Need more GPU cooling.. any ideas?

I've had my ATI X850 XT PE for about a year now and it's always ran a little toastie when gaming. By toastie, I mean over 85 degrees C. First thing I did to counter this, is install ATI Tray Tools, which let me conrol the fan speed on my stock fan cooler. This let me bring the temps down to about 70-75 C. while gaming. But it was exremely loud even over all my case fans maxed out. So I went out and baught a Zalman GPU Cooler with aluminum and copper fins. If you've seen it, you know which one I'm talkin about (it's simular to the CPU cooler designed they have). This Zalman cooler, at first braught my load temps down to about 55-60 C.

For some reason, now I'm getting performance degradation in my games again due to overheating (I believe). Because now I'm recording my temps getting up to over 85 C. again while I'm gaming. I have no idea what's making my temps go back up again. I dust out all my case fan filters, fans, and my GPU fan with compressed air at least every other week, it's not that hot in my room compared to what it was when I first got my Zalman cooler, and I have all my case fans maxed out while gaming via my case fan control knobs. This card just refuses to stay cool, heh.

So, know I'm interested in Thermaltakes Tide Water GPU cooling device: http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/product/Liquid/All-In-One/cl-w0052/cl-w0052.asp

Has anyone here tried this thing or know how effective this is? I'm pretty determined to cool this thing down and possibly OC it if my temps will allow. I think this device will allow me to do that. The only problem I have with getting it is that I dont have any open PCI slots to put it in. But.. I DO HAVE 2 PCI-e x1 slots above my PCI-e x16 slot. So, my question is.. is there any way I can mount this cooler in that space? I saw this cooler on Newegg just yesterday, but now it's not listed for me to show you. I dunno wtf Newegg would take it off for..?! But when I saw it on there, I saw that there's a litte bracket that fits into the PCI slot and it looks like it can be removed by two screws. So if I can remove that bracket, I should just be able to screw this thing into the back of my case and just let it hang off the mounting screws. OR if that doesn't work, I guess I can just cut the bracket down to fit into the PCI-e x1 slot.

I just wanted to know if anyone on here has anymore ideas as to how I can cool this thing down and if anyone has this cooler; if I can take off that bracket and install it with out it.

I'm sorry for all the reading, haha.. but if anyone can help me out with this, I am more than grateful!! Thanks a lot in advance for any advice you can provide!!!

 

I just added all my specs in my signature... dont ask why it took me so long, heh.

 

Your zalman heatsink should be keeping the card much cooler,I'd try reinstalling the heatsink with some fresh paste,sorry I cant offer any advice on the cooler you posted,I'v read a few reviews of it,it came out alright but theres a noise penalty when the fan is set high

Is also be tempted to run 3dmark test on loop, if indeed the card is throttling at high temps the fps would gradually come down,its tough to tell where fps drops are while playing games IMHO

 

The reason I think it's my temp for lowering my fps, is that when I start playing my games, which is mostly Battlefield 2 now days, it play beautifully for about 10-15 mins.. then I start seeing the fps just get slower and slower until I'm down to about 20-30 fps when I started out at about 50-60 depending on what's happening on-screen.

I'll try looping 3dmark05 though, that's a good suggestion. Thanks, Rikky.

 

No problem,only the fps in single player games also should be counted,theres a whole manner of things that can slow down multiplayer games,a surefire way to rule out your vid card is throttling would be to make your own BF2 timedemo and run that on loop,again your fps should drop over time,I havnt made a Bf2 timedemo yet a good place to start is guru3d.com I'm sure he'll have one

 

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1104

Ugh,seems like guru3d has been overwhelmed with pop ups and dating crap,unless its just me !

 

Sweet, thanks again Rikky, for taking the time to find it!

 

No problem,that bf2 timedemo thingy seems like alot of messing around and I dont think it has bots which limits its accuracy,BF2 has an in game demo maker though so that will should be fine,aint tried it though

Good luck m8

 

Tard, you're way out of my league, but have you tried removing all your cards and cleaning the contacts with a white eraser/rubber. I notice that you clean your case out weekly. It might help to check contacts as well. You seem as though you have plenty of fans in your case, but you can/could buy a card with one or 2 fans attached that plugged into a motherboard slot and exhausted hot air out the back of the case. I guess you need more fans like a hole in the head but it is only a suggestion. Bazza

 

lol.. out of your league? What you mean by that? Thanks for the suggestion, but I dont see how cleaning the contacts on my expansion cards will help cool things down.. or mabye I just misunderstood what your saying..? I definitely dont want to put anymore fans in this this as there are already 5 case fans + 2 if you count the 2 on my power supply. That's why I think I'm goin to resort to that Thermaltake Tide Water cooler that's designed specificly for graphics cards. It really is baffling me as to why this thing runs hot with a nice aftermarket heatsink and fan on it while my friggin CPU is sitting snug at 35 C. idle/ 50 C. Load right above it.

I did just try to re-seat my Zalman GPU cooler with some ArcticCooling MX-1 thermal compound, which is supposed to be the best thermal paste out there according to their graphs on the box, haha. At least better than the Arctic Silver. I put some on my CPU too just cuz I could. It seems to have braught my card down 2 degrees to 51 C., lol.. not worth it.

So.. anymore ideas..? Or anyone that has tried the Tide Water cooler? I just tried to order it at a store here in South Korea, but he couldn't order it for me through his supplier. I really hate to order online here cuz it cost a crapload to ship here. Good thing the Army only keeps me here for a year, haha. Thanks again guys...

 

SensorView sucks

I tried using this little app. to see my CPU temp after applying the Arctic Cooling MX-1 paste and it scared the crap outta me sayin that my CPU was at 72. C. at idle! I thought I had applied it wrong so I reapplied it like 2 times after that and figured out that it was completely wrong after looking in the BIOS and then with another app (EasyTune 5 that came with my mobo). It also said my CPU fan was dead, but it didn't seem to think that was important enough to throw an alarm for.. just the temp, haha. It seems to be right for every other temp. in the case and even gave me my HD temps.. but I have to question if they're accurate or not, heh. Just giving some people some heads up if they search for this app. on the forum.

 

You are way out of my league, as you obviously know a lot more about hardware than I do. The suggestion was just in case one of your cards was not working, in case they controlled your fans. I know that most fans only need power from the mobo, but not knowing your PC, it was only a suggestion. I can understand why you don't need more fans, 5 + 2 already, bl**dy hell. Bazza

===

 

I'v just been rooting through the web and from the reviews and roundups form what I have seen your current zalman heatsink is almost as good as the tidewater,I dont think the upgrade will be worth the money,like you said should have temps around the 55c mark with your current heatsink,when tested on the 800xt a cooler card than yours the tidewater only kept the gpu at 50c there are only a couple of possible reasons your card is overheating,its clogged up with dust 'which you have eliminated' you have installed it incorrectly,'you'v installed it multiple times same results' the airflow in your case is poor 'which it cant be' or the fan on zalman isnt working correctly

When I installed my nv5 silencer I noticed the fan spins much faster when connected to a system fan header or molex that when connected to the vid card header when the card was under full load,850xt pe card has a temperature controlled fan voltage which may be playing up,if the fan will reach try plugging it into a system fan header

 

My Zalman came with an adaptor that converts a 4 pin molex connector into 2 different 3 pin fan connectors. One fan connector draws off the 5V rail and the other draws off the 12V rail. So it basicly gives you 2 speed settings for the fan, I of course have it plugged into the 12V rail at all times which makes it spin at 3300 RPM, I think. Then I tried plugging it into one of my system fan plugs on the mobo which also makes it run at 3300 RPM according to my BIOS.. so the mobo system plug must be a 12V connector.

It seems to have gotten worse since I changed out the thermal compound for some reason.. I guess I'll try applying different amounts of paste to see what's best. It's getting really annoying having to repeatedly take my card out of my case and disassemble the fan assembly on the card though. I'm about to try anything to get this thing down to at least 40 C. Idle. It's at 60 C. idle now. That just plain doesn't make sense.

On the plus side though, that paste braught my CPU down to 32 C. Idle, heh. So I would recommnend it.

Thanks for the help so far guys! Especially you, Rikky.

 

ive heard people say that the arctic silver begins to transfer heat the longer its used. i think i read or someone told me that after its applied to cpu/gpu after about 200 hrs of use the arctic silver is cured and transfers heat at its optimum. also that the computer should go through numerous on and off cycles. so it can heat up and cool down to fill in the microscopic places of the heatsink mating surface... i may be wrong but thought maybe if i happen to be right and someone could verify this it might help your heat situation.

 

You nailed it, ej25lvr. I already read that on the case though. It says pretty much that veribatum. "The compound hardens within a period of 200 hours and reaches thereafter it's optimum performance." From the graphs it has on the back, it should drop the temp gradually about 3-5 more degrees. I think I'm going to wait a couple days before I try to re-apply beacuse of this. I'm afraid I didn't put enough on the GPU though, because if it's already at 60. C idle, I dont think it's going to go down 10-15 degrees from there when it's reached its "optimum performance." I'll keep posting on what's goin on in my quest for 40, heh.

 

ahhh ok cool well at least wherever i read or heard it was right lol. i dont know the diffrence between how hot an nvidia vs how hot an ati card goes, but i have a 6800gt and it idles between 55c to 58c so mines not far off from yours, although you do have a aftermarket cooler so seems yours should maybe be a bit cooler. ive always wondered why gpus run so hot when they only run a few hundred mhz as opposed to a cpu that runs a few ghz. weird

 

After the 200 hour break in period the paste only cools the gpu\cpu down an extra couple of degrees,your lucky if you see a 5c drop

 

Well, I just now took back off the Zalman cooler to see how the paste dried up and I could see that there was only a small spot on the GPU heat spreader that actually made contact with the heatsink surface. So I put lil dabs of thermal compound around the edge where I could see there wasn't any contact being made. Mounted it back up, booted my PC and checked my temp in Catalyst Control Center and it was already back down to 45 C. Idle. So that's a nice improvment. I guess I'll take it back off in another day or two and see if there's anymore spots missing and fill in the rest.

I'd still like to see how that'd Tide Water cooler would work out though. I guess there isn't anyone on the forum who has tried it. I think it looks like a good design. I dont see how any water cooler wouldn't do better than any fan driven air-cooler. Anyways.. thanks for the help so-far guys. I really appreciate all the responses.

 

Thermaltake smartcase fans are the way to go with noise to sound being reasonable without going down the risky water route!

could even go as far as desoldering the thermistors and making a longer link wire for them, so you could place a sensor right where the heat is for maximum heat-to-fan speed pickup, bearing in mind this will make alot more noise too!