Saturday, November 12th 2011
![AMD](https://tpucdn.com/images/news/amd-v1723816949774.png)
AMD Justifies Using Liquid Chamber Tech On Upcoming 7900-Series Cards
videocardz.com brings us a photo showing the benefits of AMD's new liquid chamber technology over the standard vapour chamber technology used in current heatpipe cooling solutions. There's quite a few benefits, some of which are no drying out, physical robustness and greater reliability. Indeed, can you imagine the disastrous effect on your graphics card of having the cooling system spring a leak during an intense gaming session? Doesn't bear thinking about… Certainly the era of having to replace your graphics card's shrill and inefficient cooler with a high performance aftermarket one are long over, as stock coolers are now generally of very good quality. The liquid chamber system will be used by all AMD's partners who stick to the reference design. Check out the photo for the full info.
54 Comments on AMD Justifies Using Liquid Chamber Tech On Upcoming 7900-Series Cards
EDIT: There's now a detailed look at this new technology, here.
yea I'm not so sure how they're gonna get the pool to be on the gpu side when its upside down... unless they're gonna flip the way the PCB is? have the gpu face up instead of down? Doubt it though, would be compatibility issues with several boards/cases... like the ones with the x16 at the top
as a side note, that was a specific case with Nichicon's. They're quality caps that're harder to get (due flood) right now.
causing the liquid to no lower be not quite so still : ] ( I.E it will be bouncing about all over inside the chamber)
BTW, these heatsinks look somewhat big and effective.
Pool boiling is the first thing you should look up and read about :toast:
Have to remember they'll probably keep within the same TDP as they're current cards.
Otherwise you don't get an upgrade :laugh: ( well you can get the same card with less heat but they tend to then be sold as midrange cards or sweet spot cards etc)
www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-HD-7900-XDR2-Rambus-Memory,13408.html
45nm was different. nVidia couldn't get it right with two different head managers; that's why the 480 was... what it was.
nVidia claims 3-4 times lower performance per watt (nonsense). But the idea is, they're going to be more efficient. Look at the 580, even it doesn't need a custom cooler. I've seen a few people have it running at 50-55C in games.
People have kept saying we'll need less powerful cooling but yet the inverse has happened, nv and nvidia started pushing the clock speeds more and building much more complicated chips, remember when gpus only came in 1 slot?
Just seems tech always get pushed along with the fabrication size.
Leakage is the key word. With more effective manufactoring processes, TDP is lowered as well as temps. You're thinking of it upside down.
www.overclock.net/t/1126863/real-world-power-usage-user-submitted-values#post_15090607
It's a beautiful looking card though. :D
Might have grabbed the powerdaw rather than TDP but source said it's TDP, the 580 if my source is right has a 244W TDP. The TDP of a 2900xt was 215W.
See what I mean? Heat output stays around the same level for top end cards because like I said they go for double the speed not half the size.
The 3870 was pretty much the same as a 2900xt ( infact it has less transistors, lower rop count) yet was on a smaller process hence it's powerdraw being much lower than that of the 2900xt.
If we were just doing powerdraw ( according to geeks3d)
8800 Ultra 175w 90nm 681M Transistors
9800 GTX+ 141w 55nm 754M Transistors
GTS 285 204w 40nm 1400M Transistors
GTX 480 260w (peak 3D) 40nm 3200M Transistors
GTX 560 Ti 205w (peak 3D) 40nm 1950M Transistors
GTX 580 280w (peak 3D) 40nm 3000M Transistors
2900xt 215w 90nm 700M Transistors
HD 3870 105w 55nm 666M Transistors
HD 4870 157w 55nm 956M Transistors
HD 5870 188w 40nm 2154M Transistors
HD6870 151w 40nm 1700M Transistors
HD 6970 250 (PowerTune +20%) 40nm 2640M Transistors
Hell the 6970 is hotter and more powerhungry then a 2900xt
Fab process just affects how much they can fit in one space, the voltage requirement is reduced as well so yes you can get a lower TDP but not all the time design as it depends on the design of the card it's self.
Excuse me if I've got any odd typos or if this is a bit rambling, no sleep makes panther something something.
*edit* added Nvidia cards, took me longer to collate data.
The 6970 isn't more more hungry than a 2900 either. You're just looking at spec sheet and nothing else. Have you read what Pheaderus said? He says it pulls less power than his 4870, although it's rated to have 100W higher TDP.
Look at this. 6970 pulls less power than a 570 although it again is rated higher, has a bigger die and more transistors:
www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-6950-6970-review/11
www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-570-review/8
6970 runs hotter than a HD 2900? That's just absurd.
And yes, fab process isn't what ONLY matters. But that's not what I'm talking about.
What I'm saying is they BOTH matter to a degree.
Regarding power draw, the newer cards have better power management features, if you switch them off then then a 6970 will draw more power and produce more heat than a 2900xt.
As for a absurd, no it isn't man, slap on the exact same cooler I.E put the 2900xt heatsink on a 6970 and the 6970 will be so much hotter it will switch it's self off. ( The 2900xt cooler may of been copper but it has pretty poor by todays standards, heatpipes were flattened, had a VERY thick base lol)
Infact temperatures with their respective heatsinks
2900xt
6970
Even with superior cooling the 6970 is hotter D:
You'll have to explain you're 570/6970 comparison though because the way you've put it sounds like you're saying the 6970 has more transistors, when it doesn't the 570 has more :S
Oh and by the by I'm not just reading spec sheets I went looking for power draw ratings and went they went onto to look at specifications afterwards just to make the data a bit easier to compare.
www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=518&card2=547
About power draw, no the 6970 doesn't pull more than a 2900. The 2900 pulled a lot of power and worked hot due to it's ineffective design. Pheaderus has his card OC'ed (against his 4870 with 150W TDP) and Guru3D is running FurMark so do the thinking.
The 6970 wouldn't run hotter with a HD 2900 sink, this is getting nonsensical but anyway, the 6970 only has a heatsink with fins, while the HD 2900 has a heatpiped sink.
As for 6970 against 570, yes, that's what it meant. The 570 has more transistors, is rated to pull less power yet it pulls more on Guru3D. With both under the SAME conditions.