What are your thoughts on RAMsinks??

[pillage2001]

IDeas?? I got a Refurb V8420s and could oc the RAm till 666Mhz before minor artifacts occur in 3dmark2k1. At 666Mhz, everything was picture perfect in it but when I play wc3, it had minor artifacts in the DARK area of the map. The rest of the map was picture perfect then, just the darkened unexplored area. I had to drop the RAm, speeds to 626Mhz to get rid of the whitish spots.

Do you think that RAMsinks would help me in this case??

 

[chilled]

Ramsinks in my brief experience helps a little, but don't expet miracles.

My 3yr old 32MB GeForce2 GTS could OC from 200/333 -> 225/390. The RAM would get very hot, so I installed some Coolermaster Aluminium RAM heatsinks. Now I can get to 230/400. The RAM heatsinks did only cost £2, but they used their own thermal tape and would not provide the best cooling. I also did reapply thermal paste to the GPU core, which is why I got the higher core clock. I do not bother any more.

What I am trying to say is RAM heatsinks do help, but not a lot usually. They are better for asthetic purposes. However, if they do only cost a couple of bucks then why not?

 

[Peter D]

I havent heard these amazing stories of getting much higher memory clocks because of little pieces of aluminum or whatever, its just a gimmick. 'Woa, its a mini heatsink for my video card, it MUST be cool, and must help out so much!'

The only kind of ram sink that i think would help are those ones that are just old cpu heatsinks basically

 

[pillage2001]

I'm not looking for higher speeds. I was wondering if the heat on the RAM caused the artifact I had in wc3. I'm hoping to get 650Mhz and not have artifact. It's a very minor one. 3dmark completed without any problems when I was in 666Mhz.

 

[propellerhead]

RAM chips do not contain millions of transistors like CPUs. They don't generate that much heat.

 

[sep]

Even if it doesn't COOL that much, these things look COOL!

-JC

 

[TheInvincibleMustard]

Originally posted by: propellerhead
RAM chips do not contain millions of transistors like CPUs. They don't generate that much heat.

 

[pillage2001]

Originally posted by: TheInvincibleMustard

Originally posted by: propellerhead
RAM chips do not contain millions of transistors like CPUs. They don't generate that much heat.

I thought so too but we're talking about tiny BGA. It's very hot when I touched it. Can barely touch it for more than 15 secs.

 

[edmundoab]

Originally posted by: pillage2001

Originally posted by: TheInvincibleMustard

Originally posted by: propellerhead
RAM chips do not contain millions of transistors like CPUs. They don't generate that much heat.

I thought so too but we're talking about tiny BGA. It's very hot when I touched it. Can barely touch it for more than 15 secs.

have the same problem when I OC my radeon 9700 pro and see those minor "artifacts" when I run 3dmark 03 and play wc3. True, it is visible in dark areas.. ;o)

 

[Naruto]

From my experience, Ramsinks never help to get you higher memory frequencies and eliminate artifacts. Usually these are the actual chip limits and not heat problems. I installed $6 ramsinks on my ti4200, (installed BGA ramsinks on standard TSOP ram chips, so the coverage is only like 60 - 70%) and they didn't help me. I would say they became cooler for safer operation. But don't be spending $15 plus on those tweakmonster ramsinks, you will be dissapointed because ramsinks are not miracle workers. But if you wanna try, don't spend more than what these lil pieces of metal are worth.

 

[prometheusxls]

The only time i installed ram sinks (GF2 MX) they corrupted my ram. Also I don't like the idea of a permenant mod (epoxy) and the thermal tape doesnt conduct well so its sort of a waste. IMO ramsinks that arent form the factory are more trouble than they are worth.

 

[pillage2001]

Originally posted by: Naruto
From my experience, Ramsinks never help to get you higher memory frequencies and eliminate artifacts. Usually these are the actual chip limits and not heat problems. I installed $6 ramsinks on my ti4200, (installed BGA ramsinks on standard TSOP ram chips, so the coverage is only like 60 - 70%) and they didn't help me. I would say they became cooler for safer operation. But don't be spending $15 plus on those tweakmonster ramsinks, you will be dissapointed because ramsinks are not miracle workers. But if you wanna try, don't spend more than what these lil pieces of metal are worth.

I hear ya. It was hot in the noon yesterday and the artifacts were more obvious but when it was much coller at night. The artifacts were less visible. I still believe that cooling the BGA would prove significant for the oc. I'm not looking for more oc head room. I'm just looking for a artifactless oc. 650Mhz is achieveable. I went to 670 but it was too bad then. I had to back down to 626 to see a artifact free bakground.

 

[Vonkhan]

i wud take the $$$z and invest in better cooling, have a powerful fan blow directly over the ramsinks, worked for me - used a tornado :evil:

 

[pillage2001]

Other game play fine at 650Mhz. It's only in wc3 that I get the artifact. I'm still looking around for a cost effective cooling solution. The HSF on the GPu is also too hot to touch. LOL Any reccomendations??

 

[Lonyo]

I was going to suggest a fan blowing over the card as well, more certain of cooling that way.

 

[pillage2001]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
I was going to suggest a fan blowing over the card as well, more certain of cooling that way.

I would do that but the dust accumulating in the case is not worth the effort. I don't have a side panel case fan. I leave the side panel off. I need some RAMsinks too if I want to do that.

 

[Naruto]

One more note, don't go insane and ruin they aesthetic value of your video card! I used some cheapo socket 370 heatsinks a while back on my GF2 GTS ram chips, did nothing to get more headroom and now it looks like the ugliest card. Its heavy, bulking and ugly as hell. Now that I'm looking to building a small mini PC, i'm hoping i can still squeeze this card into it. I also ruined the looks of my Gainward ti450 by epoxing on a huge copepr heatsink. I'm leaving my albatron ti4200 turbo alone now, it looks good and its staying that way.

 

[pillage2001]

Originally posted by: Naruto
One more note, don't go insane and ruin they aesthetic value of your video card! I used some cheapo socket 370 heatsinks a while back on my GF2 GTS ram chips, did nothing to get more headroom and now it looks like the ugliest card. Its heavy, bulking and ugly as hell. Now that I'm looking to building a small mini PC, i'm hoping i can still squeeze this card into it. I also ruined the looks of my Gainward ti450 by epoxing on a huge copepr heatsink. I'm leaving my albatron ti4200 turbo alone now, it looks good and its staying that way.

No man, I'm not gonna stick a sk6 on the GPU. No worries. I'm looking for some low profile RAmsinks. I had my eyes on the Thermaltake Gf4 cooling kit but am too cheapskate to land the loot on it. I'm still hunting around. I might just head out the engineering dept to cut some out myself.