Cooling the backside of a vid card

[dawgtuff]

I asked this question about 3 years ago and got a mixed response.

Will simply setting a elevated 3" fan over the backside of the GPU help cool it? I think it would for OC'ing. What do you think?

 

[Quantos]

I might be wrong about this, but from my understanding, it wouldn't be very efficient to do so. The heat from the usual side of the GPU is being passed from the hot components to the heatsinks/pipes first in order to be diffused by the fans. If you had a fan on the backside of the card, you'd essentially only shoot (or pull from) air at the backside of the PCB, where you don't have contact with the heat producing components.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

http://www.pureoverclock.com/review.php?id=1187&page=6

 

[dawgtuff]

Ok , how about reversing the fan and pulling the heat away from the GPU?

 

[dawgtuff]

Mr. Panandic- I missed your post by about a minite or so. The Asus card uses this, so I can assume cooling the backside helps. Will this simple fix for any vid card in a OC' ing situation?

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Doubt it. Seems more like a gimmick, really.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

It certainly would not help. There is typically no components on the foil side of the card that generate vital signals AND need active cooling. The foils do not get hot as there is no/minuscule voltage being dropped.

It's designed the way it is for a reason.

 

[KingFatty]

Just adding a fan anywhere near the card could help by mixing around the air. If it happens to point at the back-side of the video card, that could just be coincidence and it would provide results just as good if you pointed it another way, due to the added movement of air around the video card.

 

[Elfear]

Tibor, the owner of EK blocks, mentioned that his backplate dropped VRM temps by only a couple degrees. It's really only used for aesthetic purposes. I highly doubt any cooling on the backside of the card will help overclocking at all.

 

[Arkadrel]

I asked this question about 3 years ago and got a mixed response.

Will simply setting a elevated 3" fan over the backside of the GPU help cool it? I think it would for OC'ing. What do you think?

Do you have any components back there that get hot?
Any memory chips? or otherstuff? If not... answear is... minimally at best.

IF yes, memory chips on backside of card, yes goahead and slap a fan above them

Tibor, the owner of EK blocks, mentioned that his backplate dropped VRM temps by only a couple degrees. It's really only used for aesthetic purposes. I highly doubt any cooling on the backside of the card will help overclocking at all.

Sometimes those metal backplates actually trap heat, makeing things worse. >_>
And like Elfear said, sometimes its only a degree or two differnce = nothing compaired to extra cost of backplate = waste.

It certainly would not help. There is typically no components on the foil side of the card that generate vital signals AND need active cooling. The foils do not get hot as there is no/minuscule voltage being dropped.

It's designed the way it is for a reason.

^ agree with this.

 

[MrTeal]

I would be surprised if it didn't help a little bit. Chips like SMT mosfets and VRMs usually have a thermal pad in the center that is meant to be the primary means of conducting the heat away from the die. Through the package is actually a really inefficient way of moving heat.

That being said, unless it's a custom board that's designed to move heat from the chips to the back of the board through vias, it probably won't help a whole lot. The difference for me on my 6870@1050MHz with a side fan blowing perpendicular right at the card vs no fan is a couple degrees.

 

[dawgtuff]

I meant this post to ask a simple question. Will putting a small fan(which most of us have laying around) on the backside of a vid card help cool it? OC'ing or not. During intensive gameplay, i've touched the backside of the GPU and it's hot . I'd guess around 120F. As I look at it, this simple mod costs nothing and may extend the life of the vid card.
Heat moves to cold 3 ways: Direct contact, conduction, and convection. If you can remove heat from 2 directions instead of one with this simple mod...why not try it?

 

[TurtleCrusher]

120F is not hot for operating temps. Since its not the source of heat, and does not help with overall case flow (more force out than in works best) so it gains nothing. Unless you have memory on the foil side that needs cooling, dont waste your time. It will make more heat from the transfer of electricity to motion (load of the motor). So with this overall temps can increase slightly.

 

[Elfear]

OP, if you like to mod stuff and you already have the parts, why not experiment and let us know the results. As others have mentioned, it probably won't help, but for me, I love modding and experimenting with parts I have laying around. Might be fun and it would answer your question for you.

 

[dawgtuff]

Thanks for all the inputs. It's been an interesting discussion.
Scholzpdx- I was guessing 120F as I have no temp probe to monitor it, but it is hot to the touch. Also, PPV or positive pressure ventilation is the best way to go, if you do it right.
Elfear- Yes, like you I like to tinker. I've tweaked my currrent system as much as possible without breaking anything and it's 6 y/o and still going strong. But, I'm due for a new build.
Thanks again.....Dawgtuff.

 

[MrTeal]

I know before I replaced the HS on my GPU it would get very hot under Furmark.

I measured up to 75C on the back of mine with a Mikron thermal camera.

 

[dawgtuff]

MrTeal- Did the temps drop significantly after your HS mod?

 

[MrTeal]

Which mod? Replacing the HS was a massive difference. The only thing that gets reasonably hot now it the VRM output inductor, that reaches a little under 60C. Pretty much everything else on the surface shows under 50C, and the core itself stays ~60C with ~55% fan speed at full load.
I don't have any thermal images that show the difference between adding a case fan blowing on the card and none, but it does rest a little lower on the fan speed/ temp load line with the extra airflow than without.

 

[KingFatty]

Which mod? Replacing the HS was a massive difference. The only thing that gets reasonably hot now it the VRM output inductor, that reaches a little under 60C. Pretty much everything else on the surface shows under 50C, and the core itself stays ~60C with ~55% fan speed at full load.
I don't have any thermal images that show the difference between adding a case fan blowing on the card and none, but it does rest a little lower on the fan speed/ temp load line with the extra airflow than without.

Do you have any write-ups of your modifications? I'm interested in reading up on them.

 

[MrTeal]

Nope, I haven't written up anything on the transition. I do have a few results written down in my log book (it's a habit for an engineer), but I really haven't done anything to summarize them. The Accelero TT II made an incredible difference though.

 

[pl8_o]

glued it to the screw of the gpu heatsink. the fan(from my old hd4850 card) cools my cpu better than the gpu. about 2 degrees. there was also a drop in room temperature with autumn approaching, but i notice the change. i glued it on as the card was sitting on top of my desk. as i installed the card i noticed it barely cleared the mb video card slot. also helps cool that mb heatsink. top is cpu fan.

 

[Teizo]

Adding a side vent case fan with good static pressure helped my SLI set up. Not a chit ton, but considering there is no noticeable acoustic penalty for adding a good quality fan, every degree dropped is a good thing.

 

[AdamK47]

I love the 3-Way SLI/CrossFire shroud that came with my Cooler Master HAF-X case. Recently put a Corsair SP120 fan (3.1mm-H20 static pressure) in it and it worked wonders at decreasing GPU temps. The Titans have open ends and this helps shove air into the cards along with help push air between them.