Are video card coolers inefficient?

[Ghiddy]

I was looking at a Radeon 5830 I got, and also pictures of some 6990's online. They have intake holes that are small, and then the slot covers have very small holes that the air must be forced through to exit the case. On my 5830, the shroud curves to cover part of the end of the card too (the edge that faces the front of your case, where the air is pulled in to cool the heatsink).

Wouldn't you want the intake and exit areas to be as unimpeded as possible? Why bother with a slot cover, and why not make them as big as possible if card makers insist on having them? Just big enough to prevent fingers from entering them would be fine. I want to saw down the entire dummy portion of the slot cover on my cards to decrease impedance, and also cut the shroud portion that covers the air intake area.

 

[Ghiddy]

Another point I wanted to make is that if these cooling systems were designed a little better, the fans would be quieter and cards run cooler. Instead they seem to focus more on aesthetics of the product. Who cares what the inside of your computer looks like? No one is impressed by that.

 

[oldswab]

short answer: the small holes keep big bugs (and large debris) out

now, you're free to take some airplane snips and get rid of them. i did. doing so will usually noticeably help improve the acoustics, to boot

 

[Arg Clin]

Isn't the point of the ref cooler design to push the heat out the back? I'd be kinda worried to have the heat from a CFX/SLI setup being pulled into my CPU cooler.

 

[Ghiddy]

Isn't the point of the ref cooler design to push the heat out the back? I'd be kinda worried to have the heat from a CFX/SLI setup being pulled into my CPU cooler.

Not sure what you're saying (are you making a distinction between the ref design and what manufaturers actually sell?

In terms of my OP, I agree with you and that's the point i was making. The fan shround and PCI(e) slot cover both impede airflow.As a result the exit path through other exhausts like the PSU are more likely to provide less resistance. If exit path through the exhausts have lower resistance, more air will go out through those areas and less will pass over the GPU heatsinks.

 

[Arg Clin]

Not sure what you're saying (are you making a distinction between the ref design and what manufaturers actually sell?

In terms of my OP, I agree with you and that's the point i was making. The fan shround and PCI(e) slot cover both impede airflow.As a result the exit path through other exhausts like the PSU are more likely to provide less resistance. If exit path through the exhausts have lower resistance, more air will go out through those areas and less will pass over the GPU heatsinks.

I was making a distinction between the ref design wihich ducts the air out the back (more or less) and those non ref designs that do not.

I do agree though, that there seems to be room for improvement, but I'd want to hold on to the basic idea that vid cards should have as much rear exhaust as possible for the dB.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

In terms of the shroud, most of the air intake is through the axis of the fan rather than through the holes on the end of the card. Having the shroud there probably improves airflow through the heatsink because it forces more air through the high-resistance path of the fins rather than just out the sides. This is why nvidia cards slope downwards where the fan is; that is where the air goes into the system, and it provides more air in an SLI configuration because of the increased space in the area.

I agree though, having the grille on the expansion slot is kind of silly.

 

[Zap]

Wouldn't you want the intake and exit areas to be as unimpeded as possible? Why bother with a slot cover, and why not make them as big as possible if card makers insist on having them?

Has to do with packaging size (as in most try to stay within dual slots) plus looks. I'm actually kind of ticked at MSI for making a lot of their exhaust slots have the word "MSI" in them.

 

[Dark Shroud]

I want them to use less DVI ports so we can get back to a full slot exhaust. If I could afford it I would buy the Asus triple slot cooled cards in a heart beat to support the design.

And yeah I agree that MSI's vent is dumb. Who is going to even see that.

 

[betasub]

Don't some XFX cards have the same sort of vanity exhaust? With the grille arranged to spell X F X

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

MSI does it as well. If you look closely, I know the picture isn't the best.