The 5800 series aftermarket cooling thread.

[Dorkenstein]

Ah, I see. That's not too bad. Thanks for the answer.

 

[bradyapba]

i suppose if i had wanted to be more gentle, i could of made 2 small cuts with a saw, and then reglued back together, if i wanted to reuse it. Probably what I should of done. But no biggie either way.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Can the 5870 keep the stock vrm plate on and still use the Twin Turbo?

EDIT: Looks like the plate is welded to the shroud. So much for that. What else can you do with a 5870? I heard little mosfet heatsinks don't do as good a job.

 

[bradyapba]

you will need a Thermalright VRM-R3?r4 then to cool the VRMs. Works, just starts to get expensive having to buy an after market cooler, and this on top of it.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Yeah, I see those. I'm looking into using a Swiftech heatsink that is supposed to be used in conjunction with a waterblock as a plate. I contacted Arctic Cooling support and asked them. We'll see what they say. Looks like the dimensions mostly fit, but I'm not sure.

 

[bradyapba]

i think your one issue with that heatsink will be at the top, over the GPU block, where the heatpipes come out of the TTPro. Otherwise it should be fine i think (thats a guess, you may have to be the 1st to try), but worst case, is you just file down the fins on the switchtech a little in the little strip, until the TTpro fits. At least thats how it looks from my perspective

 

[Dorkenstein]

Yeah, I hope it isn't that bad. Haven't heard from support yet.

 

[bradyapba]

Thats pretty easy actually, a hand metal file, or a dremel, should be able to save off the centimeter or 2 you will need in a matter of seconds or minutes. Simple fix, and wont effect the cooling really.

 

[eklock2000]

I installed the same cooler on my 5870 and the fan doesn't automatically adjust as the heat goes up..I think I got a lemon because the stock cooler does..does yours adjust no problem? Just want to make sure before I rma and get the same thing again..

thx

I think the fan only auto-adjusts if it's plugged into the video card...like the stock cooler. Of course there are other methods to accomplish that, but since the cooler is so quiet, just run the fans at max!

EK2K

 

[bradyapba]

1. I dont know, I dont use the auto feature, I either leave it set at 90%, or use afterburners fan profile feature.
2. From what i have seen, its an issue with the 5870, not the 5850, but im not sure.
3. Ill test it and let you know. Though i dont know why you would need it, just use MSI, or set it and forget it, even at 100% you cant hear it, and the power consumption on these fans from 20-100% is minimal.
4. Do you have it plugged into the video card fan header?
5. Did you plug in the 3 pin or the 4 pin? Did you plug it in facing the right way?

Edit: my auto adjust works.

 

[bradyapba]

ok final stats on my last OC. This is probably where i stop, where im not real comfortable exceeding these temps.

final OC was:

Volts = 1.225
GPU = 928
MEM = 1200

Passed 100% load test for 20 minutes, no errors.

temps:

GPU: settled in after about 2 minutes, and didnt change much the rest of the way too:

GPU 1: 58 C
GPU 2: 72 C
GPU 3: 68C

VRMS:

VRM 1:74C
VRM 2:78C
VRM 3:76C


Those temps seem acceptable to you guys?

 

[The Sauce]

Should be ok. I certainly wouldn't worry about that. My coolers should be getting here in a few days. I am currently 940/1300 @ 1.15v with the stock cooler. Can't wait to really push this thing.

 

[Dorkenstein]

I just heard back from Arctic Cooling on the 5870 with swiftech heatsink question. They didn't even answer it. They just said the Twin Turbo Pro will work with the 5870. The response came from their German office after I mailed the English one. Oh well.

 

[bradyapba]

I just heard back from Arctic Cooling on the 5870 with swiftech heatsink question. They didn't even answer it. They just said the Twin Turbo Pro will work with the 5870. The response came from their German office after I mailed the English one. Oh well.

Really, what did you expect . Sometimes you just got to go for it. Worst case you dont use the swiftech, and send it back. Sometimes you got to be ther 1st to try something. Im 90% sure it will work, worst case, you will need to file those fins down a little, which wont hurt anything.

 

[The Sauce]

T-Rad2 GTX is a nightmare so far. Downclocked from 940/1300 to 935/1250 just to be safe. Installed the R3 VRM cooler. Installed the t-rad2 GTX. No-go...the R3 would not fit - hit my CPU cooler. Took out the R3 and installed the VRM heatsinks that come with the t-rad. Put the card back in and give it a try. Temps shot up higher than with the stock HSF and Furmark hard-locked after about 1 minute. Took the cooler out, reapplied paste, tightened everything down, try #2. GPU temps still higher than I thought they would be hitting 60's...then hard lock after about 2 minutes. Reboot, check the VRM temps - they are hitting 120 in no time flat. Oh well. Had to reorder an R4 and RMA the R3. What a hastle. Wish I had left the stock cooler on there. Now I'm in for about $120 on cooling that is inferior to stock.

Note to all, t-rad gtx will not work without an R3 or R4 VRM cooler if you are overclocking. R3 VRM cooler will not fit if you have anything other than stock CPU HSF (no mention of that anywhere in the Thermalright site).

BOO!

 

[bradyapba]

twin turbo pro for the win!!!

 

[bunnyfubbles]

ok final stats on my last OC. This is probably where i stop, where im not real comfortable exceeding these temps.

final OC was:

Volts = 1.225
GPU = 928
MEM = 1200

Passed 100% load test for 20 minutes, no errors.

temps:

GPU: settled in after about 2 minutes, and didnt change much the rest of the way too:

GPU 1: 58 C
GPU 2: 72 C
GPU 3: 68C

VRMS:

VRM 1:74C
VRM 2:78C
VRM 3:76C


Those temps seem acceptable to you guys?

what are you using to stress? furmark? if so, what settings?

 

[bradyapba]

yup furmark, 1920x1080, 6x msaaa, postFX on.

It also passed ATI GPU tool, stability test for 4 hours, with slightly less temp readings.

 

[Grooveriding]

Does anyone have any idea if you can use two of these on 5870s in Crossfire ? It looks like they are wider than the stock coolers, but it is hard to tell from pictures.

 

[bradyapba]

they are wider than the stock cooler. On my motherboard asrock p58 extreme, they do block the next PCI slot, but not the next PCIE slot. So I would think it would work.

 

[The Sauce]

Ok got my t-rad + R4 up and running. Still not performing as well as I would have expected. Some reviews got -20C over the stock cooler on the GPU, I am getting about -5C or so. Current numbers:

HIS 5850 with MSI BIOS
940/1300 @ 1.15V
GPU: 67C
VRM #1, #2, #3: 75C, 80C, 78C

I guess it's ok. Roughly equivalent to the stock cooler on the GPU @ 50% and much better on the VRMs. Much quieter, though. Now the true test - crank up the volts and see if it can keep the temps down...

 

[Grooveriding]

they are wider than the stock cooler. On my motherboard asrock p58 extreme, they do block the next PCI slot, but not the next PCIE slot. So I would think it would work.

Hi there, and thanks for the reply.

If you could clarify for me, my motherboard has 3 PCIe slots, but the third one operates at x8, not x16 as the first two do. Does your post refer to the second pci slot, or second pcie slot being blocked ?

Looking at this picture of my mobo, I'd want to use the two blue slots, not the first blue one on the right and the orange on the far left.

With the current stock coolers, I'd say I have about half a centimeter of space between both cards, so unless the twin turbo pros are just a small fraction bigger than the stock heatsinks, it won't work unfortunately.


Thanks

 

[bradyapba]

ah, i must have more space than you. I can use the "2 blues". The TTPro, does block the next PCI slot on my mobo, but not the PCIE, or "blue slot" in your case.

 

[The Sauce]

T-Rad 2 GTX is FAIL. Initially I was pleased as I was able to get my core up to 960 stress-test stable without changing the voltage (max was 940 stock). Failed at 965. temps running low to mid 70s. Increased the voltage to 1.175v. Temps shot up to low-mid 80s. VRMs hitting >100C and stress-test fail.

Not that 960 is a bad overclock but it's not much better than stock cooling. I paid $75 for 20MHz... Certainly not worth the money. It is quieter but for the performance it is not worth it. I can not recommend this cooler for 5800 owners. This is my first disappointment with a Thermalright product.

 

[MrK6]

T-Rad 2 GTX is FAIL. Initially I was pleased as I was able to get my core up to 960 stress-test stable without changing the voltage (max was 940 stock). Failed at 965. temps running low to mid 70s. Increased the voltage to 1.175v. Temps shot up to low-mid 80s. VRMs hitting >100C and stress-test fail.

Not that 960 is a bad overclock but it's not much better than stock cooling. I paid $75 for 20MHz... Certainly not worth the money. It is quieter but for the performance it is not worth it. I can not recommend this cooler for 5800 owners. This is my first disappointment with a Thermalright product.

I'm not terribly surprised. For awhile now, the cooling on AMD cards has had incredible capacity and performance. It's only draw back is that to take advantage of it, you need to move air, and a lot of it, and that creates substantial noise. While the 5xxx series greatly improved the quality and tone of the fan used, I don't think using the fan at anything above 45% for everyday use is practical. It's too bad the new cooler didn't give you any more performance (maybe try increasing case airflow to help it out?), but at least it's much quieter now.

Really, if you want to crank these cards, I think the next step would be an entry level water setup if you really want to see results.