Summer is coming yet again. For us miners, this is bad news. Our rigs might have trouble cooling down efficiently and preventing thermal throttling. In this article, we are going to show you some tips and tricks to prevent your mining rig from overheating.

When does a mining rig overheat?

We can divide overheating into two categories:

1. When a GPU heats up so much that it needs to throttle the speed to prevent damage. This is called thermal throttling.
2. When a GPU is not thermal throttling yet, but high temperatures might decrease the lifespan of the GPU or are causing high fan speeds (generally above 70%), thus increasing the possibility of fan failure.

We should try to prevent any kind of overheating. We already talked about optimal GPU mining temperatures and we established that the optimal GPU temperature is below 70°C and the optimal VRAM temperature is below 95°C. NiceHash Rig Manager will also warn you if the temperature of your GPU/VRAM is too high by colouring the temperature display in orange or in red.

Tips to lower GPU temperature when mining in summer

Tip #1 Lower power consumption

A GPU mining at stock performance will draw way more power than it would by slightly optimizing it. By optimizing the performance of the GPU when mining, you are lowering the power draw of the GPU.

Basics of physics say that no energy can disappear into thin air. The GPU transforms electricity to heat at almost 100% efficiency.

RTX 3090 Ti draws 410W when mining out of the box. But limiting the core clock to 1400 Mhz makes the GPU draw only around 340W. This means that the GPU produces 70W less heat! Because of that, the GPU needs to dispose of less heat and the fans are not required to spin as fast.

Optimizing the GPU for mining performance is a must that all miners should do, regardless if the GPU is overheating or not. QuickMiner does optimization for you with a single click of a button. Try it out!

Tip #2 Remove the excess heat

Once the fresh air enters the room and cools the GPU it heats up. If that heated air is not removed away from the rig, it will proceed to circle back into the GPU and will not be as effective to cool down the GPU as it was when it was colder. 

An issue here is that in the summer, the fresh air is quite hot already. While it might be OK for the air to circle through the GPU for a couple of times in winter (air will get a bit warmer every time), the fresh hot air in summer will lower the amount of times it can cool down the GPU effectively.

The fresh (already warm) air from outside should only cool the GPU once and be removed as fast as possible. 

Using grow tents is one way of solving the problem. Having a high airflow inside the grow tent will dispose the heat effectively. This also creates cold/hot zone. 

Tip #3 Move rigs closer to the ground

If your rig is placed somewhere just under the ceiling, try moving it to the ground level. The air temperature on the floor will be a bit lower than the one under the ceiling. 

Tip #4 Open the side of the PC case

If your GPU is inside the PC case, and you cannot increase the airflow inside the case, then try removing the side panel. You should notice the difference.

Tip #5 Make more space between the GPUs

If you are using an open frame rig, try spacing the GPUs further apart from each other.

Alternatively you can try placing 2 GPUs a bit closer to each other and creating a wider space between the next 2 GPUs. 

Tip #6 Open a window

If you are living in an building where you can safely keep the window open, then this is a great solution. Place a mosquito net on the window and you are good to go. It will be better than having no fresh airflow in to the room.

Tip #7 Change thermal paste and pads

Only do this if you are comfortable disassembling the GPU and the GPU is out of warranty. 

Thermal paste and pads can lose effectiveness after a couple of years. Changing thermal paste will most likely drop the GPU temperature while changing the thermal pads will drop the VRAM temperatures.

It is important to note that not all thermal paste and pads are not equally effective. You should look for the ones with higher thermal conductivity. You can read this guide about changing the thermal paste and pads.

We also have an article dedicated to thermal pad thickness on RTX 3080/90 models. 

Tip #8 Clean the GPU

Last but not least, simply dusting off the GPU might increase the cooling performance of the GPU. Overtime, dust can accumulate in the heatsink and prevent the airflow through the heatsink fins. 

Clean the GPU with a gas duster, also known as canned air. Try to avoid using compressors as the air pressure is too high and can damage the components on the GPU.

Always hold the fans and prevent them from spinning while dusting the GPU. To clean the inside part of fans, you can use cotton swabs.

This is it!

As always, join our Discord server or Reddit page and discuss cooling tips with other miners!