Anyone stuck a CPU air cooler on a GPU?

ste91

ste91

ste91

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Has anyone actually tried this? There's a couple of videos on youtube but they're on fairly old GPU's.

Obviously it wouldn't fit into most normal cases and would require some DIY to fit, so lets assume it's in a custom case with good air flow, has anyone experimented with this before other than the ones on youtube?
 
Well you can bodge anything and Gamers Nexus like to like to do vid on hybrid GPU cooling. One reason they almost always use a GPU cooling block though is GPU dies are flat and don't have a heat spreader. CPUs use heat spreaders and they aren't flat so maybe forcing a CPU cooling block on a GPU die is adding unnecessary stress.

I'm not an expert on this by any means but I've seen mention of the differences in the GN vids.
 
bimbleuk said:
Well you can bodge anything and Gamers Nexus like to like to do vid on hybrid GPU cooling. One reason they almost always use a GPU cooling block though is GPU dies are flat and don't have a heat spreader. CPUs use heat spreaders and they aren't flat so maybe forcing a CPU cooling block on a GPU die is adding unnecessary stress.

I'm not an expert on this by any means but I've seen mention of the differences in the GN vids.
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Could you please explain what you mean by 'GPU dies are flat and don't have a heat spreader. CPUs use heat spreaders adn they aren't flat'. My understanding is both use flat top chips, but only CPUs use 'heatspreader' covers over them.
 
doyll said:
Could you please explain what you mean by 'GPU dies are flat and don't have a heat spreader. CPUs use heat spreaders adn they aren't flat'. My understanding is both use flat top chips, but only CPUs use 'heatspreader' covers over them.
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http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1366-page3.html

This profile view of the CPU with a steel straight-edge (the back side with cork lining showing) against the IHS shows contact only at the edges; there is a gap through the middle. The IHS is not exactly concave, which impliers a curve. The edges are raised a bit higher than the center


GPUs are however completely flat. They don't use a heatspreader like cpus do
 
vintage-x said:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1366-page3.html


This profile view of the CPU with a steel straight-edge (the back side with cork lining showing) against the IHS shows contact only at the edges; there is a gap through the middle. The IHS is not exactly concave, which impliers a curve. The edges are raised a bit higher than the center

GPUs are however completely flat. They don't use a heatspreader like cpus do
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If you mean the IHS protects the CPU die / chip from being damaged by mounting of coolers and GPU dies not having a IHS means they are easier to damage you are correct.

You seem to be confusing us. The IHS over is not the CPU die.

Both the CPU and GPU dies are equally flat.

In reality the heatspreader does not really spread heat, but gives us a bigger support area for CPU cooler. IHS is too thin to effectively spread heat. It is also too thin to supply a truly flat surface.

CPU IHS is on a PCB big enough to allow CPU chip connections to have contacts that are matched by CPU socket on motherboards.
GPU chip is mounted directly to GPU PCB (it's 'motherboard') so no socketjs used like on motherboards.
 
As I said I'm no expert and I'm not sure the CPU heat spreaders not being flat is always true and may have changed more recently. Just be aware of these sort of quirks.
 
bimbleuk said:
As I said I'm no expert and I'm not sure the CPU heat spreaders not being flat is always true and may have changed more recently. Just be aware of these sort of quirks.
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It is quite common. Many cooler companies have convex bases on their coolers to help base have good contact with center area of IHS because that is where the CPU die is located 99.9% of the time ;)
 
I wouldn't have expected there to be any problem in regard to fitting, surely no different to DIY mounting an AIO cooler?

What are peoples thoughts on the cooling ability of a CPU air cooler on a GPU? I'm talking high end 140mm air coolers with two fans. The RX580's TDP is 185 and some of these air coolers are rated over 200+ so I'd assume they'd be more than capable. Would fit heat sinks to the VRM's as well of course.
 
ste91 said:
I wouldn't have expected there to be any problem in regard to fitting, surely no different to DIY mounting an AIO cooler?

What are peoples thoughts on the cooling ability of a CPU air cooler on a GPU? I'm talking high end 140mm air coolers with two fans. The RX580's TDP is 185 and some of these air coolers are rated over 200+ so I'd assume they'd be more than capable. Would fit heat sinks to the VRM's as well of course.
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There are problems with cooler size fitting over GPU processing chip and clearing motherboard as well as the weight being only on chip with no other support like CPU IHS supplies. As I said before, the IHS functions more as a support for CPU cooler base than it does to spread CPU's heat.
 
The part that contacts the GPU chip is only around the same size as an AIO waterblock though isn't it? I've seen a few AIO's fitted to GPU's, some even bodged on with cable ties.

Size/space/support should not be a problem, it would be in a custom case with a GPU riser to allow extra space if needed. It's only a idea at the moment but I am considering building a custom air cooled PC but one that doesn't sound like it's about to take off when under load.
 
I did it many years ago - zip tie job though had enough screws and use of thermal adhesive to maintain good contact - results were surprisingly good - haven't tried it on anything more modern though (this allowed me to get +50% core overclock and +50% memory overclock on a 5900XT and survive the awful GeForce FX series days).

DSC00259S.jpg
 
ste91 said:
The part that contacts the GPU chip is only around the same size as an AIO waterblock though isn't it? I've seen a few AIO's fitted to GPU's, some even bodged on with cable ties.

Size/space/support should not be a problem, it would be in a custom case with a GPU riser to allow extra space if needed. It's only a idea at the moment but I am considering building a custom air cooled PC but one that doesn't sound like it's about to take off when under load.
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The GPU chip is only about 15mm square with nothing to hold cooler parallel with or keep cooler from crushing it. Mounting big coolers can be done. Just be very careful doing it.
 
I'd probably make a bracket of some sort to support the weight of it, a lot of the reviews comment on how bulky and heavy the big air coolers are.

Just looking at prices and reviews - the high end air coolers in the £60-75 price range are comparable to 240mm AIO's, so the cooling ability is certainly there.
The money for two high end air coolers would only get you a pump and radiator for a custom loop, or one 240/280mm AIO, and you don't have to worry about any of the usual water cooling related issues, the main drawback is the size.

I'm thinking if you had a custom case to accomodate the size and optimise air flow to the coolers you could have a relatively quiet air cooled system as opposed to the cost of a water loop or the noise that a lot of AIO's have.

Also it's not quite related to the topic but just out of interest I did some testing with my current setup, what I don't like about normal air cooled GPU's is hot air is just blown out in all directions and is able to be recirculated back through the fans so the GPU is trying to cool itself with air that's already warm, so I made some shrouding that basically seals off the lower half of the case from the top half, and sealed around the GPU, now the GPU can only pull in fresh cool air and the exhaust air can only go out through the top of the case through the exhaust fans and it has actually dropped GPU temps by a noticable amount I was able to lower the fan speed but it's still not quiet enough.
 
ste91 said:
I'd probably make a bracket of some sort to support the weight of it, a lot of the reviews comment on how bulky and heavy the big air coolers are.

Just looking at prices and reviews - the high end air coolers in the £60-75 price range are comparable to 240mm AIO's, so the cooling ability is certainly there.
The money for two high end air coolers would only get you a pump and radiator for a custom loop, or one 240/280mm AIO, and you don't have to worry about any of the usual water cooling related issues, the main drawback is the size.

I'm thinking if you had a custom case to accomodate the size and optimise air flow to the coolers you could have a relatively quiet air cooled system as opposed to the cost of a water loop or the noise that a lot of AIO's have.

Also it's not quite related to the topic but just out of interest I did some testing with my current setup, what I don't like about normal air cooled GPU's is hot air is just blown out in all directions and is able to be recirculated back through the fans so the GPU is trying to cool itself with air that's already warm, so I made some shrouding that basically seals off the lower half of the case from the top half, and sealed around the GPU, now the GPU can only pull in fresh cool air and the exhaust air can only go out through the top of the case through the exhaust fans and it has actually dropped GPU temps by a noticable amount I was able to lower the fan speed but it's still not quiet enough.
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If we were to use high end air coolers with dedicated ducting (similar to your case dividing did) I'm sure they would work very well. But I suspect we would need to use optional GPU mounting and PCIe cable risers to give use better access to intake and exhaust venting. MNPCTech has a killer GPU mount and accessories .. but don't know if anyone is selling them here in UK.
https://mnpctech.com/vertical-gpu-video-card-installation-mount/
Here is video explaining their uses. Basically Bill does a 'review' of his own product .. and like all his reviews it's a good one.
https://mnpctech.com/vertical-gpu-v...t/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBTq88-aUdI
 
I took some measurements yesterday and you'd definitely need a PCIe riser for some of the bigger 140-150mm air coolers as they'd be touching the motherboard.

If I end up making a custom case, I was thinking of something similar to what I saw on someone else's build, where they'd mounted the motherboard rotated 90 degrees so the I/O panel is at the top, this way you can get both coolers the same way around so air can flow from bottom to top. Separate ducting for each cooler and then a couple of fans for cooling the motherboard and other components.
 
I have used a CPU AIO on a GPU

Kraken design such a bracket. G12 I think?
Cant link but its not hard to find.

Never tried with a CPU Air cooler no.
 
I know this guy did. For his silent pc video.


I can't think why it would be an issue with any gpu though. Would just require probably making some simple custom brackets to clamp the die to the cooler itself and some heat sinks on the vrm + vram.
 
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