4870 vrm cooling

[roofsniper]

when i had my first card under water with mcw60 using stock plate i didnt have the fan plugged in, gpu was hitting 37c in cod4 and vrm was low 70's

with asus top bios and 815/925-850/1000clocks I leave the fans at about 30-45% depending on room temps I have never seen more than low 60's on vrms and usually in mid 50's, the fans are way quieter without the shrouds on the cards for whatever reason.

seems like you are getting really good results. i am going to remove all my ram sinks most likely this weekend and install the stock plate. just need to find an easy way to remove the sinks from the card. i have heard about putting it in the freezer for an hour then taking it out and either twisting the sinks or try to remove them with a razor blade and then clean it with acetone.

[Rattle]

seems like you are getting really good results. i am going to remove all my ram sinks most likely this weekend and install the stock plate. just need to find an easy way to remove the sinks from the card. i have heard about putting it in the freezer for an hour then taking it out and either twisting the sinks or try to remove them with a razor blade and then clean it with acetone.

yep there's a few peeps around here that had already done it with great results, and it works awesome.

[Guacamole]

You are awesome thank you..

[roofsniper]

so has anyone found out any new ways to cool the vrms on the 4870? im still having issues. kinda wishing i never got an aftermarket cooler.

[Reckless187]

I've just installed a Scythe Musashi and I'm using stick on copper heat sinks on the VRM's and memory. I'm getting around 35 – 37C idle on the GPU and the VRM's, which I'm assuming are labelled as VDDC Slaves in GPU-Z, are idling at around 49C and have gone up to about 80C after an hour of Far Cry 2.

I added a copper sink to the little black chip just above and to the left of the fan connector as it was labelled VTT so I assumed this was also a VRM? The thing ids though, after taking the stock cooler off, I noticed that the plate wasn't making much contact with the VRM's.

The card is really flimsy without the stock cooler on it and I may end up adding the red bracket from the stock cooler just to improve the rigidity of the card, this would mean removing the stick on copper ram sinks though.




Here's a shot of the fitted cooler.




Would the Copper Ram sinks off the 3870 cards fit on the 4870, eg would the screw holes line up? I know the top left ram position is slighty different between the two cards but I'm temted to buy a faulty 3870 off ebay just to salvage the copper ram sink.

[roofsniper]

what card is that? i wanted to get that scythe cooler but it came out just after the t-rad got out and i preordered that so it was too late. and no i alrdy tried getting the copper vrm sink off of my 3870 and putting it on my 4870 and the holes don't line up. theres a greater space between the holes on the 4870 probably cause it has more vrms. im gonna put the stock plate on my 4870 once i find a good way to remove the ram sinks i put on there with thermal tape. razor blade + alcohol isn't sounding too friendly.

[Rattle]

i been running x-fire for weeks overclocked without issues with the stock plate and mcw 60's and fans spinning 40%, its been nothing but smooth running still, vrm temps mid 60's highest usually

[Reckless187]

what card is that? i wanted to get that scythe cooler but it came out just after the t-rad got out and i preordered that so it was too late. and no i alrdy tried getting the copper vrm sink off of my 3870 and putting it on my 4870 and the holes don't line up. theres a greater space between the holes on the 4870 probably cause it has more vrms. im gonna put the stock plate on my 4870 once i find a good way to remove the ram sinks i put on there with thermal tape. razor blade + alcohol isn't sounding too friendly.

It's a Sapphire 4870 512MB version. Have you tried heating up the ram sinks slightly with a hairdryer maybe?

The Scythe fitment is a piece of crap in my opinion unless I'm doing something wrong. I used the copper spacer and even then with everything tightened down, the cooler twists really freely. I had to put some extra plastic/foam layers under the rear mounting bracket to get the thing tight. The rear mounting bracket has a hard rubber bung in the centre and this pushes down onto the rear of the card, onto the little chips that are located right behind the main gpu chip. Wish I taken some pic's of it now to explain better. Almost makes me wish I'd gone for the Thermalright T-Rad.

[roofsniper]

It's a Sapphire 4870 512MB version. Have you tried heating up the ram sinks slightly with a hairdryer maybe?

The Scythe fitment is a piece of crap in my opinion unless I'm doing something wrong. I used the copper spacer and even then with everything tightened down, the cooler twists really freely. I had to put some extra plastic/foam layers under the rear mounting bracket to get the thing tight. The rear mounting bracket has a hard rubber bung in the centre and this pushes down onto the rear of the card, onto the little chips that are located right behind the main gpu chip. Wish I taken some pic's of it now to explain better. Almost makes me wish I'd gone for the Thermalright T-Rad.

believe me the t-rad is no better. im very disapointed in it. with my t-rad it makes a loud vibrating noise heard above all my fans unless i put a spacer between the t-rad and the card(i used an eraser from a pencil lol). then like i have said i have had vrm troubles because the supplied sinks are horrible at cooling the vrms.

and wouldn't using a hair dryer make it harder to take off? doesn't thermal tape get more sticky with heat? i have heard that putting the card in the freezer for an hour then twisting is a good way to get them off. but i don't want to try that and then rip off the ram sinks because i believe the thermal tape on the supplied sinks is strong.

so i don't feel like pulling them off or cutting them off. lol i doubt theres any other choices for me so im gonna have to most likely pick one.

[Reckless187]

I thought that the hairdryer might have softened up the sticky pads on the sinks, the freezer trick sounds a bit scary though! Hope you get it sorted, just give em a bit of twist, clockwise and anti clockwise til they start loosening up, that might work although it may take some time.

First thing I done was order the copper sinks off ebay and they seem to be doing the job for me, I dont like the look of the aluminium sinks tbh.

I like the eraser idea, I may try that with the erasers scewered through the 4 locating screws (similar to the VF900 fitment) and remove the central one as I think all the pressure being situated at one point is a stupid idea. I have a Zalman VF900 on my 3870 and that is a way better fit.

[roofsniper]

at first i put an eraser between one of the vrm sinks and the t-rad because the vrm sinks weren't sticking. so i was gonna put them on and then load the card up so they heat and stick. then after i did that i took them off a week later and o noticed that it started making sounds and the only way to stop the sounds were to put the eraser back or turn the fans off........ i don't think im ever gonna get an aftermarket video card cooling solution again. my vf-900 on my 3870 worked out alright but barely. im most likely gonna razor blade the sinks off and put the stock plate back on someday. that seems to work fine but taking the sinks off is gonna be a pain in the ass so thats what is keeping me from doing it.

[demonkevy666]

I've just installed a Scythe Musashi and I'm using stick on copper heat sinks on the VRM's and memory. I'm getting around 35 – 37C idle on the GPU and the VRM's, which I'm assuming are labelled as VDDC Slaves in GPU-Z, are idling at around 49C and have gone up to about 80C after an hour of Far Cry 2.

I added a copper sink to the little black chip just above and to the left of the fan connector as it was labelled VTT so I assumed this was also a VRM? The thing ids though, after taking the stock cooler off, I noticed that the plate wasn't making much contact with the VRM's.

The card is really flimsy without the stock cooler on it and I may end up adding the red bracket from the stock cooler just to improve the rigidity of the card, this would mean removing the stick on copper ram sinks though.




Here's a shot of the fitted cooler.




Would the Copper Ram sinks off the 3870 cards fit on the 4870, eg would the screw holes line up? I know the top left ram position is slighty different between the two cards but I'm temted to buy a faulty 3870 off ebay just to salvage the copper ram sink.

it look like you can unscrew off those things on the heat pipes ?

[sf rich]

Not sure where Roof is at now -- did you solve your problems? If so, how?

BTW I installed the T-Rad2 on my Asus EAHD 4870 today. Used the little alum heat sinks they provided, and 2x92MM Nexus Real Silent Case fans.

The whole thing seems to be working just fine. Temps on the GPU are down 15C or so (to about 50c), and temps on the VRMs are up a bit (to mid 70s) but just fine. All numbers under load. I'm a little sad the VRM temps are as high as they are, but they are not a problem.

System details below:

cpu - intel q9550 @3.4GHz, 1.14375 volts (yes really)
motherboard - asus p5q deluxe, 1201 BIOS
memory - corsair dominator pc8500 (2x2gb)
cooler - thermalright ultra 120 extreme - not yet lapped
fans - scythe slipstream 120mm
graphics - asus radeon 4870 512MB w/ ThermalRight T-Rad2 cooler, 2x92MM Nexus Real Silent fans
power - corsair CMPSU-650TX
case - antec p182 with Kaze Master fan controller
hdd - Western Digital SE16 500GB
os - Win XP Pro SP2

[roofsniper]

i haven't done anything to my card yet but im getting around 60C idle on vrms and it gets worse on load. lost planet knocks it up to around 115C while grid only hits it up to around 105C. im pretty sure i got a perfect fit on my sinks but idk how ur vrms are getting much lower than me as i am getting 40C on gpu idle and 50C on gpu load. once i feel like ripping off the heatsinks ill put the stock plate on. right now im kinda annoyed with the fact that my card is making a loud vibrating noise that can be heard over all the fans unless i put a spacer to make it so the t-rad can't move.

[SoulsCollective]

Just watercool the sucker

Seriously though, I'm not sure what your clearance is like but have you thought about using some of these for VRM cooling? As for the rattling, have you thought about grabbing the stock tension backmount and using that to help secure the cooler? You might have to re-thread it, but it should prove a much more secure hold.

[Reckless187]

These are my temps after half an hour of net browsing, I've slightly clocked the card as well now.



The VRM temps shoot up to about 80C after an hour of Far Cry.

it look like you can unscrew off those things on the heat pipes ?

lol, yeah it looks like it does. I wonder if I can replace the internal liquid in the heatpipes with Vodka, would that do a better job of dissipating heat? :p

Just watercool the sucker

Seriously though, I'm not sure what your clearance is like but have you thought about using some of these for VRM cooling? As for the rattling, have you thought about grabbing the stock tension backmount and using that to help secure the cooler? You might have to re-thread it, but it should prove a much more secure hold.

Swiftech do a set like those, I was going to buy a set as I think the tall stem things would slot in-between the fins of the cooler nicely.

[roofsniper]

Just watercool the sucker

Seriously though, I'm not sure what your clearance is like but have you thought about using some of these for VRM cooling? As for the rattling, have you thought about grabbing the stock tension backmount and using that to help secure the cooler? You might have to re-thread it, but it should prove a much more secure hold.

if the stock plate doesn't work i might look into getting some of the ram sinks. and as far as the vibrating goes im not 100% sure wats causing it but i know that once i removed the eraser the vibrating started happening. heres a picture of it with the eraser under the vrm sink.

[Reckless187]

Lapped my TRUE yesterday as I'm getting cack temps and still am after lapping, thought I'd refit the GPU cooler at the same time and I noticed that the VRM sinks were a bit loose, basically, the glue stuff had started to melt off the VRM so stick on heatsinks are basically a waste of time in the long run, I'm gonna order some bolt on ones I seen somewhere on this forum. I also modded the retention bracket of the cooler with chunks of eraser to create a tighter fit as the normal fitting system is crap as the cooler slides around. Here's a pic.



Fits alot tighter now without any play!!!

*EDIT* The erasers disintegrated so I've put some nuts in there instead with a bit of electricions tape for insulation.

[roofsniper]

http://www.petrastechshop.com/cuhdcokitbyi.html you mean these? you might want to try the stock plate for something else first. i personally wouldn't shell out $40 for some sinks that would most likely require direct airflow.

[Reckless187]

Good point, I was thinking the same thing after posting, thing is though, with the stock plate, the VRM's were idling at 79C and with the stick on copper sinks they VRM's are at about 50-55C. Not sure what to do, bit skint so may just use the stock plate, maybe the new cooler will do a better job of colling the VR's with the stock plate. I'll give it a go on Monday and post back the results

[roofsniper]

with the stock plate on mine the temperatures were the exact same as with the t-rad. thats what makes me believe something is not working correctly or i guess its just a fluke. but because the t-rad provides airflow across the entire card and the stock plate is a heat spreader i think it should work but its not gonna give you any crazy good temperatures. but that doesn't matter to me because right now i really can't play any games or do anything that takes a high gpu load.

[Reckless187]

Did you get the ram sinks off? What problems are you having at the moment? Just the high VRM temps?

My VRM temps have gone all the way up to 109C playing Stalker at 1680 x 1050 res with max settings, AA and AF at about 2x or 4x. Gonna give the stock plate a go anyway.

[roofsniper]

i have ram sinks on it right now but someday ill put the stock plate back on. i don't think my ram sinks have a good fit or something. because idle at 60C is pathetic. in lost planet i have had it gone up to 115C then i quit it and in GRID it goes up around 105C. was going up to around 115C there too until i turned v sync on. only game i don't have overheating problems on is warcraft 3 but in that game i get 0% cpu usage with occasional 1% usage so its not like that can count. and yea vrm temps are my only issue. ram idles at 50 gpu idles at 40. ram loads at 60 and gpu loads at 50. vrms idle at 60 and load at 100+.

[Reckless187]

Playing Crysis Warhead on Gamer setting at 1920 x 1200 resolution and my VRM's shoot up to 115C and I get artifacting and graphical corruption, on Enthusiast settting, the game locks up after about 5 minutes!!!!! Far Cry 2 crashes as soon as the game loads. Gonna fit the stock plate tomorrow'

[Reckless187]

Here's a shot of the temps without the stock plate, with the copper ram sinks on and the GPU at stock speed. VRM temps are 55C and up but when I first fitted the cooler and copper sinks, the temps were in the mid 40C range.



Below are the temps with the stock plate on and the GPU slightly oc'd. VRM temps are back to the mid 40C's again



Yesterday, when I tried out Crysis at 1920 x 1200 resolution, the VRM's would hit about 115C in a few minutes and then crash, with the stock plate on the VRM temps got to about 67V and the game crashed so I think it may be something other than the VRM temps causing the crash.

*Edit* Everest shows a lower VRM temp than GPU-Z. Everest shows the temps at 83C whereas GPU-Z shows temps hitting 115C so no difference there. Looks like Iandh's sinks may be the only answer here.