Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 mini review and support

[Retro*]

Hi, I signed up as this thread was really helpful and informative ^^ I ordered the Accelero XTREME GTX Pro a couple of days ago after reading about the original and the new ver from this forum. My GTX 275 will either cause a bluescreen and restart or the game will freeze for about 1 min then the audio will stop, black screen, audio starts, then the game continues for about another 5 - 10 mins. If i manually set the fan speed to 70% + those problems will not occur, so im hoping the accelero fixes the problem without me having to manually adjust the fan speed.

Anyway just thought I would post my thanks to you guys ^^



Chris

You won't be disappointed with the Accelero Xtreme GTX Pro, it fits the 275 like a glove, including the ram and chip sinks.

So your 275's issues are heat-related then? If setting the fan speed to 70%+ cures the problem then it looks like that is it. I had my 275's in a 902 as well, with the stock coolers there were no issues but I always ran them at 100% fan speed, using Precision, which I use to run my Acceleros at 100%. You can try running it unregulated and see how it works out. I would think that the cooling improvement should remove any heat issues you are having, but if a fan speed increase is still necessary, the Accelero is much quieter than the stock heatsink and fan, even at 100%.

Keep us informed on how it goes for you when you get the new uber-cooler

 

[[crs]]

Accelero arrived this afternoon, fitted it when I got home from work, took about an hour. (Not bad) ^^

I own a GA-P55-DS4 and in order to have the video card with the new cooler fit I had to remove my ASUS Xonar D2X. Whenever I had the board out i also removed the heatpipe heatsink that surrounded the CPU and noticed that the bling, bling heatsink that sat just about the PCI-E slot was 2 seperate heatsinks screwed together (and also glued, had to use a very small flat head screwdriver to split them). Luckily with the top part of the heatsink removed (which actually doesnt really do anything apart from look pretty, from what i can gather) the asus soundcard now fits in the top slot ^^

About 30+ Degrees cooler on the core. No more freezing or hard lockups in games, also have no need to play about with the fan controller, video card is very stable, very happy

Oh, yea, also got a new heatsink for the CPU, finally got rid of that silly coolermaster Hyper TX3 (It isnt a bad heatsink, just stupidly noisy). Replaced it with a Xigmatek S1283 (Scorpion), was originally going to go with the dark knight as it was black and matched the antec case, but according to reviews it wasnt quite as good as the scorpion. Overall not a bad day lol ^^

 

[OnBoard]

Accelero arrived this afternoon, fitted it when I got home from work, took about an hour. (Not bad) ^^

I own a GA-P55-DS4 and in order to have the video card with the new cooler fit I had to remove my ASUS Xonar D2X. Whenever I had the board out i also removed the heatpipe heatsink that surrounded the CPU and noticed that the bling, bling heatsink that sat just about the PCI-E slot was 2 seperate heatsinks screwed together (and also glued, had to use a very small flat head screwdriver to split them). Luckily with the top part of the heatsink removed (which actually doesnt really do anything apart from look pretty, from what i can gather) the asus soundcard now fits in the top slot ^^

About 30+ Degrees cooler on the core. No more freezing or hard lockups in games, also have no need to play about with the fan controller, video card is very stable, very happy

Hmm you mean GA-P55-UD4? DSx stuff was on P45 edit: yep, just noticed your system specs. The sink on top of PCI-E does nothing. It's just extra cooling for the mosfets.
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/Image/mb_productimage_ga-p55-ud4_big.jpg
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/Image/mb_productimage_ga-p55a-ud3_big.jpg

Compare top pic to the bottom pic (my mobo). I don't have it at all, not even a heatpipe

Glad to hear Accelero fixed you game issues, it does wonders on the temps Welcome to the cool&quiet club

 

[Vedo]

Just one question plz:
I had an Accelero S1 Rev2 on my 8800GT 512 MB. Worked like a dream. Now I have ASUS 4870 512 MB. I want to use the S1 from the 8800GT on it. the "glue" on the heatsinks that I got with the S1 is gone (as I previously used it on my 8800GT), so what should I use to glue the heatsinks to the VRM's and ram chips on my 4870, so they dont fall off? Can I use somehting like this http://www.zhushou.net/UploadFile/20071577072049.jpg ?

 

[OnBoard]

Just one question plz:
I had an Accelero S1 Rev2 on my 8800GT 512 MB. Worked like a dream. Now I have ASUS 4870 512 MB. I want to use the S1 from the 8800GT on it. the "glue" on the heatsinks that I got with the S1 is gone (as I previously used it on my 8800GT), so what should I use to glue the heatsinks to the VRM's and ram chips on my 4870, so they dont fall off? Can I use somehting like this http://www.zhushou.net/UploadFile/20071577072049.jpg ?

Not really a thread for that cooler, but no worries, has the same ramsinks. You'd need new thermaltape on the sinks. Thermal paste under sinks+superglue on corners would work, but not worth it really.

Easiest thing for you to do is to buy a new set of ramsinks. They'll have thermaltape ready on bottom with the cost of new thermal tape. Scythe has some cheap things that will last couple uses with 8 ramchips. (http://www.quietpc.com/fi-en-eur/products/vgacoolers/vga-heatsinks)

Superglue will stick the sinks on but won't transfer heat and will also make then quite permanent. Please don't use that

edit: almost forgot. Don't use Allecero S1 on the 4870 passive, you'll burn the card. You'll also need a sink to the VRMs and some airflow going on there. They get hot.
This thing would be best for VRMs: http://www.quietpc.com/fi-en-eur/products/vgacoolers/zm-rhs90

----

On another note, GTX 480 looks like a dream to watercooling and for Accelero GTX 480:
http://i.haymarket.net.au/Galleries/20100324113626_IMG_0219 copy.jpg

It has seperate sink for PCB & core You could even go with VF900 on top of the core, not that it would hande the heat, but you could

+ reusable thermalpads on everything
http://i.haymarket.net.au/Galleries/20100324113530_IMG_0204 copy.jpg

 

[Vedo]

Thx for the reply!
But my ASUS card looks like this: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67991&stc=1&d=1221612315 , its different from stock 4870, so I doubt that this Zalman ZM-RHS90 heatsink would fit on my VRMs :/

 

[OnBoard]

Thx for the reply!
But my ASUS card looks like this: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67991&stc=1&d=1221612315 , its different from stock 4870, so I doubt that this Zalman ZM-RHS90 heatsink would fit on my VRMs :/

Well it has a VRM sink already. Just make sure you put a fan to that Accelero S1 and it will be good. That ASUS card most likely has normal mosfets under there (no volterras), easier to cool to begin with.

edit: to the post below. You're fine. That 140mm fan will move much more air that the original fan did over the VRM sink.
You can't read the VRM temps, because there is no chip to report them (or sensors to take measurements). It's cheaper made card that the original design and the mosfets in it won't heat up as much as originals either, so not really needed to measure.

 

[Vedo]

I had to cut a part from that ASUS heatsink, Accelero could not fit because of it. Now its all good, I put a 14 cm CoolerMaster fan to blow on the S1, temps are amzing, 40 C idle, 62 C under Furmark load. but I read also on the internet, nobody with this ASUS 4870 card can't read the VRM temps (GPU-Z, RivaTuner, Everest, none of it shows the VRM temperatures), so Its not just my card that does not show this temps :/ So I am a bit worried now, since I toke that Asus passive off, to cut a bit of it off, and it had this thermal tape (I guess, looks like a chewing gum ) underneath it. A part of this thermal tape is now in my trash can (don't know why I throw it away ) and a the other half I resized with my fingers so it covers the whole heatsink again. Now I don't really know if the VRMs are cooled Ok now, but I have no artifacts or whatsoever when I play for few hours BF BC2 or Crysis.

 

[Kabbeh]

I just got my GTX Pro put on my 285 FTW edition! I think i topped out at 51C on Crysis at 70% fan speed, and I couldn't hear a sound. Just a note that some may find helpful when installing this thing, if your SATA ports are positioned unfortunately, you may want to look into some right angle cable's. I found this out the hard way and had to wait a couple days, playing on my old 9800 gtx .

Although this is the upgraded version of the cooler, I'm still a little concerned about my VRM temperatures. I was playing Crysis (1920x1200, 4xAA, High) for about an hour and a half and never saw any problems. However, when I ran OCCT's GPU stress test, I got a black screen with the GPU temp registering ~54C. Vantage ran fine without a problem.

Granted a stress test is somewhat different from what my normal use would be, but it is kind of a nagging concern in the back of my mind. I've also had a number of black screen issues with this card as well using the stock cooler, but that was with the fan at < 100%. It could very well be that the card is just semi-busted.

Anyways getting back to the GTX Pro, installation went fine, heatsinks seemed to stick pretty well! One of them kept coming off but I attribute that to bumping it with my finger when I was grabbing the cooler. Shaking it and tapping the PCB didn't cause them to come off.

assorted pics of gpu and installed in my pc

 

[OnBoard]

Thanks for the pictures Kabbeh, looking good

Your VRM temps should be just fine with that big sink and non-volterra regulators. Seems those 55nm cards really love this cooler, that's lower load than GT 480 idle

Never had any black screen issues with mine, so can't help you there. But if you don't get them while gaming I wouldn't worry about it. Crysis should be plenty of stress for future games too.

Enjoy the Cool'n'Quiet (ripping of AMD for AC ).

 

[Funkyjazz]

Hello,

Finally i found a support forum concerning AC problems. Ive red some very nice work arounds!

Last week i bought the Asus GTX275 with the AC GTX Pro. The only problem i encountered were the VRM heatsinks that didn't fit. On the picture you see the red arrows pointing at four little bastards. Those bastards are 1 mm higer than the VRM's. In that case, the VMR sink will not fit by 2 mm!! I had to use the mem heatsinks on the VRM's which will do the job.
The only question i have is: i put a red retangle around four big bastards. what are those things? Do the need cooling? The are way higher than the VRM's so the heatsink will conflict with the cooling rims of the coolblock.

 

[OnBoard]

Hello,

Finally i found a support forum concerning AC problems. Ive red some very nice work arounds!

Last week i bought the Asus GTX275 with the AC GTX Pro. The only problem i encountered were the VRM heatsinks that didn't fit. On the picture you see the red arrows pointing at four little bastards. Those bastards are 1 mm higer than the VRM's. In that case, the VMR sink will not fit by 2 mm!! I had to use the mem heatsinks on the VRM's which will do the job.

The only question i have is: i put a red retangle around four big bastards. what are those things? Do the need cooling? The are way higher than the VRM's so the heatsink will conflict with the cooling rims of the coolblock.

Yep, memsinks will do fine on the VRMs. Evil PCB makers don't always (ever) think us end users and make the board with least amount of free space and thing cramped together. GTX 280 also has those little buggers next to VRMs that makes use of bigger sink impossible.

Those big things are chokes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choke_(electronics) , airflow from Accelero will be enough for them. (Just a link as I'm not sure what their sole purpose is on graphics cards. Seems like they filter EMI & RFI signals from power, so memory and core would just get the good stuff )

 

[LiveOrDie]

thanks for the review man ill be getting 2 of these and cuting both of my stock heatsinks up to

 

[Funkyjazz]

Yep, memsinks will do fine on the VRMs. Evil PCB makers don't always (ever) think us end users and make the board with least amount of free space and thing cramped together. GTX 280 also has those little buggers next to VRMs that makes use of bigger sink impossible.

Those big things are chokes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choke_(electronics) , airflow from Accelero will be enough for them. (Just a link as I'm not sure what their sole purpose is on graphics cards. Seems like they filter EMI & RFI signals from power, so memory and core would just get the good stuff )

Thanks for the answer! Im glad that i dont have to find a cooling sollution for those 4 brothers. Well....we all know the AC doenst make as much sound as the stock cooler. At stock speed the AC holds very well! No sound, no heat.
But dont think about an nice OC. When i OC the OC is stable. But after 30 min. crysis, GPUZ show me PCB temps around 90 degrees celsius
So yeah...im running stock

By the way, i just used the preapplied thermal paste. Should i use AC MX-2? When i removed the stock cooler the whole thing was just covered with 1 or 2 mm thermal paste (which is rediculous imho).

 

[Jeffredo]

Just put in an order for a GTX Pro for my new GTX 260. Glad to see they updated the GTX 280 Xtreme to fix its issues. I have an AC Accelero 8800 on my 8800 GTX and have been really happy with it.

 

[OnBoard]

Thanks for the answer! Im glad that i dont have to find a cooling sollution for those 4 brothers. Well....we all know the AC doenst make as much sound as the stock cooler. At stock speed the AC holds very well! No sound, no heat.
But dont think about an nice OC. When i OC the OC is stable. But after 30 min. crysis, GPUZ show me PCB temps around 90 degrees celsius
So yeah...im running stock

By the way, i just used the preapplied thermal paste. Should i use AC MX-2? When i removed the stock cooler the whole thing was just covered with 1 or 2 mm thermal paste (which is rediculous imho).

Interesting looking stock cooler on that GTX 275, haven't see like that before

And for the OC. you have to adjust the fan speed. Core is so much cooler with Accelero that the GPU bios fans speed is wrong. It doesn't raise speeed from the 40% at all and so you'll end up with a hot card.

Use EVGA Precision for eample and hit some number, 70% or so would be nice. Easiest thing to do would be to make OC profiles with that software and set fan speeds there. Then make one with stock speed + auto fan.

If you want a care free experience, modify bios fan speed values to start from lower temperature.

Pre-applied paste IS MX-2 (and for the NVIDIA paste, yes, they have dones it with all GT200 cards and GF100 seems to ahve just as much stuff under the hood )

 

[OnBoard]

thanks for the review man ill be getting 2 of these and cuting both of my stock heatsinks up to

No problem, enjoy the coolers

Just put in an order for a GTX Pro for my new GTX 260. Glad to see they updated the GTX 280 Xtreme to fix its issues. I have an AC Accelero 8800 on my 8800 GTX and have been really happy with it.

You'll be really happy with this one too

 

[OnBoard]

NVIDIA forum, but some ATI love:

Accelero XTREME 5870
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=546

Accelero XTREME 5970
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=545

 

[Retro*]

NVIDIA forum, but some ATI love:

Accelero XTREME 5870
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=546

Accelero XTREME 5970
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=545

That's a good idea to post these ATI versions OnBoard. 36C temp reduction for the 5870, and a whopping 40C for the 5970
Although the temp. difference is less if the stock coolers are run at 100% fan speed, but then the noise level becomes a problem, unlike with the Acceleros at their max. 2000 rpm. which are still very quiet.
I have to admit the 5970 version sure has a lot of drool factor, especially if I had the card to go with it

 

[Jeffredo]

Makes one wonder if AC can work their magic on the Fermi cards.

 

[OnBoard]

I have to admit the 5970 version sure has a lot of drool factor, especially if I had the card to go with it

Sure is, the double row of pipes makes it mean business!

Makes one wonder if AC can work their magic on the Fermi cards.

Yes they can. 5970 cooler is 300W and 4870x2 was 320W. If that Inno3D iChill CAD drawing is Accelero, like it would seem, Fermi version will have 2x80mm and 1x92mm fan. That would take care or airflow needed and if they squeezed one pipe more there, surely it's good.

 

[LiveOrDie]

i have a custom bios flashed on both of my cards already so the fan hits 100% at 80c should i just leave it at that when i get my 2 coolers, should get them next week at i've got some MX3 comings as well should i remove the MX2 and put on MX3 or wouldnt bother?

 

[OnBoard]

i have a custom bios flashed on both of my cards already so the fan hits 100% at 80c should i just leave it at that when i get my 2 coolers, should get them next week at i've got some MX3 comings as well should i remove the MX2 and put on MX3 or wouldnt bother?

That might be good for Accelero too. Mine never hits 80C, but there in SLI they could. Important thing is just that the fan speed goes up, unlike with stock bios settings where Accelero stays in 40%.

Hit some of that MX3 to the VRMs, should work well as it's more solid opposed to mx-2. You might try and use MX-3 on the upper card and leave the stock MX-2 on the lower one. But either way it will do great with the stock MX-2 already, they applied it thin and perfect amount.

I changed the stock paste after three remounts, wouldn't have bothered otherwise

 

[Kabbeh]

Well I'm still getting black screens so I may end up RMA'ing the card . I can't imagine its related to heat at all anymore as the thing never goes above 55C, and it seems a lot of people have had the same issues with the 285 GTX's as well.

So I will obviously have to put the stock sink back on. My question is, how will the RAM sinks sticky stuff hold up to being removed, and what would be a suitable replacement? There's also that tiny little square that is used on the NVIO chip. Would it matter if that is still sticky despite being removed?

Oh damn, and I forgot about those little spacers for the NVIO sink and their stickies too! Although I think those are just little adhesives so the spacers don't move around when you go to screw the sink in.

Still loving the cooler though! I can't hear it at all at 100% and again, great temps.

 

[LiveOrDie]

Well I'm still getting black screens so I may end up RMA'ing the card . I can't imagine its related to heat at all anymore as the thing never goes above 55C, and it seems a lot of people have had the same issues with the 285 GTX's as well.

So I will obviously have to put the stock sink back on. My question is, how will the RAM sinks sticky stuff hold up to being removed, and what would be a suitable replacement? There's also that tiny little square that is used on the NVIO chip. Would it matter if that is still sticky despite being removed?

Oh damn, and I forgot about those little spacers for the NVIO sink and their stickies too! Although I think those are just little adhesives so the spacers don't move around when you go to screw the sink in.

Still loving the cooler though! I can't hear it at all at 100% and again, great temps.

the ram sinks mite be a problem if they dont stick any more, if it comes to that i think thermal paste would hold it just fine, and for the small square that doesnt matter that should just be thermal pad that u can buy if need, have u tryed another card to see if that black screens as well? it mite not be the card, what type of black screen are u getting on boot or in windows?