Newer GTX295 series

Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
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I noticed these cards appear to have one PCB since the power connectors are on one board and they have fans in the middle blowing half the air into the case. :|

Mine are the original design with the dual boards (sandwich), blower in rear pushing air out the slot and along the top directed to the outside of the case which works well.

Any (more) information on these cards?
 

KingstonU

Golden Member
Dec 26, 2006
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I didn't know they were revised like that, is it just a after market design? were there any improvements to the original revision? (A?)
 

Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
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If you look at them over at newegg you will see every one they sell (except the Asus) is based on the new design.

Both power connectors are on the same board and the fan is in the middle so it's a different reference design.
 

1ManArmY

Golden Member
Mar 7, 2003
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the newer GTX 295's on one PCB are cheaper to make thus savings for the nvidia but the downfall is the hot air blowing back in your case and no option for a volt mod.
 

error8

Diamond Member
Nov 28, 2007
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It's not like the whole heated air is dumped inside the case. It's more like 50% of it, the rest it's exhausted outside. The first gtx295 also dumps some air inside the case too, on the side, but probably less then what the newer GTX is dumping.
 

BenSkywalker

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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The new cooler is definitely poor

I don't have any hands on with it, but the link you provided shows the new cooler markedly superior to the old one, with temps under load the same as the 275? Didn't see any ambient numbers so no idea how much of a factor they are.
 

SlowSpyder

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
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Originally posted by: error8
It's not like the whole heated air is dumped inside the case. It's more like 50% of it, the rest it's exhausted outside. The first gtx295 also dumps some air inside the case too, on the side, but probably less then what the newer GTX is dumping.

Yea but 50% on of a GTX295 is still roughly an entire GTX275 worth of heat being dumped back in to the case. My Toxic 4870 has a similar design, fan in the middle some air vents out of the case, some back into the case. I think as long as your case has decent enough air flow it's mostly a non issue, though having all the heat vent outside would obviously be better.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
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Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

I don't have any hands on with it, but the link you provided shows the new cooler markedly superior to the old one, with temps under load the same as the 275?
The card may be cooler, but at the expense of the rest of the case getting hotter, and louder if other fans have to spin up as a result. Additionally, the load noise level is far higher than the old cooler and it approaches the level of a 4870 X2.

I?d also love to see how it behaves with SLI. Asus had a similar cooler on their custom 4870, but it completely failed when CF was used because the top card was starved of cold air.
 

Keysplayr

Elite Member
Jan 16, 2003
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Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
Originally posted by: error8
It's not like the whole heated air is dumped inside the case. It's more like 50% of it, the rest it's exhausted outside. The first gtx295 also dumps some air inside the case too, on the side, but probably less then what the newer GTX is dumping.

Yea but 50% on of a GTX295 is still roughly an entire GTX275 worth of heat being dumped back in to the case. My Toxic 4870 has a similar design, fan in the middle some air vents out of the case, some back into the case. I think as long as your case has decent enough air flow it's mostly a non issue, though having all the heat vent outside would obviously be better.

Agreed. If the case airflow is sufficient, then case temps shouldn't be a concern. Though it would be ideal if all the hot air was exhausted out of the case to begin with.

 

Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
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The existing cooler was good because it chucked most of the air out its side which would be vented through the slots/holes directly above the PCI slots that a good case should have. This would be bad news to HTPC owners, however.

With the new design there is no such strategy. Sure you can have great airflow but temperatures will still increase over having air going out the back. The 4870x2 cooler follows this design nicely. It's a bastard to the overclocker but the hardcore GPU overclockers are running water anyhow.
 

Dkcode

Senior member
May 1, 2005
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The new card is not poor. The dual PCB actually ran hotter in my case than the single PCB.

Either something was wrong with the dual PCB card or this new cooling system is superior. Temps never get higher than 87C and that's when its really crunching.
 

KIAman

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2001
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I'm sure the GPU is much cooler with this design but the rest of a computers components are probably feeling the heat.

What I don't understand is why not design a single PCB solution that STILL pushes all the air outside.

For those who have the new design, what's the temperature if you tape the inside portion so it no longer pushes air into the case?
 

Zap

Elite Member
Oct 13, 1999
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Originally posted by: Rubycon
Any (more) information on these cards?

What more do you need? They have the same exact specs as the old version so in theory you get the same gaming experience. All the reviewers seem to agree with my own data, which is it runs cooler than the old version (single card, not Quad-SLI). Perhaps NVIDIA has information on the percentage of people running these solo?

Originally posted by: KIAman
For those who have the new design, what's the temperature if you tape the inside portion so it no longer pushes air into the case?

There is one GPU on each side of the fan, so the side taped up will likely overheat.

I actually like the single PCB card because it makes for a really elegant single slot liquid cooled solution.
 

Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
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I can see it running cooler for sure since the sandwich design does not possess the "swept area" and has much closer (shared) internals. A dual GPU single board is always better in this regard. It would appear one of the GPUs is near the edge so they could not mount the fan there and chose a center positioned fan instead. Case temps definitely would be higher with average cases. HAF 932 owners with 500CFM moving through their cases would probably never notice! :laugh:
 

TC91

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Jul 9, 2007
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I am not so sure of the effectiveness all rear exhaust coolers and think that lower GPU temps may help a bit more than you may think because when I had my reference design 4870 1GB, the temperature of my motherboard/northbridge (Asus P5Q) was 64-70c but when I replaced it with a reference GTX 285, the motherboard/northbridge temperature dropped to 40-45c (according to HWMonitor and Asus' PC Probe II software). The temperatue on my GTX 285 while idling is 50-56c while the 4870 1GB was 81-84c.
 

SlowSpyder

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
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Originally posted by: TC91
I am not so sure of the effectiveness all rear exhaust coolers and think that lower GPU temps may help a bit more than you may think because when I had my reference design 4870 1GB, the temperature of my motherboard/northbridge (Asus P5Q) was 64-70c but when I replaced it with a reference GTX 285, the motherboard/northbridge temperature dropped to 40-45c (according to HWMonitor and Asus' PC Probe II software). The temperatue on my GTX 285 while idling is 50-56c while the 4870 1GB was 81-84c.

The temp of the GPU has nothing to do with that. Some how people often seem to think that a lower GPU temp means that there is less heat, that's not the case at all. Heat out put is heat out put. The temp of the GPU may be lower as the cooler is better, but the GTX285 still puts out x amount of heat no matter what the actual temp reading. That heat goes somewhere whether the temp of the GPU is 30C or 80C... it's more a function of the cooler. Now if the GTX285 has that aggressive of power saving features when idling compared to the 4870 than it's creating less heat. But again, the actual temp of the GPU doens't mean anything in this case.
 

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
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Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
Some how people often seem to think that a lower GPU temp means that there is less heat, that's not the case at all. Heat out put is heat out put. The temp of the GPU may be lower as the cooler is better, but the GTX285 still puts out x amount of heat no matter what the actual temp reading.

Exactly. This has been debated before but as SlowSpyder mentioned, basically all the power consumed by the video card is turned into heat. The temperature the card runs at is almost totally governed by the effectiveness of the cooler.

Originally posted by: TC91
I am not so sure of the effectiveness all rear exhaust coolers and think that lower GPU temps may help a bit more than you may think because when I had my reference design 4870 1GB, the temperature of my motherboard/northbridge (Asus P5Q) was 64-70c but when I replaced it with a reference GTX 285, the motherboard/northbridge temperature dropped to 40-45c (according to HWMonitor and Asus' PC Probe II software). The temperatue on my GTX 285 while idling is 50-56c while the 4870 1GB was 81-84c.

The higher m/b temperatures are most likely a result of the 4870 cooler not pushing the hot air out of the case fast enough...if the fan speed was upped I'd bet the m/b temps would come down as well. I know when I had the stock cooler on my card it ran hot as well but that was just because the fan was spinning so slowly.
 

yh125d

Diamond Member
Dec 23, 2006
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Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
Originally posted by: error8
It's not like the whole heated air is dumped inside the case. It's more like 50% of it, the rest it's exhausted outside. The first gtx295 also dumps some air inside the case too, on the side, but probably less then what the newer GTX is dumping.

Yea but 50% on of a GTX295 is still roughly an entire GTX275 worth of heat being dumped back in to the case. My Toxic 4870 has a similar design, fan in the middle some air vents out of the case, some back into the case. I think as long as your case has decent enough air flow it's mostly a non issue, though having all the heat vent outside would obviously be better.

I have a scythe musashi on my 4890 (aka, all heat dumped into case) with the only exhaust being a ~1500rpm 120 on the back and my psu fan at the bottom of my case blowing cold air, and what can escape through the top vent which is half covered by junk, and no intake fans running. Case temps are fine, I wouldn't be concerned by the heat a 295 would be dumping
 

TC91

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Jul 9, 2007
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@ SlowSpyder and Thilian,
I do think that GPU temps has a little bit to do with it (not everything though), as it can be an indicator of the airflow/exhaust out of the case in the case of rear exhaust coolers like the reference ones on the 4870s.

From Xbit Labs, http://xbitlabs.com/images/vid...5ssc/evga285_power.png
they show the 4870 using 15watts more power at idle than the GTX 285 and I don't think that is THAT much more.

My 4870 1GB's fan was spinning at roughly the same RPM as my GTX 285 at idle (~1600rpm), and I don't think that GPU temps has absolutely NOTHING to do with it, correct me if I'm wrong.
 

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
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Originally posted by: TC91
My 4870 1GB's fan was spinning at roughly the same RPM as my GTX 285 at idle (~1600rpm), and I don't think that GPU temps has absolutely NOTHING to do with it, correct me if I'm wrong.

As you said the GPU temps are an indication of how effective the cooler is. Basically most of the heat put out by the GPU is not being taken out of the case at 1600rpm in the 4870's case and so this is causing other components to heat up as heat is transferred to the air inside the case without airflow more so than it would be with some/higher airflow. Comparing just the rpm is difficult as the fans are different and I think the 4870 has smaller diameter blades.
 

TC91

Golden Member
Jul 9, 2007
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Originally posted by: thilan29
Originally posted by: TC91
My 4870 1GB's fan was spinning at roughly the same RPM as my GTX 285 at idle (~1600rpm), and I don't think that GPU temps has absolutely NOTHING to do with it, correct me if I'm wrong.

As you said the GPU temps are an indication of how effective the cooler is. Basically most of the heat put out by the GPU is not being taken out of the case at 1600rpm in the 4870's case and so this is causing other components to heat up as heat is transferred to the air inside the case without airflow more so than it would be with some/higher airflow. Comparing just the rpm is difficult as the fans are different and I think the 4870 has smaller diameter blades.

Gotcha.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
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Originally posted by: TC91

I am not so sure of the effectiveness all rear exhaust coolers and think that lower GPU temps may help a bit more than you may think because when I had my reference design 4870 1GB, the temperature of my motherboard/northbridge (Asus P5Q) was 64-70c but when I replaced it with a reference GTX 285, the motherboard/northbridge temperature dropped to 40-45c (according to HWMonitor and Asus' PC Probe II software). The temperatue on my GTX 285 while idling is 50-56c while the 4870 1GB was 81-84c.
A reference GTX285 evicts all of the heat out of the case just like a 4870 does. However even with this scheme, some heat invariably radiates from the back of the PCB and rises up towards the motherboard/CPU.

So what you're seeing is probably the result of the GTX285 having better thermal characteristics than the 4870.