best way to cool a 4870?

[raging bull]

looking at getting a 4870, but the heat seems a real issue. what's the best heat sink/fan combo to chill this thing?

[traveler]

Because of the tremendous heat generated by CPU's, north and south bridges, as well as the video card GPU's (way more than in the past), I'm thinking it's time to go liquid.

I'm looking at EK blocks.



__________________
Asus X48 Rampage Formula / Intel Q9450 / 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 / VisionTek Radeon HD3870X2 OverClocked Edition /
Western Digital Raptor X Hard Drive / Two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives /
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 / Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker System /
Lian Li 343B cube case / PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Crossfire Edition

[Baud]

As far as I'm concerned, no problem with 4870 + Intel Q9450 overclocked with stock fans on Asus Maximus Formula in Antec P182 case (with 5 HD + 2 dvd writers).
PSU is a Fortron 700 Watts.

[Briton]

I don't think for the average user, or even the more enthusiast gamers, that using the stock coolers, or some of the modified coolers that come from some of the brands, is going to need water cooling for this card.

Water cooling, in general, is not always significantly lower than some of the better air coolers out there. The key with water cooling is that your load temps are generally much lower than on air, but the idle temps are usually not much different (there are cases where this is not true, as in the higher end water cooling solutions that run ~$400, which is what a kit or a solid custom setup will run you, anyway.) This is where you have to start wondering if it's worth it.

In my opinion, there are many other $400 upgrades to a computer that are going to improve your performance much more significantly than water cooling would. If you're looking to break benchmark records, water cooling is not a viable solution. You would need to at least go the route of chilled water cooling (very messy and not a day-to-day computing solution), liquid nitrogen, or phase change (again, anyone that has done or owns the equipment for this will tell you this is not a day-to-day solution). LN (and dry ice as well) is incredibly messy, something that is generally only used for a few hours to get a benchmark and is shut down and stored for another run somewhere in the future. Phase change units, even the retail ones such as the prommie and ocz units are indeed loud and not something most people would want running constantly, which is the same case with chilled water cooling except it's a mess on top of the noise.

Again, this may not apply to you if you're in such a hot area that the ambient temperature will cause the system to have issues from the get go. In a case such as this I would recommend an air conditioner over water cooling, as maintaining an ambient temperature of 21C is more important.

I've personally done custom phase change units and chilled water setups and water cooled my system for several years before switching back to air simply because of the amount of upkeep it entails (especially if you are a hardware junkie and are continually upgrading or changing your setup).

[raging bull]

baud: i guess i should have clarified: what's the best way to cool a 4870 in a silent pc? how much noise is that setup at load?
i was thinking about the artic cooling accel s1, with some kind of scythe....
briton: very good thinking....i hadn't looked at water quite like that....
but it's true that heat has become such a major issue in computers...that perhaps we need to be looking down a different road than just heat sinks and fans and water blocks....

[Baud]

Hi Raging Bull

The noise produced by the 4870 is not above the average (I experienced nVidia's 8800 GT and 8800 GTS 512MB, and the noise is quite similar at run time): I mean it sounds for 2 second like a vacuum cleaner at boot time or when waking up from sleep, but for the rest I find it's pretty quiet (and it's in my bedroom LOL); the tricks you can find on internet intend more to speed up the fan to lower the temperature, though I do not believe there's a problem there, cause the high temperature is still inside the specs of the card.

[Bampson]

I was thinking of grabbing this newly released 4870 due to it's 3rd party cooling solution. Apparently they are coming out with a 1GB version as well.

Anyone have an opinion about Powercolor quality and reliability?

[johnrr6]

probably a good solution but----No heat exhaustion outside the case with that card....

Maybe it cools the card----but what does it add to the case???

I have a vanilla 4870----I use the "Fan Profile Mod" to raise the fan to 30% and it drops temps by over 10C with NO increase in noise.

The normal reported temps are high----but the thing never skips a beat even under heavy load in my hot----non-air conditioned garage in summertime Virginia....

I'm thinking that with this card----you have to readjust your thinking as to what is acceptable temp wise.

Same with the AMD 9850 Black CPU

Runs hot and reports high-----but never skips a beat----very dependable.....

[yamawho]

I use the softmod as well.
I have one profile set to 35% and a 2nd for gaming at 45%.

CPU: Intel E8500, cooler Zalman CNPS 9500 LED
Mobo: Asus P5Q Pro
Video card: Diamond HD 4870
Memory: Corsair value ram 2 x 2GB DDR2 667
HDD: WD 500GB Sata2
PSU: OCZ GameXstream 600 watt
OS: Vista Ultimate 64bit

[Bampson]

Originally Posted by johnrr6

probably a good solution but----No heat exhaustion outside the case with that card....

Maybe it cools the card----but what does it add to the case???

Good point, and that was my initial impression as well, but it looks like even though the cooler is not flush with the slot opening, some of the air may be forced out of this opening??

[sorrow]

Water cooling also enables more stable overclocks by keeping a more constant temp.