My Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo II impressions **added pics -- not 56k friendly!**

[SickBeast]

**more pics in posts #25 and #26**

So far it has dropped my temps from 85C under load at 1150mhz to 45C under load at 1200mhz. So I've now overclocked the card *more* and my temps dropped 40C compared to the stock cooling.

My only complaint is that the thing was a royal PITA to install. With these kinds of results, though, I highly recommend it to people who need better cooling.

The "ram-sinks" did nothing to help me obtain a higher memory overclock.

It's dead silent as well. My computer is noticeably quieter compared to when my stock cooler was installed.

I'm running a "reference" Powercolor 7850 by the way. The stock cooling was really weak and there was a *huge* gob of thermal paste gumming up the core which is probably part of the problem.

**edit** Here are some pics of the process:

 

[blackened23]

I just installed an accelero AX7970 a couple of days ago on one of my 7970s and am completely impressed. If its any indicator, i'm definitely using arctic cooling products on all of my future gpu's.... My load temps are 54C at 1218mV and 1225mhz, compared to reference fan in the 80s at stock voltage and 1150. Upping the voltage with reference too much resulted in artifacts...not so anymore. Completely dead silent even at 100% fan too. Unbelievable how good it is.

Its even quieter than the MSI lightning 580 cooler I had, which definitely was noisy at 70%+ manual fan (although I never had to use above 50% with heavy oc's), I can't even hear this one at 100%. Definitely impressed, this is the first arctic cooling product i've used. The only downside was a painful install like you mentioned. During my install I accidentally knocked a glued heatsink off (and had to buy some more thermal adhesive) and I also stripped one of my backplate screws. And the glue took upwards of 18 hours to fully cure.

Anyway, long story short....arctic cooling products are amazing if this is any indicator. Does that cooler have VRM cooling as well?

 

[SickBeast]

Does that cooler have VRM cooling as well?

It does. Like you, a couple of my mini heatsinks fell off during installation. I put them on some of the really small auxilliary chips, though, and I doubt it will make a difference. All my VRMs and memory chips have heatsinks on them.

Really though, I think that those mini heatsinks are nothing but a gimmick. I got nothing more out of my memory with them installed.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

However, my VRM temps skyrocketed after my Xtreme 7970 installation. Core temps fell by 30-40C but now by VRM temps went from 60s/70s to 100ish. or even 110+

 

[SickBeast]

However, my VRM temps skyrocketed after my Xtreme 7970 installation. Core temps fell by 30-40C but now by VRM temps went from 60s/70s to 100ish. or even 110+

How can you gauge the VRM temps? Did your old cooler cool the VRMs?

 

[blackened23]

However, my VRM temps skyrocketed after my Xtreme 7970 installation. Core temps fell by 30-40C but now by VRM temps went from 60s/70s to 100ish. or even 110+

Did you install heatsinks on your VRMs ? Thats weird because the reference shroud from my eye doesn't have any special cooling for the VRM, so the accelero should be better... The only gauge i've been going by has been how well the card does when overvolted, and it obliterates the reference 7970 in that respect. No artifacts at 1250mV and 1250mhz+. I have no idea how to monitor VRM temps though, am I missing something? How can you check that?

 

[MrK6]

If you use ASUS cards you can their GPUTweak utility (Afterburner equivalent). I use this program since my card is a Gigabyte - http://www.hwinfo.com/ . The stock VRM cooling on the 7970's is typically much better than any aftermarket. Although the amount of heat that VRM's put out is small, it's actually quite large respective to their size. Therefore, when attached to the giant base plate of reference cards, they're cooled well, but the little heatsinks that come with aftermarket cooling are barely adequate. You can make up for the size with airflow (kind of like everything in life, amirite? *rimshot*), but that only carries you so far. The upside is that VRM's function well up to ~120C. That said, the cooler you get them the more stable/higher your overclock will be.

 

[blackened23]

http://chattypics.com/files/HPIM08031JPG_dk97vyb5xp.jpg

Picture of the reference shroud unscrewed.

How is that possibly better than the accelero? There is no VRM cooling other than a fan that is in the proximity of the VRM, which is also the case for the accelero. I'm trying to understand how the reference shroud has better VRM temps but i'm not seeing it....doesn't make sense. Anyway, i'll see if I can get some temp readings.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Yes, installed the heatsinks as well.

I use HW64info to check VRM temps.

At 125C the PC crashes. Tried using OCCT.

Gaming load hasn't got me beyond 114C so far and usually around 100-110C or so.

 

[SickBeast]

It seems that 1200mhz is the sweet spot for these chips. More than that requires a lot of voltage and offers diminishing returns.

I'm hoping for 1250mhz at 1.25v, personally. Hopefully I can unlock my card at some point.

 

[Don Karnage]

Knew you'd like that cooler

 

[MrK6]

http://chattypics.com/files/HPIM08031JPG_dk97vyb5xp.jpg

Picture of the reference shroud unscrewed.

How is that possibly better than the accelero? There is no VRM cooling other than a fan that is in the proximity of the VRM, which is also the case for the accelero. I'm trying to understand how the reference shroud has better VRM temps but i'm not seeing it....doesn't make sense. Anyway, i'll see if I can get some temp readings.

Because the VRM's are in contact with the baseplate, which is a giant heatsink. As I said, they don't put out much heat, so it's more than adequate to keep their temps low considering the size.

Yes, installed the heatsinks as well.

I use HW64info to check VRM temps.

At 125C the PC crashes. Tried using OCCT.

Gaming load hasn't got me beyond 114C so far and usually around 100-110C or so.

Yep, they aren't that beefy and the lack of airflow from the Accelero cooler doesn't help. You can always try your luck with one of the Thermalright add-ons (if it's released), or some beefier aftermarket heatsinks. There are what I use on my 7970 - http://jab-tech.com/Enzotechnology-Mosfet-heatsink-MOS-C10-pr-4451.html (I cut them in half).

 

[SickBeast]

Knew you'd like that cooler

Yeah, thanks man, and thanks to whoever linked me to it at $35; that saved me $20 and gave me awesome temps.

It's a good length for the card as well; I'm not sure that the beastly one you got would fit in my case, Don.

 

[blackened23]

Okay, just installed HWinfo64 and checked my VRM temps. I did 3 benchmark runs of metro 2033, and then ran 3 cycles of 3dmark11 at 100% pm a single 7970: (trying to put an accelero on the other one, its not installed right now)

Screenshot :

highest VRM temp was 76C. I'll keep an eye on it further. I will say that I used my own thermal adhesive on most of the VRM sinks..... Also: my temps did not exceed 50c throughout that round of stress testing. I *love* the accelero. LOVE it I'll see how high of a 3dmark11 score I can get on a single 7970 later.

 

[blackened23]

Knew you'd like that cooler

I know this isn't directed at me but, let me chime in and say I'm in disbelief at how good the accelero coolers are. Subjectively the AX7970 extreme accelero seems cooler and quieter (definitely quieter actually) than my former MSI lightning 580 with the TF3.

I love this thing.

 

[tuffluck]

i have the sapphire 7850 and can't find VRM temps anywhere...

btw nice temp drops sickbeast! 40c is pretty dramatic. makes me wonder if the powercolor heatsink was originally installed poorly on your particular unit compared to others.

 

[SickBeast]

i have the sapphire 7850 and can't find VRM temps anywhere...

btw nice temp drops sickbeast! 40c is pretty dramatic. makes me wonder if the powercolor heatsink was originally installed poorly on your particular unit compared to others.

Thanks.

There was a *huge* gob of thermal compound gobbing up the core from the stock heatsink. It completely enveloped it. I will post pics when get the chance.

I have a lot of experience installing heatsinks and thermal paste. I cleaned off the stuff the Arctic Cooler came shipped with and installed my own stuff carefully with a very thin layer. That probably gained me an extra 3-5C.

 

[badb0y]

Thanks for the utility to check VRM temperatures. Is it accurate though?

 

[Don Karnage]

7850's don't have VRM thermal monitoring

 

[blackened23]

i have the sapphire 7850 and can't find VRM temps anywhere...

btw nice temp drops sickbeast! 40c is pretty dramatic. makes me wonder if the powercolor heatsink was originally installed poorly on your particular unit compared to others.

Install HWINFO 64, bring up the sensors tab by clicking sensors, click the configure button, and then go through and add the VRMs to sensor monitoring. Go through your list and click on each VRM 1 at a time, and then click "add to tray". Then you can monitor your VRM temps. By default they are not monitored on any hardware from what I gather.

Do that, bring up the sensor window and it should show you VRM temps.

 

[KingFatty]

http://chattypics.com/files/HPIM08031JPG_dk97vyb5xp.jpg

Picture of the reference shroud unscrewed.

How is that possibly better than the accelero? There is no VRM cooling other than a fan that is in the proximity of the VRM, which is also the case for the accelero. I'm trying to understand how the reference shroud has better VRM temps but i'm not seeing it....doesn't make sense. Anyway, i'll see if I can get some temp readings.

Notice there is a white strip on the baseplate there, right under the fan - that should be in good contact with the VRMs, so their heat get dissipated by the whole strip and the rest of the baseplate.

For my 5850, I was able to separate the stock/reference baseplate from the stock shroud and heatsink, so I kept the baseplate to make good contact with the VRMs, and the accelero cooler I use blows down on top of the baseplate to keep the VRMs cool.

For the 79XX series cards, can you separate the baseplate from the shroud and/or stock heatsink? I know that for reference 5870s you can't, but reference 5850s you can, so I'm curious if the 7970 and 7950 follow the same pattern?

If your VRM temps are acceptable, I don't see a reason to use the baseplate, but if your can't keep them cool, maybe consider it. I know on my 5830 I used to have, the accelero aftermarket little VRM heatsinks were worse than the long strip/slab-style aftermarket VRM heatsink that spans across the entire card and goes on top of all the VRMs at the same time.

 

[blackened23]

Notice there is a white strip on the baseplate there, right under the fan - that should be in good contact with the VRMs, so their heat get dissipated by the whole strip and the rest of the baseplate.

For my 5850, I was able to separate the stock/reference baseplate from the stock shroud and heatsink, so I kept the baseplate to make good contact with the VRMs, and the accelero cooler I use blows down on top of the baseplate to keep the VRMs cool.

For the 79XX series cards, can you separate the baseplate from the shroud and/or stock heatsink? I know that for reference 5870s you can't, but reference 5850s you can, so I'm curious if the 7970 and 7950 follow the same pattern?

If your VRM temps are acceptable, I don't see a reason to use the baseplate, but if your can't keep them cool, maybe consider it. I know on my 5830 I used to have, the accelero aftermarket little VRM heatsinks were worse than the long strip/slab-style aftermarket VRM heatsink that spans across the entire card and goes on top of all the VRMs at the same time.

The accelero 5870 and 6970 coolers did not have VRM cooling, the 7xxx versions specifically added it to my knowledge. I know for sure the 7970 version added better VRM cooling. Anyway, I tested it and so far i'm not exceeding 76C on either VRM with the accelero. I'll keep an eye on it, though.

 

[SickBeast]

I don't think my stock cooler did anything for the VRMs.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I have the hottest card known to man. A *gasp* gtx 480. It never gets above 52c overvolted and overclocked with my accelero cooler.

 

[SickBeast]

Here are more pics of the process: