Custom Cooler 6970

[Buchanan0204]

Hi there,

I was wondering if I could purchase a custom cooler for my sapphire 6970 and if so. Which one? How much of a difference will I notice with regards to noise and heat?

Cheers.

 

[Cleeecooo]

Arctic cooling, thermalright shaman

They are supposed to be pretty much silent and will drop temps by around 10deg.

You can also liquid cool which makes it silent and also maxes cards out at 51deg

 

[tommybhoy]

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=19041495&posted=1#post19041495

Take a look here, for info on the AC Extreme cooler, I have 6950>70 xfire using these coolers and they are simply stunning. They are super cool and run so quiet on auto(the only third party cooler that plugs straight into the gpu fan header akaik).

I used the AC Extreme 5870 cooler which comes with most of the heatsinks that you need, the actual cooler is exactly the same as the AC extreme that is now on sale.

My pc sits in a tiny cupboard with rubbish air circulation, so temps would be much lower in normal circumstances.

Also take about 10c off the first gpu temps if using in single card mode as the top card always runs hotter in xfire mode.

If the info's of any use to you, please leave a comment in order to give it a bump for others to see.

Tealc also has a post on the Thermalright Shaman cooler somewhere.
It's a great cooler too, but it takes up 4 slots and possibly also the slot above too as the screws are quite big that hold the cooler onto the card.

 

[tommybhoy]

Tealc also has a post on the Thermalright Shaman cooler somewhere.

I found Tealc's thread:


http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18259344

 

[Tealc]

Hi there,

How much of a difference will I notice with regards to noise and heat?

Cheers.

Thanks for digging out my thread Tommybhoy, saves me having to search for it.

Shaman:
Temps....20-30 degree difference to temperatures, depending on fan speed.

Noise....Almost like running a passive graphics card. When gaming the fastest fan in my rig is a shade over 1000rpm, which is pretty quiet. The TY-140 stays around 800-850rpm which is quiet even for a 140mm fan.

It's Night and day. Best £50 I spent on making my rig quiet. Easy.

Heat is dumped in your case but provided you have a fan or two extracting it'll be just fine. I've only noticed a degree or two rise in internal temperatures.

 

[FrenchTart]

I've actually used the really rubbish old Artic cooler on my 2nd 6970:

http://www.starelectronics.ca/images/item/40411.jpg

It wasn't too annoying to fit and works well... with the 2x120mm fans I have pointing at it.

It has dropped temps and noise massively but unless you're willing to spend some time fiddling you may want to look into a more expensive option

I'm using the card to mine bitcoins most of the time, which is pretty much like running furmark 24/7 in terms of heat produced. Core temp doesn't go above 70C, though GPU#2 and GPU#3 in GPUZ hover around the 80-90 mark. Idle temps are more like 28C iirc.

On the stock cooler the card would top 100C on the core and then thermal throttle itself. It'd also sound like a hairdryer whilst it did this.

 

[tommybhoy]

Thanks for digging out my thread Tommybhoy, saves me having to search for it.

No problem Tealc, got to show the op both options.

 

[tommybhoy]

Whoops, double post.

though GPU#2 and GPU#3 in GPUZ hover around the 80-90 mark.

I think your ok at that, my old 4870 was hitting 130c+ at times until I got a huge zalman vrm sink for it.

The 6 series vrms have been improved, they run much cooler compared to the 4+ 5 series.

 

[fruman23]

Whoops, double post.



I think your ok at that, my old 4870 was hitting 130c+ at times until I got a huge zalman vrm sink for it.

The 6 series vrms have been improved, they run much cooler compared to the 4+ 5 series.

Is that even possible? I'd have expected it to just melt at that temp lol

 

[FrenchTart]

Whoops, double post.



I think your ok at that, my old 4870 was hitting 130c+ at times until I got a huge zalman vrm sink for it.

The 6 series vrms have been improved, they run much cooler compared to the 4+ 5 series.

Yeah. I wish I'd looked at the temps for them before I put the new cooler on (rather than just the core temp). I can only guess that it was hitting something crazy given the core was at 100C and the card was repeatedly thermal throttling itself :s

 

[tommybhoy]

Is that even possible? I'd have expected it to just melt at that temp lol

Iirc they were rated to run up to 132c, it had an Ac twin turbo on it which came with crap vrm heat sinks. It only happened a few times though but the card is still running fine on one of my mates pc.

Yeah. I wish I'd looked at the temps for them before I put the new cooler on (rather than just the core temp). I can only guess that it was hitting something crazy given the core was at 100C and the card was repeatedly thermal throttling itself :s

The vrms run ever so slightly below whatever temp the gpu gets too, so it was probably ok as you said the card was throttling itself.