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ATI 6970 aftermarket cooler

pkryder

pkryder

pkryder

Associate
Joined
14 Jan 2010
Posts
52
So I've just splashed out and treated myself to a 6970 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-191-XF&tool=3
I am for the most part very pleased the performance is pretty awesome.

What I'm not so keen about is the noise this thing makes and to a lesser extent the heat. At idle it sits with the fan at around 30% and temps at 55 degrees. Im a stickler for noise and everything else in my system is optimised for quietness. At 30% the fan is fairly quiet but crank it to 50% and its annoyingly loud crank it to 100% and it sounds like there's a jet engine running at full thrust inside my PC case.

I've had a look for aftermarket coolers and have come across this http://www.hardwareoverclock.com/Al...D6970_Arctic_Cooling_Accelero_Xtreme_Plus.htm has any tried one? Are they good and are they quiet?

I am struggling to find any other alternatives does anyone have any other suggestions that would fit a 6970?
 
That one will fit onto the card. There is one member in these forums that has that same fan on their 6950(70) ...
 
Im suprised there arent more aftermarket coolers available for these cards. I'm also after something a little quieter. This kind of setup worked really well on my old 4870.
 
Does look the mutts :P

Doubt it will be cheap either, especially if you have to go down the dedicated VRM sink route like the 480.
 
Well OCUK have the Shaman priced at £49.99 and their other VRM sinks are about £20 so definitely not cheap when the AC is around £40-50.

Although the VRM sink is not necessary I'd certainly feel more comfortable with one on my unlocked and overclocked 6950. With the 6970 probably less of an issue. Oh and don't forget that the Shaman with a fan takes up 4!!!!! slots.
 
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The Accelero Extreme Plus is better IMO, as it is "only" 3 triple slot instead of 4 slot of the shaman. And it is also much cheaper.
 
Thermalright aren't releasing anything for the 6970 for VRM's, well probably, I sent them an e-mail to ask what makes their current coolers "support" the 6970 and why the compatibility says VRM cooling required for the 5870/50 and the 6970 doesn't list it.

I basically wanted to know, do teh 6970 not need as much cooling, theres a reason they went with different VRM's that supposedly use a lot less heat and much more efficient. The only reply I got was that they aren't planning to offer anything.

I had also asked if their existing options for the 5870 worked for the 6970, they pretty much ignored it. From a pcb shot they look like they should fit, I'm probably trying to fit my prolimatech mk 13 and vrm cooler I had on my 5850 to my 6950 today so can tell you if they fit.

I also sent an e-mail to Prolimatech to ask if the cooler fits the 6970/50 cards and I get zero response.

Pretty peeved as I bought the Prolimatech sink over others purely based on them advertising quick support for new gpu's with new mounting kits if required, the fact they haven't even bothered to say on their website if its supported or answer e-mails is rather irritating, thing is it probably does fit, the pcb's look incredibly similar but end of the day 1 mm out and suddenly the heatsink won't fit, and taking the card apart to check voids your warranty potentially for something that won't even fit.


As you said the card is just a bit too loud when in game, mine only gets up to around 40% fan but at high temps and seriously limits its overclocking potential.

For the record my 5850 would do around 925Mhz with a slight overvolt before hitting late 80C's under load and too loud. I put the prolimatech on and I went to 45C load at 1050Mhz at much higher voltage. Stock heatsinks are epically rubbish, the prolimatech is very very good.

It also puts the fan/fans on a bracket not on the heatsink so the extra weight isn't on the graphics card, the shaman puts me off as most reviews show the card bending under the weight of the sink and the massive fan.
 
gropingmantis said:
Well OCUK have the Shaman priced at £49.99 and their other VRM sinks are about £20 so definitely not cheap when the AC is around £40-50.

Although the VRM sink is not necessary I'd certainly feel more comfortable with one on my unlocked and overclocked 6950. With the 6970 probably less of an issue. Oh and don't forget that the Shaman with a fan takes up 4!!!!! slots.
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Ezyryder said:
The Accelero Extreme Plus is better IMO, as it is "only" 3 triple slot instead of 4 slot of the shaman. And it is also much cheaper.
Click to expand...

Again assuming the prolimatech fits(i'll confirm later today) then its cheaper than both I think, a great cooler, some serious benefits in terms of weight, and in terms of size, honestly if you're putting on a triple/quad slot cooler you aren't going for a tri xfire setup, one more slot you can't use, that you wouldn't use anyway, makes very little difference.

I've also used one of the thermalright vrm heatsinks which was great, but when I went to 5850 xfire I couldn't fit the vrm sink aswell so used the stock one with the prolimatech, less good vrm temps but still good.
 
Thats not good news on the VRMs from Thermalright. They said in Jan they were going to do one for the end of Feb. If the 5870 one will work then that will be the way I'll go as VRMs temps really shoot up when I game at the moment.
 
The Shaman looks pretty beasty and size isn't an issue for me I only have and intend to have one card. I had discounted it though as it wasn't listed as supporting the 6970 on Overclockers but having checked Thermalright site it is listed. One big fan should be quieter than 3 small ones on the Accelero. The lack of a complete cooling solution though is off putting.

I've seen some suggestions that the Scythe Setsugen 2 fits too and that comes with a variety of extra heatsinks but the info seems inconsistent some sites listing the 6970 as supported and on others not.
 
pkryder said:
One big fan should be quieter than 3 small ones on the Accelero.
Click to expand...

It is, but not by much according to Tomshardware...

noise.png

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Look at numbers instead of the length of the bars as the chart does not start from zero.


According to their temperature test results, it does seem to have a decent sized advantage over the Accelero, though the seperately purchased VRM-G2 probably helped a bit...

temperature.png

rehosted on Imageshack
 
Have they actually released an accelero extreme for the 6950? If so I'm getting two, as I won't be able to afford to watercool till late summer at the earliest, rent is halved next year for this accommodation woop :)
 
Timko, thats system noise, the Shaman could have been pumping out all of 15dba but the system noise was at 48dba and the accelero was above it, its difficult to know, you really need to test the fans separately, 2dba is NOT a small noise rise though, its not a linear scale so 40dba isn't twice as loud as 20dba.

Then you've got basics like smaller fans almost always have a higher pitched sound vs a lower fan.

Also look at the temps, theres a lot of room for manouvre with the Shaman in knocking the fan speed down further as it has such a massive cooling advantage.
 
Skid, you beat me to it! I'm wondering if this fits the older cards like my 4870, then the mounting holes must be the same (unless there are multiple mounting kits with the Shaman?)

This might mean I can re use my older T-Rad on the 6970, £50 is a bit much at the moment for a new GPU cooler..
 
Shayper said:
Have they actually released an accelero extreme for the 6950? If so I'm getting two, as I won't be able to afford to watercool till late summer at the earliest, rent is halved next year for this accommodation woop :)
Click to expand...
They have not released one for the 6950/70. It's the 5870 extreme that I'm using on my 6950, you need extra heatsinks for it though as the vrm heatsink supplied doesn't fit over the 6950's vrm's. You also need to put a heatsink onto another chip on the card to the left of the top memory chips too. I'll upload a picture later tonight to show where it goes as I'm at work.
Super quiet quiet by the way, with outstanding cooling performance using 3 slots compared to 4.
 
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