ram cooling on 8800GT? How important is this?

[PingSpike]

I have a arctic cooling NV silencer 5 rev. 3 that I'm planning to install on my 8800GT. From everything I've read, it fits fine except that the ram cooling parts do not line up perfectly. A few modules are only about 3/4 covered by the thermal pads that come with the cooler, preinstalled.

I should be able to easily fit some ram sinks onto the mofsets, but there's no simple fix for this.

My question is...does this even really matter? Most ram isn't cooled and I've never seen anything prove conventional ram performed any better with a heat spreader. I have other cards with no ram sinks that run fine. And its not like they aren't cooled at all, just that they have incomplete covering.

Thoughts?

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Should be fine, my 8800GT artifacts with no heat-spreaders though (stupid accelero sinks fell off.) so I downclock it a bit.

 

[orion23]

Just get some RAM heat sinks...


http://www.tomshardware.com/fo...t-heatsinks-components

 

[PingSpike]

I would just get some ram heatsinks, but all of the chips are already partially covered. Dremeling off the sink areas isn't even a good solution since mounting screw holes are close in many cases.

 

[Lithan]

It'll probably be fine. The ram on these things is ok with just airflow, so as long as an appreciable portion of the chip if covered, you should be ok. If there's almost no contact, you may be in trouble because you're basically insulating the ram in that case.

 

[panfist]

I am using a Zalman VF1000 on my 8800GT. With RAM sinks, my max stable was the same as without.

 

[nOOky]

Gigabyte sells an oveclocked version without heatsinks and a Zalman cooler so it must be alright.

 

[PingSpike]

Thanks guys. It looks like worst case on the chips is still 3/4 covered so I think I'll be good to go without any mods.

 

[error8]

After you install the silencer, tell us about your temps. Never seen an "oldie" silencer on 8800 GT and I'm quite interested on how it will perform.

 

[PingSpike]

Well I installed the silencer and it seems to be working fine. I didn't have a lot of spare time last night so I didn't really get a chance to play with it much. I bought the thermal 8800gt pwn heatsink kit to cover the uncooled parts. I was not impressed with the lame included adhesive of those or the complete lack of instructions. I could pull them off easily but they didn't seem to want to shake off. Not sure how comfortable I am with that.

The silencer only partially covers the ram as expected. My idle temp was low 40s....which is about 10c better then the stock cooler. I think with the fan running full blast I may have gotten a slightly better idle then that before. I should note my case is now very cramped for space so that is likely hurting it a bit.

I'll have to do some load tests tonight to make sure its stable, but so far it seems at least a little better then the stock cooler.

 

[Continuity28]

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
Should be fine, my 8800GT artifacts with no heat-spreaders though (stupid accelero sinks fell off.) so I downclock it a bit.

This is why I recommend Zalman ramsinks. I've never had any issues with Zalman, whereas you constantly hear issues with the Accelero ramsinks. Even the reviewers can't get the things to stick right.

 

[PingSpike]

Seemed to top out at 56c playing fear in a cool room. No issues.

 

[vanvock]

I wonder if my rev.2 would work. Anyone know what was changed in the rev.3?

 

[TroubleM]

I just fitted my old Zalman 700Cu on my 8800 GT losing the warranty in the process. It works better than I expected (-10C Celsius on the 5V line,-15 C on the 12V line at idle; amazing at load).

I fitted the Ram heatsinks with some difficulty, but I left the power circuitry on the end of the card without any cooler (those close to the 6 pin power connector). Is it okay? Should I try to fit some heatsinks on it?

 

[PingSpike]

I don't know on those power pieces. The stock cooler is terrible, but it did have pads mated to some of those elements. For safety sake, I bought the kit...but for all I know its overkill and totally unneeded.