4870 Aftermarket Cooling Options

O

oozish

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Messages
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Hi,

I'm thinking about getting this card but it's hard to go from 42C at idle with my 9600gt to 70i'sh at idle with a 4870 since my room gets so hot anyway. What is the preferred after market cooling gizmo most desired and easiest to install.

I've always had a hard time getting the sheath of nvidia cards, but I'm not sure how hard it is for ATI. Also, I've seen some folks with the duorb vga cooler that looks like it lowers the temps really nicely on the card but will it still heat up the inside of my case like crazy with after market cooler?

I ditched my old 8800gts 640 just because of temp issues and got the 9600gt (which, at less than half the price performs better, heh) so this issue of heat is important to me; important enough I may just have to wait till we start seeing manufactures doing better cooling built on the board if need be.

Advice?
 
I have the GFX Chillas on my 4870 crossfire setup and they idle at high 40's-50c and are virtually silent.
 
oozish said:
I'm thinking about getting this card but it's hard to go from 42C at idle with my 9600gt to 70i'sh at idle with a 4870 since my room gets so hot anyway.
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The card is going to produce the same amount of heat no matter what cooler you put on it. TDP is TDP, a heatsink can't change that. A better cooler will just remove that heat from the card more efficiently -- heating up your room a bit quicker. :p
 
rls669 said:
The card is going to produce the same amount of heat no matter what cooler you put on it. TDP is TDP, a heatsink can't change that. A better cooler will just remove that heat from the card more efficiently -- heating up your room a bit quicker. :p
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I was thinking about that, I've read that before and the ramifications sort of eluded me. so the heat in the room might actually be less with less efficient heat dissipation on the card (as it will stay in the case)...sigh.

I hate hot computer rooms, I thought the smaller die should produce less heat...
 
The new Accelero Twin Turbo looks promising. Just can't find it anywhere yet.
 
Thermaltake Duo Orb did a great job, max load was about 70, idle in the 40s. Its water cooled now though.

IMG_5299.JPG
 
oozish said:
Hi,

I'm thinking about getting this card but it's hard to go from 42C at idle with my 9600gt to 70i'sh at idle with a 4870 since my room gets so hot anyway. What is the preferred after market cooling gizmo most desired and easiest to install.
Click to expand...


If you're worried about your room heating up, the only think you can do is downclock your card or get one that uses less power. Your room will heat up regardless of how good your cooling is, because all your cooling does is blow the heat into your room. What you're really looking for is an air conditioner.


oozish said:
I was thinking about that, I've read that before and the ramifications sort of eluded me. so the heat in the room might actually be less with less efficient heat dissipation on the card (as it will stay in the case)...sigh.
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No, your room will heat up by the same amount even with less heat dissipation on the card. Your room will take longer to heat up, perhaps, but the heat the card generates will still eventually end up in your room.
 
Your room will heat up regardless of how good your cooling is, because all your cooling does is blow the heat into your room. What you're really looking for is an air conditioner.
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QFT :)
 
Yes, air conditioners are awesome. I have my room down to 60°F. It helps bring my 4870 to 29°C. Even at 820/1100 the load temp maxed at 54°C
 
AmongTheChosenX said:
that sounds amazing... a nice change to the humidity in northern NJ... yuck
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If you think the humidity is bad up there, you should come visit Mississippi. It's hard to breathe sometimes. And you start sweating within a minute of walking outside. hahaha
 
turumbar said:
If you're worried about your room heating up, the only think you can do is downclock your card or get one that uses less power. Your room will heat up regardless of how good your cooling is, because all your cooling does is blow the heat into your room. What you're really looking for is an air conditioner.




No, your room will heat up by the same amount even with less heat dissipation on the card. Your room will take longer to heat up, perhaps, but the heat the card generates will still eventually end up in your room.
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That's only true if you consider a room to be a totally isolated environment, which, upon the last checking of a high school physics book, is impossible.

Assuming his room will also dissipate heat, then the room's temperature will be affected by the rate that his computer case is dissapating heat. So if he has really crappy ventilation for his case and really good ventillation for his room, his room temp might not go up at all :)
 
dnottis said:
Thermaltake Duo Orb did a great job, max load was about 70, idle in the 40s. Its water cooled now though.

IMG_5299.JPG
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That thing looks so nice, especially when the fans are lit, theres pics of it in action in another thread, tempting since my case is already packed with blue LED fans.
 
I talked to a David Shing at Arctic Cooling today, and the Accelero Twin Turbo will be available in the U.S. in mid-August time frame.
 
The question is,which of these coolers offer a noticeable advantage over the stock cooler,but won't interfere with a dual card set up? I can't imagine fitting in two cards with some of these coolers.
 
Would most of you 4850/4870 owners consider the use of aftermarket cooling mandatory or just plain helpful?

All this talk of the heat generated by the 4870 has me worried that it will be unstable and cause games to crash, etc.

The room where my machine sits is air conditioned, but I'm not much of a PC gear monkey, so I'd prefer not to buy a bunch of aftermarket gadgetry to keep the 4870 from starting on fire.
 
Don't worry about temps; Visiontek has a lifetime warranty anyway.
 
Perini said:
Would most of you 4850/4870 owners consider the use of aftermarket cooling mandatory or just plain helpful?

All this talk of the heat generated by the 4870 has me worried that it will be unstable and cause games to crash, etc.

The room where my machine sits is air conditioned, but I'm not much of a PC gear monkey, so I'd prefer not to buy a bunch of aftermarket gadgetry to keep the 4870 from starting on fire.
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I think it is with the 4850. The stock cooler is down right horrible. Plus if you want O/C, forget about it on the stock cooler.
 
I'm not really interested in overclocking. I am buying this card as an alternative to the baffling glut of 8800 / 9800 offerings from nVidia. If it runs Crysis @ 1900x1200 with 30 or so FPS, I'll be happy.
 
$$$?

It basically just upped the fan size from ~50mm to ~70mm, and added plastic. If it's the same price as S1/S2+Turbo then fine, if it's any more == weak.
 
Minsc said:
I talked to a David Shing at Arctic Cooling today, and the Accelero Twin Turbo will be available in the U.S. in mid-August time frame.
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SPIT-TAKE

Damn, I was hoping their announcement meant in a week or two. Hmmm, I might go duOrb after all.
 
is there any aftermarket cooling that can be installed w/o using ram sinks?? for the 4870. i would get a duorb but i dont think it has contact with the ram is that correct?? cause im idle @ 81 deg C, here in my room Southern California. Fing hot as hell.
 
No, the orb comes with separate heatsinks, though I would expect the RAM sinks would get air blown on them by the fans. This has some good pics of it, not the right card, but it gives you the idea.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/vga-coolers2_6.html

If you're looking for an air "all in one" unit, plus that blows out the back (well mostly out the back, it looks a little short, maybe rig up something on the end to extend it), keep an eye out for this...
http://chilledpc.co.uk/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34&Itemid=55

Someone was wondering if this would fit 4850 in one of the threads here, if you look at his temp pics, you'll see he talks about doing the temps on a 4850.

Supposedly Sidewinder Computer is the Akasa distributor in the US, they're a good place. No idea of an ETA though.
 
I hope the Akasa comes to the US - looks like quite a cooler. If not, I'll stick to the S1v2 plan.
 
Can someone explain to me how to remove the standard ATI Sheathing/fan or is it really simple? I remember on my 8800 gts 640 I had a hard time figuring it out but I got it; still, don't want to be frustrated at all if I do this.

I'm on the fence now about these after market coolers that are currently out, read this from that review link:

I have to admit that unfortunately, Thermaltake DuOrb turned out pretty loud, therefore we hope that one day Thermaltake will add a fan rotation speed controller or a 7V (maybe even 5V) power adapter to the cooler bundle. At the same time, the Zalman solution is free from this drawback although it is just a little weaker than Thermaltake DuOrb at the maximum fan rotation speed. Among the drawbacks both these coolers have we should point out their high price and incomplete hot air exhaust outside the system case.
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Maybe best to just run hot with the default cooling? I'm not getting the duorb if it's louder than default cooling methinks...perhaps the Accelero S1 with the arctic cooling fans though, that looks like an effective solution if size isn't an issue (in my cosmos case it isn't).

Anyone using Accelero S1 with these fans and is the RAM heatsink installation a bitch *(not sticking) like they let on at newegg?
 
I just picked up a duorb for my 4850, I'll let you know about the volume. ;0
 
The more I read about this the more I think it makes the most sense to just let the card run hot, maybe tweak the fan speed to 30%, but seems like aftermarket cooling not worth it for any reason than personal preference.
 
oozish said:
The more I read about this the more I think it makes the most sense to just let the card run hot, maybe tweak the fan speed to 30%, but seems like aftermarket cooling not worth it for any reason than personal preference.
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You and I are in the same camp. Once I read about the homebrew fix to fan speeds, I stopped obsessing while reading this thread...:D
 
oozish said:
The more I read about this the more I think it makes the most sense to just let the card run hot, maybe tweak the fan speed to 30%, but seems like aftermarket cooling not worth it for any reason than personal preference.
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I agree. I don't see any point in turning up the fan speed just to make it run cooler at idle. It's not hurting the card to idle at default/stock temps.

I do see a point in turning up the fan speed, to cool it even more, when you're playing a game though. I think it's a really good idea, even if it's just 10-20 lower.
 
ya, I read that was a good cooler as well, but something about the ram sinks were too big and made it run hot if you (didn't) install the ream.
 
Minsc said:
I talked to a David Shing at Arctic Cooling today, and the Accelero Twin Turbo will be available in the U.S. in mid-August time frame.
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Is that part basically just an Accelero S1 with a new fan setup slapped on it? That's certainly what it looks like in the pics I've seen.
 
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