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NVidia Reference Cooler vs Aftermarket in SLI

RusstheDroog

RusstheDroog

RusstheDroog

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14 Jan 2014
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I've seen the argument for the reference cooler instead of aftermarket coolers when using 2 or more Nvidia cards in SLI, throughout these forums and other but...

Is there any proof to substantiate the claim that reference design is better for SLI?

I've been trawling the web and all I can find is forums with surmising, no benching, no testing.

I do really like the reference coolers but ideally I'd prefer something with a backplate - something that does not seem to appear on any of the reference cards.

Air cooled case by the way, with good level of ventilation.
 
It depends on which cards you want to purchase. For example I had GTX970s in SLI with non reference fans that ran at 68c max. That due to the lower power consumption ofcourse. With R9-290s (non reference) same with Asus DCII GTX580s the temps were crazy as the cards have a much higher TDP and where dumping the heat in the case causing all the other hardware to get hotter and causing the cards to get higher temps.

In general reference coolers are better for dissipating heat out of the case but it has more to do with how much power the actual cards consume rather than just a simple ref vs non ref cooler type.

Currently on SLI Titan Xs ( they only come with reference coolers though) and are very power hungry when overclocked (300w) but seem to do a good job for cooling with the fans at 60-70%.

The good thing is with ref coolers you have a reference PCB which allows you to change the fans to a water block or use other solutions like AIOs later down the road.

Albeit loud sometimes (custom fan profile) its a better option as one card doesn't heat up the either.
 
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What's your board spacing like? I found my old 2 slot asus z77 v pro to be much better than the one slot z87 formula in sig. Cards used in both boards were sli gigabyte wf 670's. With 780 sli I seen temps hit as high as 85c on the top card in the formula despite using a pretty aggressive fan profile.
 
Something I forgot to mention adding a fan to blow over the cards (reference) from the HDD cage helps a lot with the dissipation and also helps feed the cards with fresh cool air.

With non reference you are actually not helping or even making the flow worse.
 
with aftermarket cards you are better off having a gap between the two cards, and plenty of case ventilation or just run an open case... in small cases without a decent gap it is sometimes better to have reference cards as they act as their own exhaust fan
 
yeah, I was running a single Titan X until recently and with the monitoring / testing I did, I didn't notice it going over 60degC. I think that's something to do with the stock speeds and fan curves though.

I'm specifically looking at 2 x 980Ti's. I doubt i'll overclock for a little while but may adjust the fan curves just to keep the air moving.

Case vent has a 200mm fan on the front and a 140mm at the bottom with a 200mm and 120mm at the top and back exhausting.

Thanks for the thoughts so far, this is generally what I'd seen elsewhere. Has anyone seen any tests to prove it though, is what I'm alluding to.
 
I don't think any reviewers have done any side by side testing no, and most home users don't have the wherewithal to buy two different sets of cards just to compare

what we do get from time to time though is people who have bought two aftermarket cards and put them in slots right next to each other complaining that the top card is running too hot / hotter than the bottom and their CPU has started overheating as well

I don't even think it is something you could do any type of meaningful review on as it would be entirely dependent on what case/fans/speeds people are running
 
andybird123 said:
I don't think any reviewers have done any side by side testing no, and most home users don't have the wherewithal to buy two different sets of cards just to compare

what we do get from time to time though is people who have bought two aftermarket cards and put them in slots right next to each other complaining that the top card is running too hot / hotter than the bottom and their CPU has started overheating as well

I don't even think it is something you could do any type of meaningful review on as it would be entirely dependent on what case/fans/speeds people are running
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I agree, it would be tricky to compare ref and aftermarket without a specific set of constant factors, ambient air temp, case size, case ventilation or cooling, internal components all running at the same output, providing the same level of thermal heat gain. Hence hoping for some kind of test.

It's all good though thanks for the feedback.

I just wish they sold those reference cards with blimmin backplates. As nice as it was to have the Titan X, with that really sexy cooler, it's annoying having the PCB exposed, to me it looks half finished.
 
The general consensus these days is that 2 reference exhaust cooled cards are the way to go. I currently run 2 ref 780Ti's. They get hot and reach their max temp of 83, and as such I can't really overclock them much unless I have a fan speed above 70%, which I find too noisy to be honest.

Not so long ago I recall many saying that it was best to have one exhaust cooled card and one top down blower card. Which way round you put them was up for debate though. I actually had 2x GTX 670s like this, and I had the exhaust card on top. This used to get way hotter than the bottom card though.

In summary, water cooling is best by a mile. I'm too chicken **** / lazy to do a custom loop, but my next graphics cards, whatever they may be, will certainly be cooled with AIO units like on the evga hybrids. I predict they will become very popular, very soon.
 
I'm a big fan of reference cards, my 980s were reference until I put 980 Hybrid coolers on them, which I could not have done with non-ref cards.

Generally aftermarket cards do an awful job of getting the hot air out of the case.
 
Reference coolers will dump the hot air out the back and generally cause less heating of other components around. This is the same for all cards, Nvidia or AMD so whether they run hotter or not, it's the best solution.

With cooler running cards (such as Maxwell) then you can still use custom coolers and you shouldn't notice as much of an issue compared to the likes or running two custom cooled 290s for example.
 
I once used a couple of Asus Matrix Platinum HD 7970s with a space between them in a case with good ventilation.

The cards never got too hot but all the heat produced caused the piping on my CPU/Motherboard watercooled loop to sag and the water level to drop 15mm in a couple of hours.:eek::D

Non reference cards are bad news for the other components in your case and best avoided 2 up.
 
andybird123 said:
just run open case and keep some compressed air on hand to clean occaisionally :D
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That is what I did in the end, just run it with the case side panel off.:D

Some games can really heat the rest of the system up a bit like Civ5 I was playing at the time which uses the CPU a lot.
 
Mine had the knock on effect of upping cpu temps a fair bit unless I ran an fps limit. 75c with no limit, 65 with a 60fps cap. 4790k @4.7ghz.
 
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