NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Fermi

[Steevo]

Surface area has little to do with total heat dissipation anymore, with the size of these coolers as they are. Thermal conductivity, laminar flow, and temperature differential have more to do with it than anything. Thus the reason a 8, 12, 24 or 200 pipe CPU cooler perform so close to the same. the limitation is the interface, conductivity, and total load ability, not the surface area.

More air at higher speed over a smaller area with higher thermal conductivity will cool better than a larger area low speed cooling solution.

Thus the reason we see two or more fans on tower CPU coolers, more air speed. But the effects are still much less pronounced than even a single 120 mm water cooler. the interface medium is better.

 

[pantherx12]

*facepalm* Point has been missed.

Yes its a sum of all things that make a good cooler, does it change the fact that the T-rad is a GOOD cooler?

Stop being so damn patronising and assuming someone doesn't know something because they did not use technical language .


whilst I did miss a coma here

"has more surface area better heat distribution for one."

See the bit about heat distribution?

 

[thebluebumblebee]

GPU Physx for all 15 games out there? No thanks.

Panther, that is a good looking cooler, except the fact that 300W woth of heat remains in your case, so 90% of users with closed cases will gain a extra 40C of heat in their case, and that means less heat extraction, and that means higher temps, and that means performance the same as or lower than stock cooling that removes heat from the GPU to the outside of the case, and also drawing in more fresh cool air.


Plus your 4850 at whatever speed is at least half the load of this, so not even the same ballpark.

I can't find it, but Nvidia actually talked about "approved cases" for cooling!

 

[Steevo]

Tests with 1 120mm show it taking a 4850 tweaked to 60C at full load in a open air test. So it would easily take a 480 to 90C, add a case and you have just reached your 105C limit.

It is a great cooler for 200W loads, but not 300+.

 

[R_1]

Some inexpensive exhaust fan with high CFM will be needed, like Evercool EC12038M12BA. Have in mind that it is noisy and produce lots of vibrations.

 

[pantherx12]

Tests with 1 120mm show it taking a 4850 tweaked to 60C at full load in a open air test. So it would easily take a 480 to 90C, add a case and you have just reached your 105C limit.

It is a great cooler for 200W loads, but not 300+.

Your forgetting the hotter something is the quicker it looses its energy

also 2 92mm fans are more effective, as they have greater static pressure.

Using a 120mm fan on the T-rad2 is if you want to cool it quietly.

 

[Steevo]

They need to get a custom water loop for this card, like they did with some of the older ATI cards, self contained pump, radiator, fan, shroud, and flowmeter that shows up on the PWM for RPM.

http://hothardware.com/Articles/Sapphire-Toxic-Radeon-X1900-XTX/

Your forgetting the hotter something is the quicker it looses its energy

also 2 92mm fans are more effective, as they have greater static pressure.

Using a 120mm fan on the T-rad2 is if you want to cool it quietly.

You buy one, try it and post a review. For me after trying alot of different air coolers at work, home, and for friends. I like to get wet.

 

[pantherx12]

Pfft can't afford a 480, I'm unemployed!

ha ha

 

[Steevo]

I am a network and system administrator, and have a fleet of 20+ PC's 6 laptops, two servers, and one AS/400 besides my home machine, and friends builds I have worked on. I have at work everything from stock Intel and AMD coolers to some nice Zerotherm coolers to support some overclocked machines, some Arctic Cooling tower style coolers, a opteron four pipe cooler on a dual core AMD build that is overclocked to 3.6Ghz.


I have alot of computers I have tried different things on. I'm currently watercooling with a VRM-4 on, extra heatsinks glued on my mohterboard as the CPU powerload was heating the board too much. And my computer is quiet.

While I don't go crazy with TEC, or LN yet I enjoy my system as it requires almost no maintenance, and is fast. Really fast.

A person trying to half ass cool a card like a 480 is like someone driving a Ferrari with two flats on a dirt road. Just asking for trouble.

 

[pantherx12]

Yeah I've fucked around with a lot of coolers and computers too.

: ]


I'm not sure what your trying to achieve by telling us your experiences steevo D:

 

[Steevo]

I guess that when you ante up, buy a 480, try it then come tell us all it won't work any better than the stock solution. AKA, talks cheap.


For now this card is only going to be taken seriously when it has a waterblock strapped to it. Or you could see if W1zz will try it, as no one will be getting a card until sometime next month at the earliest.


I really do want to see this hot bastard watercooled. With as high leakage as it is stable voltage at high load should be easy if you can only keep it cool. Can't wait to see someone run it on LN.

 

[erocker]

I guess that when you ante up, buy a 480, try it then come tell us all it won't work any better than the stock solution. AKA, talks cheap.


For now this card is only going to be taken seriously when it has a waterblock strapped to it. Or you could see if W1zz will try it, as no one will be getting a card until sometime next month at the earliest.


I really do want to see this hot bastard watercooled. With as high leakage as it is stable voltage at high load should be easy if you can only keep it cool. Can't wait to see someone run it on LN.

You can expect a plethora of Fermi aftermarket coolers very soon. One thing I noticed with Fermi is that the actual metal cooler part could of been larger. That being said whoever comes up with the best aftermarket cooler that doesn't take up 3 to 4 motherboard slots is winnar!

 

[pantherx12]

I won't be buying a 480 anyway, might get a 5870 next year though : ]

Anyway I was coming to my conclusion about cooling performance of the stock cooler by studying its design.

It simply is not that great!


To use the T-rad as an example ( since we're talking about it anyway, and its a cooler I'm very familiar with, holding it in my hands right now actually )



the 480 stock cooler simply has less contact points for the heat-pipes to distribute their heat.

That and the combination of less surface area makes it not the best heatsink in the world.

Probably best reference stock heatsink designed to be fair.

But not all that great.

 

[erocker]

I won't be buying a 480 anyway, might get a 5870 next year though : ]

Anyway I was coming to my conclusion about cooling performance of the stock cooler by studying its design.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_480_Fermi/images/cooler7.jpg

It simply is not that great!

In relation to the size of the chip, the cooler is tiny.

 

[wahdangun]

I won't be buying a 480 anyway, might get a 5870 next year though : ]

Anyway I was coming to my conclusion about cooling performance of the stock cooler by studying its design.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_480_Fermi/images/cooler7.jpg

It simply is not that great!


To use the T-rad as an example ( since we're talking about it anyway, and its a cooler I'm very familiar with, holding it in my hands right now actually )



the 480 stock cooler simply has less contact points for the heat-pipes to distribute their heat.

That and the combination of less surface area makes it not the best heatsink in the world.

Probably best reference stock heatsink designed to be fair.

But not all that great.

but if that thing was not so great with contact points, why wizz still burned when he touch it ?

i think what this cooler lack was, it's abillity to dispel heat fast enough

 

[pantherx12]

but if that thing was not so great with contact points, why wizz still burned when he touch it ?

i think what this cooler lack was, it's abillity to dispel heat fast enough

You hit the nail on the head unintentionally there

The combination of less contact points for the fin array* and having what is a relatively small surface area it means the heatsink does not dissipate the massive amounts of thermal energy it picks up efficiently.

The heatsink becomes " heat-soaked" a really great heatsink should only feel warm to the touch as its dissipating its thermal energy so well and evenly


*points where the heat-pipes touch the fin array.

 

[erocker]

but if that thing was not so great with contact points, why wizz still burned when he touch it ?

i think what this cooler lack was, it's abillity to dispel heat fast enough

With a 22 watt fan. I would chalk all of this up to GPU thermal characteristic failure. Meaning the GTX480 is not very good. It performs better than a 5870 and that's about it. The negatives outweigh the positives it seems.

 

[pantherx12]

With a 22 watt fan. I would chalk all of this up to GPU thermal characteristic failure. Meaning the GTX480 is not very good. It performs better than a 5870 and that's about it. The negatives outweigh the positives it seems.

Good point, I forgot to mention the 480s are just hot as hell in general

 

[wahdangun]

You hit the nail on the head unintentionally there

The combination of less contact points for the fin array* and having what is a relatively small surface area it means the heatsink does not dissipate the massive amounts of thermal energy it picks up efficiently.

The heatsink becomes " heat-soaked" a really great heatsink should only feel warm to the touch as its dissipating its thermal energy so well and evenly


*points where the heat-pipes touch the fin array.

yeah, but i think, nvdia should use vapor chamber, just like HD 5970, because it's also have same thermal characteristic.

With a 22 watt fan. I would chalk all of this up to GPU thermal characteristic failure. Meaning the GTX480 is not very good. It performs better than a 5870 and that's about it. The negatives outweigh the positives it seems.

yeah i really suprised when i first time see that fan, and i never know any fan that use that kind of power (except for server)

 

[pantherx12]

Heat-pipes are better then vapour chambers : ]

a heatpipe makes 360 degree contact through every fin it passes through , ontop of that multiple heat-pipes mean more 360 degree contact points You can also run the heat-pipes through the centre of a fin so either side of the fin gets equal amounts of thermal energy etc

Vs the one contact point the vapour chambers offer.

Vapour chambers are cost effective mind you, my 5770 uses a vapour chamber ( stock batmobile style 5770)

 

[btarunr]

In my opinion a cooler is nice if it's keeping the GPU cool at acceptable levels (with RT at 25C, idle @ 45C, load @ 65C. This cooler does not. Hence it's crappy.

 

[erocker]

Heat-pipes are better then vapour chambers : ]

a heatpipe makes 360 degree contact through every fin it passes through , ontop of that multiple heat-pipes mean more 360 degree contact points

Vs the one contact point the vapour chambers offer.

Vapour chambers are cost effective mind you, my 5770 uses a vapour chamber ( stock batmobile style 5770)

Yet the 5850 cooler is far superior to the 5770 cooler and then some. With the 5770, mine idles around 38c at 35% fan. With my 5850's they idle at 32c with 21% fan. Regardless, either cooler would probablly fail on a GTX 480, but that is one mod I would absolutely love to see. Fermi with a batmobile cooler would be win.. even though it would fail.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

What really bugs me is how close this thing gets to the thermal max of 105c. It apparently gets up to 98c before the fan really kicks in under load. I think this is why the fan is so insane... it might get really hot but that fan has the head room to just ramp higher and higher to keep that temp under 100c. It would be safer for them to have set the fan to ramp up at lower temps but that would have lead to hearing more noise more often. So we have all this shit going on in the high 90s because of the struggle to keep the noise down but to keep it under 100c.

My concern is if you don't keep this thing blown out and clean either it's going to get louder and louder over time or it's going to start shutting down.

 

[pantherx12]

Yet the 5850 cooler is far superior to the 5770 cooler and then some. With the 5770, mine idles around 38c at 35% fan. With my 5850's they idle at 32c with 21% fan. Regardless, either cooler would probablly fail on a GTX 480, but that is one mod I would absolutely love to see. Fermi with a batmobile cooler would be win.. even though it would fail.

Its because the 5850 uses heatpipes : ]


also check out the size of a 5770 cooler

Tiny !

To give you an idea, the horizontal measurement of the two holes on the backplate is 32mm or so.

( seeing as diagonally they are 45 mm)

 

[wahdangun]

Heat-pipes are better then vapour chambers : ]

a heatpipe makes 360 degree contact through every fin it passes through , ontop of that multiple heat-pipes mean more 360 degree contact points You can also run the heat-pipes through the centre of a fin so either side of the fin gets equal amounts of thermal energy etc

Vs the one contact point the vapour chambers offer.

Vapour chambers are cost effective mind you, my 5770 uses a vapour chamber ( stock batmobile style 5770)

wait.... wait a sec, didn't HD 5970 use VAPOR chamber?