Swiftech 5870 heatsink on Eyefinity 2gb...will it fit?

[Liquidsnakes]

I just bought a Powercolor 5870 2GB Eyefinity card. For cooling, I was going to use the Swiftech MCW80 for the gpu and Swiftech's 5870 heatsink for the rest of the card.

It didn't even occur to me until just tonight that the eyefinity card might not even work with the swiftech full cover heatsink. I'm sure it'll work with the mcw80 since it's the same core obviously, but what about the heatsink? Does the extra ram completely change the layout of the card to the point of making the heatsink incompatible?

I did do some searching on this, but found stuff on this only for EK full coverage blocks. Wondering about the swiftech specifically.

Just to clarify, I'm not using a Swiftech all in one full coverage block like the kimodo or something. This is an MCW80, + a separate heatsink which covers the mosfets etc.

Thanks for any and all assistance!

Nick

 

[PCTC2]

I don't have any experience with it, but it may or may not. Look at PCB shots online and compare them to the reference 5870 design if you can. I can tell you that the Swiftech meant for the GTX 260 65nm does not fit on the 55nm revision.

Good luck!

 

[Liquidsnakes]

Ok, found some PCB pics of the card in question.Comparing them to the size/shape and mounting holes on the heatsink, the front looks identical. On the back however is where they added the extra 1GB of memory. So basically if I put this on, the extra memory on the back would be left without cooling. Is that correct? And if that is indeed the case, could I not buy some individual ram sinks and put them on the spots on back?

 

[PCTC2]

Ok, found some PCB pics of the card in question.Comparing them to the size/shape and mounting holes on the heatsink, the front looks identical. On the back however is where they added the extra 1GB of memory. So basically if I put this on, the extra memory on the back would be left without cooling. Is that correct? And if that is indeed the case, could I not buy some individual ram sinks and put them on the spots on back?

If that's the case, then you could just pick up some RAM sinks for $10 bucks and call it a day. I buy Akasa thermal adhesive tape because I've found it holds better than most stock RAM sink tape. Just let it sit on the card for about an hour before mounting the card in your case.

 

[Liquidsnakes]

*Somebody* has got to have put a waterblock on a 2 GB 5870 by now. Are the 8 additional memory chips on the back of the card the only difference, or are there other differences as well I should be aware of?

thanks

 

[PCTC2]

Here: Post 19
http://forums.pureoverclock.com/showthread.php?p=48476
A guy put a fullcover block on. So your heatsink will fit, but you can just use the backplate that came with the card.

 

[Liquidsnakes]

Ah, thanks. I saw that thread earlier yesterday but wasn't sure exactly if they were talking about the same thing or not. Rereading it now, seems like it's the same situation.

So long story short then, ditch the front, keep the back. Thanks for the help.

Nick

 

[PCTC2]

No problem, and also, I almost forgot,

Welcome to Anandtech Forums.=)

 

[Liquidsnakes]

Oh, I used to post here a few years ago, but somehow my username/pw got lost when they made the switch to vbulletin, and I haven't been able to recover it. I used to post under the name Rodknock.

 

[Liquidsnakes]

Ok, just put everything together. The heatsink is indeed compatible. Like the guy from the thread you linked to, I ended up using the stock backplate.

To anyone planning on using this combo, it's a bit weird. You can tell you're not supposed to be using the stock backplate, as the supplied screws with the swiftech heatsink are a bit short...you're connected by at most two threads on each screw from the backplate to the HS. It works, though, just be careful. The heatsink itself mounts perfectly, so the 2GB eye 6 cards, at leas the Powercolor one, are most definitely a reference PCB. The MCW80 slots into the heatsink exactly as it's supposed to.

In short, the swiftech 5870 heatsink works just fine with the 2GB eye6 version, just reuse the stock backplate or use some individual ramsinks. I still might do that option later down the line, we'll see.

Nick