Water cooling a gpu

[Scarey]

Am I missing something...?

Apart from the enthusiast/interest side, what's the point of water cooling a gpu? As I see it, you need to buy a reference card to make finding a water block easier, yet reference cards have no/little voltage control that a card such as an MSI lightning has & thus overclocking potential. So, why do it?

 

[S_I_N]

keep it cooler for better overclocking removes most if not all the heat normal gpu's can dump in a case. Not to mention my favorite reason to water cool ITS JUST PLAIN FUN AND LOOKS SUPER COOL!!!!!

While ref cards are easier normally to get blocks for they are starting to hit the non refs as well

 

[Briggsy]

Can anyone tell me if the Sapphire 7970 OC version is a reference card?

Thanks

 

[yassarikhan786]

Can anyone tell me if the Sapphire 7970 OC version is a reference card?

Thanks

No dude it's not reference.

 

[Briggsy]

Sorry for the noob question but how do you tell the difference?

 

[S_I_N]

reference designs are normally the blower style fans on them anything with a twin fan or fan moved to middle of hs is normally a non reference design. Give it a few weeks mate they may make non ref water blocks.

 

[Scarey]

But when is the heat the limit to overclock the gpu? Surely it's usually the voltage/silicon. Looks I understand, but performance seems to be the realm of the Lightning/SOC type of cards. Do they have waterblocks available?

 

[Briggsy]

reference designs are normally the blower style fans on them anything with a twin fan or fan moved to middle of hs is normally a non reference design. Give it a few weeks mate they may make non ref water blocks.

Thanks S_I_N

 

[S_I_N]

I would think in the coming weeks to months they should be available. Its not like the gpu manufacturers send each and every design they make to the water block companies and say her make a block. The block makers have to rely alot on stock photos and reviews to try and come up with something. Now the reference designs are more profitable for them to make as they can get one easily enough and make 1 block fit all. Non ref's are harder cause each has this or that little change that makes it nigh impossible to offer complete coverage. I had to wait like 5 months for my non ref 570 to get a block and that came about because it was able to fit not only 1.2 and 2.5Gb versions of the non ref but the 560Ti's as well. So it made since for them to make a block for it. Single block multiple card coverage vs single block single card coverage.

 

[Firat]

But when is the heat the limit to overclock the gpu? Surely it's usually the voltage/silicon. Looks I understand, but performance seems to be the realm of the Lightning/SOC type of cards. Do they have waterblocks available?

I have a non reference 570 that I recently put a block on, overclocked it used to go up to 80c with a 3fan cooler

after I put the block on temps now are 40c = amazing, with reference coolers worse temps would be higher. Water cooling reference GPU that can get VERY hot (I've seen 99c) water cooling will drastically reduce temps. A cooler component is a happy component, a happy component will last much longer then it would if it were sweating!

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

Well if you were like me who was dumb enough to get a 6990, you had no choice. At stock clocks here in Phoenix AZ summer, idle temps were 70c+ and load frequently hit 100c+ even with 100% fan.

 

[Master&Puppet]

As I see it, you need to buy a reference card to make finding a water block easier, yet reference cards have no/little voltage control...

Actually reference designs are the original cards which have tweakable pcbs. I think what you might be referring to is the overclocking software which comes with reference cards to tune the cards further? For a reference card all you need is MSI afterburner and you can OC and OV to your heart's content.

But when is the heat the limit to overclock the gpu? Surely it's usually the voltage/silicon.

Overclocking with Overvolting will very easily reach the thermal threshold limits just the same as a cpu OC.

 

[Vicey]

Am I missing something...?

Apart from the enthusiast/interest side, what's the point of water cooling a gpu? As I see it, you need to buy a reference card to make finding a water block easier, yet reference cards have no/little voltage control that a card such as an MSI lightning has & thus overclocking potential. So, why do it?

Although it is true that some reference cards don't have much voltage control you don't always need that to OC a card to good clocks and there are a few cards now that will allow you to adjust the voltage slightly and often that is all you need to get a decent overclock.

But that is not to say there aren't non-reference cards with water blocks available or even pre-fitted from the manufacturer because there are. an EK representative on another forum I visit confirmed (and showed detailed blueprint specs) of a block that they intend to release for the forthcoming 4GB version of the GTX 480 which would have increased voltage control and an 8 Pin + 6 Pin configuration. This is a non-reference designed card not an official NVIDIA one. I've seen Koolance and EK release blocks for 3GB GTX 580's in the past that featured bumped up PWM designs etc

For me personally I water cool my graphics cards for silence. That to me is the most important thing. Whenever I buy a graphics card I always buy the fastest out at that very moment and every time I have done so I've been lumbered with an extremely power hungry card that sounds like a Dyson. I don't own a GTX 680 but it would appear based on reviews this is the first high end card in a long time to not suffer the deafening roar of a helicopter when used. All the high end cards I've owned however have been really loud and it has always been the #1 reason I've water cooled them up to this point.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

EK makes waterblocks for the msi lightning series.

So does Bitspower

Example (http://www.bitspower.com.tw/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6_20&products_id=2562)