Best Choice for Air Cooling 7900gt?

[observer_11]

What do folks recommend as a good choice for upgrading the stock cooling on a 7900gt? I plan on volt modding gpu core and memory, I do NOT care about SLI or other space constraints, and noise is somewhat of a consideration.

[lowfat]

I used a Zalman VF700Cu with a modded 80mm fan. With the 1.4Vmod, and the fan running @ 5V, it never went above 58C. I am sure with the stock fan it wouldn't be that much worse.

[skane]

the best gpu aircooling is probably a modded cpu cooler. apart from that, i think the thermalright v1 ultra is the best.

[Kenetixx]

thermalright v1 ultra FTW!!!! :)
I have one installed , running 1.5volts load is at 52 idle at 41 :D
http://teknetixx.com/mypc/7900gt/card2.jpg

[Dr_at_Home]

How quiet is the v1 ultra? I see it is a superb cooler, but how loud is it? I'm in need of a new cooler, as the stock one is somewhat noisey, and loads up to 80c.:stick:

[Kenetixx]

well you can hear it so it isnt silent but you can replace the fan with a silent one if you wanted its just a 80mm

[skane]

i cant hear it over the other fans in my case, which are aerocool led fans, rated at about 38dBA. But it can be as loud as you want it to be really, you can mount 2 nexus 80mm fans on it, which will be pretty much inaudible, and will perform great.

[humeyboy]

Last week it was proven in tests:

1st Accelo (Suprised me)
2nd Zalman V900
3rd NV Silencer5 rev3 (2c diff from V900)

Now I know they dont fit your 7900GT but I do have one on my 7900GT AGP as its custom made for Gainward, cools core,ram and HSI Bridge Chip.

[skane]

was the v1 ultra included in that test, because i would love to see a decent test comparing those 3 coolers to the v1 ultra.

[viper650]

the nv6 silencer will fit on a 7900gt, and cools it quite well. 43c idle and 52c load

[nobody_here]

was the v1 ultra included in that test, because i would love to see a decent test comparing those 3 coolers to the v1 ultra.

you wont find a review or test by a reputable site with the Silencer, Zalmans, and V1 Ultra in the mix, because the V1 Ultra will own them all, the Accelero probably comes close, but it is not compatable with the 7900GT either.....and then there's the Sytrin KuFormula VF1 Plus VGA Cooler, which was compared to the first generation Thermalright V1 that has only two heatpipes, not 3 like the V1 Ultra

http://www.ocia.net/reviews/sytrinvf1/page1.shtml

which is the closest thing to the V1 Ultra, i would consider them equals, they both pretty much make SLI impossible so they are definately single card solutions, but the V1 Ultra is definately the trickiest and most challenging one to mount and is the easiest one to cause damage to your card if you aren't very very particular

i have the V1 Ultra and it kept my 7800GT with a 1.5v mod running 530/1260 at a 45*c fully loaded high temp......it's the closest thing to H2O you are gonna find

however, there does seem to be a problem mounting it to a 7900GT, at least with my 7900GT, the inside edges on the left and right of the retention bracket are touching the microscopic resistors that surround the actual core, which is not good, trying to figure out more info

[skane]

i have seen 1 good review comparing the v1 ultra to a silencer, at systemcooling, and it beat the hell out of it.
i do want to know if the acceleros or vf900 would come closer, and if so, how much.
I got the original v1 myself, and dont really understand why everybody thinks its so hard to mount. its the first gpu hsf i ever mounted, and the old one was of and the v1 on in about an hour. that 7900gt compatibility thing sucks though.

[nobody_here]

i have seen 1 good review comparing the v1 ultra to a silencer, at systemcooling, and it beat the hell out of it.
i do want to know if the acceleros or vf900 would come closer, and if so, how much.
I got the original v1 myself, and dont really understand why everybody thinks its so hard to mount. its the first gpu hsf i ever mounted, and the old one was of and the v1 on in about an hour. that 7900gt compatibility thing sucks though.


thats what i am finding out, did you notice the same thing i mentioned above with your's as well?

looks to me that you have to add a shim around the GPU in order to not damage anything

[skane]

i dont have a 7900gt, only a 6800. no problems with the mounting frame touching anything here.

[nobody_here]

i am finding out that there was a square adhesive backed shim included with my V1 Ultra that i got second hand, that i need in order to make it work on the 7900gt.....i emailed Thermalright's sales dept to see if they can hook me up with an accessory pack for it instead of buying a new complete heatsink i dont need

[TehVince]

Hands down the V1 Ultra is the best cooler. I ran one on my 7800GT at 621MHz with 1.85v and my temperatures never broke 65 degrees. I did have a different fan on there, but I doubt you're trying to do anything that extreme and could use a nice silent 80mm fan. Currently I'm running two Accelero's on my 7900GT's. They fit, with alot of modding. I had to clip off a big chunk of aluminum and bend the heat pipes up. I don't think I lost much of it's cooling capacity by removing about four fins towards the end of the cooler. It still touches all the memory and does just fine at low fan speeds and noise. I'm still waiting for the new Riva Tuner to see what these things can do with 100% fan speed. Just keep in mind that if you buy the V1 you can forget SLi. In my opinion the best coolers for SLi are the Arctic Silencer's or the Accelero's followed up by the VF900 and VF700 if you have the room.

[tiborrr]

I would recommend Athlon64 box cooler and drills some mounting holes. I did the same with my air cooled GF 5900XT @ 590MHz core, 1.8V

[lawrywild]

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/4162/DSCF0040.jpg

VF900s FTW!

[Marlowe]

http://home.no/oomg/gfx.JPG

7000Cu FTW! :p:

[nobody_here]

http://home.no/oomg/gfx.JPG

7000Cu FTW! :p:

holy christ in a bottle!

what did you use to mount that son of a mother?

i have that on my CPU!

too bad there is absolutely no room for that with my sound card installed

[cromwello]

bit overkill isnt it? i have yet to find a cooler which cools any better than my stock 7800gtx cooler and is worth 30pound.( i have the big 4 heatpipe cooler on my 256gtx)

[Marlowe]

holy christ in a bottle!

what did you use to mount that son of a mother?

i have that on my CPU!

too bad there is absolutely no room for that with my sound card installedIf you look closely you can see the plastic strips / zip ties or what you will call them. It's a proven technique that works well on most graphic cards and heat sinks. :)

Sorry for the extremely slow loading of the picture.. :(

[skane]

bit overkill isnt it? i have yet to find a cooler which cools any better than my stock 7800gtx cooler and is worth 30pound.( i have the big 4 heatpipe cooler on my 256gtx)

that cooler is pretty much the only exception where stock cooling is actually any good.

[cromwello]

7800gtx overclocked at 550/1.42ghz does not break 51degrees after 10 loops of 3dmark 05gfx tests.there has to be osme guys out there seeling these coolers if they have water cooled there 7800's.:):):):)

[higgins]

If you look closely you can see the plastic strips / zip ties or what you will call them. It's a proven technique that works well on most graphic cards and heat sinks. :)

Sorry for the extremely slow loading of the picture.. :(

nice one mate. :)

what temps are you getting?

[Marlowe]

nice one mate. :)

what temps are you getting?Thanks dude! :)

I just checked for your sake only ;) Card's running at 1,2V and 555/860 (about max clock). This is run in a closed case with no side ventilation. Ran for 40+ minutes, so air coming out of the case was pretty warm :) Fan was at lowest with fanmate - 1500 rpm. Sorry for the unarranged pic, I didn't plan a screenshot when I started and didn't want to interrupt it :) Idle is about 37.

[higgins]

Thanks dude! :)

I just checked for your sake only ;) Card's running at 1,2V and 555/860 (about max clock). This is run in a closed case with no side ventilation. Ran for 40+ minutes, so air coming out of the case was pretty warm :) Fan was at lowest with fanmate - 1500 rpm. Sorry for the unarranged pic, I didn't plan a screenshot when I started and didn't want to interrupt it :) Idle is about 37.

Thanks for the pics and temps. :) That's really nice. I've got a XFX 7900GT 520/1500 on it's way and looking for the best cooling solution.
I've seen ppl with 7000's on the GFX before, but only the AL-CU. Think i'll give the CU a try.. :)

[Marlowe]

Thanks for the pics and temps. :) That's really nice. I've got a XFX 7900GT 520/1500 on it's way and looking for the best cooling solution.
I've seen ppl with 7000's on the GFX before, but only the AL-CU. Think i'll give the CU a try.. :)Hehe you should know it's not a very kind thing to do to your card :D I've tightened the strips so firm the board is not exactly flat any more ;) And I have to pull the card hard up with the pci-e power cable to keep the fan from hitting the lower pci-e slot :D 700+ grams is pretty heavy you know :cool:

[vegabros]

So what temps can I expect running a evga 7900GT non-oc'd using a VF700 or VF900?

- Leo

[±Pink=FloYd±]

So what temps can I expect running a evga 7900GT non-oc'd using a VF700 or VF900?

- Leo
i would say high 30's on idle and low to mid 40's on a load.

[greatscott68]

Last week it was proven in tests:

1st Accelo (Suprised me)
2nd Zalman V900
3rd NV Silencer5 rev3 (2c diff from V900)

Now I know they dont fit your 7900GT but I do have one on my 7900GT AGP as its custom made for Gainward, cools core,ram and HSI Bridge Chip.

Off topic, but I had to RMA an AC Silencer, and they sent me an Accelero as a replacement. Nice move on their part - but the cooler isn't up to snuff with the existing silencer I have. A pair of 7800GTs in SLI, with the silencer on the top, and the Accelero on the bottom (needs to breathe) - and the Silencer is still 4 degrees better load/idle. I originally had the Accelero in the top position - and it ran 8-9 degrees hotter than the silencer. Both have AS5, in a MM Twice7 with the window missing (don't ask...)

Bottom line - I'd take my silencer in a heartbeat over the Accelero. Okay, I'm done hijacking the topic - carry on :D

[nobody_here]

i would say high 30's on idle and low to mid 40's on a load.

so 38 idle and 42-45 load? no, not likely, not gonna happen with a Zalman, unless it is not properly loaded that is


it's gonna warm up more than a few degrees at load man, that kind of delta is only seen with H2O.....the VF900 will do better than the VF700, but either is probably going to have you idling in the high 30's and loading in the mid-to-upper 60's without any overclocking or voltmodding
i managed to get my Thermalright V1 Ultra on my 7900GT CO SC

stock cooling with 1.5v mod and 700/1800 clocks, idle was 45*c or so, but load would hit 95*c running 3DMark 06, obviously the stock cooling was only meant to handle the 550/1580 clocks with 1.2v, so that was to be expected

after V1 Ultra results:

idle at 38*c, loads at 55-60*c depending on what is used to load it, rthdribl for 30 minutes staright at 1280x960 maxed out sees 55*c max, 3DMark 06 sees about 60*c max

[vegabros]

I just got my evga 7900GT KO edition and here are the stats:

3DMark05 - 8464
3DMark06 - 4812

---- Temps using SysTool (not sure if there is a better app..) ----

EVGA 7900GT KO (stock, not overclocked)
--------------
Idle: 52C
Load: 68C (Ran the Realtime HDR Lighting demo for 15min)

AMD Athlong 64 3500+ (not overclocked) w/ Zalman 9500 set to 1400rpm (dead silent)
------------------------------------------------------
Idle: 38C
Load: 48C (Ran the Realtime HDR Lighting demo for 15min)

PC Case: Gigabyte Aurora 3D (very nice case, I left the fans it came with... very silent)

Literally, my PC is very silent, so I can imagine how it will be if I add a Zalman VF900 to that 7900GT. If it can drop it to ~40C idle and ~55C load, I will be very happy. I'm waiting for the VF900 LED :D

I am making a HTPC which I will use water cooling. Since the case will be small, I don't feel comfortable letting all that heat build up. It's going to be a HTPC with gaming in mind.

EDIT: How do you check your temps while running 3DMark? Since it goes into full mode, how can you see the temps? If you are checking them right after you get your score, then you are getting a "cooler" temp than the actual load temp.

[skane]

i got a little idea about the v1. stock, the fan is blowing the air away from the rear exhaust fan, onto the card. doenst the warm air heat up the backside of the card a bit? and its blowing air away from the rear exhaust fan. now if you flip it, it would push air to the exhaust, cooperating with it instead of against it, and would help airflow a bit because its pulling fresh air from the underside of the case and card.

does that make sense, or is it a stupid thought?

[nobody_here]

EDIT: How do you check your temps while running 3DMark? Since it goes into full mode, how can you see the temps? If you are checking them right after you get your score, then you are getting a "cooler" temp than the actual load temp.

download Rivatuner RC16, it has a hardware monitor module, open it and click the red button at the bottom to enable background monitoring, then start 3DMark 06 and after it runs you can go back and see what it actually was running, because i can tell you, rthdribl does not stress your card as much as a few looped runs of 3DMark 06, i dont know why, with my 7800GT i could achieve max load temp with rthdribl, but with the 7900GT it's different


i got a little idea about the v1. stock, the fan is blowing the air away from the rear exhaust fan, onto the card. doenst the warm air heat up the backside of the card a bit? and its blowing air away from the rear exhaust fan. now if you flip it, it would push air to the exhaust, cooperating with it instead of against it, and would help airflow a bit because its pulling fresh air from the underside of the case and card.

does that make sense, or is it a stupid thought?

yep, i turned my fan over so it sucks the heat away from the card, blows it directly up into the exhast fans at the back of the case, also added a standard 80x25mm fan to the face of the heatsink under the card

the stock screws that held the original fan on at the top will not work once you turn it over, you will need to get longer screws

[skane]

i already added a nexus 80mm to the bottom, and it helped a lot instability because the voltage regulator now has good cooling.

[vegabros]

Does rivatuner log your temps? SysTool does background monitoring, but doesnt log it.

[Marlowe]

Does rivatuner log your temps? SysTool does background monitoring, but doesnt log it.Lower the refresh rate of the SysTool graph and you will get the whole picture ;)

[mundi]

Have 7900GT,
before I have X800 serie with VF700-Cu, great cooler but
temperature in case go up
have a question will AC make some cooler as is NV 5 rev.3 this cooler what I hear can go on 7900GT but have some differents in coooling RAM, and Iam not sure that have 100 prct compatibility with 7900GT. On AC homepage see only accelerano S1, this or X1 I do want :nono: and too VF900 (price, system cooling).

Searching for cooler which make hot air outside from case, function as NV 5 rev.3
Have someone re.3 on 7900GT ? Can you make details photos to see cooling ram ??
Thanks

[mundi]

One user here in Czech Republic have 7900GT and NV AC NV5 rev.3
Pictures speakes for all:

http://img468.imageshack.us/img468/8098/13wa1.jpg
http://img468.imageshack.us/img468/6263/22xl1.jpg
http://img468.imageshack.us/img468/9803/38uv.jpg

[cromwello]

NVtemp loger is also good. you can also set an alarm on it so u know wen and for how long your card has exceeded a certain temp during the benchamrk.:)

[cling]

V1 ULTRA, 550/900, idle around 31-33, load at like 41-42.
One fan only...however, my scythe ninja scatters air all over all components, from DIMMs to GFX, so its all :banana: good

[mundi]

This is maybe a little out of stuff,
can someone post exact proportions of 7900GT and GTX
thanks

[MrSlacker]

Does anyone have a list of 7900GTs thats compatible with Accelero X1? I have EVGA 7900GT KO and wonna know if I can use it.

[ridikolous]

get the nv silencer 6 revision 2 fits perfectly

[mundi]

get the nv silencer 6 revision 2 fits perfectly
post pics, ram cooling ?? are full

[hkcadcam]

post pics, ram cooling ?? are full
NV 5 on 7900GT

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=1821700