Leadtek 6800 GT and silencer 5 tests and conclusion.

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Kyum

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All tests were done with winfox heat monitor up with rthdribl running in background.All tests were performed on maximun load.Card is clocked at 421 core and 1148 memory.With 15 minutes heat up time minimum logged.Arctic silver 5 was applied.

I found that by removing the stock screen on the leadtek fan it reduced the temps quite a bit.On stock voltage at 1.3 with fan removed i would average from 61 to 63 on core.Memory would be 43 to 45.

After voltage increase to 1.4 core raised to 66/67 and memory to 47/48.

No tests were performed back at 1.3 volts with silencer on.

With silencer installed at 1.4 volts the core after 15 minutes on max load would vary from 78/80.Memory was 46/47.

Conslusion:

When my package arrived at my door today i must say my heart was beating.it looked good and i was looking for some results.After my tests i am very,very disappointed in it.I logged all my test results in my book and ambient room temperature was slightly colder today with the silencer on then yesterdays tests with stock cooler on with screen removed.Overall core raised over 10 degrees c,with memory being the decrease at a measly 1 degree c
 
I suspect the Silencer isn't installed properly. It probably isn't seated right, or you didn't use enough AS5 someplace. People have gotten similar results to you, then had the temps drop 10C or more if they re-seated it.

I'm not calling you a dummy or anything, I had to fiddle with it a little to get full contact on the GPU and all the RAM chips on mine.

That said, I don't know if it will be cooler than the Leadtek cooler if you are really getting 67C with it overvolted and overclocked. After all, the Leadtek is a 2-slot cooler with a huge fan, too. Had you read peoples' test results with the NV Silencer 5, you'd know that it isn't cooling better than the results you already got with the Leadtek cooler, though it does beat the hell out of the standard 1-slot GT HSF and give lower ambient case temps and less noise.

Put another way, the Leadtek comes with a badass 2-slot air cooling solution already, you aren't really going to do much better unless you water cool the sucker.
 
im gonna go back to my original leadtek with the fan cover removed.yes its seated properly with just the bare minimum as5.I had the revsision 3 on my old 9800 volt modded pro.Applying to much arctic silver is not good.its only purpose is to fill in the microscopic scratchs between the sink and the core.

But you are right i did not take the time to research the cooler before i came here.i just assumed it would cool better then the stock leadtek.Personally i thought 67 was high but after seeing some others apparantly it was not.

Im just very dissapointed in it.
 
Yea if it is right seated you should get lower temps, i get about 64c with my GT clocked to 425/1150 under load.
 
My comments from another thread ...

Got my cooler installed yesterday. Just one important tip to those who have yet to install the cooler. The instructions specifically say to apply a thick wad of thermal grease to the memory chips and a thin one to the VPU. I thought they did this because the memory coolers sat off a little bit to make sure the VPU came into contact first. More margin for error cooling your memory than your VPU I supposed. Well my cooler actually sat flush against the memory chips. When I laid on a thick coat of AC5 on the memory ( I know not a good idea since using AC5 on memory chips) I could net get good contact with the VPU. My intial tests with the card were dissapointing so I pulled the cooler back off and found the contact patch was only about 60% of the VPU. The side of the VPU that sits closer to the memory didn't have a good contact. I then used the thin coat of the enclosed thermal grease on the memory and AC5 on the VPU, cranked down the screws a little more (squeezing the rubber washers more than just a little) then puttled it back off to verify I had a good contact patch. I did. Cleaned off and reapplied the thermal compunds yet again and put the card back in. This time I got a drop of 5c at load from my stock baseline. :)

If I had to do it again I would:

1. Check the memory contact visually before applying any compound. If the memory is flush only put on a thin coating.

2. Test the thermal contact patch by applying a "test coat" on the memory and VPU, putting the cooler on, then taking it off to visually inspect for full contact.

3. If everything looks good clean off and reapply the compounds and cooler and put it back in your rig. If the contact patch on the memory is less than great but the VPU is good you might have to apply a thicker coat to the memory per the instructions. If the memory looks good but the VPU isn't 100% and tightening the nuts further may damage your card, you might be looking at a RMA due to manufacturing tolerrances not being very good. You also might consider lapping the memory pads untill they drop a little so your VPU is able to sit flush against the coolers. Since the VPU sits a little bit higher of even with it's shim, taking that off won't help.

Hopefully will save some others from having to mount their video card coolers multiple times. Unless you're into that sort of thing ... ;)

The Leadtek design is problably superior to the reference design, so I wouldn't expect a dramatic change. But I'm guessing you need to play with it a bit more to make sure you have good contact on the VPU. When you pull it off look for the pattern of thermal grease on the NV5. The shape/size of the pattern on the NV5 should match the VPU.
 
Kyum said:
im gonna go back to my original leadtek with the fan cover removed.yes its seated properly with just the bare minimum as5.I had the revsision 3 on my old 9800 volt modded pro.Applying to much arctic silver is not good.its only purpose is to fill in the microscopic scratchs between the sink and the core.

But you are right i did not take the time to research the cooler before i came here.i just assumed it would cool better then the stock leadtek.Personally i thought 67 was high but after seeing some others apparantly it was not.

Im just very dissapointed in it.
Click to expand...

I'd be disappointed too. As a happy NV Silencer 5 owner, I wouldn't have gotten one if I had a Leadtek with the 2-slot cooler, simply because none of the 2-slot coolers are wildly superior to the others... they are just all better than the 1-slot coolers.

And 67C is *COLD* for a 6800 series. People are routinely getting >80C under load with stock GT coolers at stock speeds, some over 90C. I went from 82C to 71C going from the 1-slot cooler on my BFG 6800 GT to the NV Silencer 5.

All things being equal, less AS5 is better. BUT... having complete contact is more important, and you can't always crank the screws down tight enough to get full contact without risking damage to the screws or the board. Manufacturing tolerance stacking between your board maker and Arctic Cooling means nobody can guarantee that their aftermarket cooler will be a perfect fit for everybody's card out of the box.
 
I have no clue as to why you even needed a nv silencer on a leadtek 6800 gt. The stock massive copper heatsink fan combo rules, and i just dont get why you even went that route.

My leadtek stays supercool, as i showed in the pictures a few posts down . Im not messing with rthdribl anymore, someone said i was running it in low res or something but i had it strecthed out so it filled the screen up pretty good. running at ultra speeds just fine and cool too.

If you have a leadtek 6800 gt theres no reason to buy aftermarket silencer(cooler)LOL. Just my 2 cents.

Leadtek did all the work for you and with a 3 year warranty you cant go wrong. :D

Peace out.
 
I have a question for the leadtek owners here - are you noticing that the plastic housing on the leadtek 6800GT begins to rattle a little bit over time? I recently had to disassemble a fair bit of the plastic housing because it was vibrating, and am curious to see if anyone else has had a similar issue.
 
No haven´t had that issue.

I have removed the heatsink now. surprised how loose the screw was could use a little diamond screwdriver even though the screws where made for some special tool :)

bought a stasisthermal heatsink and maaaaan is it an improvement.

It was idling at like 53 I think well okay decent the AS 5 hasn´t burned in yet. run some 3DMARK 05 tests and see it holds 57 :eek:

I have crappy airflow because my case just doesn´t allow great airflow so the leadtek solution is borderline. Especially since the fan get so easy cloggered with dust. It´s ok for stock speed not more and I would feel better to run it cooler so it holds longer. Have already had to rma it once.
 
I idle at about 49-50 with my screen off and a vantec spectrum fan card directly below it on the lowest fan setting.
 
Nah not that hard. Seem to have a really small fan and the copper think ontop of the GPU looked quite thin. But put another fan on top :)
 
Yea, I agree, an 80 mm fan would be perfect for that heatsink on the leadtek. But, when you take off the screen and place fancard directly below the card it takes your max. load temps and idle temps down by alot.. You could take off the plastic shell and it would even be better, but I dont feel like messing around with my card that much.
 
Ah that was the Leadtek 6800 GT/ULTRA cooler. Didn´t recognize it without the shroud lol.

I replaced that one with a stasisthermal heatsink it´s an incredible difference. I can actually overclock some now :).

Load temps I get 15 degrees lower at 425/1180 then I got at 400/1100 with stock leadtek heatsink. That is in a very hot room but I never get more then 67 now where I could get up to 85 before.
 
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