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First ever custom loop - questions/concerns

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,773
Location
Kent
I completed my first loop yesterday and I have a few questions regarding my GPU. My card is a Sapphire reference Vega 64 that i bought from the MM with a Bykski water block, GPU is a 5820k and water cooling gear is a D5 pump and two 360mm Black Ice radiators - one 30mm thick and one 60mm.

With everything left to default settings in Wattman i ran Heaven 4 benchmark and then let it keep running after that. The temperatures eventually (10mins or so) seemed to "settle" on the following:

inM7O0q.png


Do the VRM temps look normal? I had a lot of trouble fitting the water block because the Bykski instructions for a reference card are basically nonexistent so i struggled with where exactly the thermal pads were meant to go.

Also, the noise the graphics card makes is really not what i was expecting. On the Heaven 4 credits screen i get the expected high pitched whine that all cards seem to make but its during the benchmarks that it makes a bothersome noise.

I can only describe it as a loud electrical buzz/hum, really not like any coil whine i've ever experienced. With fans and pump on relatively low RPMs the graphics card is comfortably the loudest thing i can hear. It's certainly not the (relatively) silent gaming i was expecting coming from a lifetime of air cooling. :(

Is this normal i something to be concerned with? FWIW my PSU is a 5 year old EVGA G2 850W which i believe is a Superflower unit. Also, the backplate was very hot to the touch and i've no idea if thats normal or not.

Thanks
 
OK, so i'm slightly worried.

I just ran Superposition and the average Mem VRM Temperature was 60c but with a high of 99c(!).
 
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Coil buzz is normal and very common especially on the reference cards. Most peeps lie about it unfortunately.
Here's mine https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/is-this-acceptable-coil-buzz.18802805/

I'd try undervolting to reduce the current draw and this will improve performance /temps of the hotspot and vrm temps. Also i'd try using frtc in relive, this will help a bit with whine and buzz, some games are worse than others.

If your temps don't improve with tweaking, maybe recheck the block is mating properly with all components etc.

What sort of temperatures should i be aim for, specifically the VRMs?
 
Each game will load the card differently so it's a lil bit tricky to answer aswell as what you have tweaked in overdriventool/wattman

Ideally though on a custom block + rad, core temp below 60c, hbm temp below 70c and hotspot below 80c.
Vrm 60-70c, although high 80's is still perfectly fine.

My Lc64 at default out the box settings will see core temp at 65c, hotspot 78c, hbm 63c, vrm 70c. But when undervolted it will see a good 15-20c off all the temps.

So my temps in the screenshot above look ok?
 
I put the pump at 100% and rad fans at 1000rpm, P6 at 1050mv, P7 at 1100mv and Memory at 1000mv and got the following.

VUzMRkS.png


Only marginal gains.
 
@kevman

I'm probably going to completely rearrange my setup so i'll have a look at the pads.

Can anyone recommend me some new thermal pads to buy so i dont have to reuse the Bykski ones?
 
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