Purchased 3080 Ti - decided to go back to Air cooling whole rig

[PurePickage]

depends on the game, with gpu overclocks it's tricky - it can be rock solid in one game then. Crash in the next one

We’re talking about undervolts not overclocks.

My testing method works for me as I only play a handful of games. Make a change, play one game for a few hours without issue, try another, no issues for a few hours then I call it rock solid.

 

[Grim5]

We’re talking about undervolts not overclocks.

My testing method works for me as I only play a handful of games. Make a change, play one game for a few hours without issue, try another, no issues for a few hours then I call it rock solid.

Undervolts, overclocks all the same thing as far as stability is concerned (all you are doing is shifting the voltage/frequency curve up or down, which direct it goes doesn't matter the fact you are changing it can affect stability)

like I said it depends on the game, I can play 5 games straight over 100 hours think all is well then on the 6th game after several weeks I get crashes out of nowhere. In fact that's what happened to me, all his well until I started playing Assasins Creed Valhalla and it was that game that exposed the instability.

I've been overclocking my gpu's for 6 years now - I'm used to changing the overclock settings on a per game basis because each game has its own stability equilibrium - the only way you can get stability in every single game is by losing performance in other games because you reduce your frequency that much to account for the worst case scenario, wanting the best performance, always, means adjusting the gpu for each game which is what I do

 

[xPETEZx]

Water cooling does the same thing, quickly turns a full tower into Full instead of empty, air coolers don't help much - see all the funny pictures of O11 XL cases with air cooling lol it's like a 5ft size 6 girls driving in a humvee

I like the O11D, but it wont fit my tower cooler. I briefly considered the XL, but like you say... looks silly.
The XL really needs 2 phat-boi 360 Rads top and bottom. Otherwise systems just look lost in it.

depends on the game, with gpu overclocks it's tricky - it can be rock solid in one game then. Crash in the next one

Yep! I found my 1850@850mv undervolt to be 'solid' in an the stress/bench tests I could think to run. Played fine for a couple hours in Shadow of the Tomb Raider too.
Wasnt till I started playing GTA V again that I had any issues.
Its the part about overclocking/underclocking I really dont like.... finding stability reliably. I put my CPU back to stock as I just didnt want to fiddle anymore and wanted to rule it out of any crash as being the cause. Now its just my GPU undervolted, so at least its easy to narrow down issues. I found day-to-day the CPU tweaks made no difference at all anyway. The GPU on the other hand.... well the coil whine is much better UV'ed and the fans run quieter too. So worth doing imo. Even if it is frustrating at times.

 

[kevman]

This thread has really upset my executive decision making - I was all ready to get a waterblock for my 3090 FE plus additional radiator but now I am thinking I might just get a noctua and redo the thermal pads on the FE for less than half the price.

 

[xPETEZx]

This thread has really upset my executive decision making - I was all ready to get a waterblock for my 3090 FE plus additional radiator but now I am thinking I might just get a noctua and redo the thermal pads on the FE for less than half the price.

Depends why you where thinking of going water. If it was for noise reasons only, you can get the 3090FE fans to stay around 1100 with pad change & undervolt.
At that level, I cant hear my GPU fans over the coil whine. Stock they would hit like 1600+, which was far too loud. (And why I was seriously considering doing a custom WC loop)

 

[kevman]

Depends why you where thinking of going water. If it was for noise reasons only, you can get the 3090FE fans to stay around 1100 with pad change & undervolt.
At that level, I cant hear my GPU fans over the coil whine. Stock they would hit like 1600+, which was far too loud. (And why I was seriously considering doing a custom WC loop)

Well part of is it that I already have the pump/ CPU block and aesthetics I guess. Noise is not a massive issue for me as I wear headphones. I used to cool my old 1080ti and that offered a good boost to the clocks - just not sure the benefits are there for this generation of RTX cards.

 

[neo-omega]

One of the main things that has lead me to want to go back to air is the thought of reliability. With air cooling, the only moving parts are the fans. If you have like a NH-D15 then if the fan fails you still have a huge mass of metal dissipating heat, meaning no instant failure. If your pump dies then you're screwed!

 

[harmattan]

I used to watercool my systems for years. The pinnacle was a crazy, custom wood-worked case made to look like a stand-up antique radio with the an engraved "globe" reservoir (if you follow some other custom case forums, you like have seen the one or others made by the guy). The case now sits in a steampunk-themed bar in Brooklyn, NY. Once I sold that case, I went back to air... The ease of use and reduction in cost means I'll likely not ever move back to water. In short, the hassle and cost for the benefit just wasn't worth it.

 

[Grim5]

One of the main things that has lead me to want to go back to air is the thought of reliability. With air cooling, the only moving parts are the fans. If you have like a NH-D15 then if the fan fails you still have a huge mass of metal dissipating heat, meaning no instant failure. If your pump dies then you're screwed!

If your pump dies your pc will turn off then you replace pump and turn back on

if the fan on your d15 does your pc will turn off then you replace the fan and turn back on

min neither scenario is anyone screwed. I dunno in what time you guys live but on modern PC components they will force your pcb to turn off when they overheat

 

[neo-omega]

If your pump dies your pc will turn off then you replace pump and turn back on

if the fan on your d15 does your pc will turn off then you replace the fan and turn back on

min neither scenario is anyone screwed. I dunno in what time you guys live but on modern PC components they will force your pcb to turn off when they overheat

A bit easier to replace a fan than to replace a pump.

Plus we're not discussing the differences in difficulty of maintaining the various cooling solutions.