Do fans underneath a Graphics Card help? (e.g. on the PSU shroud)

GoogalyMoogaly said:
I just ran fans at low rpm so they weren't noisy, but then they didn't move enough air.
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I managed to find the sweet spot with those cheap 24.1 CFM silent fans, as they're intended to be run full whack and be nearly inaudible - I did have 2 other fans I could have used, but they're higher CFM and noisier, so by the time I run them at half speed or less, the CFM would have been roughly the same as the 24.1 CFM maxed quieter fans, so I chose them straight away instead.
As aforementioned, it just stops the ramping up so often, and does seem to keep the GPU in lower temps for longer - we're only talking 4-6C difference, but on the stock fan curve of my GPU, that makes a fair difference to what % it ramps the fans up to :)

They were £5 each, with free delivery from elsewhere, so it was worth a go, and I could return them if not ;) Nothing ventured, nothing gained :P
 
deviation said:
I managed to find the sweet spot with those cheap 24.1 CFM silent fans, as they're intended to be run full whack and be nearly inaudible - I did have 2 other fans I could have used, but they're higher CFM and noisier, so by the time I run them at half speed or less, the CFM would have been roughly the same as the 24.1 CFM maxed quieter fans, so I chose them straight away instead.
As aforementioned, it just stops the ramping up so often, and does seem to keep the GPU in lower temps for longer - we're only talking 4-6C difference, but on the stock fan curve of my GPU, that makes a fair difference to what % it ramps the fans up to :)

They were £5 each, with free delivery from elsewhere, so it was worth a go, and I could return them if not ;) Nothing ventured, nothing gained :P
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I was running fans at 1500rpm so moving a lot more air that 24.1 CFM and it made zero difference to the Graphics Card temps.
The fan that focused the air did seem to have some effect, but not much. I guess the Sapphire Pulse heatsink blocks a lot of the heatsink so you really have to push the air through the opening for the fans and with the distance between the extra fans and the graphics card in the 216 means that if the airflow isn't focused it can miss that opening.

I think the other thing that's not helping for me is that because I'm running 2 high resolution and high refresh displays the AMD driver (I don't think Nvidia is perfect in this regard either) doesn't fully downclock the VRAM so it's always running at 909MHz at idle, which means a higher power draw and thus warmer running. But under load it didn't make any real difference either. I ran Superposition a few times and regardless of what I set the PSU shroud fans to the GPU temp, hot spot temp and memory temp all hit the same values (or within 1ºC) and the GPU fans had to kick in.
 
GoogalyMoogaly said:
I was running fans at 1500rpm so moving a lot more air that 24.1 CFM and it made zero difference to the Graphics Card temps.
The fan that focused the air did seem to have some effect, but not much. I guess the Sapphire Pulse heatsink blocks a lot of the heatsink so you really have to push the air through the opening for the fans and with the distance between the extra fans and the graphics card in the 216 means that if the airflow isn't focused it can miss that opening.

I think the other thing that's not helping for me is that because I'm running 2 high resolution and high refresh displays the AMD driver (I don't think Nvidia is perfect in this regard either) doesn't fully downclock the VRAM so it's always running at 909MHz at idle, which means a higher power draw and thus warmer running. But under load it didn't make any real difference either. I ran Superposition a few times and regardless of what I set the PSU shroud fans to the GPU temp, hot spot temp and memory temp all hit the same values (or within 1ºC) and the GPU fans had to kick in.
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Ah that's a shame, I guess it's luck of the draw, with the GPU choice, case airflow, fan distance from the GPU, and the intake fan versus GPU/underneath GPU fan distance?
Mine is in a mid tower, and the card is 2.75 slot, so not far from the lower fans that I added :) and the GPU is a 2 fan card, so the fans below line up perfectly with the GPU's fans.

Did you try it with 2 or 3 fans below your GPU, or just the 1 - sorry if you mentioned it before, but I'm a bit confused if you ran 2 like I did or just the 1?
Was your GPU offset away from said fans below or in-line, like mine?
Are you intake fans infront pushing enough air, and close enough for the GPU to take advantage of that direction of airflow?

That's all I can think of, variable wise. Bar as you say, the heatsink differences between our cards - you probably need a crazy loud fan with major CFM to help your card, then?
Ah I see, that's not idol either, as you say, it never gets to cool down as much and take a break.
 
deviation said:
Ah that's a shame, I guess it's luck of the draw, with the GPU choice, case airflow, fan distance from the GPU, and the intake fan versus GPU/underneath GPU fan distance?
Mine is in a mid tower, and the card is 2.75 slot, so not far from the lower fans that I added :) and the GPU is a 2 fan card, so the fans below line up perfectly with the GPU's fans.

Did you try it with 2 or 3 fans below your GPU, or just the 1 - sorry if you mentioned it before, but I'm a bit confused if you ran 2 like I did or just the 1?
Was your GPU offset away from said fans below or in-line, like mine?
Are you intake fans infront pushing enough air, and close enough for the GPU to take advantage of that direction of airflow?

That's all I can think of, variable wise. Bar as you say, the heatsink differences between our cards - you probably need a crazy loud fan with major CFM to help your card, then?
Ah I see, that's not idol either, as you say, it never gets to cool down as much and take a break.
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I'm running 2 fans on the GPU shroud but the Pulse has 3 fans, so maybe that mismatch doesn't help? The 2 fans do pretty much run the length of the card though.
There's probably about 3 slots of space between the fans and the GPU.
The 2 x 160mm fans in the 216 do move a decent amount of air past the GPU. If I put my hand between the PSU shroud fans and the GPU, mostly what I feel is the air from the front fan, so I have to block that to see if I can feel any air coming off the PSU shroud fans. But unless the fan focuses the air I can't feel too much air directly above the PSU shroud fans. You can feel air but it's coming off at such an angle that it would likely hit the side panel rather than the GPU.
 
GoogalyMoogaly said:
I'm running 2 fans on the GPU shroud but the Pulse has 3 fans, so maybe that mismatch doesn't help? The 2 fans do pretty much run the length of the card though.
There's probably about 3 slots of space between the fans and the GPU.
The 2 x 160mm fans in the 216 do move a decent amount of air past the GPU. If I put my hand between the PSU shroud fans and the GPU, mostly what I feel is the air from the front fan, so I have to block that to see if I can feel any air coming off the PSU shroud fans. But unless the fan focuses the air I can't feel too much air directly above the PSU shroud fans. You can feel air but it's coming off at such an angle that it would likely hit the side panel rather than the GPU.
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Hmm, I was wondering that, I was always worried if in general blowing the same number of fans would cause any issues/weirdness? Or upset the GPU's fans and how they spin, or make them less effective. But that's probably paranoia, so I tried it anyway :)
But 2 instead of 3, 'might' be causing some strange effects, or ruining the slight bonus effect it might gain?
I think mine is around 2 slots maybe.
Ah, I get you, I think mine definitely is lifting the intake airflow up before it hits the end of the case, who knows, they're staying though :cry: I can't be bothered to remove them for the sake of £10, the fact that I cant hear them, and I definitely wouldn't bother returning them and waiting in for collection haha!
It is what it is, if they do something, great, if they don't, I can't hear them, so they can stay, I had a spare fan header and always wanted to try this, so no harm no foul :P
 
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A few people have looked at this.


I removed my sound card to improve air flow into the gpu. Not sure how much difference it made, but it’s seemed to help cool other components like storage hardware.

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CaptainRAVE said:
A few people have looked at this.


I removed my sound card to improve air flow into the gpu. Not sure how much difference it made, but it’s seemed to help cool other components like storage hardware.
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Yeah, I mean it cant hurt can it, and I had the fan header spare, and the fans were cheap, so why not :)

I must say, you're a mad man running a soundcard in this day and age. I don't even bother using the onboard, I just take it straight from DP/HDMI to the monitor or TV, and into my AMP/Sub, or most of the time use decent bluetooth earbuds.
 
deviation said:
Yeah, I mean it cant hurt can it, and I had the fan header spare, and the fans were cheap, so why not :)

I must say, you're a mad man running a soundcard in this day and age. I don't even bother using the onboard, I just take it straight from DP/HDMI to the monitor or TV, and into my AMP/Sub, or most of the time use decent bluetooth earbuds.
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I use a Creative G8 instead which means I can easily switch between TV, PS5 and PC while still using the connected Arya headphones. I’ve wanted to do it for a while. The sound card stems from my surround sound speaker days.

 
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deviation said:
I must say, you're a mad man running a soundcard in this day and age. I don't even bother using the onboard
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i double dare you to go post that in the 'sound city' sub forum - you'll give at least a couple of posters a full body seizure if they read that :cry: i agree though, not used a soundcard in a good few years now. onboard audio has come along leaps and bounds to the point that unless the end user is a bit of an audiophile or has a specific use case there's just no need for a soundcard anymore (generally speaking and just my opinion of course)
 
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CaptainRAVE said:
I use a Creative G8 instead which means I can easily switch between TV, PS5 and PC while still using the connected Arya headphones. I’ve wanted to do it for a while. The sound card stems from my surround sound speaker days.

IMG-0265.jpg
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off topic but i have to sat that that's a lovely clean build there dude.
 
Thekwango said:
i double dare you to go post that in the 'sound city' sub forum - you'll give at least a couple of posters a full body seizure if they read that :cry: i agree though, not used a soundcard in a good few years now. onboard audio has come along leaps and bounds to the point that unless the end user is a bit of an audiophile or has a specific use case there's just no need for a soundcard anymore (generally speaking and just my opinion of course)
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Haha, I could be game for a wind up :cry:
Then start telling them how nobody can hear the difference that FLAC provides, and that it's merely a waste of extra space :P
My onboard has been disabled for years ;)
 
CaptainRAVE said:
I use a Creative G8 instead which means I can easily switch between TV, PS5 and PC while still using the connected Arya headphones. I’ve wanted to do it for a while. The sound card stems from my surround sound speaker days.

IMG-0265.jpg
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See I can get behind that, but my Amp, is doing that for anything connected to the output from the monitor or TV, probably not as well, but it sounds very good regardless, to the point I know no better :cry:

That looks awesome build wise though ;)
 
I didn't even know sound cards were still a thing, I've been using interfaces [mostly focusrite] for so long now because I'm using the pc for production [badly]
 
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