Watercooler not cooling as well as fans, why?

Wycked Games · 5 Oct 2019 at 13:46

Hi,

I recently purchased a
EK-VECTOR RTX RE RGB GRAPHICS CARD WATER BLOCK - NICKEL + PLEXI from Overclockers, to compliment the CPU cooler I installed last week.

I have a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Gaming OC 8G, 8GB GDDR6 (GV-N2080GAMING OC-8GC) which according to the page for the water block, is compatible. (though EKWB's site says they don't make a compatible cooler for this card)

I have it on a dedicated loop, with it's own pump, 120mm radiator and reservoir.

With the stock fans for the GPU while playing Overwatch I would run at 38 degrees C, with the new EK-VECTOR all my games are running around 85-88 degrees C, with no other changes made to the system.

Water is flowing smoothly, micro bubbles occur, and when not gaming the GPU drops down to 36 degrees C pretty quickly.

Any thoughts/ideas folks?

UnworthyBean · 5 Oct 2019 at 13:54

I'd say you're probably going to need more than just a single 120 to cope with a 2080.

Wycked Games · 5 Oct 2019 at 14:08

I did wonder, though the tubing out of the GPU feels warm but not hot to the touch and the tubing in feels cool.
I've just ordered a 360mm radiator (luckily I have the Lian Li 011-Dynamic case so lots of cooler space), will try it out and update if there are further issues.

Thekwango · 5 Oct 2019 at 14:10

Yea a 120 rad was never going to cool a 2080 adequately, though 85c sounds high even with the linited sized rad. 100% sure it was fitted correctly?

Wycked Games · 5 Oct 2019 at 14:23

Thekwango said:
Yea a 120 rad was never going to cool a 2080 adequately, though 85c sounds high even with the linited sized rad. 100% sure it was fitted correctly?

I've checked, double checked and triple checked all the fittings, and I was meticulous when I installed the cooler block to the GPU, had a you tube video up to follow, made sure all the thermal pads were placed correctly and it was all screwed down correctly and evenly. So, short answer, I hope so!

Drumroll · 5 Oct 2019 at 15:11

Check

Wycked Games said:
Hi,

I recently purchased a
EK-VECTOR RTX RE RGB GRAPHICS CARD WATER BLOCK - NICKEL + PLEXI from Overclockers, to compliment the CPU cooler I installed last week.

I have a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Gaming OC 8G, 8GB GDDR6 (GV-N2080GAMING OC-8GC) which according to the page for the water block, is compatible. (though EKWB's site says they don't make a compatible cooler for this card)

I have it on a dedicated loop, with it's own pump, 120mm radiator and reservoir.

With the stock fans for the GPU while playing Overwatch I would run at 38 degrees C, with the new EK-VECTOR all my games are running around 85-88 degrees C, with no other changes made to the system.

Water is flowing smoothly, micro bubbles occur, and when not gaming the GPU drops down to 36 degrees C pretty quickly.

Any thoughts/ideas folks?

Check if you are using the correct screws. My first attempt I was using the longer ones, and I was supposed to use the medium ones.
Big difference, specially for memory chips.

Drumroll · 5 Oct 2019 at 15:12

Ek was sloppy not including manuals. So much money and paper spent on packaging, stickers, and not an A4 with instructions.

Drumroll · 5 Oct 2019 at 15:14

Forgot to mention: are you using EK recommend fittings? If the inner bit of the fitting is longer than 5mm, it may restrict or partially block the coolant flow.

Reality|Bites · 5 Oct 2019 at 15:18

I've dual 360 rads cooling my setup and my GPU hit's 70c most of the time (after half an hour ) which is much the same as air......something wrong with the loop?
I grinds my gears when people say they don't go over 45C......in games like GTA V and the like I don't go over that must playing game like AC Syn and Origins It gets toasty....even Minion masters if I have every graphical option selected it gets toasty?

Drumroll · 5 Oct 2019 at 15:25

Reality|Bites said:
I've dual 360 rads cooling my setup and my GPU hit's 70c most of the time (after half an hour ) which is much the same as air......something wrong with the loop?
I grinds my gears when people say they don't go over 45C......in games like GTA V and the like I don't go over that must playing game like AC Syn and Origins It gets toasty....even Minion masters if I have every graphical option selected it gets toasty?

Quite sure there's. Mine I'm using a 2080 and a 420 for CPU and GPU. The 2080 stays at 25c now, and about 40C under load. CPU shows short increases, but consistently stays less than 50C.
I would check the screws. I would bet the block isn't fit as it should.

Wycked Games · 5 Oct 2019 at 15:27

Michael Marini said:
Quite sure there's. Mine I'm using a 2080 and a 420 for CPU and GPU. The 2080 stays at 25c now, and about 40C under load. CPU shows short increases, but consistently stays less than 50C.
I would check the screws. I would bet the block isn't fit as it should.

I'll double check all the screws when I install the new radiator, thanks for the sound advice, I was shocked that my GPU temp went from 39 to 85, and GPU load is at 100% as soon as a game is started, any game

Drumroll · 5 Oct 2019 at 15:39

My block, EK too, was provided with long, medium and short screws. Even if the long ones made me believe the block was firmly attached, wasn't. No need to overtighten. The medium ones would go until the point they need to. The long would stop just before that point. Dual 360 rad and correct fittings and you shouldn't see anywhere near 50c under load. Mine stays at 40c ish. During the last heatwave was at 45C. The CPU gets hotter than the GPU and the temperature floating frequently.

momo56 · 6 Oct 2019 at 16:04

I doubt you were getting 38 C under load with the stock cooler that's barely above your idle. Seems like a buggy temperature sensor/software.

Regarding your custom loop, what fans and what speed were they running ?

MikeTimbers · 6 Oct 2019 at 16:19

Two things; one as said by others 38C with aircooling on a 2080 at load is highly unlikely even at 100% fans. This suggests your rig may have been reading the wrong sensor. Secondly, a 120mm rad won't have a much greater fin area than the air cooler you had given it had three fans on a full length card. At the end of the day water-cooling is still air-cooling. The water simply moves the heat to the radiator and a single 120mm rad with a single 120mm fan is going to be probably no more than equal to the built-in air-cooler on the card.

So, if you're super certain that the mount of the waterblock is good, I'd remove the water-cooling, put back the air-cooler, check the temps at load in a specific situation (Furmark, Timespy, etc.). If that does still show 38C, then forget water-cooling.

If you're adamant you want to water-cool, get a bigger rad. 2x120mm copper rads are not hard to get pretty cheaply these days but basically get the biggest you can fit in your case.

momo56 · 6 Oct 2019 at 16:35

120mm rad is doable though. I used the evga hybrid kit on a 2080ti before I sold it.

Ran in the mid 60's @2ghz but the fan was spinning at 1.8-2k rpm so wasn't silent.

By comparison the stock cooler (PNY triple fan heatsink) maxed at 84 degrees between 1800-1850 mhz.

Wycked Games · 8 Oct 2019 at 21:16

Thank you to all who helped.

I now have a happy running GPU idling at 29 degrees C, and running a max of 45 degrees C while gaming (tried Overwatch, WoW Classic and Diablo 3)

The Solution:
Replaced the 120mm res with a 360mm
Reorganised my tubing to be more efficient
Resat the Cooler Block onto the GPU and (don't laugh) did the correct screws to attach it that were behind the armor plate.
My rig is now running rock solid and I am over the moon

Again, a big thanks to all who helped, you were all right in some form, and the combined advice lead to a now very happy Wycked, as well as some excited stream viewers.

Drumroll · 8 Oct 2019 at 21:19

Good news. A out the screws, even the longer ones gives the false impression of being tight enough.

Smffy · 9 Oct 2019 at 11:08

Michael Marini said:
Good news. A out the screws, even the longer ones gives the false impression of being tight enough.

repeatedly said it’s stupid they still lazily throw the same bag in!

tyler_jrb · 9 Oct 2019 at 11:53

Reality|Bites said:
I've dual 360 rads cooling my setup and my GPU hit's 70c most of the time (after half an hour ) which is much the same as air......something wrong with the loop?
I grinds my gears when people say they don't go over 45C......in games like GTA V and the like I don't go over that must playing game like AC Syn and Origins It gets toasty....even Minion masters if I have every graphical option selected it gets toasty?

Yes definitely. Anything over 55 in my opinion is highly suspicious.

I have 2 480’s in a shut cupboard with minimal airflow and my gpu only gets to 47-48 degrees after hours of max load.

Even when I had 360’s previously in an open area temps were much of the same.

MikeTimbers · 9 Oct 2019 at 13:28

tyler_jrb said:
Yes definitely. Anything over 55 in my opinion is highly suspicious.

I have 2 480’s in a shut cupboard with minimal airflow and my gpu only gets to 47-48 degrees after hours of max load.

Even when I had 360’s previously in an open area temps were much of the same.

I take your point and 70C is waaay too high for custom water-cooling but 55C is a low bar to set that anything higher than it is too much. Given the max temps on cards, some may choose to run very low noise fans to get silence, others may be constrained by their case to minimal radiator space. FWIW, I have a rig with two 240 rads but cooling two over-clocked 1070 SeaHawks in parallel that are running Folding@Home 24/7. I'm fine with them being at around 60C with their noise profile (very quiet).