Z800 with Quadro 4000 very high usage

[LucaMauri]

Hi there,

I am posting here to get understanding and possibly help for a strange behavior I have with my Z800 machine.

This machine is running Windows 10 x64 Pro and it is equipped with a Nvidia Quadro 4000 graphics board.
The system is basically quiet and not very hot, but my issue is that everything I turn on any kind of graphical software, the system become immediately extremely loud and hot, due to the Quadro 4000 fan.

I understand that, obviously, the graphical card is generating heat under heavy load, but my issue is that it spike to max power for any kind of graphical computation.

For instance, just by browsing the internet, any webpage that has a small Flash animation or anything inside, will immediately spike the Q4000 to maximum clock, heat production and surely ventilation.

I ended up disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome to avoid this very annoying behaviour.

Same thing for application like AutoCAD: as soon as I turn it on, it apparently commands the graphics card to immediately run at high clock rate. Even if I am not drawing at all, or just drawing very basic 2D object, the graphics card appears to be running at maximum capacity.

I noticed that this, strangely, also happens with some completely non-graphical related tasks. For instance I noticed that Visual Studio installation program spikes the GPU usage as well (while the IDE itself does not produce this behavior).

For your reference, please find following an example of idle status of the machine:

While the following image shows what's happening after a few minutes of AutoCAD basic drawing (just 2D design)

Now the basic question: is everything OK here and the behavior of the card is the one I should expect and I simply misunderstood how it works, or is something actually wrong and I should do something to fix it?

Thanks for any insights you might provide.

Luca

[BambiBoomZ]

LucaMauri,

The brief answer to your query is that the Quadro 4000 is itself a very hot running graphics card.  I've had two of them and during one long rendering session, the tempertature reached 102C- the card limit. Some ideas to solve the problem:

1. First, try pepping up the z800 fans a bit.  if the z800 has a "Thermal" setting in BIOS that lets you advance the fan idle speed, change that up a few asterisks.  I did that today on a z620 and the CPU temeratures that were 43-44C are now 37-38C.

2. If that is not sufficient, there were a couple of alternative cooling solutions, one was a an expensive water block- $150 or so, and the other- still available at $60-$70 new  is the Gelid "Icy Vision" specifically for the Quadro 4000, though I think it fits whatever the GTX version of the 4000 was at the time also. 

3. The problem with the Quadro 4000 was that it is a single height card and a large volume of air can't be easily pushed out the back.  These days, instead of spending $65 on a Quadro 4000 cooler, consider selling the Quadro 4000, which are still desirable, and adding the sales value to the cooler and buying a Quadro 5000 (2.5GB) which does use a bit more power,  but is a double height card, cooler and cosequently cooler running.  The performance of the 5000 is noticeably better as well.  On Passmark , the average 3D mark for the Quadro 4000 is 1935 and the for the Quadro 5000- 2710.

4.  If your budget is flexible there are two very good values for Quadros:  A. , the excellent K620 (2GB) Passmark = 2276 and uses very littel power,  producing very litle heat.  These are $160 or so new or used for $90-$100. and B. The new Quadro M2000 (4GB)- $430 or so and Passmark =  4443, very similar to a Quadro K4200 - with 4434 but that cost $830 new and not that long ago.  It also uses so little power it runs off the PCIe slot alone. That's relativel;y expensive,  but would be suitable for professional use for longer than the other options and be transferrred to the next system.

I have a Quadro K2200 in the z620 which is an analysis  / simulation / renderin/g system,  but that may well become a M2000 in a the Spring. and the K2200 can go to the second z420, which is for graphic design.  The K2200 has one the higher 2D performances for recent Quadros. 

Probably early-mid next yearthere is also going to be a new line of Pascal Quadros- the top end ones P5000 and P6000 are announced and that series is going to be astroundingly good.  The "P4000" - conjectural name- situated below the  P5000 if true to form ( based on GTX 1060- might be close to K6000 level.

Power Usage:

Quadro 4000: 142 W  

Quadro 5000 : 152 W

Quadro K620 : 45 W

Quadro K4200: 108 W

Quadro M2000: 75 W

Cheers,

BambiBoomZ

z420  > Xeon E5- 1660 v2 / 32GB  / Quadro K4200 / Samsung SM951 (256GB)  + Intel 730  (480GB) + WD Black 1TB / Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H

z620  > 2 X E5-2690 / 64GB / Quadro K2200 / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB)  + Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB / Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > HP 2711x

z420 > Xeon E5-1920 / 24GB / Quadro 4000 / Samsung 840 250GB + WD RE 1TB > Win 7 Professional 64-bit > 2X Dell 24"

[Brian1965]

Hi LucaMauri,

I had a Z600 with a Quadro 4000 and had the exact same problem you are describing. The computer would sit quietly but as soon as any video or 3D graphics appeared on the screen, (flash, Youtube, vlc media player, etc.), the fan on the 4000 would rapidly ramp to full speed and eventually freeze the Z600 and cause the video card to shut down (and display to go black).

Before you give up on the Quadro 4000, try the following;

1.  Remove the card from the Z800

2.  Remove the plate that surrounds the fan and covers the heatsink, (you don't need to remove the heatsink).

By this time you will hopefully have found a small cat or dogs worth of hair, (PC fluff to techies), blocking the vanes on the heatsink and stopping the fan from doing its job keeping the card cool.

3.  Remove the PC fluff. (An old paint brush with the bristles cut short are great for cleaning the vanes on heatsinks and fan blades).

4.  Re-fit the heatsink plate and re-fit the card in the Z800.

You may just have a similar problem as I had  and its worth a try. You never know it might be a simple fix. (When you think about it, the Quadro 4000 was launched in Nov 2010 so the card has been around for a while).

I know this issue isn't just related to the 4000 as my friends Quadro K4000 had the same issue about a month ago. The same fix worked for him and he was also as equally as embarrased as I was on how much hair/fluff these things attract.

After re-fitting my Quadro 4000 in my Z600 the difference was incredible. Super quiet at idle and playing video. It was like a brand new card.