I took the cover off my 9800GTX+ and strapped an 80mm fan directly to the heatsink. Now my temps never go above 65C during heavy gaming. When I turn the fan up to 100% I get 45C max.
That's one of the practical ways to do it. What kind of fan, did you use? 90mm wouldn't fit? Did you solder it to the board or plugged it directly in to your mobo?
My dream card would be something like the Powercolor SCS3, but with a 7970 instead of the 6850 and mounting clips/holes so I could toss a 120mm S-Flex on there. The aftermarket coolers are nice, but they do make some compromises in order to make them universal.
That 6850 SCS3 isn't my dream card. It's just too bulky. I'd rather have a compact size with a drop-in 90/120 fan design. That way, it would be easy to replace from a great selection of fans currently available on the market and have good temps at the same time. Running a card at 90c+, isn't just right. You could probably attach a fan to the SCS3 and solve the temp issue though. If you want to pay the price premium for it, in the first place.
the arctic cooling stuff is good and quite. Thermalright makes a nice solution as well.
Correct. Problem is the additional cost and man-hours. Wouldn't have been as much of a problem, had the cards been selling HSF-less [like OEM CPUs].
From a design point of view, it would be far better / cheaper, if vendors actually give more choice to the consumer in the cooling department. I'd rather pay $30 more and get a Noctua fan.. actually mounted right, on a card than have it pre-overclocked and dealing with the noise instead. Two quiet 90/120x fans would provide necessary performance and acoustic level for the majority of consumers. Sure, you could custom-mod it yourself but that's just PITA and I'd pay a bit more to have some options and not being restricted to a particular hard to find, let alone expensive model.
IMO, this would be a great marketing feature. Right at this moment, we have 2 extremes... hot & bulky and cool & loud. Nothing in the middle.
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