The value in watercooling a gpu?

[Defy Belief]

So I'm building a custom loop for my next build, I have a 240 and a 280 radiator with a D5 pump/res.

I got this all pretty cheap off the MM and the total cost of all the bits including fittings isn't far off a very good aio but will obviously be better performance wise.

Now I'm coming to a decision for the graphics card, at the moment I'm looking at the anniversary edition 5700xt for £320, plus a b grade waterblock on ocuk for about 75. So just shy of 400 in total.

But you can get a nitro for that cost, or a mech for 50 less, 60 less for the powercolor one but don't think the coolers are great on the latter two models.

I essentially want something that will run reasonably quiet (not silent, performance over a little noise) with good boost clocks.

I've never installed a gpu block before but unsure on the warranty situation with the 50th anniversary card if I remove it to fit a block.

There is potential that the blower alone might be okay when undervolted but I've not had a blower since a little 970 so any thoughts on the would be helpful too

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

Some manufacturers the block
Doesn't void the warranty
As long as you don't cause the damage fitting the block
Forget which manufacturer I saw
Saying it though
And personally I wouldn't buy a card
Then have to undervolt it

 

[Defy Belief]

I know evga don't care, not sure who else, but then it's more 2070 super territory for similar performance which is considerably more.

This is an AMD card, not a vendor like sapphire etc so unsure on there stance

 

[Poneros]

As for warranty it's simple: never admit anything except normal use.

 

[Defy Belief]

As for warranty it's simple: never admit anything except normal use.

Going by that video it's a bit of a let down as it doesn't really gain much more performance at all, the nitro can boost to 2010mhz too

 

[LePhuronn]

There is no value in watercooling. You spend a boat load of money on something that chunky air coolers can do for less money. But that's not the point. Watercooling is about aesthetics and the potential of wringing the last drops of performance out of your hardware, as well as the potential of greater thermal dissipation. That's why it's done.

Ultimately if you're thinking "this GPU and block costs more than the higher tier card alone" then watercooling isn't for you.

 

[FlyingScotsman]

I have always watercooled my cards, its about lower thermals and noise and like Lephuronn says that extra bit of headroom you might get with a cooler card.
My 1080ti is cooled and runs sweet @2025 on the core never goes above 45 Deg C and is silent.

 

[Troezar]

It makes sense on the top end cards, not so much on the midrange down.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

There is no value in watercooling. You spend a boat load of money on something that chunky air coolers can do for less money. But that's not the point. Watercooling is about aesthetics and the potential of wringing the last drops of performance out of your hardware, as well as the potential of greater thermal dissipation. That's why it's done.

Ultimately if you're thinking "this GPU and block costs more than the higher tier card alone" then watercooling isn't for you.

Tldr water cooling is not for poor people.

 

[Troezar]

Tldr water cooling is not for poor people.

Definitely not if the block would buy you the next tier up. A 2080 makes a lot more sense than a watercooled 2070 for instance.

 

[Minstadave]

Now overclocking is pretty locked down with power and voltage limits watercooling offers little performance benefits.

Chunky coolers like the Morpheus II offer all the cooling performance and silence you need, they just look ugly and take up a lot of space.

 

[Troezar]

Now overclocking is pretty locked down with power and voltage limits watercooling offers little performance benefits.

Chunky coolers like the Morpheus II offer all the cooling performance and silence you need, they just look ugly and take up a lot of space.

Yes the reason I prefer not to air cool my CPU, a lot more space to work in.

 

[Rroff]

With older nVidia cards and AMD cards there is a bit of mileage to get from watercooling but Pascal onwards with the way they boost you don't really gain much (short of some extensive firmware modification).

 

[Grim5]

There is no value in watercooling. You spend a boat load of money on something that chunky air coolers can do for less money. But that's not the point. Watercooling is about aesthetics and the potential of wringing the last drops of performance out of your hardware, as well as the potential of greater thermal dissipation. That's why it's done.

Ultimately if you're thinking "this GPU and block costs more than the higher tier card alone" then watercooling isn't for you.

This is correct. The value is long gone in overclocking. There is no value in overclocking CPU or GPU - it's expensive, it raises your power bill in an inefficient manner and the performance gains are small. It's only done because it makes your look a lot nicer, drops temps of the components and because you want to have the absolute best performance and cost is not a factor.

 

[Van_Dammesque]

With older nVidia cards and AMD cards there is a bit of mileage to get from watercooling but Pascal onwards with the way they boost you don't really gain much (short of some extensive firmware modification).

Yep, I always (or tried) to buy the next level down from the top spec, watercool it and get top spec after OC'ing it with little noise for the trouble. I haven't gone back since for about 18 years, maybe I'll break the habit of watercooling but it just is an ego/cool thing to show/tell!

A custom loop is better than an AIO as the nest upgrade only requires a new block!

 

[layte]

With older nVidia cards and AMD cards there is a bit of mileage to get from watercooling but Pascal onwards with the way they boost you don't really gain much (short of some extensive firmware modification).

I miss the good old days before power limits. I had a pair of watercooled Nvidia 480s (the ol' George Forman specials). Under water they were proper beasts as you could pump crazy amounts of power into them. I had a photo somewhere of my PC pulling 1152w from the wall (I had a 1200w PSU) during a Heaven run.

These days you are hobbled by pedestrian hardware fixed power limits.

 

[Rroff]

I miss the good old days before power limits. I had a pair of watercooled Nvidia 480s (the ol' George Forman specials). Under water they were proper beasts as you could pump crazy amounts of power into them. I had a photo somewhere of my PC pulling 1152w from the wall (I had a 1200w PSU) during a Heaven run.

These days you are hobbled by pedestrian hardware fixed power limits.

The 470s were nuts on water as well - 1.1V and they'd do 900MHz (versus stock 607MHz) - you could just about do that on air if you strapped like 5 delta fans to the card :s

These days though on Pascal, etc. water maybe gets you another 1-2 speed bins sustained which is less than 1% extra framerate unless you mess with the power limits.

 

[Poneros]

Going by that video it's a bit of a let down as it doesn't really gain much more performance at all, the nitro can boost to 2010mhz too

Yes it is a let down sadly. Ultimately because you got most of the stuff already for cheap minus the gpu block it might still be worth it purely for the noise reduction. Personally I would still do it because I just like it quiet and the block alone isn't too expensive. If you want to save some money look for a 5700 for 250, that can get within 5% of a 5700 xt if you flash the bios or just use PPT. I think from a value perspective that makes more sense, and you can save the money left over for a different GPU maybe next year when the GPU space will have improved hopefully.

 

[dangel]

You get big temp drops on water vs air - dramatically so for GPUs (vs CPUs) if done right. For me it's about noise, stability and also moving all the heat outside the case (my quad rad is external).

It's also a lot of (expensive) fun

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I can't think of a reason why you would install a custom loop and not cool the GPU with it.