BFG6800GT OC Heatsink Question

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NinjaJack

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Feb 12, 2004
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I just picked up a GT from BB here in Cambridge MA today.
I see the card has the copper heatpipe w/ 2fans heatsink.

But I am seeing the standard heatsink on most pics I see of the card on the board.
I called BFG and they said they have been puting 3 different coolers on the cards
just to try and get them out the door fast enough to fill orders.

My question is, of these coolers is any one of them worse than the other?
I like the look of the copper heatpipe, but the 2 small fans dont inspire
the confidence of the blower on the other 6800's

just curious

Discuss.......
 
the pics are on the BFG website
the GT shows the blower
the vanilla 6800 shows the copper one.
 
I've got the 2 fan version. It's idling at 73C. I haven't played a game since I checked the idle temps. Of course it's only got one slot to work with. I'll keep an eye on my temps and see how it does. Who knows, maybe it'll fry & I'll have to take BFG up on thier lifetime warranty. Good thing I've got a 5900 lying around as a spare now. :) It'll go into my "iMac" (see sig) when I get around to it, but I don't use the iMac much so I'll just pull it out if the GT fries.
Actually I've got a Parhelia sitting around too, though that might get taken into work depending on what my new PC comes with. Once I get my new machine I'll sell it on eBay if I don't want to use it @ work.
 
It's getting into the low 100s in Doom 3. I've got 3 screens, so I'm leaving the temp monitor open on the one attached to the GF2MX. The highest I've seen is 105C. Ouch.
I'm kinda wondering if I could just remove the built in fans & shroud over the sink & duct a slot fan to blow over the card. I've got some free drive bays right in front of the card I had a slot fan mounted in to cool the 5900 this card replaced. OTOH, I don't really wanna void my warranty. Doom 3 is running nicely in 1600x1200, so I think I'll just leave it @ stock & let BFG replace it if it cooks.
 
I lucked out yesterday, and my local BB had 2 of the BFG 6800GT in, so I snagged one. I have the two fan version, with the heat pipe.

Right now, just using the internet, my temp is 62 degrees Celsius. Is that a good temp?

This is an awesome card. My previous card was a plain ATI 9800.

Steve
 
my BFG 6800 Ultra is only showing 54-56 on idle and about 70+ on full load.
 
I have the two fan version as well and i'm only idling at 55-60C. I'm loving this card so far, Doom is just so silky smooth.
 
im idling at 71C in my shuttle, thats expected cause theres like no airflow. I dont care because i have a lifetime warranty and i work at the place i bought the card, so if it cooks i WILL get a new card.
 
My BFG GT OC idles at 56 degrees C and when playing games goes to 70 degrees or so. Mine is overclocked to 418/1080

edit: it is the single fan version, just like the reference card
 
dimmub said:
Pics!
Click to expand...

its the same one that I picked up the other day at BB.

bfg6800gt.jpg


-but at the same time, I ditched the card not 24 hours later cuz that damn thing idled at like 62C with peak temps at like 90C! :eek:

meanwhile, my good 'ol PNY GT idles at like 54C and doesnt think about going over 80C at worse.

(oh, did I also mention that my PNY card O/Cs better than my BFG card did? :D )
 
NinjaJack said:
My question is, of these coolers is any one of them worse than the other?
I like the look of the copper heatpipe, but the 2 small fans dont inspire
the confidence of the blower on the other 6800's
Click to expand...

as I said in my previous post ^ above ^, I also bought one of the BFG cards with the newer, copper heatsink with the dually fans and my first impressions of the card werent too great. it ran too hot compared to my PNY card which has the original nVidia design cooler.

I've also heard from people on other forums that they arent too tickled pink over the newer, copper design coolers on their BFG cards either.

this is just my theory but I think BFG screwed up by the way they designed their newer coolers but making the heatsink one solid piece for both the GPU and the memory.

think about it, the GPUs on these cards get so dang hot (even at stock speeds) so instead of BFG leaving a heatsink all by itself like the original coolers were, now the copper heatsink is also transferring the GPU's heat output to the memory as well.

again, thats just my .02 cents but if you think about it, it does make sense about the GPU heating up the memory by sharing the same cooler.
 
was the retail box different? on the original bfg packaging there is a picture of the card showing the old design, did those copper ones show that on the box? I am going down to bestbuy today to try and pick one up, I'm gonna pop it open right after I buy it to see, if its the copper ill turn right around and tell em to stuff it, here's hopin :rolleyes:
 
Sounds like this is looks over function...too bad cause I like the heatsink. I have the standard nvidia heatsink, and from all I've read that one works the best...which still isn't great. Anyway, overclocked 415/1100 I idle at 55C and reach 81 at full load.
 
oozish said:
Anyway, overclocked 415/1100 I idle at 55C and reach 81 at full load.
Click to expand...

that still sounds better than the BFG card that I got (or had).

like I said earlier, it would peg to like 90C under load when my PNY card (with the older cooler) barely hits 80C.
 
I finally got my bfg gt, with that dual fan hsf.. D3 plays amazing on it with little problems. I haven't checked the temps on it yet but, I really don't care.. I mean, as long as the thing works fine even with higher temps than other cards, what's the big deal. Unless your trying to oc the thing higher I can understand but hell it's already oc'ed I have no desire to push it any more.
 
To recap:
To get the 6800GTOC out to stores faster BFG shipped it with the 6800OC heatsink/fan(copper).PIC IT should have shipped with this. PIC The 6800OC heatsink is not a good.
 
Techx said:
I finally got my bfg gt, with that dual fan hsf.. D3 plays amazing on it with little problems. I haven't checked the temps on it yet but, I really don't care.. I mean, as long as the thing works fine even with higher temps than other cards, what's the big deal. Unless your trying to oc the thing higher I can understand but hell it's already oc'ed I have no desire to push it any more.
Click to expand...

I feel the same way, Ill get a new card before the time comes that ill need to OC this one so much JUST to get a game to be playable.
 
Broke down and installed mine. Dual fan led version. Idles at 65 and maxes at 75 after an hour of Doom 3. Havent overclocked it but dont really see a reason to.

High idle temps but It isnt nearly as bad as some make it out to be.
 
Yeah Ozzie, thanks for responding. After I posted this I did some more digging on other sites and found your post on nvnews as well.

It looks like the consensus is that yes, the copper cooler is not as high performing
as the stock one, but also as a lot of people have said, the card works great with either one. Just personal preference I guess.

I am actually going to return the card(used wrong credit card) and look online
for another one. I like BFG a lot(after asking the support guy about the heatsinks we shot the shit about games and modding)and the warranty is obviously the best in the biz.

but I am tempted to look for the PNY, is the pricing pretty much $399 everywhere?
Any other GT's worth looking at on the market?
 
I have an XFX 6800GT arriving tomorrow. What are you guys using to check the temperature on the card? It's been a while since I ran anything nvidia.
 
In the display properties there is a temperature settings tab that reports the core temperature.
 
I bought the BFG 6800 GT from BB Saturday 7 w/ dual fans and my temp. is 51 to 52 idle and 67 to 70 gamming, I have very good air cirulation in my case.Haven't over clocked yet.
 
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