Gigabyte RTX 2060 Windforce Water Cooling

[Mike Gibbins]

Hi, not sure if this belongs in the Watercooling section or here but I will go with this section for now.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I could watercool a Gigabyte RTX 2060 Windforce (GV-N2060WF20C-6GD)? Mine is running quite hot when at full load.

Ive contacted NZXT to see if their Kracken adapter would work but they don't think it is compatible.

 

[Danny75]

No idea on the watercooling but have you tried Afterburner and setting your own custom fan profile? Can make all the difference sometimes as some cards are set to quite low RPM.

May want to check the thermal paste application too. Things seem to have improved from previous years but there's no guarantee that a particular card won't be pasted badly. This can void warranty depending on manufacturer though.

What temps is it reaching exactly? And do you have good airflow (what case/fan setup)?

 

[Mike Gibbins]

No idea on the watercooling but have you tried Afterburner and setting your own custom fan profile? Can make all the difference sometimes as some cards are set to quite low RPM.

May want to check the thermal paste application too. Things seem to have improved from previous years but there's no guarantee that a particular card won't be pasted badly. This can void warranty depending on manufacturer though.

What temps is it reaching exactly? And do you have good airflow (what case/fan setup)?

I have been using the Gigabyte SIV application to manually manage the case fans but it isn't the best, never used afterburner but will have a look into it.

If I dont max out the framerate to match my monitor (60 FPS) then it is hitting temps in the high 70's

Case cooling could be better, I have a Antec P280 which has four Corsair ML High pressure fans (two on the front and two on the top all acting as intake fans) However right behind the front two fans are 6 hard drives limiting the amout of air that can get deep into the case (thus high pressure fans). I am going to install two more fans the other side of the hard drivers on friday to get more air flowing into the GPU fans to see if that helps.

If it doesnt help then I might consider swapping cases for a corsair obsidian 750d airflow so that the hard drivers dont impact the airflow.

 

[Geckovich]

... I have a Antec P280 which has four Corsair ML High pressure fans (two on the front and two on the top all acting as intake fans)

Try switching these to exhaust. You need to remove hot air as well as bring in cool air.

 

[Mike Gibbins]

Try switching these to exhaust. You need to remove hot air as well as bring in cool air.

Yea I will have a play around. I should have said that the CPU is watercooled so the only items in there generating heat are the PSU and GPU.

I will see how it it goes once i install the internal fans.

Cheers

 

[Brazo]

The chips run cool so you shouldn’t have any issues setting a decent fan curve. My 2070 refuses to go above 65c however hard I push it even in benchmarks at 100%.

 

[pandem0nium]

I have a 1070 that was used for mining where one of the fans had seized. What I did was remove the heatsink and re-paste the gpu die with some thermal grizzly paste.

Then I removed the shroud and fans from the heatsink. I then attached my own two fans (ML120s) to the heatsink with cable ties. #
Gelid pwm fan adpater into the gpu fan header, then a y splitter to the two fan connectors. This allowed me to control the fan curve in afterburner.
I've set a custon fan curve to run mostly at 40% up to 45%, which is inaudible and allows a decent overclock. Another benefit is that the fans now keep my nvme drive cool which sits underneath the GPU in the second mb slot.

 

[Danny75]

I have a 1070 that was used for mining where one of the fans had seized. What I did was remove the heatsink and re-paste the gpu die with some thermal grizzly paste.

Then I removed the shroud and fans from the heatsink. I then attached my own two fans (ML120s) to the heatsink with cable ties. #
Gelid pwm fan adpater into the gpu fan header, then a y splitter to the two fan connectors. This allowed me to control the fan curve in afterburner.
I've set a custon fan curve to run mostly at 40% up to 45%, which is inaudible and allows a decent overclock. Another benefit is that the fans now keep my nvme drive cool which sits underneath the GPU in the second mb slot.

I bought an EKWB GPU fan adapter to do this at some point. Did you have to tear anything or could it all be put back together if needed? I mean the stock fans specifically, I've never removed those.

Ideally, I would love if Coldzero or somebody would create a sort of light casing that would screw into a PCIe slot below the card. The casing would then support the fans, rather than attaching them directly to the heatsink. Some people have had issues with crashes after doing the latter as it can make the GPU sag (more).

 

[pandem0nium]

I bought an EKWB GPU fan adapter to do this at some point. Did you have to tear anything or could it all be put back together if needed? I mean the stock fans specifically, I've never removed those.

Ideally, I would love if Coldzero or somebody would create a sort of light casing that would screw into a PCIe slot below the card. The casing would then support the fans, rather than attaching them directly to the heatsink. Some people have had issues with crashes after doing the latter as it can make the GPU sag (more).

Well in the case of my card the stock fans are attached to a plastic shroud which screws into the metal heatsink with four small screws, two on each side. I'm confident that I could restore it to it's original state if keep hold of the screws. Card is a Gigabyte Windforce two fan 1070.

I'll probably sell it on with the news fans attached and an explanation in the future.

My case is horizontal, under the bed, so sagging won't be a problem for me.

 

[Danny75]

Well in the case of my card the stock fans are attached to a plastic shroud which screws into the metal heatsink with four small screws, two on each side. I'm confident that I could restore it to it's original state if keep hold of the screws. Card is a Gigabyte Windforce two fan 1070.

Good to know, thanks. Am hoping the EVGA 1070 SC will be similar, should arrive in a few days. At first I only bought the GPU fan adapter just in case the fans turned out too noisy, but now I kind of want to do the mod anyway.

 

[Danny75]

Well in the case of my card the stock fans are attached to a plastic shroud which screws into the metal heatsink with four small screws, two on each side. I'm confident that I could restore it to it's original state if keep hold of the screws. Card is a Gigabyte Windforce two fan 1070.

I'll probably sell it on with the news fans attached and an explanation in the future.

My case is horizontal, under the bed, so sagging won't be a problem for me.

Carried out the mod on the EVGA 1070 SC. In fact three mods in total lol. Unlike the Windforce, this card had hex-like screws for a tiny allen key as well as normal screws. Lacked the right allen key but managed to remove them very patiently with pliers.

Fans used: 2 x Phanteks MP120 PWM
GPU fan adapter: EKWB GPU fan adapter
PWM splitter: a Noctua I had laying around.
TIM: Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut
Other: Zipties, velcro and some wire.

Mod 1: Fans attached to card's heatsink with zipties. Brought temps down by about 7C and slightly less noisy at 55% RPM. Even quieter in comparison if RPM pushed up.

Mod 2: To avoid sagging, I experimented with attaching the fans to the PCI bracket below the card. Now the fans sagged so used some wire attached to the fans at the opposite end, to keep them level. Was interesting and I was glad to not be pulling on the heatsink anymore, however temps worsened by 5C because there was a 1.5cm gap between the fans and the heatsink, no shroud to funnel that air for static pressure, and being 120mm fans on a 80/92mm heatsink, even more air was going to waste with that gap.

Mod 3: Had a look at the vents on the card's own PCI bracket. I'd run out of zipties at this point lol but had some velcro which I trimmed to fit through the fan screwholes and the said vents. Got the fans nicely pressed up against the heatsink in this fashion, and used wires at the opposite end again to keep them level and taught. The outcome was better than the first two - fans right against the heatsink and temps back to Mod 1 levels + fans now act as anti-sag support for the card.

Had no real need to do it but it was fun to mess around with it and see a little improvement at the same time. Now running a fan curve of 45C = 35% RPM, 50C = 40% RPM etc. Games aren't taking it over 55C so at 45% it's very quiet. 1.0V on the core @ 2025MHz.

 

[RanxZy]

I'm surprised Kraken think their AIO adapter might not be compatible. I find it works well with all of the cards I've tried and the actual bracket fits the uniform NVIDIA holes used on all of their cards. With a 120mm AIO you'll likely see a 20c temperature drop.

Regarding your Windforce, the temps won't be super low like the Pascal lower end cards, the 2060 unfortunately consumes a fair chunk more than the Pascal 1060. It's a shame, because the performance per watt was so impressive on the Low-Mid range pascal cards that the 1060 consumed barely any more than the 960.