The value in watercooling a gpu?

[Grim5]

your fans will be ramping up at that temp to audible levels. not surprising. i can game at 50c in CSGO, 59c PUBG and idles at 25c in a 21c room.

my older 1080 though ran hot - would run at 75C-85C when gaming and benching. this new card is so much more efficient and a lot better built. it takes up 3 slots the heatsink is massice and it has bigger fans rather than smaller ones which make more noise.

that is the issue with my NVR. small fan and grill = siren effect. it's so loud.

I can lower the performance to reduce the temp to 60c but that cuts 20% performance

 

[ttaskmaster]

The value in watercooling is an AIO that shaves 5-15º off my air cooler temps.
The value in custom watercooling is carving way more ºC off the AIO temps, than I have fingers and toes!!

Tldr water cooling is not for poor people.

Incorrect.
Watercooling brand new top end components with brand new top end custom w/c loops is not for poor people.... But not all of us do it that way.

My card runs at 59c whilst playing pubg.

Yikes.... I'd be flapping if I saw 45ºC on my card!!

 

[Razor Time]

I have an NVR in the same room and the fan on that is noisier than my PC. My GPU is idling at 25C and room temp is 21C. I believe my card runs extremely cool therefore fans from it are never an issue.

I am looking into buying a quieter fan for the NVR but it would involve splicing wires as they use a different connector to pc's.

I have a fan controller built into my case. With settings 1-2-3. I can only hear the fans day to day on 3. On 2 you can just barely hear them as in a very slight sound and on 1 it is completely silent.

I honestly don't see the point in watercooling for me apart from aesthetics.

I also game with headphones on I don't have speakers. With them on I can't even hear the NVR and I can hear the NVR from the other room. I could hear it from downstairs before I cut off the grill using a dremel.

I would have modded or binned the NVR.

Its also not about the idle temps but the load temps. You have 1-2-3 to control your cooling, I have this:

I am OCD when it comes to noise and have spent thousands on loops over the years. I also like setting up wc loops and messing with stuff like this, for me its part of the pc hobby.

 

[Arcane]

I saw really good results with the earlier Nvidia cards, especially 470's in SLI, they really flew once I put blocks on them, likewise 6800gt's in SLI, especially once they been flashed with a modded bios. I ran AIO's and Kraken bracket things on my 980tis and that kept them from throttling but didn't increase performance much and wasn't really any quieter as they were MSI fancy pants ones to begin with. With the newer generation stuff it just seems more of a fun project kind of thing. Unless you're trying to wring the last tiny % out of top end cards I don't really see the point, I'd rather pump the extra hundred quid into a better tier card. Doing it for the sake of it is of course, excellent.

As much as I hate fan noise, I hate pump whine more.

 

[SpudMaster]

when i'm talking expensive to run i mean more power draw than top end air cooling solutions.

you need to run a pump, radiator fans, etc.

i thought about it and decided against it due to cost vs increased performance not being worth it. they look great though.

TBF the cost to run doesn't have to be much more than air cooling. Yeah you need a pump but the power draw is very minimal in the grand scheme of things. Your cpu heatsink will have a fan or two and more than like spinning much fast than the fans on a radiator. Your case fans can also be spinning much slower or even removed completely depending on your water set up. Eg in my system no heat from my cpu or gpu is dumped in my case

 

[SpudMaster]

TBF the cost to run doesn't have to be much more than air cooling. Yeah you need a pump but the power draw is very minimal in the grand scheme of things. Your cpu heatsink will have a fan or two and more than likely will be spinning much fast than the fans on a radiator. Your case fans can also be spinning much slower or even removed completely depending on your water set up. Eg in my system no heat from my cpu or gpu is dumped in my case.
If silence is your thing you can probably run your cpu and gpu at lower volts compared to air cooling at the same ghz.

 

[BubbySoup]

The only reason I WC my GPU (and CPU) is because I am particularly sensitive to changes in pitch.

I don't mind the whirr of fans too much, so long as they stay at a constant rpm and water cooling achieves this perfectly.

 

[ALXAndy]

There is no value in watercooling. You spend a boat load of money on something that chunky air coolers can do for less money. But that's not the point. Watercooling is about aesthetics and the potential of wringing the last drops of performance out of your hardware, as well as the potential of greater thermal dissipation. That's why it's done.

Ultimately if you're thinking "this GPU and block costs more than the higher tier card alone" then watercooling isn't for you.

I can assure you there's value in water cooling. Protecting your interests.

When I bought my Titan XP for £675 (three weeks after launch) it was a £1300 card.

I've had lots of air cooled GPUs die. Mostly because the ICs simply couldn't handle the heat that Nvidia and AMD considered "normal".

I've never had a GPU die yet under water. Ever. Quite probably because 50c max at 2100mhz is a lot happier than constantly being in the 80s.

Some air coolers are good enough on low to mid range cards, but big cards are very expensive. Thus the initial outlay protects your investment.

Heat is the enemy of all electronic components. Which is why many servers are now being water cooled. That should tell you something. They're quite obviously not doing it for looks.

There are many areas of water cooling that are "tarty" and not necessary. Vanity coolants that are all rubbish and so on. But, there's people who like to overdo things in every aspect of life, for the vanity (even if it ruins performance, see also cars with the wheels leaning at 45')

However I still say that the lower the temps the longer the hardware will last which is scientific fact.

I've been through the "Mayhem's pastel that turns poo brown after 2 months and clogs your pump with its chalky residue" and so on. These are all lessons that what matters is the cooling, not the vanity. That is added after.

 

[ALXAndy]

I can't think of a reason why you would install a custom loop and not cool the GPU with it.

Always makes me laugh when some guy does his nuts on water cooling, only to have his GPU on air.

 

[mof]

my 1300 pound Asus strix 2080ti is rated as the quietest 2080ti on the market yet sounds like a jet engine.

All of them have bad fans. If you can't hear it, it's because the rest of your case is even louder or you have headphones on

Are you using the quiet bios? What fan speed % are you getting?

 

[Grim5]

Are you using the quiet bios? What fan speed % are you getting?

Performance BIOS, 60% fan speed

 

[3t3P]

I had sli 470s think they were 600mhz core stock speed running both GPUs at 850mhz rock solid. I felt like doing that on air would not have been so possible.

 

[mof]

Performance BIOS, 60% fan speed

Yeah it is quite noisy at 60%.
I usually use the quiet bios and at stock clocks it runs at 75c/35% fan (max) and about 80c/40% fan when running overclocked.
It's pretty qiuet below 45% IMO.
60% fan speed will keep the temps down to about 60c but it's not worth the noise really unless I'm running a benchmark.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I can assure you there's value in water cooling. Protecting your interests.

When I bought my Titan XP for £675 (three weeks after launch) it was a £1300 card.

I've had lots of air cooled GPUs die. Mostly because the ICs simply couldn't handle the heat that Nvidia and AMD considered "normal".

I've never had a GPU die yet under water. Ever. Quite probably because 50c max at 2100mhz is a lot happier than constantly being in the 80s.

Some air coolers are good enough on low to mid range cards, but big cards are very expensive. Thus the initial outlay protects your investment.

Heat is the enemy of all electronic components. Which is why many servers are now being water cooled. That should tell you something. They're quite obviously not doing it for looks.

There are many areas of water cooling that are "tarty" and not necessary. Vanity coolants that are all rubbish and so on. But, there's people who like to overdo things in every aspect of life, for the vanity (even if it ruins performance, see also cars with the wheels leaning at 45')

However I still say that the lower the temps the longer the hardware will last which is scientific fact.

I've been through the "Mayhem's pastel that turns poo brown after 2 months and clogs your pump with its chalky residue" and so on. These are all lessons that what matters is the cooling, not the vanity. That is added after.

I've never had a gpu die and all been stock cooling. Even one's I kept for over 5 years.

Im fact I've only ever had motherboards die on me or be defective from the start. I did also once have a cheap psu melt on me on a pre-build but that was then I was like 10 years old. After that I started building my own.

If you buy decent components a pc should last well beyond upgrade time IMO.

I usually always have extra fans in my cases. Use as many fans as possible put splitters on the mobo headers or use fan controllers and run them all at low-med speeds.

Fresh air coming in all the time.

Buy decent cpu coolers with large heat sinks and large fans.

Exhaust air upwards as well as 1 at the back.

I wouldn't be spending hundreds of pounds on watercooling every build to protect a gpu and cpu when I've never had one die on me.

They come with 5 years warranty if you are worried from some manufacturers and evga allow you to purchase up to 5.

 

[melmac]

I've had lots of air cooled GPUs die. Mostly because the ICs simply couldn't handle the heat that Nvidia and AMD considered "normal".

Rubbish. Your anecdotal evidence is no proof of anything. Electronic components have failure rates. Manufacturers know this, they know that a certain amount of GPUs will fail. They know that some GPUs will fail no matter if they are water cooled or air cooled.

Some air coolers are good enough on low to mid range cards, but big cards are very expensive. Thus the initial outlay protects your investment.

Rubbish.

Heat is the enemy of all electronic components. Which is why many servers are now being water cooled. That should tell you something. They're quite obviously not doing it for looks.

Electronic components come with a MTBF and a temp rating. Modern GPUs and CPUs have thermal limits and shut down or throttle back before those temps that reduce lifespan are reached. Can you make your GPU last longer with watercooling? sure, but, it's more than likely you would have changed your GPU long before that.

Servers are starting to use liquid cooling because it's cheaper and greener. The amount of heat generated in a server room is huge. You are not going to come anywhere close to replicating that environment at home unless you are doing something really stupid.

These days there are really only 3 reasons for watercooling

1. Noise Levels. Some people hate noise and the amount of fan speed needed to stop some GPUs from throttling can be quite loud.

2. Aesthetics. Watercooling does allow for a lot of creativity. Watercooling setups look amazing.

3. Interest. People like to trick around with things and enjoy the challenge.

But for overclocking there is no real benefit over air cooling anymore. You might get a small increase but it's really not worth the investment.

 

[eeii]

I can only talk about my vega 64 which with the reference cooler and undervolting sounded like a jet engine taking off. Going from 85c to 43c and my ears not bleeding was lovely. Plus I have been able to spank both the gpu and the HBM right up. I must admit I love playing about with water cooling but it’s not for everyone.

 

[delvey]

There is no value in watercooling. You spend a boat load of money on something that chunky air coolers can do for less money. But that's not the point. Watercooling is about aesthetics and the potential of wringing the last drops of performance out of your hardware, as well as the potential of greater thermal dissipation. That's why it's done.

Ultimately if you're thinking "this GPU and block costs more than the higher tier card alone" then watercooling isn't for you.

This. If you are watercooling your CPU as well, that is less hot air being dumped into the case (depending on fan setup)

 

[MikeTimbers]

try running a gpu at 110% full load 24/7 in your living room. Then do it with 4 1070s, one 1070ti and a TitanX in your living room. I love water-cooling for a reason and it's not aesthetics. Cards run like that (and no, it's not for mining or any profit) need to be kept properly cooled while also being quiet.

 

[andy_mk3]

I watercooled my 1080 after 2 years of owning it, reason is that I was doing a new build and wanted to make my first custom loop, but did not want to upgrade my GPU for another couple of years.

My 1080 now runs at 42°C after hours of being run at 100%, gained some core clock boost, now runs at 2140mhz (probably a 50-100mhz gain from memory), plus all the fans in my system run at a max of 1,000rpm which keeps it very quiet.

I can only imagine the life of the card will be longer too while running >30°C cooler than the stock cooler.

 

[melmac]

try running a gpu at 110% full load 24/7 in your living room. Then do it with 4 1070s, one 1070ti and a TitanX in your living room. I love water-cooling for a reason and it's not aesthetics. Cards run like that (and no, it's not for mining or any profit) need to be kept properly cooled while also being quiet.

So, in your situation, it's mainly for the noise levels. Because there is nothing wrong in putting in a liquid cooling setup for aesthetics.

Just curious, but, Why do you have all that in your living room?