Recommend me a cooler for my 7870 PCS+ Cards

[Melvis]

Hi guys, I have as you know 2x Powercolour 7870 PCS+ cards (7870 XT/LE/7930) and Im looking to replace the stock coolers on them as there just to load and are not doing a good enough job at keeping the cards cool (hitting in the 90c's) the top card. I have been looking up a few that might work and ill post links to them below but also wondering is there any others that might suit better and for a good price of course?

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=207_314&products_id=25815

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=207_314&products_id=18422

Cheers.

 

[Nordic]

Probably not what you are looking for exactly, but those fans I put on there cost $5 usa.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...-up-pic-clubhouse.71955/page-303#post-3028022

 

[Melvis]

Probably not what you are looking for exactly, but those fans I put on there cost $5 usa.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...-up-pic-clubhouse.71955/page-303#post-3028022

lol nice. What was your temps after that little mod?

 

[Nordic]

Depends on high I set the fan. It is manual which is the biggest setback. At reasonable noise levels I stick to around 70c. At the maximum fan speed it is around 60c. This is at stock clocks and about 19c ambient. The heatsink itself isn't great and this fan set will extract the maximum heat out of it. I would rather have something nicer but this was a fan I had laying around and is really gosh darn cheap.

 

[Norton]

Best thing to try first is to improve the air flow in the case. A pair of 140mm fans will go a long way- put one one the bottom to draw fresh air into the cards and one at the front of the cards to move the heat buildup off of them*.
*Note- pick up some vented expansion slots if you don't already use them.

I would expect a 10C improvement just from that step

 

[Melvis]

Best thing to try first is to improve the air flow in the case. A pair of 140mm fans will go a long way- put one one the bottom to draw fresh air into the cards and one at the front of the cards to move the heat buildup off of them*.
*Note- pick up some vented expansion slots if you don't already use them.

I would expect a 10C improvement just from that step

That is what I have done indeed, the case is pretty open as it is but I installed a new 120MM fan with a fan controller to it and I can crank it up to 2000RPM that blows onto the cards, this helps but still not enough. I got about a 5C improvement over all. The cards them selves vent out the back but not alot with the design they have. I replaced the thermal paste on the top card and this didnt make much difference and I soon found that the cooler they use isnt great at all.

 

[Nordic]

The cooler is pretty bad on those. If I can max out its capacity and it only gets my 60c, then it is bad. My saphire dual x cooler that came with my 7970 keeps the 7970 that cool at half fan speed.

 

[Melvis]

Yeah I wanted the Sapphire 7870XT but they had none in Australia at all

Anyone used any of those two coolers ive posted before?

 

[Norton]

Yeah I wanted the Sapphire 7870XT but they had none in Australia at all

Anyone used any of those two coolers ive posted before?

The AC Twin Turbo would be the way to go imo, they work pretty good.... iirc they take up around 2-1/2 slots each so you will need extra room for them*

*most aftermarket coolers take up more than 2 slots

 

[Melvis]

The AC Twin Turbo would be the way to go imo, they work pretty good.... iirc they take up around 2-1/2 slots each so you will need extra room for them*

*most aftermarket coolers take up more than 2 slots

Ok cool I was looking at them to and there a more trusted brand honestly and with 6yrs warranty is pretty good.

But are there other brands out there that are just as goood that make coolers for GPU's?

 

[Norton]

Ok cool I was looking at them to and there a more trusted brand honestly and with 6yrs warranty is pretty good.

But are there other brands out there that are just as goood that make coolers for GPU's?

Not really... there are a few that may be a bit better but they take up 3+ slots when you add the fans.

Like this one:
http://www.prolimatech.com/en/products/detail.asp?id=1672&subid=1676#showtab

Another option is water cooling but the $$$ add up real fast!!!

 

[Nordic]

Do a red mod. Put an AIO watercooler on it. They are meant for the cpu but they can be attached to a gpu.

 

[Melvis]

How about this one?

http://www.zalman.com/global/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=390

 

[Norton]

How about this one?

http://www.zalman.com/global/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=390

Those are 2010 model coolers and use 3 slots- the link you posted is the N model (NVidia), the A model (AMD) only lists support up to 5870's

I would avoid but that's just me

 

[Melvis]

Those are 2010 model coolers and use 3 slots- the link you posted is the N model (NVidia), the A model (AMD) only lists support up to 5870's

I would avoid but that's just me

Yeah your right lol Ill pass one that one then.

 

[Melvis]

Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme III
http://www.arctic.ac/us_en/products/cooling/vga/accelero-xtreme-iii.html

There nice but there to big and to expensive.

 

[Nordic]

Just go with whats cheapest. It will be better no matter what.

 

[Melvis]

Just go with whats cheapest. It will be better no matter what.

Yeah I found two of those icy coolers on ebay for $43 each so I went with them. Cheaper then paying $59 each from my online computer store.

I just hope now they will fit in my case as my GPU is in the middle of the PCB not to one end so the cooler might over hang a bit and I don't have alot of room left in the case as it is!

 

[Melvis]

Ok well I got the coolers yesterday, and got one fitted. Fitting the cooler was easy, no issues at all and it would still fit in my case yay. Put the connector into the 7870 fan connector and it made the fans run at a crazy 4700RPM maybe more. Since they was running at such a high RPM (only meant to run at 2000RPM) the fans them selves started to get very hot. So i switched over the connect to a fan controller I have and that fixed the issue. Now I can run the fans anywhere from 1200RPM to 2100RPM.

Now to the temps. By its self, idle temps was around 32c, max temp I got running Crysis 2 and the new Tomb Raider was 53c. Even with the fans set at 1200RPM. Pushed the fans to 2100RPM and temps dropped to around 49c, pretty dam good, but this is where the good ends. I put in my second card and it still has the stock cooler on it for now to see what temps i would get with a second card installed. Maybe an extra 15c? 20c at most I thought? Well First I ran it without crossfire enabled just to see how it would go. So the second card was there doing feck all and the temps got up to 90c in Crysis 2?? like wtf thats a jump of 40c So how did it go when i turned on crossfire? well lets just say the temps hit 96c and then I just stop playing the game.

There is still a gap between the two cards, not much of a gap i admit but still a gap of a good 5-7mm? at a guess. Now im wondering what temps Ill get if i install the other cooler on the other card? will it help the temps for the top card or make no difference? at this stage running crossfire im no better off then the stock coolers

Now I cant test the second cooler as yet as i found out that there was a dodgy wired job on the 4pin extander and it shorted out one of the fans So Im trying to see about getting that one replaced and been off ebay id say he will tell me to get fecked.

I do have a 120mm fan blowing directly onto the cards and this helps for about5c at most but its not enough it seems. Any ideas?

My next move is to put the GELID cooler card on the bottom and see what happens to temps then to the top card. i wish i could of got the Sapphire 7870 XT's sigh

 

[Nordic]

Seems like pretty decent temps. Keep us updated.

 

[Shou Miko]

i had the Gelid Icy Vision on my old EVGA GTX 570 when i got it, it was nice and didn't say much even under load.

i sold it off to a friend that the time when he needed some more power, he through the cooler was a little big until he installed the card and ran with it in games and it didn't say much so he was basicly happy.

 

[Melvis]

Seems like pretty decent temps. Keep us updated.

Ummm really? I just swapped cards from top to bottom and bottom to top to see how they would perform temp wise. Bottom card with GELID cooler hit 82c in Crysis 2 with the top card hitting 101c stock cooler and was still climbing I don't call those good temps.

These cards run 20c hotter then my Quadfire 4870X2's, crazy!!

i had the Gelid Icy Vision on my old EVGA GTX 570 when i got it, it was nice and didn't say much even under load.

i sold it off to a friend that the time when he needed some more power, he through the cooler was a little big until he installed the card and ran with it in games and it didn't say much so he was basicly happy.

The cooler on a card that is the only card in the system seems to work fine. Soon as you add another it doesn't do any better then stock cooler honestly. Its like as soon as I add the second card they increase 40c and its like the computer pumps them full of power so they run hotter? its weird.

 

[Nordic]

Sorry. I just read by itself.

 

[Melvis]

Sorry. I just read by itself.

No worries.

Yeah by its slef its excellent, just cant get over the increase in temp just by having the second card installed even with crossifre turned off. Sux!!

 

[Melvis]

Had a brain wave, what if I could get coolers off someone that had good coolers (twin fans etc) but now run water coolers instead? id be happy to buy the old coolers off them if it would fit my cards. Thoughts?