GPU Cooling...Mwahahahaha!

Associate
Joined
7 Mar 2005
Posts
1,597
Location
Eating PI
Sorry about the mad scientist laugh but I felt given the crazy brainwave i've had it may be justified.......

The thought has occurred to me that GPU cooling isn't great and even the aftermarket ones seem to be only marginally better than the stock coolers. The design is nowhere near as sophisticated as CPU coolers, most don't have heatpipes and most are also very flat or cover the whole card which only serves to heat up the Gfx ram and mobo chipset. CPU coolers on the other hand nearly all have 3 heatpipes these days, are very large with loads of cooling fins and also tend to be very tall, which helps to take the heat away from the chip.

Obviously the main cause for the flat cooler design is to allow use of these coolers with SLI or crossfire setups, that wouldn't allow use of a tall cooler. But most people can't or sensibly don't want dual gfx cards so a taller cooler would be okay.

With all of the above in mind I have had the brainwave of seeing if there is a way to mod a CPU cooler onto the GPU. Would be nice to have an X1900XT with a freezer 64 Pro attached to it.

Has this ever been tried? Is it even possible?

Or shall I just go back to sleep?
 
Suspended
Joined
1 Aug 2005
Posts
908
Sure there was a thread not long ago about how someone borked their brand new card putting a CPU cooler onto their graphics card. I'll have a look for you.
 
Permabanned
Joined
11 Mar 2004
Posts
5,884
Monstermunch said:
Examples.....Links....?


i wacked an AMD Athlon cooler onto my GeForce 4 TI4400 about 3 years back. worked well then but todays graphics cards are a lot more complicated and the PCB`s seem to be getting thinner all the time.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Sep 2005
Posts
10,001
Location
Scottish Highlands
Ive done it on a few cards. The last one I did, was trying to fit an Athlon Xp heatsink onto a Geforce2 gts, in an attempt to make it passive. It erm... didn't work to well, lol.

Edit; And if your really serious about cooling the GPU, just watercool it or even use a TEC.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2004
Posts
7,223
Location
Sunny Manchester
This has been done since overclocking has been going :D

Ive used many cpu heatsinks on gpus in the past. Mainly old socket A heatsinks.

I just drilled 2 holes through the heatsink. Place 2 bolts through and attached it to the card. Holding it on with a couple of plastic / rubber washers and a couple of bolts.

Had a stock socket A heatsink, with a 60mm > 80mm fan adapter and a 80mm Tornado on my MX440 back in the day with I had a AXP-M :D
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2004
Posts
7,223
Location
Sunny Manchester
dfiinfinty.jpg


Only pic I can find. That was the plan and it came out like that. CPU cooling was a SLK-948u with a 92mm Tornado :D
 
Associate
Joined
22 Mar 2006
Posts
260
Location
Kent
Stelly said:
good idea... but whats the strain going to be like on the card??

Stelly


Pretty bad i imagine, would have to use a lightweight HSF/FAN setup. I just did this on an old Geforce 2 card which i gave to my nephews and mounted the fan in the side of the case rather then on the HS to help reduce the weight. You could reinforce the card too i guess.

For most modern cards i dont think you would see a massive difference between a CPU HSF setup (that is light enough to fit) and the stock cooling.

Now maybe if you got a mini fridge........ :p
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
3,787
Location
The Viking Hideout
Would it not be a better idea to make a bracket which screws into the PCI retention holes so the GFX is properly in place, and the strain of the Heatsink is releived? (ie have the heatsink be supported by the case effectively).

Lot more work involved, but would be the better solution if you are serious about it.

Or get one of those figure 8 Zalman heatpipe thingies, they're nice and light..
 
Associate
Joined
14 Apr 2006
Posts
224
Location
Peterborough, UK
the problem with using a heatpipe cooler is the fact their designed to work under gravity... hence mounting them upside-down isn't going to help their performance much at all :p

you'd be better with a non-heatpipe solution such as some of the older socket A coolers... or somthing like the Zalman flower range of coolers. Also, these tend to generaly be lighter... and you'll have less strain on the card to worry about.

still... if you're really serious about cooling the GPU... look at watercooling or even a pelt, I think this was mentioned above, but no harm in pushing the point :p
 
Associate
OP
Joined
7 Mar 2005
Posts
1,597
Location
Eating PI
Mikebert4 said:
the problem with using a heatpipe cooler is the fact their designed to work under gravity... hence mounting them upside-down isn't going to help their performance much at all :p

you'd be better with a non-heatpipe solution such as some of the older socket A coolers... or somthing like the Zalman flower range of coolers. Also, these tend to generaly be lighter... and you'll have less strain on the card to worry about.

still... if you're really serious about cooling the GPU... look at watercooling or even a pelt, I think this was mentioned above, but no harm in pushing the point :p
What is a pelt anyway?
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Jan 2004
Posts
7,692
Location
Nottingham
seen a few Shuttle I.C.E heatpipe coolers on graphics cards. cant find the pics now but they are impressive and means you can use jsut 1 120mm fan in the whole shuttle :)

theres one with a 9800pro if anyone can find it??

infact i think Steeps is doin one at the min??
 
Back
Top Bottom