Which GPU Cooler? Kraken G12 + H55, Arctic AcceleroIII/IV, or Rajintek Morpheus II

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Title says it. I'very been pretty dead set on replacing the cooler on my EVGA 1080ti SC Black with. Kraken G12 and an H55. I would shim it so that I could leave the stock top plate and back plate intact. However, I have seen that you can keep the VRMS plenty cool with just a fan.

In due diligence, I've also been researching the Arctic accelero III and IV. I actually had one on a 7970. I think the IV version looks far superior to the III as you don't have to futz with all the heatsinks, but I'm not sure about clearance issues I would have with the backplate and my Silver Arrow cooler. I guess I could use a lower pcie slot.

The Rajintek Morpheus II really intrigues me. It looks like, with the right fans, you can get very cool and quiet. I saw a video comparing it to the artic accelero III on a 1080ti, but the guy had a small case where he had to mount the fans as case fans to get it to fit. The accelero showed better VRM and GPU temps by a small margin and was quieter.

It seems to me that the Arctic Accelero is the cheapest and quietest option with very good temps, but also looks the lamest. The kraken g12 looks like a top performer and you can carry it forward, but it's probably the loudest and most expensive option. The Rajintek looks pretty cool, but you need expensive fans to make it cool and quiet and it's going to take up the most space.

Any of you guys tried more than one of these so that you can compare and contrast?
 
Though discontinued, the EVGA 1080ti hybrid water cooler would be your best bet if you can find one. I know there's a bunch on ebay for around $100, but not everyone has the patience for buying from there.

Unless they've updated the design, the kraken can be a bitch to fasten evenly and can easily bend the PCB or crack the core from pressure. Ask me, an idiot, how I know.
 
I have a Kraken G10 and H55. The most annoying thing about it is fan control. You can set a constant fan speed but then you are compromising temps and noise. You have to use some kind of software if you want to control the fan by the GPU temp. Speedfan works but is blocked by some anti cheat. I'm using Argus Monitor, but it is not free (they have a long trial though). You might be able to plug the fan into your GPU with an adapter and use Afterburner to control the fan, this did not work on my GPU, the fan speed was all over the place.

If you use a shim you have to be extra careful getting even pressure so you don't damage anything.
 
Though discontinued, the EVGA 1080ti hybrid water cooler would be your best bet if you can find one. I know there's a bunch on ebay for around $100, but not everyone has the patience for buying from there.

Unless they've updated the design, the kraken can be a bitch to fasten evenly and can easily bend the PCB or crack the core from pressure. Ask me, an idiot, how I know.

I thought about that evga kit, but it appears to be priced around $150 on ebay right now and almost all of them are for the FTW3 cards. There is one list for $100 for the FTW3 though.
 
I have a Kraken G10 and H55. The most annoying thing about it is fan control. You can set a constant fan speed but then you are compromising temps and noise. You have to use some kind of software if you want to control the fan by the GPU temp. Speedfan works but is blocked by some anti cheat. I'm using Argus Monitor, but it is not free (they have a long trial though). You might be able to plug the fan into your GPU with an adapter and use Afterburner to control the fan, this did not work on my GPU, the fan speed was all over the place.

If you use a shim you have to be extra careful getting even pressure so you don't damage anything.


Do you get good temps at a decent noose level? That's a bummer you can't just use afterburner, that was my plan. The shim I have is basically a 1.5" round copper disc that should fit nicely on the base of the H55.
 
Do you get good temps at a decent noose level? That's a bummer you can't just use afterburner, that was my plan. The shim I have is basically a 1.5" round copper disc that should fit nicely on the base of the H55.

I have a vmodded bios and it runs around the mid 60s when gaming. I think my card runs hot though. It was running 80-83C with the stock cooler and no vmods when others were reporting mid 70s.

When I tried afterburner the fan would just ramp up and down, even at idle. If I set a constant 50% speed it would say 50% but the RPM would bounce up and down 900rpm to 1800rpm and you could hear the fan actually doing it. If you set a curve and put it under load it would do the same thing.

The evga hybrid kits plug everything into the video card. It would be nice, but then again the NZXT G10/12 should be compatible with future cards.
 
I have a Kraken G10 and H55. The most annoying thing about it is fan control. You can set a constant fan speed but then you are compromising temps and noise. You have to use some kind of software if you want to control the fan by the GPU temp. Speedfan works but is blocked by some anti cheat. I'm using Argus Monitor, but it is not free (they have a long trial though). You might be able to plug the fan into your GPU with an adapter and use Afterburner to control the fan, this did not work on my GPU, the fan speed was all over the place.

I had this same setup with my MSI 980 Ti and it worked fine using Afterburner. I set the G10 fan to max all the time because it was silent like that and instead used the GPU fan header with an adapter to control the radiator fans. I only slightly tweaked the stock fan curve of the card so that it runs the fans higher at lower temp because the cooler kept the card at much lower temps than the stock cooler.

The MSI card was great because the VRM heatsink was separate from the main stock cooler. Unfortunately their newer cards no longer have this.

How have others handled cooling VRM and VRAM with this kind of setup? I got by with only the baseplate on the card to spread heat from VRAM. In a past card I tried heatsinks that could be attached with heat transfering tape but those would eventually come loose and fall off.

I would love to keep using my G10+H55 setup for future GPUs too because it's always going to be cooler and quieter than whatever stock cooler is on but I'm worried about frying the VRM and VRAM.
 
I have a first release 1080ti FE with an Accelero Xtreme III fitted almost since new, waited long enough to be sure it wasnt a dud because I didnt want to use the Xtreme IV.
This has been running 24/7 ever since and hasnt presented a problem, it is very effective.
Temps are generally around 45C to 55C @ 21C ambient. Idle 23C.
Its so damn quiet its hard to believe.

I tried the Xtreme IV cooler on my previous 980ti but am not as big a fan of it.
The VRM and memory cooling isnt as good (it cools through the cards PCB from the back) and the back plate was tricky to secure in place without bending parts of the card, due to how it is secured.
It does however let you remove it and restore the card to original condition, the Xtreme III uses glued on sinks. It can use sticky thermal pads but I wouldnt risk killing a VRM or ram chip if one falls off.

I previously used an Xtreme III on an AMD 290 that turned out to be a true 290x, this silenced the card and made it perform much better than the 390x that replaced it in AMDs line up.
Its a serious cooler and is quite massive! I wouldnt describe it as lame lol.
Be sure your case has the space. I had to cut a small gap in my drive bays to get it in.

Forgot to mention, I keep the fans at full speed all the time they are so quiet.
24/7 use has lasted over 1.5 years so far without any reliability issue.
And I also kept the back plate on the end of the card to cool the one component that has a heat pad between them.
To get the back plate to stay on I made fake nuts for the screws from a plastic food container.
 
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I had this same setup with my MSI 980 Ti and it worked fine using Afterburner. I set the G10 fan to max all the time because it was silent like that and instead used the GPU fan header with an adapter to control the radiator fans. I only slightly tweaked the stock fan curve of the card so that it runs the fans higher at lower temp because the cooler kept the card at much lower temps than the stock cooler.

The MSI card was great because the VRM heatsink was separate from the main stock cooler. Unfortunately their newer cards no longer have this.

How have others handled cooling VRM and VRAM with this kind of setup? I got by with only the baseplate on the card to spread heat from VRAM. In a past card I tried heatsinks that could be attached with heat transfering tape but those would eventually come loose and fall off.

I would love to keep using my G10+H55 setup for future GPUs too because it's always going to be cooler and quieter than whatever stock cooler is on but I'm worried about frying the VRM and VRAM.

With the card I have, you can leave the baseplate on if you use a shim, so the G12 fan would cool the RAM and VRMs. It's the same card minus temp monitoring that JayTwoCents did a review on with the G12 and a Kraken X42.

He actually found that the temps went down on the VRMs and memory when he took it off the baseplate and ran it bare PCB with the G12 as compared to the stock heatsink on the card.
 
I have a first release 1080ti FE with an Accelero Xtreme III fitted almost since new, waited long enough to be sure it wasnt a dud because I didnt want to use the Xtreme IV.
This has been running 24/7 ever since and hasnt presented a problem, it is very effective.
Temps are generally around 45C to 55C @ 21C ambient. Idle 23C.
Its so damn quiet its hard to believe.

I tried the Xtreme IV cooler on my previous 980ti but am not as big a fan of it.
The VRM and memory cooling isnt as good (it cools through the cards PCB from the back) and the back plate was tricky to secure in place without bending parts of the card, due to how it is secured.
It does however let you remove it and restore the card to original condition, the Xtreme III uses glued on sinks. It can use sticky thermal pads but I wouldnt risk killing a VRM or ram chip if one falls off.

I previously used an Xtreme III on an AMD 290 that turned out to be a true 290x, this silenced the card and made it perform much better than the 390x that replaced it in AMDs line up.
Its a serious cooler and is quite massive! I wouldnt describe it as lame lol.
Be sure your case has the space. I had to cut a small gap in my drive bays to get it in.

Forgot to mention, I keep the fans at full speed all the time they are so quiet.
24/7 use has lasted over 1.5 years so far without any reliability issue.
And I also kept the back plate on the end of the card to cool the one component that has a heat pad between them.
To get the back plate to stay on I made fake nuts for the screws from a plastic food container.

I actually had the accelero 7970 edition on a 7970 back in the day. I had to cut off a few fins to make it fit. I remember it was quiet. I'm not going to use thermal adhesive no matter what I do because I'd like the keep the warranty on the card for as long as I can. I wonder if the Accelero IV does a good enough job on the VRM and memory since the fan is still blowing on them through the heatsink and you have the passive heatsinks on the back?
 
I actually had the accelero 7970 edition on a 7970 back in the day. I had to cut off a few fins to make it fit. I remember it was quiet. I'm not going to use thermal adhesive no matter what I do because I'd like the keep the warranty on the card for as long as I can. I wonder if the Accelero IV does a good enough job on the VRM and memory since the fan is still blowing on them through the heatsink and you have the passive heatsinks on the back?
When I used it on my 980ti the backplate got very hot because there is not enough area or airflow.
It would crash the card after about 10 mins.
My fix was to blow a fan at the backplate, even then it was still hot.
I considered attaching more heatsinks to the backplate to increase its surface area further.
fyi

Its possible the 1080ti idoesnt sink as much power in the VRMs/memory and wont run as hot.
Speculative though.
 
When I used it on my 980ti the backplate got very hot because there is not enough area or airflow.
It would crash the card after about 10 mins.
My fix was to blow a fan at the backplate, even then it was still hot.
I considered attaching more heatsinks to the backplate to increase its surface area further.
fyi

Its possible the 1080ti idoesnt sink as much power in the VRMs/memory and wont run as hot.
Speculative though.

Bummer. Maybe the Accelero III with thermal tape is OK then if you keep an eye on the heatsinks.
 
Bummer. Maybe the Accelero III with thermal tape is OK then if you keep an eye on the heatsinks.
Read guides on how to apply the tape so it properly sticks. And get good thermal tape!
You will need to clean each chip, possibly with a rubber and/or some solution.
Bear in mind the cooling isnt quite as good as using glue, but at least its better than through the PCB and there are decent fans.
 
Not all thermal tape is created equal. I had an Arctic Accelero S1 on an 8800GT a long time ago and the memory sinks started falling off the first day. I bought some higher quality thermal tape and it held for the 6-8 months I owned the card. I would have thought they would have fixed a problem like that by now.
 
The morpheus II comes with thermal tape and not adhesive, so maybe they figured it out. I know you can run that cooler with the stock baseplate still on. I wonder if you can do the accelero the same way.
 
Thanks for all the input. I'm going with Kraken G12, H55, and a Noctua NF-AF12x25 to replace the Corsair fan. I'll use a 4 pin to GPU fan adapter to control it.
 
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Note to anyone thinking about doing this: Don't waste time trying to keep the baseplate and backplates on the card. The Kraken G12 mounting hardware that eventually are supposed to attach to the AIO cooler coldplate will not fit with the baseplate in place. The baseplate is too thick and the raised points that are supposed to help with cooling are also in the way. Without the baseplate, you can't have the backplate because they attach to each other. So, you have to go down to the bare card. I wish I had known this before buying copper rounds to use as shims.
 
Note to anyone thinking about doing this: Don't waste time trying to keep the baseplate and backplates on the card. The Kraken G12 mounting hardware that eventually are supposed to attach to the AIO cooler coldplate will not fit with the baseplate in place. The baseplate is too thick and the raised points that are supposed to help with cooling are also in the way. Without the baseplate, you can't have the backplate because they attach to each other. So, you have to go down to the bare card. I wish I had known this before buying copper rounds to use as shims.

This depends entirely on the card in question and how the base and backplates are done. I had no trouble keeping both on my MSI 980 Ti with a G10 + H55.
 
This depends entirely on the card in question and how the base and backplates are done. I had no trouble keeping both on my MSI 980 Ti with a G10 + H55.

Of course. I know it works like that with other cards. I was just letting everyone know it doesn't work with the EVGA 1080 Ti SC Black. I'll probably start a new thread when I finish putting it together.
 
Get a cheap Asetek if you want an AIO, I was looking at the 590s. I think tech jesus got one on there, few others have. Pay attention to the brackets side of things.
My issue with them is long term reliability, I expect over 5 years from my cooling systems and an AIO isn't going to do that every time. My accelero III (6970) will be modded onto my V64 after some use stock. You would have had to use a shim on the 7970 eh?
 
Get a cheap Asetek if you want an AIO, I was looking at the 590s. I think tech jesus got one on there, few others have. Pay attention to the brackets side of things.
My issue with them is long term reliability, I expect over 5 years from my cooling systems and an AIO isn't going to do that every time. My accelero III (6970) will be modded onto my V64 after some use stock. You would have had to use a shim on the 7970 eh?

I already have an asetek, the H55. I did have a shim on the 7970 back in the day. I still have the shims actually and they are almost a perfect fit for the 1080ti.
 
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All hydro kits perform roughly the same... ie a lot better than air cooling, the main concern for you should be the fit.

I like the EVGA ftw3 kit but I'm biased. It works great and it's relatively quiet in my Fractal Design case.
 
OK, I ended up going the NZXT G12 plus H55 route.

Parts List:
EVGA SC Black 1080 Ti
NZXT Kraken G12
Corsair H55
1 Noctua NF-A9 PWM 92mm fan
2 Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM 120mm fans
Gelid Solutions PWM Fan Adapter
2 20Piece mini aluminum VGA RAM Cooling Heatsinks
1 pack of copper RAM heatsinks
Sywon Professional Thermal Adhesive Conductive Tape 10mm x 25m
Arctic MX-4
Tiny Screws and nuts size 2-56?


I was able to use the stock backplate by purchasing a bunch of nuts sized 2-56 I believe from the hardware store. I used the screws that came stock on the graphics card, but bought a couple of spares just in case. I used the thermal tape to hold the tiny ramsinks on and I believe the 92 mm takes care of keeping that part of the card cool. Here's the pictures in clickable thumbnails:

20181217_165933.jpg
20190112_160844.jpg
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20190112_160823.jpg

This is inside an Coolermaster ATCS which is of course gigantic. The bottom intake is literally the only place this would fit. I could have used the exhaust fan location in the back, but would have needed a 140mm cooler setup. Please don't crucify me on the dust and cable management, I'm upgrading when Ryzen 3 drops with a new case and everything. As for the numbers, on this card in stock configuration, I was getting 2025 MHz at around 63C with the fans maxed while looping Unigine Heaven at 1440p with everything set to maximum. Using MSI Afterburner, I had the core at +65 and the core voltage at +50 with Power Limit set to 120 and temp limit at 90. The fans on the SC Black aren't bad, but they're not exactly quiet either. Now, with the same settings in Afterburner and Heaven, I can keep 2050 MHz for a while before dropping to 2037 with temps on the core hanging around 50 C. Much quieter as well. The Noctua 92 mm fan on the G12 is running full tilt and I can't distiguish it above my case fans even when I have them turned down. The 2 Noctua 120mm fans are very quiet even at full tilt. Ambient is around 22 C for all of the numbers I've provided. I haven't done any RAM tuning and don't know if I'll bother to be honest. I measured the backplate above the VRMs with one of those digital thermometers that you rub across your forehead (I know, I'm sure it's very accurate ;-)) and it would appear that the card is now about 5 or 6 C lower in that location now.
 
Does that card come with a memory/mosfet plate? If so, it would be better to keep that on vs. buying separate heatsinks for VRM and mosfets. I say that because the plate is tightened and applies some pressure against the mosfets and vram, which in turn does a better job at extracting heat
 
Does that card come with a memory/mosfet plate? If so, it would be better to keep that on vs. buying separate heatsinks for VRM and mosfets. I say that because the plate is tightened and applies some pressure against the mosfets and vram, which in turn does a better job at extracting heat

I agree that it would be better. I tried, but with it on, I couldn't attach the Kraken G12. I would have had to Dremel it to fit, which destroy the warranty.

I actually bought a Gelid VRM cooling kit for a 1080. I could Dremel it to fit a 1080Ti, but it didn't arrive until I did what I did and I don't see a need to use it.
 
I have a Zotac 1080 Mini and the fan has to run 90%+ to keep the card around 70c with a custom curve on my OC, if I leave it on the stock curve the card gets to 85c with my overclock. The problem is that at 80%+ the fan is way too noisy. I grabbed the NZXT G12 and a Corsair H55 AIO from Amazon, they should be here Wednesday, and I should be able to work on installing it Thursday. I'm hoping to keep it under 60c as that is supposed to be the first soft throttle point for the GPU. The question is if the AIO plate actually fits the Mini, so this should be a fun experiment.

GPU AIO modify.PNG
 
To Ryom..How about a NEW thread on your project..really interested

So it's not going to work, the components shown are in the way of the waterblock bracket which doesn't allow it to sit flush. So I'm just going to look into a trade or straight upgrade and then watercool the new card :)

IMG_20190122_224617.png
 
I have a Zotac 1080 Mini and the fan has to run 90%+ to keep the card around 70c with a custom curve on my OC, if I leave it on the stock curve the card gets to 85c with my overclock. The problem is that at 80%+ the fan is way too noisy. I grabbed the NZXT G12 and a Corsair H55 AIO from Amazon, they should be here Wednesday, and I should be able to work on installing it Thursday. I'm hoping to keep it under 60c as that is supposed to be the first soft throttle point for the GPU. The question is if the AIO plate actually fits the Mini, so this should be a fun experiment.

View attachment 136379


So I bought a Zotac 1080ti AMP! edition off of a member here to finish my AIO project, here she is:

Next to my old Zotac 1080 Mini for comparison...

Zotac 1080ti heatsink and thermal paste removed...

NZXT GPU AIO brackets installed, Artic MX-4 thermal paste applied, heat-sinks applied to heat generating components...

Corsair H55 AIO install completed onto the Zotac 1080ti...

She's running furmark at 60c max so far and idling at 28c, so mission successful!

edit: Got a quick and stable OC to 2025MHz core and 5554 Memory... I can see what she's capable of later... been a long day :)
 
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Did the VRM heatsink come with the card?

Everything in this photo is stock (the card is a Zotac 1080 AMP! edition). But if you want to pop some heatsinks over the memory and the components out of the direct air path I used these...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D35M3RJ/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H18PKXP/ - Copper 14mm

If I got a free do-over I'd probably look for a single flatter heatspreader rather than an individual heatsink and just hit each row of memory with a heatspreader and thermal pad for a cleaner look and more heat-soaking ability. The smaller components fit the heatsinks well though.
 
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Everything in this photo is stock (the card is a Zotac 1080 AMP! edition). But if you want to pop some heatsinks over the memory and the components out of the direct air path I used these...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D35M3RJ/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H18PKXP/ - Copper 14mm

If I got a free do-over I'd probably look for a single flatter heatspreader rather than an individual heatsink and just hit each row of memory with a heatspreader and thermal pad for a cleaner look and more heat-soaking ability. The smaller components fit the heatsinks well though.

The pictures of what I did are in the post above. I would have liked to have used the stock heatspreader that basically covered the whole card, but I couldn't get the G12 on with it there, so I had to buy a bunch of little heatsinks. I would have liked to find something like what came stock on your Zotac for the VRMs. That said, mine appears to work fine so far.
 
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The pictures of what I did are in the post above. I would have liked to have used the stock heatspreader that basically covered the whole card, but I couldn't get the G12 on with it there, so I had to buy a bunch of little heatsinks. I would have liked to find something like what came stock on your Zotac for the VRMs. That said, mine appears to work fine so far.

Sorry, didn't realize you had posted in the thread already. I haven't figured out a great place to source heat-spreaders yet, everything on Amazon shows unavailable. :)

My H55 AIO cooled Zotac 1080ti AMP! OC numbers settled out to 2075 MHz core and 5900 MHz memory.
 
Sorry, didn't realize you had posted in the thread already. I haven't figured out a great place to source heat-spreaders yet, everything on Amazon shows unavailable. :)

My H55 AIO cooled Zotac 1080ti AMP! OC numbers settled out to 2075 MHz core and 5900 MHz memory.

That's a couple bins higher than mine will go. Mine pretty much locks at anything over 2050 MHz core. Of course, the PCB is reference. I do have a gelid icy vision upgrade kit that has a heat spreader, but it's for a 1080. It could be cut to work on a 1080Ti, but I haven't had reason to do it so far.
 
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