HD4850/4870 Aftermarket Coolers

[Elcs]

Hello all,

As owners of these cards, we know that at the moment with the fan speed issues and Powerplay issues (There are fixes for these problems linked here covered well by Taltamir) and our cards are running warm.

By hook or crook, even with the blower design, I am getting a lot of heat blowing into my case and unless I run the fan at unacceptably high noise levels (30% or above for me), I am not getting the blower pushing enough hot air out of the back. I am actually going to attempt to run a front-to-back duct system, drawing air in from the front over my HDD and adding another fan in the duct to blow onto whatever HSF I choose to help vent air out of the back.

So I turn to aftermarket cooling solutions.

We know that the Accelero S1 Rev 2 fits our boards but beyond that I am lacking inspiration.

I thought "Well, I might as well make a thread about it and collate compatible GPU coolers and maybe even collect reviews of them on our new boards".

So, please contribute a little and I will update when I can.

EDIT: I just thought on. A stock HSF removal guide would be useful also.

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: Elcs
Hello all,

As owners of these cards, we know that at the moment with the fan speed issues and Powerplay issues (There are fixes for these problems linked here covered well by Taltamir) and our cards are running warm.

By hook or crook, even with the blower design, I am getting a lot of heat blowing into my case and unless I run the fan at unacceptably high noise levels (30% or above for me), I am not getting the blower pushing enough hot air out of the back. I am actually going to attempt to run a front-to-back duct system, drawing air in from the front over my HDD and adding another fan in the duct to blow onto whatever HSF I choose to help vent air out of the back.

So I turn to aftermarket cooling solutions.

We know that the Accelero S1 Rev 2 fits our boards but beyond that I am lacking inspiration.

I thought "Well, I might as well make a thread about it and collate compatible GPU coolers and maybe even collect reviews of them on our new boards".

So, please contribute a little and I will update when I can.

The majority of aftermarket cooling that fits for the 38xx series is compatible with the 4xxx series as they have the same mounting hole configuration. This means, Thermalright V2, HR-03 GT, Zalman VF900cu/1000 and Thermaltake Duorb should all be compatible (Hardware Canucks used an HR-03 in their launch review). Although It should be noted this fixation with heat is not detrimental to the card, as W1zzard notes here all modern hardware is engineered to operate up to 105c- so I wouldn't bother with it.

Here is installation of a HR-03 GT

Accelero S1 Rev.2 Installation

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Although It should be noted this fixation with heat is not detrimental to the card, as W1zzard notes here all modern hardware is engineered to operate up to 105c- so I wouldn't bother with it.

That makes life a bit easier if the older tech still fits the new HD4800 series.

I ran my 8800GT before I discovered the fans were not operating correctly (fixed at 27%?) and that I saw get up to 103C during gaming so I am not touchy about running my cards hot. I am concerned when one card turns a reasonably cool PC into a furnace.

I also run a fairly quiet PC, 30% Fanspeed on my HD4870 is audible over the rest of the system. One reason for researching aftermarket cooling solutions is to maintain a low level of noise, inaudible over the rest of the system.

80C and 90C arent scary figures to be running at, alright well 80C at idle is unusual but shouldnt be a concern but people are. Hopefully this helps reaffirm that its ok and if anyone is still twitchy or wishes to switch out the cooling for any other reason that they have a resource to use.

Personally, I am considering the HR-03 GT by Thermalright although its over twice the price of the S1 Rev 2. Its tied between those two for me.

 

[Boogak]

I finally bit the bullet and decided to do something about the crazy loud fan and high temps on my Asus 4850. I was already using the Asus software to control fan speed, and I was getting temps of ~50C at idle and over 80C when playing Crysis, even when the fan cranks to full speed (which sounds like a hair dryer inside my PC).

I stopped by a local computer store that was selling the Zalman VF1000 for only $42 and also stopped by Fry's on my way home to pick up some extra RAM heatsinks since I knew from previous research I would need extra for the 4850.

Taking the stock 4850 cooler was pretty easy, I used a small screwdriver to take off a few screws, pried gently, and off it popped. I then used 91% isopropyl alcohol to clean off the GPU and RAM.

From research, I knew the stock thermal tape on the Zalman RAM heatsinks were notorious about not adhering correctly to the RAM and falling off. I read somewhere to heat up the heatsinks and thermal tape first with a hair dryer, then stick them onto the RAM and press them together tightly for a few seconds. So I heated up 2 heatsinks at a time with a hair dryer then pressed them tightly to the RAM and voltage regulators for about 20 seconds each. I didn't have any problems with them falling off.

I did notice I couldn't fit 1 heatsink per VRM and MOSFET (the light gray and black chips at the end of the card), so I ended up putting 3 heatsinks on the 4 light gray MOSFET's with the middle heatsink straddling the 2 middle ones. Then I used 2 heatsinks to cover the 4 smaller black VRM's. I had actually forgotten to put heatsinks on the VRM's initially and only when I noticed the heat coming out of them during testing did I see the stock cooler covers them as well.

Installing the actual heatsink was a breeze, the VF1000 uses the stock holes. I used Artic Silver Céramique instead of the supplied Zalman thermal grease.

So now the important stuff, how big of a difference does the new cooler make?! When I first powered it on after installation, it showed an idle temp of 32C! That's a MASSIVE difference from when I first installed the card out of the box and it showed an idle temp of ~72C! I ran through FurMark, rthdribl, and some Crysis to see what my load temps would be and the highest I saw was ~63C. After letting it idle after each load test, it would get back down to ~42C. This was with the fan at 100%.

At 100%, the VF1000 fan is a bit loud. I use a 92mm PanaFlo fan for my CPU and an Antec P180 case with all 120mm case fans so the high pitched whirr of the 80mm Zalman fan is noticeable at 100% speed. I'll probably be installing the included FanMate fan control module today to tone it down a bit.

If you're like me and the high temps and loud noise of the stock 4850 cooling is driving you nuts, I highly recommend the VF1000.

 

[Elcs]

I bit the bullet on a Thermalright HR-03 GT. The Accelero S1 Rev2 was cheaper but the TR was a clear performance winner.

Im going to fix up a slow spinning fan near it so help keep the edge off and keep case temps down. I always get nervous before it arrives but Im fine when I get it and get my hands into my PC. I personally believe when/if powerplay is fixed via drivers (or I get the bottle to BIOS flash it) then the idle power usage will drop heavily and heat buildup in my case will cease to be so much of an issue.

I really cant wait until I get it sorted out.

 

[shangshang]

Reminder: while all the aftermarket coolers will definitely do a much better job than the stock one cooling the GPU, but keep in mind that the heat dissipated is still being trapped inside the case unless you vent it.

My 4850 is now the single hottest item in my system aside from the power supply! In fact, I can litterally feel the heat rising from the card if I took the case side cover off and put my face near the pc. As me for me, I don't plan to get any aftermarket cooler. I personally think it's a waste of money, because I will prolly Ebay it off in 4-6 months. Rahter save the money on the next card.

 

[BassBomb]

Anyone try taking off the plastic cover and strapping a fan to the beatsly sink (on the 4870), similar to the 8800GTS mods

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: Elcs
I bit the bullet on a Thermalright HR-03 GT. The Accelero S1 Rev2 was cheaper but the TR was a clear performance winner.

The difference between them is not big at all, the S1 can do better the the Thermalright if you strap the right 120 mm fan on it, or even two . Adding the price into the equation, the S1 is the real winner by far.

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: error8

Originally posted by: Elcs
I bit the bullet on a Thermalright HR-03 GT. The Accelero S1 Rev2 was cheaper but the TR was a clear performance winner.

The difference between them is not big at all, the S1 can do better the the Thermalright if you strap the right 120 mm fan on it, or even two . Adding the price into the equation, the S1 is the real winner by far.

You could also strap a 120mm fan (with ultra120wire clips) to the HR.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: BassBomb

Originally posted by: error8

Originally posted by: Elcs
I bit the bullet on a Thermalright HR-03 GT. The Accelero S1 Rev2 was cheaper but the TR was a clear performance winner.

The difference between them is not big at all, the S1 can do better the the Thermalright if you strap the right 120 mm fan on it, or even two . Adding the price into the equation, the S1 is the real winner by far.

You could also strap a 120mm fan (with ultra120wire clips) to the HR.

Irrelevant, I've seen reviews that go back and forth between which one is better. I think anyone that draws a conclusion that one is a clear performance winner over the other is someone who is trying to convince/delude themselves that their decision was best.

With a fan (or more than one fan) the S1 is at least just as good as the HR-03, and for half the cost...

 

[shangshang]

@ Bassbom, you would be getting a dimishing return.

But my opinion is if you used an S1 (or HR), you would be able to o/c the card by 10-15% in Mhz. That prolly translates into a real 5% gain in actual gaming FPS. So if let's say you're getting 40 FPS average in a particular game, now add 5% and you're getting 42 FPS, which IMO is not much of a difference maker to justify the money for these cooler, even the cheapest of them which is the S1 at $35.

but if I were to go for a cooler, i'd get S1. Read a lot of good reviews about the S1, i'm tempted myself even, but I keep saying to myself I'm going to be ebaying off the 4850 so I always backed off lol

 

[dakels]

What about the twin turbo? I was going to wait a few weeks for that. Any thoughts?

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: shangshang
@ Bassbom, you would be getting a dimishing return.

But my opinion is if you used an S1 (or HR), you would be able to o/c the card by 10-15% in Mhz. That prolly translates into a real 5% gain in actual gaming FPS. So if let's say you're getting 40 FPS average in a particular game, now add 5% and you're getting 42 FPS, which IMO is not much of a difference maker to justify the money for these cooler, even the cheapest of them which is the S1 at $35.

but if I were to go for a cooler, i'd get S1. Read a lot of good reviews about the S1, i'm tempted myself even, but I keep saying to myself I'm going to be ebaying off the 4850 so I always backed off lol

People buy them to keep their cards cooler, not just to overclock. I bought mine for the reason to reduce the temps.

Care to elaborate on these diminishing returns?

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles

Originally posted by: BassBomb

Originally posted by: error8

Originally posted by: Elcs
I bit the bullet on a Thermalright HR-03 GT. The Accelero S1 Rev2 was cheaper but the TR was a clear performance winner.

The difference between them is not big at all, the S1 can do better the the Thermalright if you strap the right 120 mm fan on it, or even two . Adding the price into the equation, the S1 is the real winner by far.

You could also strap a 120mm fan (with ultra120wire clips) to the HR.

Irrelevant, I've seen reviews that go back and forth between which one is better. I think anyone that draws a conclusion that one is a clear performance winner over the other is someone who is trying to convince/delude themselves that their decision was best.

With a fan (or more than one fan) the S1 is at least just as good as the HR-03, and for half the cost...

Can you provide me with some reading material? If it proves conclusive, I can always return my Thermalright purchase however from what I read, the Thermalright outperformed the S1 Rev2.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Text

Here we can see how they're negligibly different with a fan (although I'd use my own better fans over the turbo module any day, and I'd bet it offers better performance based on my own numbers)

however even if we give the benefit of doubt to the HR-03 performing better with active cooling, it seems quite clear that the S1 has an edge when running passively

My S1 with a 120mm fan on my 4850 has yet to breach 43C load...this is with it overclocked to 700MHz...

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: Elcs
EDIT: I just thought on. A stock HSF removal guide would be useful also.

There's not a whole lot to it. Be careful obviously, since it's bare silicon -- no heatspreader "armor" like on your CPU.

On the plus side, ATI had the good sense to use thermal goo, not those horrible thermal gauze pads. So the cooler is quite easy to take off with little force once all the screws on the back are removed, and there's no hard to remove stringy remnants from the gauze pad.

The big thing to be mindful of is cleaning those RAM chips well. If you can still see the shiny crisscross pattern of the old adhesive, then they're not clean enough.

 

[RobertAnderson]

I purchased the HR-03 GT and a Noctua 92mm fan for my Asus 4850. I currently have the L.N.A. adaptor on it so it runs at 1400RPM. Just using the Catalyst auto tune I am up to 690MHz on the core and 1168MHz on the memory. I have yet to get over 50C at load.

Q6600 | GA-EP45-DS4P | 8GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066MHz | Antec P182 | Vista x64 | Asus Radeon HD4850 | SilverStone DA700

 

[unr3al]

At boot-up my system sounds like Apollo 11 getting ready for lift-off. But a while after that it becomes completely acceptable to me and I'm too lazy to look for the casefan which is at fault lol (CPU fan already checked...). Personally I don't mind a bit of fan noise (generated by airflow, not a faulty fan as in my case, no pun intended) as long as the cooling system does its job. But I guess different people have different uses for their PCs. If I bought an HR-03 GT I would simply get the fastest 92mm fan regardless of the noise level.

 

[RamIt]

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles




My S1 with a 120mm fan on my 4850 has yet to breach 43C load...this is with it overclocked to 700MHz...

You obviously have never loaded your card then. Try running Furmark and report back what load temps you get.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: dakels
What about the twin turbo? I was going to wait a few weeks for that. Any thoughts?

Thats what I'm looking at for my 4870. I've good experiences with Arctic Cooling's products in the paste and the Twin Turbo looks pretty good. Only information I've seen so far state that it will be available this month.

 

[chucky2]

I e-mailed Artic Cooling about the Accellero TWIN TURBO or whatever the F it's called, and they said a mid-August US release.

Chuck

 

[PingSpike]

What kind of cooler is the twin turbo...


bring back the silencers!

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: RamIt

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles




My S1 with a 120mm fan on my 4850 has yet to breach 43C load...this is with it overclocked to 700MHz...

You obviously have never loaded your card then. Try running Furmark and report back what load temps you get.

well, it does appear that furmark can produce a little bit more heat than actual games I can play, as it was hovering around 44-45C...so obviously I didn't know what I was talking about :roll:

 

[brandonb]

I have a VANTEC CCB-A6C Ball VGA Cooleron the way (in shipping)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835110015

I'll let everybody know how it works after I get it.

 

[RamIt]

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles

Originally posted by: RamIt

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles




My S1 with a 120mm fan on my 4850 has yet to breach 43C load...this is with it overclocked to 700MHz...

You obviously have never loaded your card then. Try running Furmark and report back what load temps you get.

well, it does appear that furmark can produce a little bit more heat than actual games I can play, as it was hovering around 44-45C...so obviously I didn't know what I was talking about :roll:

Guess i need to pull mine apart then. I get 15* higher temps with the same cooler after a 5 minute run.