Ah that's right - they no longer include the 230mm side fan. You can mount 4x120 there also.
Still, that's a big drop, no?
Got my 6970s today - Mixed bag so far...
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Ah that's right - they no longer include the 230mm side fan. You can mount 4x120 there also.
Still, that's a big drop, no?
It's supposed to its just a protective film
Nope that was gone already. There was a thin acrylic plastic like layer on top of the goofy decal and this started to peel off too when I caught the edge with my finger. It looked awful so I just pulled it off entirely and cleaned off the decal as well.
Probably because the 40nm Cayman chip dumps out considerable heat, a lot for a dual slot cooler to deal with. The cooler is quite capable but it's just noisier than I like. I don't really want to get into water cooling. I'm planning on attaching 2x92mm @ 5v to the Accelero S1. It'll only cost about $20 total because I already have fans galore.
They don't dump out any more heat then the older 5850/5870's put out tbh...
I think that's down to marketing, Nvidia cards are known for running extremely hot ( Fermi ) so they HAVE to make a decent cooler so that this heat doesn't put off buyers. I also think the massive heat spreader they use makes a difference as well.
ATI of course don't have this problem as there cards are not known to running with extreme heat.
My old power cooler 5770's would barely touch 45c under load with power coolers custom fan
My ASUS CuCore 5770 was a complete pig, The noisest card I've ever owned and I wouldn't of minded the noise if it actually droppped my temps, But it didn't.
My power cooler 5850's, Again with power coolers custon fan were very very quiet and run decent temps, Overclocked to 1Ghz core speeds with 1.3Volts they would get upto around 80c with furmark and around 60c during actual games. Of course I water cooled those suckers and the furmark temps dropped to 42c
You could always ghetto mod the 6970 heat sink if you're not concerned about looks?
The heatsink on these ATI vapor chamber coolers is closed on top so attaching a fan won't work. You need that horizontal airflow of a radial fan / blower.
I don't think they are exceptionally annoying really. It's just that they are not silent and they can get loud if they need to spin up higher in a warm environment. But they are clearly better than the coolers ATI used on the X850 XT, X1800 XT and X1900 XT.
The custom coolers that some manufacturers use don't necessarily equate to quiet either because they tend to go after lower temps instead of lower noise.
I don't think they are exceptionally annoying really. It's just that they are not silent and they can get loud if they need to spin up higher in a warm environment. But they are clearly better than the coolers ATI used on the X850 XT, X1800 XT and X1900 XT.
The custom coolers that some manufacturers use don't necessarily equate to quiet either because they tend to go after lower temps instead of lower noise.
Yes but these cards are putting off more heat than any CPU and the limitations of the expansion card form factor are less than ideal for designing coolers. Can't exactly strap on a Scythe Ninja if you know what I mean.
It's also more difficult to exhaust the heat. CPUs often have one or two exhaust fans nearby as well as lots of room for a huge tower cooler with a big fan. GPU coolers tend to recycle a lot of the warm air they create.I haven't heard a 5870 but I bet it sounds similar. The noise from these coolers seems to be a combination of motor bearings and air turbulence around the impeller or whatever it's called. I can hear its low pitched whir even at the lowest speed in my very quiet PC.
My unlocked but stock volts and clocks 6950 seems to be able to cool itself while gaming with the fan at 30-35%. That's definitely audible but it's not all that annoying with game noise going on. When I had it flashed as a 6970 it would spin up to 40-50% and that is considerably more annoying. It was really pissing me off frankly because it sounds like a hair drier at 45% or so.
What's amazing is how much air that blower can move at 80% or so. It is really nuts. It actually unpeeled the protective plastic that I had not yet removed and sucked it in! I don't understand why they need such a powerful motor on there! I can't imagine that kind of airflow would ever be needed for cooling...
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The Setsugen-2 fits in the reference design space except that it extends nearly 5 cm toward the case side (they say intentionally to keep from just stirring the same air around). That fan is 12mm thick. There are NO 120x12mm PWM fans anyway on earth either.
Here's a photo of it mounted:
It really does fit within the reference cooler + card space.
I managed to locate a 12mm thick, 120mm PWM fan so I bought two and then ordered two of the Setsugen-2 coolers for my CFX rig. Project time!
Well, nothing wrong with my own 'frame detection' ... fraps agrees with me that none of my games seem to be able to make it much past 30fps on my lowly 5570. Burnout hovers between 20-30 even at low resolutions, Mass Effect 2 fairly steady around 30 (sometimes less sometimes up to 34), etc.
What's the make/model on that fan please, Mize?
Ty in advance.
The cooler is a Scythe Setsugen-2. To get the PWM fan (which comes from the Scythe "big shuriken" cpu cooler) you have to email them directly but both Scythe-eu and -usa are very good about this. I paid $35 for two of the PWM version and think that's fair.
I will post results. I'm going to forego the thermal tape for vram and VRMs and use thermal epoxy instead.
In 2-3 weeks I'll post results (I have some business travel) or sooner if I find time.
What CPU do you have and are you using RadeonPro?
Ok here's my 6950 with Accelero S1 attached. I went with a 120mm because the 2x92mm setup was louder (my 92s are too fast even at 5v). This setup is a bit warmer but I can't hear it at all with the Scythe SFF21F fan at 7v. I think 2x92mm fans is perhaps ideal because you can position them right over each pair of heatpipes.
The only quirk right now is that the GPU Temp 2 is 15C above GPU Temp 1 in Furmark. From what I've found online, this is a GPU core reading from the memory controller. So I think I'm having a seating / flatness issue with the cooler. I have another Accelero S1 on an 8800GT here and I am going to try swapping them and see what happens.
Otherwise it's excellent and essentially inaudible. Furmark got it up to 80C on GPU Temp 1 (same in CCC).
I'm also considering a little rework of the baseplate with a dremel and perhaps fitting it instead of the various thermal taped heatsinks.
The only quirk right now is that the GPU Temp 2 is 15C above GPU Temp 1 in Furmark. From what I've found online, this is a GPU core reading from the memory controller. So I think I'm having a seating / flatness issue with the cooler. I have another Accelero S1 on an 8800GT here and I am going to try swapping them and see what happens.
Otherwise it's excellent and essentially inaudible. Furmark got it up to 80C on GPU Temp 1 (same in CCC).
I'm also considering a little rework of the baseplate with a dremel and perhaps fitting it instead of the various thermal taped heatsinks.
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