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R9 290 + Kraken G10 (closed loop wc)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Asa
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Asa

Asa

Asa

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Hi,

I have a crossfire R9 290s, 1 is a gigabyte windforce a the other MSI GE.

The MSI is the top card, and I'm having some trouble with temperatures and resultant throttling whenever I run a game with no cap on frame rate.

I am considering taking off the MSI GE cooler and having a go with a Kraken G10 and an Antec Kuhler (or similar Asetek closed loop CPU cooler).

From what I have read this can achieve great temperatures on the core, but VRAM modules are pretty much untouched and I've seen differing reports on whether that is OK or not.

I planned to get some mosfet heatsinks and just stick them on anything that looked like it could use the cooling, but when I asked about it on the OCUK watercooling forums I got just the one response saying that it wasn't a good idea, that even with heatsinks the VRAM modules cook.

Has anyone here got an R9 290 running OK with a Kraken G10 that can offer up any feedback? Even better if anyone has set this up on an MSI GE, as I hear they have larger capacitors than a reference card?

Thanks
 
GDDR5 should be fine but its the VRM's I would worry about.

Not sure what they look like on your card, but you could stick some Sinks to them and that large fan may push some air over them.
 
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From what i have seen with the AIO mods, the VRM's still run too hot for comfort on these power munchers.

Could get one of those RAM fan coolers and devise a ghetto mod for the row of VRM's and just hope the VRAM VRM is fine with just a heatsink.

Here you can see it left of the Vram:

500x1000px-LL-64fabfd2_290xekblockprep.jpeg
 
Thanks for the responses and particularly the pictures, that saves me some research down the line.

I am still looking for some kind of validation that the G10 can effectively cool an R9 290. With the state of the reference coolers I suspect numerous people must have tried it already and I generally trust the feedback I get here, so if anyone does have firsthand experience please let me know :)
 
It depends what you mean by 'too hot' really. Obviously they are going to be hotter than under a full cover block or even the ref. cooler but I believe they are rated for an operating temperature over 100 degrees (does anybody know this for sure?).

I have heatsinks with an 80mm fan blowing down on them and at stock stay below 85 degrees. Add +100mv and temps can get above 90 but I'm not overly concerned by that.

But you definitely do need heatsinks and a fan, doubly so if you're overvolting at all.
 
Hi,

I'm not really looking to push performance any further, my main aim is just to get the temperature under control and perhaps tone the noise down a little. Currently running 1041 core 1270 memory, no over-vaulting at all. If I end up with some headroom to push those numbers up then that's a pretty nice bonus, but it's not my target.

Side question: The top card only has 1 slot of 'breathing space', before the hot air hits the back of my sound card (assuming the cooler blows out that way?). Would it be worth sticking a PCI slot extractor fan in the gap, or would it just cramp the airflow and make things worse? I do already have a 120mm extractor fan on the side of the case...

Thanks
 
The MSI GE shouldn't be pushing air down, it will either go sideways or out the back. 1 slot should be plenty to get enough airflow to the fans providing there is good airflow going into that area of the case.

I would suggest swapping the cards over and seeing if that helps since the Windforce should have slightly better cooling than the GE I believe. You might also try changing the side fan to intake to supply more fresh air to the cards, which may or may not help but is worth trying before going to great lengths to change the cooler.
 
I thought the only 290s that exhaust were the reference ones. If the GE does then changing my side fan to intake may help.

Swapping the cards over is on my list of things to do, but I had them the other way round previously and I'm not expecting it to make the difference that I need.

Thanks again for the input.
 
jh30uk said:
^^ The VRM's are on right side not that chip...
Click to expand...

The row is obvious i was refering to the vrm for memory which also requires cooling. You can see it left of the vram. the others will run fine with a heatsink and fan but there is little you can do for the lone vrm due to the placement
 
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Avenged7Fold said:
The row is obvious i was refering to the vrm for memory which also requires cooling. You can see it left of the vram. the others will run fine with a heatsink and fan but there is little you can do for the lone vrm due to the placement
Click to expand...
I just have a heatsink on it and it's fine without anything else. That VRM doesn't get anything like as hot as the others.
 
Thanks for the input. I think I may give it a go.

The G10 is pretty hard to get at the moment, can't even get it direct from NZXT. There is an online retailer that has them in stock, but I'm not sure it's acceptable or fair to say who.
 
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