HD 7950 aftermarket cooling suggestions?

[Jstn7477]

Hey guys,

My XFX DD HD7950 is driving me up the wall with its atrocious cooling solution that seems to be becoming worse. The card has been running in the high 80s with a modest overclock (1050/1400, stock volts) and as I played more Far Cry 3 the temperature has been seemingly getting higher and higher, with 90-92c being common. Tonight, I carefully took apart my GPU, using needle nose pliers to loosen the two screws with XFX warranty stickers on them, cleaned off the old crusty TIM and applied a rice grain sized blob of new TIM, and reassembled the card using a pencil eraser to set the stickered screws and the pliers again to tighten them.

Now, my card is running even hotter and at stock 800MHz core speed in Far Cry 3, my GPU core is at 85c (overclocking now causes the card to shut off a minute into the game) and my VRM temps are 80/82c as well. Seeing as I tightened all the screws properly and properly applied the TIM, I'm going to have to guess that the vapor chamber is probably screwed on this already crappy stock cooler unless the rather cheap CM IceFusion paste I used incredibly sucks, which I'm doubtful of since I use it on all my CPUs without issue.

So, after having one XFX warranty stickered springloaded screw fly across my room (used a spare equivalent screw since it is now MIA) and now worse temperature results that are preventing me from using the card effectively, what aftermarket air cooler choices are out there? Is the Arctic Cooling Accelero 7970 the only one, does it have effective VRM cooling, and will I actually be able to play a game without my computer sounding like it is ready to take off into space?

 

[Nordic]

I had the artic accelero 7970 and it worked great on gpu temps but worse than stock on vrm temps. It sure was quiet. The ati red mod is an effective solution that you might want to look into.

These were with the accellero.

 

[Jstn7477]

Wow, those are some nice temps. At stock my GPU is pulling ~130w in Far Cry 3 and running at 86c, so the Accelero has to be a lot better. Interesting read on "the red mod" though after seeing KieX's Corsair H100 spontaneously explode and destroy his motherboard and RAM, I'm a bit turned off as far as water cooling goes.

Anyway, another problem I am facing is actually getting the Accelero Xtreme to fit in any of my cases. My rig is in a Rosewill Challenger-U3 and my stock XFX barely fits in that. I also have a NZXT Source 210 and HEC Blitz (aka Rosewill Destroyer) but I have no idea if it fits in any of them.

 

[Nordic]

The accellero is pretty huge. Look how much longer it is than the pcb. It easily takes 3 slots. I could not of fit it if I couldn't take out the upper drive cage of my 550d.

It is pretty low odds that an AIO cooler would explode. Most people who do it use an antec 920 and they get same to better temps than I did with the accellero.
This is the place to read about others experience with the mod.

 

[AsRock]

Did you check all the temps of the card with some thing like GPU-Z ?, just to check if there is bad contact at some points of the gpu core.

Did you take the cooler fully apart to remove all the dust ?

Contact XFX and tell them the temps are getting really bad and you would like to check if changing the tim and dismantle the cooler to remove all possible dust and possible try a 3rd party cooler and if any of the following would void the warranty.

The length of the warranty as got shorter but in the US i think your allowed to change it if you ask them 1st unless they changed that policy too.

 

[Protagonist]

sounding like it is ready to take off into space?

I like this statement right here^ It must seriously piss you off. Lets hope for the best for you. I don't know much about after market GPU coolers i wish i cold be of more help, thanks for the laugh i needed it.

 

[Jstn7477]

Yep, cooler was actually really clean when I took it apart. When I shut down the computer to take out the GPU, the heatsink was extremely hot to the touch. Been monitoring it with GPU-Z and the VRM temps nearly match the core at all times. I've taken the side panel off of my case but it made no difference. The fans on the card reach 3000 RPM and after exiting Far Cry 3, the GPU cools down by 10c in about 8 seconds and 20c in about 15-20 seconds. I think this cooler just can't dump the heat fast enough as it has a small vapor chamber and no heat pipes, but for some reason it has gotten even worse very recently. Can't RMA it now until I find the missing original screw that flew across the room somewhere, but considering I had to RMA my first brand new card 3 weeks after I bought it because a fan died, I think it's probably time for a big boy cooler.

EDIT: Found the screw. Luckily I heard it whack something on my floor behind me when it escaped. Next time I'll be more careful when using the eraser end of a pencil to initially thread and tighten the screws with the stickers on them.

 

[Nordic]

You will have to tell us how that artic works for ya

 

[cadaveca]

I was told by XFX that the stickers are noob catchers.


Call 'em up, tell them of the problem, and that you want to re-paste. They should tell you that it's fine, but if you RMA, your card will go under much closer examination for physical damage than is normal. Any damage to the card immediately will disqualify your card for RMA.

They'll swap the card out for you too, although, really, those temps seem fine to me. When it starts crashing, or performance drops, then worry.

 

[Jstn7477]

I bypassed the n00b catchers quite easily with needlenose pliers and an unused wooden pencil. Use the pliers on the sides of the screw to loosen it, and use the pencil eraser to push down and twist the screw into place, then finish up tightening with the pliers. No sticker damage done.

Even if the temperatures are normal, I got sick of the noise and the heat on this card when my 6950 was very quiet and cooler (and yes, I am aware of the power consumption differences). I'd like lower temperatures and the Accelero Xtreme 7970 that I ordered should bring me lower temps and a better OC hopefully. The only thing that is going to piss me off though is that damn 2 part thermal glue because I put some fet coolers on my AM2NF3-VSTA yesterday and they still haven't completely set nearly 24 hours later (I bought an Accelero L2 Plus for a GT 440 and didn't use the sinks until now).

 

[Nordic]

one thing to mention about the accellero. It dumps all that heat into your case and you will need a lot of exaughts. It made everything in my case run at the temp of the gpu. 60c.

 

[Norton]

You may not need the extra heatsinks and likely can reuse the factory VRM one if it is a decent quality. Try it without them first

I had a Visiontek 5870 with a factory installed AC Twin Turbo Pro- it didn't have the extra sinks on it (only a small one on the VRM) and it always ran cool (flow from the fans over the board was plenty)

 

[Jstn7477]

I'll be switching to my NZXT Source 210 with 3 120mm exhausts and 4 120mm intakes. My current Rosewill Challenger likely doesn't have enough room for the cooler and only has 4 usable fan areas anyway. I have some new 2000rpm 120mm fans (they are cheap though) and another fan controller arriving soon for them.

 

[n3rdf1ght3r]

The accellero is pretty huge. Look how much longer it is than the pcb. It easily takes 3 slots. I could not of fit it if I couldn't take out the upper drive cage of my 550d.
http://i.imgur.com/ilRHC.jpg

It is pretty low odds that an AIO cooler would explode. Most people who do it use an antec 920 and they get same to better temps than I did with the accellero.
This is the place to read about others experience with the mod.

HAHA have the same cooler for a 580 and that thing is HUGE! It also took two people and alot of confusion to install that cooler, or maybe that's just me.
I got around 80 degrees c with the stock cooler but now I get 55 with the accellero

 

[Jstn7477]

With that kind of length it's possible that I may have to use one of my HEC Blitz cases (since it has all 5.25" bays) but I'd rather avoid it and use my Source 210 if possible.

 

[Nordic]

Did you not read the length in the product description before buying? The thing is like 15 inches long if I remember correctly.

@n3rdfight3r
Took me 20 minutes, and 10 of that was me messing up putting the paste on. I just used the stock heatsinks and not the ones that came with it though. No confusion.

 

[Jstn7477]

I am aware of how large it is. 288mm long plus some card offset. The NZXT Source 210 accommodates up to 330mm cards and from a review I found, the card with cooler is really close to 330mm long. http://www.everydayinternetstuff.co...ossfire-and-an-attempt-at-noctua-vga-cooling/