Thermalright T-rad2 GPU cooler reviewed!

[saaya]

wow! thats impressive!

how about a gtx280 or at least a 4870 though?

[hollo]

I remember someone 'gluing' his RAM sinks to the PCB with some nail polish and then he simply used normal TIM for the contact area with the chip. It helped quite a bit with lowering temperatures according to him. Although that was quite a while ago and I have no idea where I have to look up his posts.

i read that a drop of superglue on two sides of the ram-sink to hold it + a bit of TIM in the middle works great. i bet that almost any quantity of high grade TIM would be a fair bit better than thermal tape

this is the problem my friend. See marked picture. Seem like T-rad2 can cool down the GPU but not VRM.

for this VRM cooling problem - these experiments i did a while ago might be useful:

1st pic: a 92mm fan sitting on a plastic bottle cap on the back of the CPU socket of a socket 462 motherboard - a un-overclocked athlon 1400C with a decent 3rd party copper heatpipe cooler was used for the experiment (motherboard is upside down, the red PCB is the gfx card)

2nd pic: left speedfan graph shows the temperature when the CPU is ~30% load and the 92mm fan is turned on. 39->34.5, 4.5 degree drop
right speedfan graph shows the temperature when the CPU is running prime95 and the fan is turned on. 42->36, 6 degree drop
(the thermal sensor is in the CPU socket rather than on the CPU-die)

3rd pic: a socket 462 heatsink sitting in a pool of non-waterbased carpentry glue that's on the back of the CPU socket, with the accomanying graph showing the temperature drop
1st dip- when the heatsink is dropped onto the glue for the first time, with the fan disconnected (42.5->38.5, 4 degree drop)
2nd dip- when the fan on the heatsink is turned on (38.5->35.75, another 2.75 degree drop for a 6.75 degree drop, total)

so simply placing a fan on the back of the gfx card over the VRM should cause a pretty decent temperature drop - would you be able to try it and post the results if you have a spare fan lying around? you could just rest a 60 or 80mm fan on the back of the gfx card with something under each screw-hole to raise it off the PCB, stress the GPU for a few minutes to get the VRMs hot with the fan disconnected, then turn the fan on and see what it does

[Simsons2]

Your problem you dont use open-case variant like this




I'm using stock cooler for now. fan is @ 39%. You can see my max temps in attachment. Testing core @ 815 mhz / memory 4000 mhz

And i am getting T-RAD2.


Adding Second Attachment - Stability test with x8 MSAA , 100% fan speed. Burning card for 3 mins

[roofsniper]

how are your vrms so low?

[Simsons2]

How i alrdy said i think its because my pc is on my desk (open type)
My amb temp is ~23-25 here.

In 2-3 weeks i am getting T-Rad2 , + TaPaKaH is giving me Accelero S1
I'll write review T-Rad2 vs Accleero S1 vs Stock cooler

In open case variant of course. I am not using case almost for year

[mr2sw21]

i read that a drop of superglue on two sides of the ram-sink to hold it + a bit of TIM in the middle works great. i bet that almost any quantity of high grade TIM would be a fair bit better than thermal tapefor this VRM cooling problem - these experiments i did a while ago might be useful:

1st pic: a 92mm fan sitting on a plastic bottle cap on the back of the CPU socket of a socket 462 motherboard - a un-overclocked athlon 1400C with a decent 3rd party copper heatpipe cooler was used for the experiment (motherboard is upside down, the red PCB is the gfx card)

2nd pic: left speedfan graph shows the temperature when the CPU is ~30% load and the 92mm fan is turned on. 39->34.5, 4.5 degree drop
right speedfan graph shows the temperature when the CPU is running prime95 and the fan is turned on. 42->36, 6 degree drop
(the thermal sensor is in the CPU socket rather than on the CPU-die)

3rd pic: a socket 462 heatsink sitting in a pool of non-waterbased carpentry glue that's on the back of the CPU socket, with the accomanying graph showing the temperature drop
1st dip- when the heatsink is dropped onto the glue for the first time, with the fan disconnected (42.5->38.5, 4 degree drop)
2nd dip- when the fan on the heatsink is turned on (38.5->35.75, another 2.75 degree drop for a 6.75 degree drop, total)

so simply placing a fan on the back of the gfx card over the VRM should cause a pretty decent temperature drop - would you be able to try it and post the results if you have a spare fan lying around? you could just rest a 60 or 80mm fan on the back of the gfx card with something under each screw-hole to raise it off the PCB, stress the GPU for a few minutes to get the VRMs hot with the fan disconnected, then turn the fan on and see what it does

I tried to put a fan in front of the VRM and it does drop 3-6c right away. Here are some pic I got today. Room temp is about 20c same as I test before.
first pic PC with new fan
second pic idol notice VRM Temp drop about 3-6c from my previous day
Third pic full load (about 20mins) VRM Temp still 3-6c lower than my previous test
Same room temp about 20c

[mr2sw21]

I guess VDDC#1 is the VRM that closet to the fan that why it is the lowest. however all 3 of them drop a bit so I guess adding a fan helps a lot.

[roofsniper]

vddc 1 is always the lowest. i put a fan about 2 inches away from my vrms and they dropped a little but im still getting 61C idle and 100+ load. most likely gonna try to put the stock plate back on.