Cooling an X1900XT

[Nightmare225]

My friend has an X1900XT that runs too loudly and hot for him. He asked me to find a cooling solution thats quieter and cooler, if possible. I use newegg.com mostly, what would be the best cooling solution for the X1900XT?

 

[Operandi]

Best options would be the Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 and the Zalman VF-900.

I favor the Zalman for a few reasons; it cools not only the GPU and RAM but also every other component on the board, unlike AC's solutions. It's also cross compatible with just about every card out there and the installation is very easy. Zalman also has an edge in build quality in my opinion.

 

[RallyMaster]

I agree with Operandi on that one. VF-900 is a lot smaller and lighter, which appeals to me greatly.

 

[inveterate]

DON"T LISTEN TO THOSE TWO,, they're n00bers who don't know jack and niether of which has a x1900xt,, TRUST MEEE WHEN I SAY VF900 BLOWZ .. all the tests on websites were probably either liess or just done in open air test beds. I had a vf900 for my x1900xtx and it would go up to 80-85C,,,, I'm in the process of getting water cooling for all my stuff. Main reason was the x1900xtx it runs very hot, and believe it or not if you go above 75C @ stock 3D clock of 650, u'll get sticky keyed. VERY BAD..

it definilty requires either water cooling or CONSTENT AIRFLOW, in which the stock cooler will do better than the VF900. You need the stock cooler at 100% to keep this card cool, but it does do better than vf900 for sure. i have both the vf900 and the x1900xtx and i can't stress enough that it will not work. save ur friend the money.

Accelero will be slightly quieter but interms of cooling ,, WILL ABSOLUTELY NOT do better than the STOCK COOLER. STICK WITH THE STOCK COOLER until you feel like getting water cooling.

 

[RallyMaster]

WTF? Calling us two n00bers? Anything works better with better airflow. VF-900 is definitely something that would better with a fan supplying it directly with cool air (e.g. 80mm intake on side panel).

 

[MrRamon]

Water cooling ftw

 

[soydios]

@inveterate:
What, did you put silicone caulking in between the heatsink and GPU, and cover all the holes in your case? Because even bare metal-to-metal contact with a VF900-Cu would do better than that.

But yeah, Zalman VF900-Cu plus Arctic Silver 5 is the way to go.

 

[Operandi]

Here is a user review of VF-900 on a 1900XT, lower idle temp, lower load temp at a fraction of the noise.

inveterate's post isn't worth the bandwidth he used to create it. :evil:

 

[inveterate]

OMG dudes i'm serious Do YOU HAVE the x1900xtx,, i'm telling you it doesn'tt work... THe idle temps are way better 40C just like the review better than the stock,,, BUTTTT when it comes up to load the temps sky rocketttt.. VF900 doesn't do nearly as much as the stock did , because it doesn't actually move the hot air out of the way it just pushes it to the close proximity..

Heres the problems i had with my x1900xtx Heat was one of them
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=1870951 and there are people who'd agree that vf900 doesn't do ******.


I appoligize about calling you n00bers i'm actually pissed at the vf900, not u guys.. But since you don't have a x1900xt or xtx, plz don't just look at those online benchmarks.

I should point out that i'm overclock it, so VF900 DID in fact go to 90C. THe problem is i'm doing the same overclocking with the stock cooler and it's 76C tops. which means at FULL cooling capacity the VF900 falls off. This is likely because it's not moving air away from teh GPU.
This still indicates that the STOCK cooler on the XTX /XT is better than the VF900 @ 100%, NOISE is bad, but not unbareable. it would be recommended to get teh Acellero however cuz once again vf900 will not work at high clock.

 

[Bateluer]

Water cooling would give you the best cooling. Get a VPU block that covers the RAM as well as the VPU, and you got the best cooling money can buy.

Edit - Oh, if you go with the Zalman, I'd get some better ramsinks, or make sure there's air passing over them. I had Swiftech MC14 ramsinks on my old 6800GT's RAM, which runs slower than the 1900XT's RAM. The sinks got too hot to touch.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: inveterate
OMG dudes i'm serious Do YOU HAVE the x1900xtx,, i'm telling you it doesn'tt work... THe idle temps are way better 40C just like the review better than the stock,,, BUTTTT when it comes up to load the temps sky rocketttt.. VF900 doesn't do nearly as much as the stock did , because it doesn't actually move the hot air out of the way it just pushes it to the close proximity..

Heres the problems i had with my x1900xtx Heat was one of them
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=1870951 and there are people who'd agree that vf900 doesn't do ******.


I appoligize about calling you n00bers i'm actually pissed at the vf900, not u guys.. But since you don't have a x1900xt or xtx, plz don't just look at those online benchmarks.

I should point out that i'm overclock it, so VF900 DID in fact go to 90C. THe problem is i'm doing the same overclocking with the stock cooler and it's 76C tops. which means at FULL cooling capacity the VF900 falls off. This is likely because it's not moving air away from teh GPU.
This still indicates that the STOCK cooler on the XTX /XT is better than the VF900 @ 100%, NOISE is bad, but not unbareable. it would be recommended to get teh Acellero however cuz once again vf900 will not work at high clock.

The link I posted above is a user review, both idle and load temps are lower.

Nobody has mentioning overclocking, the OP is looking for low noise and that is exactly where the Zalman excels.

 

[lodmdma]

i have a zalman for my x1900xt....work great and so quiet....the idiot on top probablty didnt install the cooler on correctly on his x1900xtx

 

[inveterate]

Originally posted by: lodmdma
i have a zalman for my x1900xt....work great and so quiet....the idiot on top probablty didnt install the cooler on correctly on his x1900xtx

I'm telling you it's installed properly, but it will not handle as well as the stock cooler when it gets down.

all I'm saying is the stock cooler is better than the zalman in terms of cooling capcity. Why is it so hard to accept that Zalman doesn't cut it at some point. If ur trying to save face for buyin it for 36 bux. Then don't feel bad cuz i did the same thing only to find out it ain't all that. go back to stock cooler, AT 100% loud noise yess, but will cool better than the zalman

 

[GnomeCop]

The stock cooler while it can be noisy, does cool better than the zalman, plus you can install a card next to the X1900xt without blocking airflow.
Also if you work on imporving airflow in your case and lowering case temps the stock cooler will not ramp up as much or as often. I re cabled my system and now the stock cooler gets a healthy amount of unobstructed cool air from the front of my case and it has quieted down tremendously.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

VF900!!!, just installed mine, room temp @ 80F, 26C
cpu w/ scythe: idle-40, load 46
gpu w/ vf900: idle 41, load 50-55 =]

in lian li v1000 case, video card mounted right side up.

 

[SparkyJJO]

something I noticed that does NOT make sense about these graphics cards.. Little spin down history lane for a moment:

Old ISA cards were designed with everything on top of the card, so in a typical ATX form factor we have now you would have everything visible.

PCI cards came along, flipped over. Everything is on the bottom of the card now basically so all you see when looking inside the tower is just the back of the PCB and the solder joints.

AGP and PCIe cards followed suit.

HOWEVER, what does heat do? It RISES! Yeah you got a fan blowing on these heatsinks but wouldn't it be better to have the heat rise to the tops of the heatsink fins and then get blown away instead of it tending to stay near the base of the heatsink RIGHT AT THE SURFACE OF THE GPU??

IMHO they should flip the PCIe cards over so that the natural tendency of heat rising is put to use. With it set up that way you wouldn't have the issues that people have with the vf900 and such creating hot air pockets underneath the card. The heat would get blown off the card, rise upward and get pulled out the rear exhaust fan.

Now in LOUISSSSS case, he has the lian-li which flips the mobo upside-down which corrects the issue and makes the vf900 work really well. Fan blows heat off of fins and the hot air rises and flows by convection out the vent holes at the top back of the case.

OK long post, end of rant about badly designed stuff back on topic:

The vf900 would work OK on a x1900xt I think but only well if the mobo is upside down in the case OR there is an intake fan blowing fresh cool air underneath the card.

 

[MrRamon]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Water cooling would give you the best cooling. Get a VPU block that covers the RAM as well as the VPU, and you got the best cooling money can buy.

i got the VID-200-L06 for my x1900xtx... people seem to bash it but they are just haters. I get 32C idle in windows and 41C full load while playin cs source.. monitoring temps on my other monitor while gaming. my Vreg temps shoot up to 70C though which isn't cool. My koolance Vreg block should be here tomorrow. i have a MCP 350/Swiftech 220 Radiator/2 Silverstone 120mm fans 100+ cfm fans ready to go.... should be sick just cooling the card... Right now i'm looped with my cpu. Should be fun to see idle temps in the low 20s and hopefully load temps high 20s low 30s .

http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=29_46&products_id=262
http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=29_46&products_id=283

 

[imported_peterpeter]

hmmm very strange how you get such a high temperature.

i get 60 under load with my vf900. I have an x1900xt so it might be a little cooler than the xtx but I am very happy with my vf900.

I run it at stock, dont find it necessary to squeeze out any performance yet. My cpu is the bottle-neck and I pretty much have that overclocked to as high as I can get.

Maybe airflow in the case is an issue? Maybe not but I my particular case (antec p180) and I added 2 120mm fans for a total of 5 120mm fans. Its a bit noisy if i turn all the fans on max but it is still quieter than my old V-tech POS case.

Just my two cents =P