - Prime).
3 x 32" LG 4K - 32UK550-B monitors

I am one lucky dude and after a few days of going 3 hours round trip I am getting another 3090 tonight. I will not be playing Valheim.

I truly enjoy this Nordic Minecraft of a game and want to keep on playing it, but will wait until I hear that the development team has optimized the game and that these crazy high temps are not a prevalent.

I am just posting this to save another like-minded-doofus the hassles of ruining their graphics card in a time when vid cards are as scarce as Hens Teeth and cost a small fortune.

[xSOSxHawkens]

Sorry to hear you burned two great cards :/

That said:

First - GPU Fans, and therefore GPU temps, are controlled by the drivers and any third party apps you have installed(think MSI afterburner), not by Valheim.

Second - Though high, 90c is no where near damage level for any modern GPU from either NV or AMD.

Third - Both GPU makers have safety shutdowns in the event of overheat, and both also implement temp-monitored thermal throttling to reduce card performance as much as neccisary (up to and including levels so low that the card can passively cool) when overheating.

Fourth - Vlaheim cannot over rule or override second or third above therfore vlaheim, even if it *was* pushing the cards hard, had nothing to do with the failures aside from being the game you chose to play first both times.

Without knowing more my first thgout was since you use MSI afterburner, it might have kept some type of fan profiles from the 1070 and misconfigured the fans on the 3090's allowing overheat, but that still does not explain why they would not throttle down to protect themselves. I would start to suspect the PSU in that case, the 3090's are a high power draw card. You have a decent PSU, but 850 is still a bit low for what I would want on a 3090 build.

Edit: Also, 4K had nothing to do with it either.

[Axsdenied]

I've got over 200 hours in this game on my 3090 FE card without issue or excessive heat. i can ASSURE you, you have a cooling problem.

GAMES don't break machines...Games can highlight pre-existing issues...
-if your system can't handle power spikes, thats your system, not the game (check motherboard or powersupply sizing/health)
-If your cards are dying due to heat, thats your cooling situation, not the game

[Myth]

i think you purchased a fake card off wish dude....these cards will thermal throttle at 84 i believe.

[LordOfTheBread]

press X to doiubt several times that OP "burned" 2 x 3090. Cards are not catching fire playing video games (there are a few failsafes in the firware / drivers, just a few...).

This has a strong BS smell ybh.

[Kyru]

This is why I always run FurMark when I get a new GPU... Haven't tested on 3090, but with 1070 and 3070 I haven't had any temperature issues.

I'd look into your GPU software's overclock and fan curve settings. Most generally shouldn't allow this to happen without something going very wrong. A decent number of GPUs have had issues not following the fan curve set, so I'd look if your GPU is one of those. NVIDIA ships them out with a temperature cap of 83 degrees, but this generally gets tweaked by gaming companies wanting to advertise higher clock speeds.

There is also the chance the GPUs just came deffective twice in a row. Not likely, but always a chance.

Overall very strange situation. Haven't read through comments, but did you not hear your fans screaming before they burnt out? Even with a scuffed fan curve, they'd still be hitting 100% by 90 degrees. Once it hits 100%, my PC sounds like a tiny jet trying to take off, which generally is a good sign that I'm doing something wrong.

[GM Pax]

Originally posted by CmeFragU:

Has anyone else burned up a card (let alone two cards) playing Valheim?

There is something seriously wrong with your computer, if you're literally burning out graphics cards within a matter of hours.

My guess would be, you have crappy airflow inside your case. Maybe also just the one, default, case fan. And your GPU and CPU are both dumping their heat inside the case, rather than externally.

Fix that.

Or get used to burning expensive components out every day or so.
...

[...] laptop [...][/b]

AHA. Found that airflow problem for you.

Get a REAL computer.

[Whiplash711]

One simple solution.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/268850/EVGA_Precision_X1/

The other is to realize that your PC's health is on YOU and no one else people. Devs are not responsible for your PC. Care for it like you do you car or your school books. Watch it like you do how you spend money. That software is here on Steam Free, effective and just what OP needs. Burning your PC is never on the game, no more than seizing your care engine is on your mechanic. Keep an eye on your Temp/Oil on your own.

[MasterMind]

Originally posted by xSOSxHawkens:

Sorry to hear you burned two great cards :/

That said:

First - GPU Fans, and therefore GPU temps, are controlled by the drivers and any third party apps you have installed(think MSI afterburner), not by Valheim.

Second - Though high, 90c is no where near damage level for any modern GPU from either NV or AMD.

Third - Both GPU makers have safety shutdowns in the event of overheat, and both also implement temp-monitored thermal throttling to reduce card performance as much as neccisary (up to and including levels so low that the card can passively cool) when overheating.

Fourth - Vlaheim cannot over rule or override second or third above therfore vlaheim, even if it *was* pushing the cards hard, had nothing to do with the failures aside from being the game you chose to play first both times.

Without knowing more my first thgout was since you use MSI afterburner, it might have kept some type of fan profiles from the 1070 and misconfigured the fans on the 3090's allowing overheat, but that still does not explain why they would not throttle down to protect themselves. I would start to suspect the PSU in that case, the 3090's are a high power draw card. You have a decent PSU, but 850 is still a bit low for what I would want on a 3090 build.

Edit: Also, 4K had nothing to do with it either.

Yah this all day...those cards dude got were junk/defective...there is no way without hacking the gpus firmware to actually cause them to burn out, they are defective cards...a bad capacitor on the cards is likely the cause.

[MasterMind]

Originally posted by 𝓝𝓪𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓫𝓸𝓲:

Uhm, you have bigger issues if your cards are running at that temp....

Blaming it on Valheim is silly. Also $500 for a 3090? I think you got scammed bro.

yah $500 for 3090s...they were junk cards and the person selling them knew it.

[Nyu]

blame a game for being a NOOB.

just flew over that mess of text, but SURE that you got near christmas another 3090.


maybe learn to build a pc and stop seeking attention

[LordOfTheBread]

Originally posted by MasterMind:

Originally posted by 𝓝𝓪𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓫𝓸𝓲:

Uhm, you have bigger issues if your cards are running at that temp....

Blaming it on Valheim is silly. Also $500 for a 3090? I think you got scammed bro.

yah $500 for 3090s...they were junk cards and the person selling them knew it.

All 3090 cards that exist today are under warranty (unless you completely took them apart or something).

If OP story is real, wich I seriously doubt, then complete RMA with cards manufacturer and they will be returned fixed or replaced.

Games are not buring hardware eventho Valheim tends to push way too many frames to your GPU so it tends to overheat.

Just limit your FPS in nvidia control panel to the refresh rate of your monotor and you're golden.

I hope this get fixed soon but it does not burn hardware, nothing will exept crazy overclocking.

[Mno]

TL:DR OP bought a $500 RTX "3090" and it burned to a crisp.

I could roast you worse than Valheim roasted your Chinese knock-off GPU but you're such low hanging fruit I'll let someone else have this one.

To answer your question though, the last time I had a GPU burn was back in 2002, however that one was an ATi card, which would sooner set your house on fire than render anything properly. I've never heard of any Nvidia or even AMD-branded GPU's getting cooked to death, they're supposed to shut down if the temperature reaches critical and stay that way until they cool off.

In other words, the only way Valheim burned your GPU is if A. It was a faulty GPU, B. It wasn't what you thought it was. I'm betting on the latter judging by the price you quoted, lmao.

[ppakur]

Originally posted by LordOfTheDread:

Just limit your FPS in nvidia control panel to the refresh rate of your monotor and you're golden.

This isn't a solution, there's something wrong with OP's PC. Either some hardware piece is broken, bios settings are wrong or card was stupidly overclocked. Healthy hardware won't commit sudoku because of the game.

BTW why is 90 degrees considered high? Once I've had gaming laptop which had GPU running at 95-98 in almost every game I've played and I've used it for 5 years without a single malfunction.

[LordOfTheBread]

Originally posted by ppakur:

Originally posted by LordOfTheDread:

Just limit your FPS in nvidia control panel to the refresh rate of your monotor and you're golden.

This isn't a solution, there's something wrong with OP's PC. Either some hardware piece is broken, bios settings are wrong or card was stupidly overclocked. Healthy hardware won't commit sudoku because of the game.

BTW why is 90 degrees considered high? Once I've had gaming laptop which had GPU running at 95-98 in almost every game I've played and I've used it for 5 years without a single malfunction.

The solution is to stop spewing lies on Steam forums for starters. A 3090 at 500$ does not exist let alone 2. No matter what's wrong with your PC it will just shut down instead of burning out.

This whole thread is BS period.

[CmeFragU]

Love the varied replies. Too bad half of you commenting didn't read the full thread and my replies. I paid $1700.00 for the first card. That blacked out after 3 days (PC wouldn't post afterwards with card plugged in). The second card was $500.00 MORE than the first card when they exchanged that one for me, So $2200.00 invested. Luckily they gave me a full refund after the second card failed. I got lucky today and was able to get another card. Their voucher system has people camping out in chairs outside the store overnight just to get the ability to get a card. it doesnt guarantee you get one. So I am very grateful.

I am also appreciative to a number of the suggestions.

So as of this post, I now have the newest 3090 installed. This one is an MSI. Running GPUz and keeping log files and screen shots. So far with just one 4 K monitor, and graphics punched to high in Valheim, I am only getting 58 C for the GPU and 69 C for my HotSpot. That is while i am stressing it in my port town and getting around 14 FPS. Boar pen near me, bee hives, all torches lit up, etc./ etc..

My next test will be to let it all rest a while, start it back up with two monitors attached. Get that baseline, then try playing Valheim on one monitor while the other is in 4K in windows (browser, discord, Teamspeak, etc running). If that goes well and the temps stay low, I will get to that last step and try again with all three 32" 4K monitors.

Please note, I am only bringing up the temperature issue while playing this game, as it was the first thing that was brought to my attention. I don't know why two Gigabyte 3090 cards blacked out (first in 3 days, second in 3 hours). I am being very cautious now and have confirmed all my fans running, and airflow directions.