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Video Card Cooling Options?
Retox
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I had a thread a while back about my computer display shutting down after start up, and I believe the cause is my video card over heating. I have a Geforce 7900 that's been over clocked or something, I'm not at home so I can't check to see exactly.
I think the problem is that on my motherboard (micro ATX) the card sits right next to the board's heat sink. I tried my card in my brother-in-law's computer (which is identical except for motherboard and video card) and it ran fine. However, even though the card worked fine in his computer it still got really hot, so I've been considering the possibility of some after market cooling modifications but I really don't know anything about that.
My questions are as follows:
1) Could my card be overheating because it's right next to my motherboard's heat sink?
2) What's the feasibility of installing a more powerful fan or other cooling system on my video card?
3) How much does that sort of thing cost and how difficult is it to install?
If anyone has experience with this sort of thing, I would greatly appreciate some info. Thanks.
I think the problem is that on my motherboard (micro ATX) the card sits right next to the board's heat sink. I tried my card in my brother-in-law's computer (which is identical except for motherboard and video card) and it ran fine. However, even though the card worked fine in his computer it still got really hot, so I've been considering the possibility of some after market cooling modifications but I really don't know anything about that.
My questions are as follows:
1) Could my card be overheating because it's right next to my motherboard's heat sink?
2) What's the feasibility of installing a more powerful fan or other cooling system on my video card?
3) How much does that sort of thing cost and how difficult is it to install?
If anyone has experience with this sort of thing, I would greatly appreciate some info. Thanks.
Retox on
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Stock GPU coolers usually can't be modded easily. Apart from replacing them entirely you can install an additional fan in the vicinity - attached to the case somehow.
There's a number of after-market GPU HSFs available, a lot of them compatible with the 79xx series GeForce cards.
You can get a decent GPU heatsink for $20-$30. Installation difficulty depends on the specific cooler (manufacturer's often have a downloadable manual you could check before buying). The biggest problem will likely be over-tightening the cooler, which would bend the card and might crack some of the traces - something to remember if the heatsink doesn't have some way of preventing that. Removing the old cooler can also be tricky (the thermal paste between the GPU and heatsink acts as an adhesive - twisting the heatsink usually helps).
In your case I think the Coolermaster Coolviva Pro would be an optimal choice, as it's very efficient and will blow the heated air outside; it also has a long compatibility list, so there's a chance you'll be able to use it on a future card. It's pretty wide though - Xbitlabs says it juts out 30mm (1.18") over the video card's edge - so make sure your case is wide enough.
Thermaltake also makes a similar cooler, but it's more expensive and not as compatible. It's long rather than wide though.
The Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 is also very good, but I you'd probably need to zip-tie some fan to it if case ventilation is indeed a problem.
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