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GPU too heavy?

I have personally had a heavy card in the past that sagged (even thought the card was still straight because of the back-plate) that eventually caused the PCI-E slot pins to stop connecting. The board was still savable, as I took a straight pin and pulled the contact pins out and kind of bent them back out to where they would contact again. But the board was never the same... suffered from intermittent random reboots. Not enough to cause the machine to be unusable, but annoying.

Had a buddy who also had a super heavy card that had a back-plate. The outside edges of the card were arrow-straight, and the slot on the mobo was never damaged. But the weight did cause it to sag at the one weak point: The corner where the card's connector goes into the slot. The weight caused the card to bend, and eventually broke the traces that went from the card's contact pins to the rest of the board. Graphics card was totaled.

Don't listen to these people saying it can't hurt... for a ridiculously low price (free, even) you can brace your card. Loop the power supply cables over a drive bay if you have to... use legos if you have to... buy a fancy, pretty card brace if you want to. But there's no legitimate reason not to protect your expensive hardware.
 
Papahyooie said:
I have personally had a heavy card in the past that sagged (even thought the card was still straight because of the back-plate) that eventually caused the PCI-E slot pins to stop connecting. The board was still savable, as I took a straight pin and pulled the contact pins out and kind of bent them back out to where they would contact again. But the board was never the same... suffered from intermittent random reboots. Not enough to cause the machine to be unusable, but annoying.

Had a buddy who also had a super heavy card that had a back-plate. The outside edges of the card were arrow-straight, and the slot on the mobo was never damaged. But the weight did cause it to sag at the one weak point: The corner where the card's connector goes into the slot. The weight caused the card to bend, and eventually broke the traces that went from the card's contact pins to the rest of the board. Graphics card was totaled.

Don't listen to these people saying it can't hurt... for a ridiculously low price (free, even) you can brace your card. Loop the power supply cables over a drive bay if you have to... use legos if you have to... buy a fancy, pretty card brace if you want to. But there's no legitimate reason not to protect your expensive hardware.
Click to expand...

My card is stiff, it is locked into place on both slots plates, rest assured my card is heavy
 
eidairaman1 said:
My card is stiff, it is locked into place on both slots plates, rest assured my card is heavy
Click to expand...
I understand that. Your card is also not identical to every other graphics card. Heat sinks can be constructed differently with centers of gravity at different points. The actual GPU chip can be closer to the front or further to the back of the card, resulting in the main bulk of the heat sink being in different places. Backplates can be more or less rigid, and some backplates aren't well secured to the card's IO shroud (which means it's just extra weight on the card, and not providing any rigidity with regard to being connected to the case, which is the real basis of the card's support.) Cards can have more or less heat sinks, (VRM, etc) more or less fans...

I think you get my point. Your card sounds awesome, and is probably fine. But it's not indicative of all cards.
 
Papahyooie said:
I understand that. Your card is also not identical to every other graphics card. Heat sinks can be constructed differently with centers of gravity at different points. The actual GPU chip can be closer to the front or further to the back of the card, resulting in the main bulk of the heat sink being in different places. Backplates can be more or less rigid, and some backplates aren't well secured to the card's IO shroud (which means it's just extra weight on the card, and not providing any rigidity with regard to being connected to the case, which is the real basis of the card's support.) Cards can have more or less heat sinks, (VRM, etc) more or less fans...

I think you get my point. Your card sounds awesome, and is probably fine. But it's not indicative of all cards.
Click to expand...

Course not lol by the way heres the breakdown of it lol

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/R9_290_Vapor-X/4.html
 
droopyRO said:
The middle of a roll of paper + ducktape = ghetto card support.
View attachment 97708
Click to expand...

Ummm...is that permanent solution?

peche said:
if the situation still making you wonder...
there you have, Atlas Graphics Card Brace Support.
$20 or less, and get you cover...
View attachment 97707
Click to expand...
nice they got other designs? and 20bucks is kind of pricey for something like this...

Papahyooie said:
I have personally had a heavy card in the past that sagged (even thought the card was still straight because of the back-plate) that eventually caused the PCI-E slot pins to stop connecting. The board was still savable, as I took a straight pin and pulled the contact pins out and kind of bent them back out to where they would contact again. But the board was never the same... suffered from intermittent random reboots. Not enough to cause the machine to be unusable, but annoying.

Had a buddy who also had a super heavy card that had a back-plate. The outside edges of the card were arrow-straight, and the slot on the mobo was never damaged. But the weight did cause it to sag at the one weak point: The corner where the card's connector goes into the slot. The weight caused the card to bend, and eventually broke the traces that went from the card's contact pins to the rest of the board. Graphics card was totaled.

Don't listen to these people saying it can't hurt... for a ridiculously low price (free, even) you can brace your card. Loop the power supply cables over a drive bay if you have to... use legos if you have to... buy a fancy, pretty card brace if you want to. But there's no legitimate reason not to protect your expensive hardware.
Click to expand...

So, what is best to brace the card?

Vya Domus said:
I'm surprised cases still don't come with GPU holders as standard. Even though I have cheap one it did came with one of those.
Click to expand...

how does it look like?

hat said:
Backplates are supposed to help with that, but a lot of cards don't come with this relatively cheap thing.

Anyways, you could improvise... my first thought was legos.
Click to expand...

like this? lol
 

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i have two heavy weight palit jetstream cards.. first a pair of 980 tI cards and now a pair of 1070 cards.. i pop a little plastic spacer between the cards to stop the top one sagging down nearer the bottom one but apart from that they have been no trouble..

those pics are not just caused by the weight of cards.. it would take lot of force to do damage like that..

trog
 
trog100 said:
those pics are not just caused by the weight of cards.. it would take lot of force to do damage like that..

trog
Click to expand...
ill assume you havent seen it happen before. :)

One of them without a doubt is from shearing due to weight.
 
anything that supports the Card and is Electrically non conductive will work
wether its Astheticly pleasing " that's in the eye of the Beholder"

My Guess that's a Size 36C Support :)

On a Side note
If i Could Afford to buy a Newer card even S/H and it arrived "Bent"
I would not care how well it works i would want "that Ebay Seller " to either Reduce the price or accept a Return

For me ( and no doubt many others )
A Bent Card is a sign of Neglect and bode not good for long term ownership
 
LPide said:
nice they got other designs? and 20bucks is kind of pricey for something like this...
Click to expand...

Graphics Card Brace Support Bracket , another cheap brace, $12 ones are the cheapest around the corner i guess, the point is preventing PCI damage or zag in video cards, $20 still decent price fur such a useful bracket, that can be used on most video cards, also if you sell the video card can keep the brace, any way there should be cheaper ones at ali express or alibaba, its up to you to make the search and find the right price for you.

Making your own is another option, use acrylic plastic to create or cut a holder using the provided image of a commercial solution, also if you have a 3D printer source you could print one on hard plastic one, use your imagination, also lego bricks are the cheapest solution available, use colors to match your scheme and again your imagination to raise a discrete solution that wont hurt your PC scheme inside,

PD: i guess i will ending up getting my self the listed in the link just cuz i liked and is cheap :D ,

Regards,
 
LPide said:
So, what is best to brace the card?
Click to expand...
\

Depends on what you want to spend on it. I've seen people put together some lego bricks, and simply put those under the back-outside corner of the card (or wherever the lowest-sagging point on the card is.)

Some people like these, and there are a ton of models at different price ranges (the linked one here is about the most expensive, but build like a tank):
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Atlas-Gr...7448&wl11=online&wl12=800003200&wl13=&veh=sem

Those basically transfer the weight off the graphics card/PCI-E slot, and to the back of the case. Get the most rigid one you can for the money you're willing to spend.

Some others prefer this kind: (double graphics card, holds straight up and down so that it is more stable than any of the bracket-type, the only drawback is it isn't mounted to the case, so care must be taken when moving the machine)
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...B3Qd3b8F9SDsuiMPEeIaAvfjEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
 
Very tiny bit of sag but my OCD keeps playing up and just the Pcie cables won't do the trick keeping it perfectly straight.

But you gave me good inspiration here
 
eidairaman1 said:
Looks more like abuse and not sagging.
Click to expand...

Could be, but the captions said is was due to sagging on that X99 board.
It is hard to distinguish on the internet. My caveat was "extreme".
It could have also been due to a factory defect in the way the slot was attached, as noted by las in post #19.

Heat and constant pressure on the plastic slots has caused problems.

The newer slots, with metal reinforcement, protect the mobo better, not sure about how it affects the card itself, especially if it is without a back-plate.(rarer these days.)
 
Just another note: the ones that mount to the back of the bracket sometimes (depending on your card design) sit underneath the heat sink shroud. Some cards have very flimsy plastic shrouds around the fans, which can warp over time and cause your fans to run into the shroud. So if you have such a card (I have a couple of old 270x's like this) make sure you get a very long bracket so that it distributes the weight across the entire card, and not only along the "back" side of the card. Some of the cheaper brackets are short and only hold up the back near the IO brackets... If you don't have a backplate on your card, those aren't even worth it, as they just allow the card to sag at the middle. Get a long one, at minimum 3/4 the length of your card. (And that's solid advice for any card, regardless of the shroud, though if it has a good backplate, that can alleviate that issue.)
 
This is not difficult. Be creative and make something
 
The single one is about 6 inches tall, the double has another bar that threads together. I'll post a pic in a minute.

Edit: Pic:
https://imgur.com/H5MyX1M
 
LPide said:
What about this? 5.99usd when it becomes available View attachment 97979
Click to expand...
That looks pretty good, and the price is awesome. Only concern I have it how it fits with custom fans. My MSi cards have large fans and very flimsy shrouds, that style won't work on them.
 
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