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Vega 64 power on without heatsink

Anas Rida

Anas Rida

Anas Rida

Associate
Joined
5 Nov 2018
Posts
2
Hello,
So I just bought a Vega 64 from eBay for a pretty cheap price. I want to use it in a custom loop so it didn't come with a heatsink. Also I wanted to save some cash on shipping and customs.
Anyway the card came in, and now I want to test it. I'm wondering if anyone ever tried to power it on without a heatsink. There's a channel on YouTube that powered on a 280x and said there's a preventive mechanism that throttles the card in case thermals go above limit.
https://youtu.be/pl2QQFlaGuA
this is the link.
I also have a r9 380. Can I use that card's heatsink with a little bit of thermal paste to test the Vega? I only want to power it on for a couple of minutes to see if it's functional. I don't want to order a water block for a broken card.
 
There is no way you'll be able to test it's working or not without a heatsink. Even if you could get it to power on without melting, the thermal throttling will negate any actual testing you could do.

I sincerely doubt the 380's cooler will even fit the Vega 64. I would suggest asking on the Vega 64 owner's thread if any watercoolers have their heatsink for sale, but all sales talk needs to be done in the member's market and you're 999 posts away from getting access.
 
Don't do it, you would fry it putting any kind of load on it. I had it instantly shoot up to over 100C on the hotspot when I didn't have quite enough paste on the HBM to make contact with the block.

What model is it anyway?
 
Anas Rida said:
Hello,
So I just bought a Vega 64 from eBay for a pretty cheap price. I want to use it in a custom loop so it didn't come with a heatsink. Also I wanted to save some cash on shipping and customs.
Anyway the card came in, and now I want to test it. I'm wondering if anyone ever tried to power it on without a heatsink. There's a channel on YouTube that powered on a 280x and said there's a preventive mechanism that throttles the card in case thermals go above limit.
https://youtu.be/pl2QQFlaGuA
this is the link.
I also have a r9 380. Can I use that card's heatsink with a little bit of thermal paste to test the Vega? I only want to power it on for a couple of minutes to see if it's functional. I don't want to order a water block for a broken card.
Click to expand...

You crazy or something? I have heatsinks for both reference and Nitro Vega 64.
Where do you live, to see if I can come and give you the heatsink to test it.

As for waterblock, get the "Watercool Heatsink IV" for the Vega 64. Is cheaper than EK and much better performer.
 
Without a heatsink at all, yes that has a high chance of causing damage on any GPU...

Even just without fans temps will get too high if you put and load on it.
 
The problem is the temperature could spike when powered on and it might fry it. The cooling surface has gone from a huge lump of aluminium to a couple of cm of silicone. It's not designed to cope like that.
 
I don't suppose a regular house fan going full speed and pointed at the bare card would be sufficient?

Either way I personally wouldn't dare.
 
Nasher said:
The problem is the temperature could spike when powered on and it might fry it. The cooling surface has gone from a huge lump of aluminium to a couple of cm of silicone. It's not designed to cope like that.
Click to expand...

Without a heatsink the core will hit thermal limit inside of like 2 seconds flat and most likely shutdown not just throttle with a moderate chance of damage.

EDIT: Not really sure about AMD GPUs but nVidia ones have a small tolerance above the absolute max operating temperature then they shutdown - this is designed to work with the GPU increasing in temperature at a more gradual pace though than you'd get starting up without a heatsink and potentially wouldn't be effective in preventing the GPU killing itself in that situation.
 
Lokken86 said:
It would have to be spinning pretty ******* fast :D .

No.
Click to expand...

I have an industrial-type fan, wonder if that would work :P Blows a hurricane and is loud as hell, honestly can't remember why I bought it instead of a regular fan. Think the only other one I've seen like it was propped up by a night club's open fire escape door on a particularly hot summer's night. It would probably blow the graphics card out of the slot though :D That would be some good YouTube.
 
Vexr said:
I have an industrial-type fan, wonder if that would work :p Blows a hurricane and is loud as hell, honestly can't remember why I bought it instead of a regular fan. Think the only other one I've seen like it was propped up by a night club's open fire escape door on a particularly hot summer's night. It would probably blow the graphics card out of the slot though :D That would be some good YouTube.
Click to expand...
Have you got a thermometre to blow it at?
 
After reading all the replies I decided to wait. Can't afford to do tests on my hardware.
But I wonder what happened to the card I posted the YouTube link to. Seemed to just throttle down. And that was a much older GPU. The newer vega should be safer, but whatever. Not worth the risk.
 
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