How to make graphics cards run cooler and quieter. Part 2

[JezEngland]

Hello,



here's a link to part 1 of the project: http://forum.overclock3d.net/index.php?/topic/32974-cooler-quieter-with-reference-cooler/

I've added another fan. It's a Noctua NF P12. Quiet and effective reccomended by OC3D TTL and many

there's also an Antec fan holder from the Kuhler Flow CPU cooler and I did this

I sealed alot of gaps with cardbord and tape, securing the thing to the case

it works a treat. the fan is quiet and temps are lower

I'm using the simple cardboard mod now, just 2 strips between each cards heatsink and fan

first I tried Bad Company with all case fans at minimum speed, dual CPU fans at 50% and GTX 480 fans at 60%. The computer was very quiet and not heard in this game full of action. monitoring results are in this order: GPU temperature, fan speed %, GPU core clock frequency

then i sped up the main case intake fan to about 33%, slightly noisy that is almost eliminated with the case door shut

then i sed up the GTX 480 fans to 70% that I used for many tests in the other thread

this is the hottest i captured and i saw 1 degree higher

and Bulletstorm

these results are using quieter overall fan settings compared to the other thread. 2 days ago it was colder and parts of Bulletstorm ran under 60 degrees.

All game settings were maxed, maby Bulletstorm AA was at x4 and this is the Nvidia settings I use with nearly all games:

Apart from AA transparancy and pre-rendered frames everything is maxed

Looks like I can enjoy the quiet without the smell of hot silicone

I'll get Crysis 2 pics later

Thanks

 

[inesshell]

Jerome,

this fan setup is similar to the fan exhaust on the coolermaster atcs840 case that i have, Im interested to see if the two setups (yours directly pulling from the back while the cm case has a housing that blows air at and angle to the side). Since my setup is not in the atcs case anymore i cannot run tests to compare. Although i can modify the housing of exhaust to fir my new case. Ill think it over when i have some time available from work.

Clean work tho

 

[JezEngland]

This pic is from the other thread showing Bad Company 2 running at a standard, un-modded setup. It's alot hotter and louder and they were still increasing

The monitoring results are in this order: Temperature, GPU usage, fan speed, core clock, shader clock, memory clock, memory usage

My cards do have EVGA backplates and 1 card has the EVGA high flow bracket

 

[JezEngland]

Here I lowered the GTX 480 fans and the main case intake fan was about 10% and very quiet, the whole rig was very quiet. Raisin the intake fan didn't help after 10 minutes. PCB temp maxed at 69 degrees and I didn't smell hot chipboard compared to a standard setup would have my room stinking quite soon into gaming. The GTX 480 fan at 50%is very quiet and 55% is a pin drop louder in this ANTEC P183 case.

Monitoring results are in this order: GF100 temperature, fan speed %, fan speed rpm, GF100 core clock frequency

here the tank battle raised the temps

95/97 degrees on the GTX 480 GF 100 chip is reasonably safe as its recommended thermal limit is 105 degrees. The chip needs a vapour chamber cooler to do it proper justice, with the same heatsink because it's great. Marketing is a large player in these designs. The GTX 470 needs the 480 heatsink/cooler, like the GTX 570 has the same as the GTX 580. The GTX 580 has the vapour cooler and the GTX 580 GF 110 chips thermal limit is 97 degrees, it has slower, I think cheaper transistors that don't spill as much electricity compared to the GF100.

60% fan speed is what I'll generaly use in high performance games.

More to come with overclocking results, higher fan speeds and will the 1300rpm Noctua fan bottleneck the GTX 480 fans?

 

[JezEngland]

Crysis Warhead first 2 sections with AA x 4. GTX 480 overclocked to 800mhz and 1950mhz memory. Fan speeds 60% and 65%. Case main intake fan speed about 25% and overall system noise quite quiet.

Monitoring results are in this order: GF100 temperature, fan speed %, fan speed rpm, GF100 core clock frequency, memory frequency

Here I tried voltage at 1025mV:

Here I raised the voltage to 1063mV because this part of the game is very demaniding and it crashed at 1023mV. It is the beach resort section wich TTL uses for the test review videos on TTLCustoms OC3D.NET Youtube channel.

Here was a different run through this section with 61% fan speed

Here 1 card reached the recommended thermal limit and the driver raised its fan speed though the rpm didn't speed up

and like 2 above it's when I destroyed the tank and I got a wiff of hot PCB

65% fan speed is a good one

 

[JezEngland]

Because I get good temps with low GTX 480 fan speed I don't need the powerful case intake Silverstone fan with controller wich can be loud so I've put a Noctua NF-S12B FLX instead. Quiet and effective

left: Noctua fan ______________________________ Right: Silverstone fan

I asked Noctua for wich 120mm fan should I use to draw the air from the cards like shown at the top of this thread and Noctua said the fan I've used, NF P12 is best and the NF-S12B has a good static flow when used at max speed so also would be quite effective

 

[SnW]

Yea.

i think i might make something like that as i like it...

 

[JezEngland]

Yea.

i think i might make something like that as i like it...

Antec has a spares order section on their website. They sent me bolts for free. You could try to get the fan holder i use, or 2 if your using all those cards in 1 rig

 

[JezEngland]

This rig is kinda very quiet now

Monitoring results are in this order: GF100 temperature, fan speed %, fan speed rpm, GF100 core clock frequency, memory frequency

Sniper Ghost Warrior

Lost Planet 2

Crysis 2

 

[JezEngland]

More Crysis 2 Intant Action Multiplay results.

With this 1st picture here, I didn't use a custom fan speed. The max temps were 85 degrees C on each GF100 and 62% fan speed.

This picture I set the fans to 61% before launching the game. Max temps were 84 degrees C.

With the custom fan setting the GF100's took a few rounds longer to reach peak temperature and that'd be because of the constant fan speed and card/complete unit is cooler overall.

The temps dropped between rounds when at the lobby, so did the standard fan setting speed and with custom fan setting the peak temperatures were reached near the end of each round compared to quite quickly with the standard setting.

Little difference.

A big difference compared to the picture on the previouse post where the fan speeds are 65% with 84 and 86 degrees C. The game files has been updated since that result so I guess optimisation made them run cooler. Nvidia hasn't released an official driver for this game. I'm using EVGA's SLI patch. I've read Nvidias patch doesn't work for many models, the one that was released during Crysis 2 demo

 

[JezEngland]

I've tested with fan speed at 70% in Bad Company 2, like I did in the Part 1 thread. The results are good.

Here I removed case intake dust filters to give the best possible air flow from the new Noctua fan wich was alot quieter than the previouse Silverstone fan I used at a medium speed for the Part 1 thread tests.

Then I put the dust filters to use. That restricted the air flow and the temps rose to similar temp I got on this level in the Part 1 thread results. The 70% GTX 480 fan speed needed more air. The case intake fan setup directly feeds the 1st card and 70% fan speed on the 1st card runs faster. I will tweek the mods.

Bad Company 2 has some problems with Anti Aliasing Transparancy ON in Nvidias Control Pannel and I did this test without it. It might want more voltage

I don't know if the 1300RPM Noctua fan I taped to the back of the case will bottleneck the GTX 480 fans at a higher speed. It does work well with them at 70%

 

[DT-525]

It's funny how you could boil water on that card. Is the fan making that much of a difference for you. The screen shots show a big drop.

 

[marsey99]

Push pull on gpu for the win

You should come and bench those on hwbot mate and get the team some points

 

[JezEngland]

these cards I've had aout 850mhz core, any more they crash. I think it's a mix of Voltage and other components on the card. I'd have to alter the BIOS to get more Volts and mhz and that'd damage the other components. I need these for gaming. If I could afford the electricity I'd have another rig for F@H

 

[JezEngland]

It's funny how you could boil water on that card. Is the fan making that much of a difference for you. The screen shots show a big drop.

Yes it is a good improvement all round. Acousticaly and temperatures is the best part. I am confident the other GTX 480 components don't get too hot now. The whole system is alot cooler. When gaming I've opened the case and it isn't hot

It was like opening a hot oven before, now it's a cool breeze from the fans

 

[JezEngland]

Cooler it is

I've moved the Noctua NF S12B FLX intake fan to the PSU supplier. It wasn't giving enough air to the GTX 480's with the dust filter in place. I've got a different fan for the Gpu supplier.

It's a silenx IXTREMA 120x38. I have it set to 80% and it's very good. Its max speed is 1400RPM with 18dBA. At 80% it's quiet in this ANTEC P183 case.

This is it:

I done some other mods to make the air flow better:

I use a BeQuiet 92mm fan to draw air away from the GTX 480 hatsink surfaces and heatpipes.

In earlier tests the unused PCI expansion slots wern't sealed. Now it's sealed the Noctua NF P12 works better at pulling air from the cards

At that end of the GTX 480 is a big hole leading to some capacitors and that must have restricted good air flow. Because the cards are very cool now these wont get very hot and dont need an intake fan directly blowing at them. I taped cardboard at an angle to close the hole a little wich allows the air flow to move round it, letting a little in too. I yet have to try without this mod to see if it's worth it.

Another mod I should do is with the EVGA backplates. Onm the GTX480 circuit board there's 2 holes at the fan area for air flow and that is restricted by the backplates with tiny holes in the plates. I should take the plates to the engineering shop to get some descent sized holes drilled.

The mods are a bit bodgy and when I'm cofident they're good enough I'll make better quality versions

Results are excellent. Here I use Anti Aliasing Transparancy set to multisampling

Monitoring results are in this order: GF100 temperature, fan speed, fan speed rpm, GF100 core clock frequency, memory frequency

59% fanspeed

54% fanspeed

50% fanspeed

45% fanspeed

The Noctua fan at the back is doing alot of work, very good.

For summer time I estimate up to 10 degrees hotter. It is sunny today and there's a cool breeze coming through the window

After a lie down with PC idling the 80% fan speed of the Silenx is a little noisy, I'll try 70% later

 

[JezEngland]

Jerome,

this fan setup is similar to the fan exhaust on the coolermaster atcs840 case that i have, Im interested to see if the two setups (yours directly pulling from the back while the cm case has a housing that blows air at and angle to the side). Since my setup is not in the atcs case anymore i cannot run tests to compare. Although i can modify the housing of exhaust to fir my new case. Ill think it over when i have some time available from work.

Clean work tho

OK thanks, I'm here alot to help if you need it

EDIT: I'll put pics here as and when

70% speed on the Silenx case intake fan

 

[JezEngland]

hi. has anyone done this and is it successful? it's great here, no problems? the warmer weather has made it less effective by ratio i think. are you interested in trying it?

thanks

 

[tonkin97]

old post i know but im doing this when im getting paid, i got a haf 922 case, going to mod the back for this, should keep my 6950 from getting hot nice one

 

[JezEngland]

gl. If you use gaffa tape get good stuff because what i used wasn't and i replaced it because it wasn't holding long. Scoth 3M tape should do