Aftermarket gpu coolers yay or nay

[Rob_the_scot]

I was wondering if GPU after market cooler are worth the money? Iv got a xfx 6850 none oc version and thought about buying a Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo Pro since there pretty cheep....just need to kno if you guys would recommend them?

I just bought a cheap Matx case to replace my lian li itx test bench as I got fed up of dust build up plus I wanted summit different looking, the matx case cooling consist of only 1 x 120mm intake and 1 rear 92mm and the side panel has venting plus the psu is top mounted oh and the 120mm front intake fan is not blocked by a hd cage.

I thought a gpu after market cooler would help with air flow/cooling

*I replaced both fans with noctuas I also replaced the spare pci brackets with ones with air vents, if it counts my psu is a high quality moduler psu with a 140mm intake fan and my actual pc system only consist of

i5 2500 (none k)stock cpu cooler (will be replaced)

1 ssd

1 dvd drive

6850

 

[Diablo]

All depends on how cheap the cooler is. Apparently Arctic Cooling products are horrible to fit and the Accelero Twin Turbo wasn't rated as the best, but it will beat stock performance. I have an aftermarket cooler (a Zalman one) on my 280GTX, and that is much quieter and cooler so I guess that's a plus.

just make sure that the card you have is a reference design.

 

[I Hunta x]

I had the original version of the Twin turbo on my 8800gt and it was pretty damn good, no noise difference till around the 75% mark and even at 100% fan speed i never noticed it over the static air pressure noise of the rest of my system.

On auto fan it never went over 30% (base) and it had a load temp of around 62-63c with a half decent overclock during furmark and a load temp over 55c in games, with it locked to 60% fan speed the furmark temp hung around 50c and gaming temps in the 45c range, stock cooler hung around the 80-85c mark during gaming non overclocked if i remember right.

My current 5870 has the Geiled icy vision on it and thats also a fairly nice cooler, on auto fan it gets up to around 23% fan speed (20% base) and temps get up to the low 60s during furmark and low 50s during games.

Ive not realy messed with the fan speeds much but when i was testing it i didnt realy notice any noise increase when i was locking the fans at the 40-50% mark, didnt test how much of a temp difference it made either tho.

The geiled icy vision cooler is something like £30-35 from most places (scan is £29 i think) so slightly cheaper than the artic cooling cooler if i remember the prices right from when i last checked, and the cooler has a huge compatibility list.

Both would be a great choice realy it just depends on what you prefer the look of realy, both are 3 slot once fitted to the card so thats also something to bare in mind.

 

[Rob_the_scot]

cheers for the info...@I Hunta X Im gonna go with the geiled icy vision cooler looks nicer and better priced

 

[GuyIncognito]

I just bought a cheap Matx case to replace my lian li itx test bench as I got fed up of dust build up plus I wanted summit different looking, the matx case cooling consist of only 1 x 120mm intake and 1 rear 92mm and the side panel has venting plus the psu is top mounted oh and the 120mm front intake fan is not blocked by a hd cage.

I thought a gpu after market cooler would help with air flow/cooling

You have a small case: a non-stock cooler will make matters worse since it blows hot air into the case. I even had a 5850 card that had a cooler which blew a lot of hot air towards the front of the case. I would prefer the standard coolers that blow air out the back, especially if I was using a small chassis or had an sli/crossfire setup.

 

[Rob_the_scot]

You have a small case: a non-stock cooler will make matters worse since it blows hot air into the case. I even had a 5850 card that had a cooler which blew a lot of hot air towards the front of the case. I would prefer the standard coolers that blow air out the back, especially if I was using a small chassis or had an sli/crossfire setup.

Ah I see Ill just leave it than cheers for the heads up

 

[Ofan]

My experience with aftermarket coolers is good.The accelero xtreme i had for my 5970 was bloody amazing, it was so quiet and even did a pretty decent job on the notoriusly hot vrm's i could crank that sucker up to 1000 on each core quite comfortably. As long as you have a case with good air flow to get some cool air in/pull warm air out, its a winner. can you cut a vent hole in you case?

 

[killablade]

I had a Zalman VF3000F on my Asus GTX470, and it was bloody brilliant. Kept it very cool and allowed a much higher overclock, while still being a lot quieter.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Upgrading to an a Arctic Cooling heatsink is barely worth the time or money. Get a Zalman, they're what a heatsink should be. Also, for how much performance you'll get with the cooler upgrade, is there really any point with a 6850? Seems like a slightly limp card to spend extra on.