The value in watercooling a gpu?

[melmac]

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

Do you plan to keep the 1080 long enough to find out? You could report back in 10-15 years and let us know

 

[andy_mk3]

Do you plan to keep the 1080 long enough to find out? You could report back in 10-15 years and let us know

This 1080 is already a warranty replacement so we'll see

 

[MikeTimbers]

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?

makes it nice and toasty

 

[mof]

Someone on another forum had an EVGA 2080 ti black (one of the cheaper non-A models) and he was getting 1700-1800Mhz.
He then water cooled it and was getting much better clock speeds comparible with more expensive models.
You could argue that water cooling was good value for him. Especially considering the difference in price for different 2080 ti models.

 

[pastymuncher]

I started watercooling because my pc room is two cupboards knocked into one and it got very warm in here. My solution almost 15 years ago was to go watercooling and stick my radiators outside my room on a windowsill which removes the heat from my room. It worked so well I have stuck with it and up until my GTX1070 I had used a universal block on the gpu so I didn't have to buy anything new when I did a rebuild. Over the years each part has been replaced as performance improvements have increased and the last parts to be replaced were my trusty Aquaextreme 50z pumps that I have had since early 2006 so I get my monies worth out of my components. The pumps still work but have a whine that was bugging me as they were the loudest things in my build so I replaced them with a D5 (soon to be another added to the loop that I picked up cheap on the MM). As a result of watercooling and sticking my radiators on a windowsill drawing outside air through them my GTX1070 runs in the mid 20's most of the time (mid 30's in summer and every now and then single figures in the winter) and boosts to 2025mhz and even 2050mhz if the temps are low enough with no overclocking or voltage/power tweaks so for me there is a huge value in watercooling the gpu (and cpu).

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

My Gigabyte 2080ti OC which is the cheapest 2080ti from Gigabyte OCs to 2170 core and boosts to 2190 on its own. No way it would do that on air and stock cooler.

 

[ALXAndy]

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.



Rubbish.



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.

I'm not going to argue with you. Just because a manufacturer says it's ok to run ICs at a given temp doesn't mean it is. I'm sure modern Intel CPUs shouldn't be hitting 100c. I'm also pretty sure they wouldn't be anywhere near that hot without competition.

High temps were always frowned upon with Fermi. Now though? Oh it's all ok because AMD et al say so. BS. There's no arguing science.

If you don't like water cooling or see a point in it then furry muff. Your choice.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I'm not going to argue with you. Just because a manufacturer says it's ok to run ICs at a given temp doesn't mean it is. I'm sure modern Intel CPUs shouldn't be hitting 100c. I'm also pretty sure they wouldn't be anywhere near that hot without competition.

High temps were always frowned upon with Fermi. Now though? Oh it's all ok because AMD et al say so. BS. There's no arguing science.

If you don't like water cooling or see a point in it then furry muff. Your choice.

None of my CPU's in the past 20 years have hit anywhere near 100C.

The hottest GPU I've had hit 85C and my current hit's 60C on average.

Again I've never had a cpu or GPU die on me in 20 years.

My Gigabyte 2080ti OC which is the cheapest 2080ti from Gigabyte OCs to 2170 core and boosts to 2190 on its own. No way it would do that on air and stock cooler.

how much faster is that over air and how much did your watercooling setup cost?

 

[koooowweeee]

I'm not going to argue with you. Just because a manufacturer says it's ok to run ICs at a given temp doesn't mean it is. I'm sure modern Intel CPUs shouldn't be hitting 100c. I'm also pretty sure they wouldn't be anywhere near that hot without competition.

High temps were always frowned upon with Fermi. Now though? Oh it's all ok because AMD et al say so. BS. There's no arguing science.

If you don't like water cooling or see a point in it then furry muff. Your choice.

Didnt need the heating on when I had 2 480's in sli I used to stick my feet inside my case (with side panel off) to get my feet nice and warm.

 

[ALXAndy]

Didnt need the heating on when I had 2 480's in sli I used to stick my feet inside my case (with side panel off) to get my feet nice and warm.

Me either until one cooked itself. Had a 280 cook itself too during summer. And me, my room was 2x2.5m.

Water cooling still gets warm. I mean, that heat has to go somewhere.

I'm not here to argue I've made that clear. A GPU running at 50c max is going to last a lot longer than one hitting 80 or more. As I've said that's just science and fact. The failure is usually always down to failed solder (oven baking anyone?) And failed vrms. If a core hits over 80 on lead free solder the solder becomes weak over time, given it's tin based and brittle.

I can promise you there is plenty of evidence to support this. As such a GPU core hitting no more than 50c is going to be much happier and have a much longer life.

If you've never had anything die you've not been trying hard enough

 

[DoneADougalOnSofa]

Advantages: good low temps, allowing higher clocks/quieter fans

Disadvantages: Expensive, knowledge required to block-up a GPU that isn't already blocked, and you could always 'not-quite-get-it-right' like I did, and have to use a 60FPS frame limiter to stop the damn hotspot overheating... I have a 144Hz monitor.
I'll sort it out one day- but that's a full strip-down and start again! It works for now, so stuff it...

 

[ALXAndy]

Someone on another forum had an EVGA 2080 ti black (one of the cheaper non-A models) and he was getting 1700-1800Mhz.
He then water cooled it and was getting much better clock speeds comparible with more expensive models.
You could argue that water cooling was good value for him. Especially considering the difference in price for different 2080 ti models.

I've had my Titan XP pinned at 2100mhz for three years this June. It has never gone above 50 on the core.

Before that it would only do about 1750mhz with the blower on 80% and reaching temps around 80.

It's never been proven but I can promise you it was the switch to lead free solder. And you know what? I had that same failure four times on big old tank GPUs. Baked them a few times but eventually they'd just die for good.

Every one used to sit in the mid 80s.

Since water cooling I've not had one die. But each time I was told it was fine and that was normal. No, just no. It might be normal for the company flogging it but it does the hardware no good.

Nvidia has been fine really from Pascal on. However with the Titan XP and on their big GPUs have started getting very hot again.

And Vega? LMFAO oh god let's not go there. I ran a devil 64 for a year and it was a dog. Constantly hitting 80s and making so much noise I had to wear headphones. And it never managed more than 1550 MHz and usually got so hot it would run around 1400mhz .

I should have water cooled it, but it was in a secondary rig and I really didn't care about it.

Oh and Sonny. I7 950 4ghz on NH14 used to hit 91.

I've bought locked CPUs since then (ht xeons) but recently went 1920x. Under water of course, because again it needs it to shine.

You only need to invest once. The pumps and fittings are really a one time layout. And the res.

And if you're sensible you won't be replacing GPUs every five minutes so the £90 or so extra is worth it for three years with no noise other than your fans at 7v.

 

[DoneADougalOnSofa]

So I'm building a custom loop for my next build, I have a 240 and a 280 radiator with a D5 pump/res.

I got this all pretty cheap off the MM and the total cost of all the bits including fittings isn't far off a very good aio but will obviously be better performance wise.

Now I'm coming to a decision for the graphics card, at the moment I'm looking at the anniversary edition 5700xt for £320, plus a b grade waterblock on ocuk for about 75. So just shy of 400 in total.

But you can get a nitro for that cost, or a mech for 50 less, 60 less for the powercolor one but don't think the coolers are great on the latter two models.

I essentially want something that will run reasonably quiet (not silent, performance over a little noise) with good boost clocks.

I've never installed a gpu block before but unsure on the warranty situation with the 50th anniversary card if I remove it to fit a block.

There is potential that the blower alone might be okay when undervolted but I've not had a blower since a little 970 so any thoughts on the would be helpful too

OCUK do a range of pre-waterblocked 5700XTs. Prices are not too horrendous either- if you've never done a GPU block before, you may wish to consider one of these.
My heart was in my mouth when I did my Vega, but I waited until I could afford a new GPU in case I borked it!

Any new GPU you buy will almost certainly have its warranty voided by removing the cooler, so up to you if you risk it.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

Advantages: good low temps, allowing higher clocks/quieter fans

Disadvantages: Expensive, knowledge required to block-up a GPU that isn't already blocked, and you could always 'not-quite-get-it-right' like I did, and have to use a 60FPS frame limiter to stop the damn hotspot overheating... I have a 144Hz monitor.
I'll sort it out one day- but that's a full strip-down and start again! It works for now, so stuff it...

I use quick disconnects
So can remove the cpu or gpu
Without even draining
The loop
Makes life a lot easier

 

[melmac]

I'm not going to argue with you. Just because a manufacturer says it's ok to run ICs at a given temp doesn't mean it is. I'm sure modern Intel CPUs shouldn't be hitting 100c. I'm also pretty sure they wouldn't be anywhere near that hot without competition.

High temps were always frowned upon with Fermi. Now though? Oh it's all ok because AMD et al say so. BS. There's no arguing science.

If you don't like water cooling or see a point in it then furry muff. Your choice.

Forget it. No point.

When did this become AMD vs Nvidia or AMD vs Intel? It's about watercooling.

Where did I say I didn't like watercooling?

 

[DoneADougalOnSofa]

I use quick disconnects
So can remove the cpu or gpu
Without even draining
The loop
Makes life a lot easier

That is something I will consider when I eventually get round to it! My plan is most likely leave things as they are until I upgrade now anyway. Waiting for the 5900XT and see what happens..

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

None of my CPU's in the past 20 years have hit anywhere near 100C.

The hottest GPU I've had hit 85C and my current hit's 60C on average.

Again I've never had a cpu or GPU die on me in 20 years.




how much faster is that over air and how much did your watercooling setup cost?

TBH I don't know. I did plug the GPU in to make sure it worked but went straight to water block. As temps determine clock speeds and they throttle as they get hotter I wouldn't imagine any but the best (most expensive) air cooled cards hit much beyond 2100. Mine only hits a 50c max and that is after 30 mins of load so the water is up to temp so it is a power and voltage wall I've run into to.

As for cost, well you can spend a fortune. I have 2 loops so it gets pricy but a water black, pump, reservoir, fittings and rad will set you back £300 if you don't buy rubbish. What does the top air cooled card cost £1500? Outside of Kingpin which is obviously a different ball game. Mine is £1049 so you have the saving to play with buying the WC kit. You do save some wattage by not having to run fans as well that can be used on the core/memory although I'm not sure what that gains you in performance. Maybe someone here knows what 3 fans can draw?

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

That is something I will consider when I eventually get round to it! My plan is most likely leave things as they are until I upgrade now anyway. Waiting for the 5900XT and see what happens..

Keep an eye on the auction site
Quick disconnects never sell
Very well
I got 4 sets of male + female
Unopened for £17
Guy payed £120 for them
But auctioned instead of buy now
Sadly for him
But not for me

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

TBH I don't know. I did plug the GPU in to make sure it worked but went straight to water block. As temps determine clock speeds and they throttle as they get hotter I wouldn't imagine any but the best (most expensive) air cooled cards hit much beyond 2100. Mine only hits a 50c max and that is after 30 mins of load so the water is up to temp so it is a power and voltage wall I've run into to.

As for cost, well you can spend a fortune. I have 2 loops so it gets pricy but a water black, pump, reservoir, fittings and rad will set you back £300 if you don't buy rubbish. What does the top air cooled card cost £1500? Outside of Kingpin which is obviously a different ball game. Mine is £1049 so you have the saving to play with buying the WC kit. You do save some wattage by not having to run fans as well that can be used on the core/memory although I'm not sure what that gains you in performance. Maybe someone here knows what 3 fans can draw?

Usually fans have volts and amps
On the label
Volts x amps =watts
Example
12v x 0.3amps =3.6watts

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

Usually fans have volts and amps
On the label
Volts x amps =watts
Example
12v x 0.3amps =3.6watts

So 3 fans would be 10.8w of power from the cards max that can't be used in the core or memory.