Which graphics card ventilation style do you like best?

[DisarmedDespot]

Unless you've got a really, really cramped case, open all the way. I mean, I had an R9 390 with an open-style heatsink in a $30 mini tower, and the thing never got above 75 degrees or ~35% fan speed. Zero decibel mode when idle is really nice, and blowers can't do that.

EDIT: Honestly, I'm not sure there is a case where blowers win unless your case has literally no airflow. You're much more likely to be limited by an inadequate blower than by the case.

 

[bystander36]

Have heard the argument over many years that blowers keep case cooler vs open air but have not found that to be true in my experience (3 cases, several GPUs, both cooler types). The theory is spot on, it makes perfect sense, that the hot air is expelled from the case and therefore the case is cooler. Never have seen that to actually happen though. So open air always for me since keeps card significantly cooler and quieter.

With a good case and 1 card, I agree.

With SLI or CF, and only a little space between cards, the blow works better, but newer motherboards now give a good enough space between cards that isn't likely true very often.

 

[sxr7171]

SLI and CF are the real use cases for blowers, but at that point I think going hybrid is in order. You could be dumping 800w of heat into your case at that point. Some room heaters would be envious.

 

[Leyawiin]

Open air. None of my cards produce that much heat and none of my cases are that cramped.

 

[Sureshot324]

My HTPC is in a very small case (Fractal Design Node 202) but I've still found open air is better. I originally had a 760 GTX with a blower, and upgraded to a 1070 with open air, and now my system is much quieter. The 1070 also runs about 10-15 degrees cooler, although that's partially due to it being a less power hungry card.