Geforce 4 Cooling?

[Baronz]

I am going to be getting a PNY geforce 4 4400 next week, and want to overclock it. I am thinking of either two things, getting a slot fan and have it pull the hot air out from around the heatsink and the ram area of the card. Either that or I might get a crystal orb and stick it on. Since stability in the RAM is more important for OC'ing, would it be a better idea to get the slot fan instead of the orb? The stock heatsink looks pretty good, so I'm not that concerned about the core. Any suggestions?

 

[Maggotry]

From my personal experience, slot fans mounted right under the video card actually increased the temperature of the video card. I'm guessing that the slot fan "robs" air away from the fan on the video card or just creates too much turbulence. I don't know. This was on an ASUS GF2 GTS. The temps would drop about 3 to 5 degrees C by unplugging the slot fan.

 

[Brian48]

Yeah, leave alone until you try it. The RAM doesn't really get warm at all. With the GF3's, there may have been a legitimate need, but I think it's more of a gimmick than anything else with the GF4's. The core does get fairly warm though. Although the factory heatsink works pretty will, I wouldn't mind getting a Crystal Orb. My Visiontek 4600 can run at 720/750 using just the stock cooler (haven't tried pushing it further yet). The only problem is, my 2000XP seems to be the bottleneck right now at the resolutions I normally play in (1152x864x32). Overclocking the GF4 for me only yields minimal results so I've decided to not bother with it anymore until my next CPU upgrade or overclock.

 

[Brian48]

By the way, I agree that the slot fans are next to worthless unless you happen to have a mini-case with little or no other air output.

 

[John]

Maggotry brings up a very good point, and I agree. What you might want to do is put some ram sinks on the backside of the card and possibly a fan. Look at the very efficient LeadTek design.

 

[Baronz]

<< Yeah, leave alone until you try it. The RAM doesn't really get warm at all. With the GF3's, there may have been a legitimate need, but I think it's more of a gimmick than anything else with the GF4's. The core does get fairly warm though. Although the factory heatsink works pretty will, I wouldn't mind getting a Crystal Orb. My Visiontek 4600 can run at 720/750 using just the stock cooler (haven't tried pushing it further yet). The only problem is, my 2000XP seems to be the bottleneck right now at the resolutions I normally play in (1152x864x32). Overclocking the GF4 for me only yields minimal results so I've decided to not bother with it anymore until my next CPU upgrade or overclock. >>



Erm, your XP 2000 is not going to limit you by any means...Your settings are probably a bit borked, either that or you consider 60fps "unplayable"

Ok thanks guys, i thought that the slot cooler would be good, I guess not. I may see if i can grab some cheap ram sinks, either that or i can make some, i have some aluminum here and a dremel