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What was the worst graphics card for heat?

Associate
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Great stuff. :) I had an Arctic Cooling NV5 Silencer on my 6800GT and also ran the side of the case for both cards. I can't remeber why I didn't upgrade the cooling on the x1950 Pro (possibly no room?) but it really needed doing. That style of cooler (very similar to the stock 6800GT cooler) was hopeless.

It was actually a Zalman cooler (edited!). But yeah, that style of cooler was indeed awful. In my case I didn't bother doing anything to it as the whole system was a freak that needed an overhaul (the card was running in a PCIE 4x slot on an Asrock mobo that supported both DDR2 and 3 with an E6400). Still, I miss the days of easily customising stuff that wasn't so expensive that breaking it would be the end of the world, I learned so much.
 
Soldato
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4870x2 Reference card. At default it was so hot it made the back of the PC case too hot to touch, I kid you not you could burn your hand touching the case. You could ramp up the fan of course via afterburner but then it sounded like a jumbo jet taking off. Ended up putting an aftermarket on it for sanity's sake.
 
Soldato
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Baa
It was actually a Zalman cooler (edited!). But yeah, that style of cooler was indeed awful. In my case I didn't bother doing anything to it as the whole system was a freak that needed an overhaul (the card was running in a PCIE 4x slot on an Asrock mobo that supported both DDR2 and 3 with an E6400). Still, I miss the days of easily customising stuff that wasn't so expensive that breaking it would be the end of the world, I learned so much.

I can relate to that - the early days were great for tinkering. I remember the days when, inspired by the induction system on my mate's ZXR750, I used a cut-up flexible hoover pipe to feed air from outside the case to my overclocked Coppermine P3 (running in a "slotket" in a slot 1 mobo). :D

That was 20-odd years ago! Where does all the time go?
 
Associate
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I can relate to that - the early days were great for tinkering. I remember the days when, inspired by the induction system on my mate's ZXR750, I used a cut-up flexible hoover pipe to feed air from outside the case to my overclocked Coppermine P3 (running in a "slotket" in a slot 1 mobo). :D

That was 20-odd years ago! Where does all the time go?

Hahaha, that's the kind of modding that makes PC hardware the hobby it is! CPU's in slots, reminds me I want to build a Windows 98 machine with the remnants of my parents first PC they have lying around, a P2 450MHz system with 128MB RAM. If only I'd bought my friend's Voodoo 2 for £20 when he was selling it 16 years ago!
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
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90,805
480 SLI was quite toasty.

Weird thing is when I ran my 470 SLI at 900MHz (versus stock 607MHz) which most would do via the 1.1 volt mod which made them faster than a stock 480 SLI they didn't run as warm as people with 480s at the same performance level.
 
Associate
Joined
26 Oct 2007
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1,266
2 x gtx295s
Hotter than fire but great in the winter.
Even under water the heat in the room was tropical but loved every minute of it.
Until my water pump died:eek::mad:
 
Associate
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29 Oct 2002
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I had some Voodoo 3D card, waaaaay back in the day, that got so hot that when I touched the passive heatsink i could hear the TSSSSSS of my fingertip burning!!!!!
 
Soldato
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I had a reference 4870 and that thing idled in the low 70s. It still lasted four years though. I remember Bioshock Infinite being one of the last games I played through on it before it died, having purchased it in early 2009. Just checked and it was from here actually. Still have the email.

screenshotyqk6o.png
 
Soldato
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Gillingham, Kent
Fortunately, I managed to get through using an HD2900 Pro, and crossfired HD4870's before I found out about temperature monitoring my hardware. :D

I'd found out about it by the time I was running two reference R9 290s though. They were designed to run at 94C, which they did at about 40% fans, but I just couldn't get my head around keeping them at that temperature. I ended up putting Arctic Cooling Accelero Hybrid (120 AIO with a big heatsink) coolers on them, but the case wasn't big enough for both so cooling was still less than ideal - about 70-75C on each. They were the best cards I've ever had at heating up the room!

Maybe I shouldn't have run them overclocked? Nah, where would the fun have been in that?!?
 

TNA

TNA

Caporegime
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13 Mar 2008
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27,172
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Greater London
I had a reference 4870 and that thing idled in the low 70s. It still lasted four years though. I remember Bioshock Infinite being one of the last games I played through on it before it died, having purchased it in early 2009. Just checked and it was from here actually. Still have the email.

screenshotyqk6o.png
I see why, it was an XFX. Worst of them all imo. Cheap coolers with rubbish after sales care. Not sure if they are still around or gone bankrupt due to running their business like that.
 
Caporegime
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18 Oct 2002
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39,267
Location
Ireland
4870x2 Reference card. At default it was so hot it made the back of the PC case too hot to touch, I kid you not you could burn your hand touching the case. You could ramp up the fan of course via afterburner but then it sounded like a jumbo jet taking off. Ended up putting an aftermarket on it for sanity's sake.


uO1awyK.jpg

The 4870x2 was so bad that it reportedly ended up cooking it's own gpu's with the heat it produced. All the heat from the first gpu near the fan got pushed onto the second before being dumped out the back. I had one for about a day before returning it. The heat-sink looking like a misshapen dong certainly didn't help the aesthetics of it either. Was a good card for performance, just hot and loud.
 
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