First look: Water cooled HD5870

Here we go. Watercooled MSI HD5870.

The rest of the Album preparing the HD5870 for watercooling:
http://yfrog.com/9eimg2405jx

Preview -


Our first look at idle HD5870 temps on water.


and after some Furmark

wow thats some nice load temps

Dang! Very nice!

I should mention on air my temps were high 30's, load mid 70s.

Fan was always quiet. But this is much better, also without that huge stock cooler the card isn't raping my SATA cables like it was with the stock cooler on. Sure, its long but at least it's not 2 inches wide any longer lol.

Say, could you tell us where you got the sinks and waterblock?

EDIT :: Subscribed to thread.

The ram sinks are the same ones I've used for years - all my GPUs have used them. They are just the Zalman aluminum ram sinks. I had bought a few packs over the years since they are mixed small and large within each pack.

http://www.ncixus.com/products/15682/ZM-RHS1/ZALMAN TECH/


The smaller sinks are Enzotech MOS-C1.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...emory+++Chipset+Cooling-_-Enzotech-_-35708011

The block is the D-Tek Fuzion GFX 2 with the stock mounting hardware. A few years back I picked up a huge roll of 3m thermal tape, which is what I used to mount them. LOL nothing fancy at all. Also, notice I have 2 x low speed Yates mounted at the top of the case blowing over the GPU and SB. Another little trick with velcro that has served me well with a v2000 to keep air moving through the case.

I corrected the idle temps, with CCC open it jumps to the 3d speeds.

Do you have any GPU-Z screen shots of your HD5870 before the liquid cooling? (idling and under load)

Besides your improvements on the main core how did the other video card temps change?

A before GPU-Z screen shot would be helpful.

Do you have active cooling on the VRMs? I'm wondering if these cards still have the same problem as the 4800s where the VRMs overheat without a beefy cooler attached directly to them.

SicKlown42012 said:

Do you have active cooling on the VRMs? I'm wondering if these cards still have the same problem as the 4800s where the VRMs overheat without a beefy cooler attached directly to them.

Click to expand...

That is exactly where i was going by asking for GPU-Z screen shots of the OP's HD5870 with reference cooler.

Let us know how fast you can push it under watercooling. Benches and pics please! Surely you can crack 1Ghz.

Well, a few things. I have a fan over the card for the VRMs so yes I have active cooling on them but nothing fancy - check the pics! The VRMs do not get hot like the 4800s I had. I had 2 x4870s die on me, the VRM temps went up to 90 quite easily in Furmark. The VRM were so underpowered on the 4870, but have been beefed up for the 5870s. This had been mentioned in alot of the reviews, I guess the 4870 VRM were really only rated for stock speeds and any overclocking was more than they were able to handle. Also, the HD5870 has hardware protection for the VRMs, unlike the 4870 which was software protection and took awhile for this to be implemented in the drivers.

No, I don't have any pre-water cooled GPU-Z shows, but idle was mid 30's and the highest load temps were in the 70s. The VRMs were in the 70s as well under load after awhile. Im sure somewhere on the internet someone has a stock cooler GPU-Z screenshot.

Anyone know how to break the CCC limits without flashing the card? MSI tool doesn't seem to let me pass the CCC limit either.

I had flashed my 4870s. I really dont feel like killing cards this time around lol

SicKlown42012 said:

Do you have active cooling on the VRMs? I'm wondering if these cards still have the same problem as the 4800s where the VRMs overheat without a beefy cooler attached directly to them.

Click to expand...

Im running vantage now, they arent even hot. Barely warm to the touch, ram too. Nothing is hot on this card. Handheld thermal showing about 85 f for the VRMs during 3dmark Vantage.

Overclocked!