GPU water block back plates - serve a purpose?

Monkeyspaz5000 · 29 Mar 2014 at 11:18

I have a R9 290 on route and I I'm water cooling it. I was thinking about getting a backplate for it. Are they purely aesthetic?

I did have GTX670's with XSPC water blocks and back plates. They had heat pads for the chips on the back of the card etc.

So... Do they serve a real purpose? Worth the extra cash on top of a water block? Something that should be considered in particular for the R9 290?

Your thought on this would be appreciated.

Cheers

Uncle Petey · 29 Mar 2014 at 11:54

It's mostly aesthetic, but they help a little with supporting the card and providing a bit of passive cooling.

It's worth it just for the looks alone if you ask me

OLDPHART · 29 Mar 2014 at 15:42

Yes they do helps cool the memory depending on the GPU, got them on my SLI 670's.

deFiniLoGy · 29 Mar 2014 at 16:04

For the look for most of them

Avenged7Fold · 29 Mar 2014 at 16:41

Mostly looks but on one or two cards they seem to make a difference cooling wise. 290/290x's seem to cool a little better with them, same reason why they stuck backplates on so many of the aftermarket ones.

If you have watercooling already, the performance difference will be minimal. Look nice though :cool:

dribbler · 29 Mar 2014 at 18:53

Uncle Petey said:
It's mostly aesthetic, but they help a little with supporting the card and providing a bit of passive cooling.

It's worth it just for the looks alone if you ask me

^^ this, also the EK 290 backplate comes with thermal tape!

MarioGameTV · 30 Mar 2014 at 15:08

aesthetic but it can drop about 3-4c in single or 2 way sli , 3-4 way sli is honestly only for aesthetic as temperature rise from bottom cards .

dreigns · 31 Mar 2014 at 08:02

Helps with heavy cards to keep them straight I remember my 4870x2 once the waterblock was on it was like a banana didn't hurt it but looked really bad

red eye · 4 Apr 2014 at 16:48

Saved my 290 from death by leaking res, so well worth the money for money for me.