HD5870 + T-Rad2

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faugusztin

2[H]4U
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Just a heads up for people looking for aftermarket coolers - T-Rad2 fits without any problems.

Here are some pictures what to cool and how it looks (side note - the stock RAM and VRM coolers were used before, so i ordered a HR-03 GTX285/260 Heatsink Pack, which gave me all heatsinks you see in pictures + 3 i didn't used). As you can see, there is no such problem as with HD5850 + Accelero S1, where the fins collided with DVI connector part.

cardwithcoolers.jpg


tradoncard.jpg


clearanceotherside.jpg


clearance.jpg


Temperatures are at acceptable range with 2x9.2cm Noctuas running at full speed for start.

Idle:
idle.gif
idle2.gif


Temps while playing TF2 (about 60-65C) :
tf2.gif
tf22.gif


I will try to get some better temperature readings later with RivaTuner, but for now i think it's enough.

PS: I tried Furmark stability test, but stoped once one VRM reached 100C. In real applications, it's nearly impossible to reach that temperature, so i'm not concerned about that.
 
Hardcore looking heat sink. Your GPU-Z screen shots don't show much load going on. Post some GPU-Z screen shots under full load when you get a chance.

How do your idle temps of the stock cooler compare to this?
 
I think they are pretty much the same (with stock it was 43C i thnk), but the noise is at absolutely different level even with full speed Noctuas.
 
Never had a HD5870 but to the temps don't look good. With awesome cooling I'd expect temps to increase 10-20 degrees under load.

Also may be better to run GPU-Z for temp monitoring as it has alot of other temps listed. (important)


Under 50 would be the sweet spot IMO.
 
Don't be confused with your card. ATI HD4xxx have a crappy power management, so they don't have a big temperature difference between idle and full load. ATI HD5xxx on other side have a totally different power requirements for idle and for burn - going from HD4870 to HD5870 dropped my idle power usage by 43W ! So it's normal to see such temperature differences between idle and burn. This same cooler had 51C in idle and ~65-70C in burn with HD4850. Achieving 50C under load with HD5870 is impossible.

Edit: Just to be sure, i also put passive coolers on the things above the VRM part, on the two R23 things + the small things on right of it.
 
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faugusztin said:
Don't be confused with your card. ATI HD4xxx have a crappy power management, so they don't have a big temperature difference between idle and full load. ATI HD5xxx on other side have a totally different power requirements for idle and for burn - going from HD4870 to HD5870 dropped my idle power usage by 43W ! So it's normal to see such temperature differences between idle and burn. This same cooler had 51C in idle and ~65-70C in burn with HD4850. Achieving 50C under load with HD5870 is impossible.

Edit: Just to be sure, i also put passive coolers on the things above the VRM part, on the two R23 things + the small things on right of it.
Click to expand...

getting to ~100c in Furmark is unreal. Furmark is a real beast in stability mode.
I am running a single 5870 (was running two til one XFX 5870 died) on water cooling and at idle I am around ~35c...at GAMING load I am around ~49c

with Furmark it went up to a high of 65c!!! and then stayed right around that mark for 30-40 mins. I would say your normal idle/gaming loads are fine.
 
"Here are the graphs from MSI afterburner :"

If I'm reading your "load" graphs right, it's at 72 C at 84% activity; that's a good result but not any differenct (actually a bit worse) than my stock 5870. Do you think this setup can do better?

M
 
I know, i like the results, the temperatures are comparable to stock cooling, and the noise is on totally different level (read relatively silent). I created this article to show people that there are other options too, not only stock or AC S1 for air cooling - and T-Rad2 is pretty nice considering it doesn't conflict with anything on graphics card, unlike the AC S1 on HD5850.

@dekruyter: with better fans i guess yes (Noctuas are primarly silent and not big air pushers), but also take noise in your equation. The noise of this card now is at level of stock 5870 in idle.
 
faugusztin said:
Don't be confused with your card. ATI HD4xxx have a crappy power management, so they don't have a big temperature difference between idle and full load. Achieving 50C under load with HD5870 is impossible.
Click to expand...

I noticed a very nice drop in temps on HD4770s when I went from stock HD4770 cooler to TR HR-03 heat sink. So you are right in thinking I do have experience with HD4770. (good experience)


I also have HD5850 experience with the stock cooling. It is loud at 100% cooling but did seem to cool very well.

Here is some Furmark testing with HD5850 stock cooling at 100% fan speed.

FurmarktestingHD5850.jpg



Not certain how HD5850 compares to HD5870 but the temps seem very different.
 
Tomorow i will try it with the 12cm Enermax Magma (that fan is a high airflow beast), will see if it will be better or worse.
 
Temps arent bad considering the noise level is probably a lot better. Mine isnt that bad though and my temps are about 6C higher then yours under load and my idle temps are the same. Notice any difference in VRM temps when gaming?
 
So, today i tried with a 12cm fan (Nexus only right now) :

furmark4min.jpg


The GPU Temperature is OK IMHO (the 100% speed at 5850 is not really a usable comparison, as no one would like to have a vacuum cleaner running 24/7 near him :p). VDDCI Temperature is OK too - the only problem are the VDDC Temperatures. They were pretty much stopped at that 92-97C, but that is too high for me. I will look around if i can bring them down to same region as other tempeatures (<80C).

Of course Furmark is a extreme example, when i checked VRM's yesterday while gaming they were in region around 80C (+/- few degrees).


Edit: And with replaced PWM coolers and just one 12cm Enermax Magma fan :
furmark4mininy.jpg
 
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faugusztin said:
The GPU Temperature is OK IMHO (the 100% speed at 5850 is not really a usable comparison, as no one would like to have a vacuum cleaner running 24/7 near him :p). VDDCI
Click to expand...

HD5850 comparison is not accurate because it is being compared to HD5870. I through that out just so that you could see that i based my comments on experience with HD8XX series. Also notice I was running HD5850 at 1000/1200 frequencies.

Did you do any testing before swapping coolers?

It's hard for me to determine how effective your cooling modification is without knowing how how effective the stock cooler is.

Overall the temps seem hot compared to HD5850. Maby they are good for HD5870. :confused:


I prefer loud fan effective cooling over quiet heat sink and fan that doesn't cool as well. Effective cooling>noisey fan IMO.
 
That is probably the difference between us (i had headaches due the noise of i5 box cooler!) - for me the temperatures i got are pretty much acceptable (40C core in idle, 68C after 4 minutes of Furmark), the only concern is about the VRM which i will improve later with better cooler block (right now there are only small blocks on it because i didn't have another cooler like i have on the memory modules). That will probably bring down VDDC temps down by another few degrees and that will be well enough for me. Comparing VDDC temperatures with the ones you get with stock cooler is also not really fair, because with stock cooler, they are all cooled by one block, while in case of custom coolers you must cool them yourself. Maybe i will decide to wait a bit (those temperatures will not break the card) and wait out the 5870 version of this (it's already mentoined on T-Rad GTX compatibility page):
http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/vga/vrm/product_vga_cooler_vrm.html

Unfortunately i don't have the GPU-Z shots before the change, it wasn't in my interest to keep the noisy cooler, i was waiting for the moment for long 3 weeks until i got all the parts i needed to make this cooler replacement.
 
Just slapped a T Rad on my 5870. Temps went from:

Idle: low 50s --> low 30s
load (vantage): low 70s --> mid 50s

@ stock clocks.

No problems with installation.
 
Out of curiosity, for those of you who have ripped the stock cooling off: it possible to just take the outer plastic off so that the heatsink and fan are exposed, without separating the heatsink from the chip?

I'm trying to keep costs down and figure just having a 120mm fan blowing directly on the heatsink would drop temps. Better than it being enclosed with just the stock fan.
 
MasterplayerC said:
Out of curiosity, for those of you who have ripped the stock cooling off: it possible to just take the outer plastic off so that the heatsink and fan are exposed, without separating the heatsink from the chip?

I'm trying to keep costs down and figure just having a 120mm fan blowing directly on the heatsink would drop temps. Better than it being enclosed with just the stock fan.
Click to expand...

Yes you can. It's just some screws holding the top together. The heatsink looks like this:

2010-01-07_201918.jpg


You might want to mod something so that you can slap a fan on top of it. Good luck!
 
that looks like it takes up 3 expansion slots. can you please take pics with the back panel for a size reference. I want to run one of these cards with a single slot solution, and was wondering if the trad2 would be the way to go.
 
Yes, it takes approx 1,5-2 slots for the card and the cooler itself, plus one slot for the fans. No, i can't make a picture, my HD5870 is on RMA for about 2 weeks. And after it returns, i will use Prolimatech MK-13, which is +/- a 5 slot solution thanks to relatively stupid fan mount bar system.

Ther is AFAIK no singleslot aftermarket cooling, not in this performance segment.
 
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