EK Waterblocks + Predator 360 + XFX 480s

M

MotionBlur

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 27, 2001
Messages
1,636
Figured this deserved it's own thread. Sold my Sapphire Furys on here last week and finally got my EK waterblocks + Predator 360 all setup.

Idle temps hover around 25-28'C on both cards, during Firestrike it never went above 39'C @ 1335mhz. Will be posting back with my OC results (1335mhz was the highest stable I could get with the reference coolers).

IMG_20160722_203054.jpg
 
My 2nd 480 (in the lower slot), Windows detects, Crimson detects it, but it shows as Disabled. I was wondering why my Firestrike score was only 11k.
 
I'm helping Google this for you.

Is there a Crossfire enable/disable switch? Advanced setting window? I've read that on 16.5.2 drivers a fresh install will bring that option back.

But I do see you're on a later version.

Have you tried a fresh reinstall?
 
That's pretty cool and all. But why would you sell Fury's and replace them with slower cards.
 
Maddness said:
That's pretty cool and all. But why would you sell Fury's and replace them with slower cards.
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For fun really, I don't really play many games (though I did dump a ton of time into Doom), the learning experience setting them up, benchmarking, overclocking etc and then comparing them to co-worker's builds.

Here's a 3D Mark with both just now @ 1335mhz/2125mhz with both never getting above 49'C:
I scored 19 126 in Fire Strike
 
Glad to hear you are happy with them MotionBlur!!!!

Is that the stock tubing that came with your Predator AIO? That stuff is insanely thick, and takes up a shit ton of room..I run PrimoChill Advanced LRT with 5/8" OD and it is perfect...Great flow rate, very flexible, and takes up very little room...

Have you tried that community created program yet? It has been mentioned here several times as you could use it to adjust the current draw ratio on the 480s before the official fix was released..It will give you voltage control for the cards..
 
ccityinstaller said:
Glad to hear you are happy with them MotionBlur!!!!

Is that the stock tubing that came with your Predator AIO? That stuff is insanely thick, and takes up a shit ton of room..I run PrimoChill Advanced LRT with 5/8" OD and it is perfect...Great flow rate, very flexible, and takes up very little room...

Have you tried that community created program yet? It has been mentioned here several times as you could use it to adjust the current draw ratio on the 480s before the official fix was released..It will give you voltage control for the cards..
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That's the stock cabling, love the QDC, but yeah I do not know how in the world all of the tubing is going to fit nicely back into the case (that's why it is still open). I am just more happy that the Predator's 360mm radiator fit along with my top mounted Corsair H110i - 600mm of radiators in a medium sized case ain't bad at all in my book.

I'll check out the community created program, I'd love to hit 1400mhz, but at the end of the day my rig is virtually silent now at 1370mhz/2200mhz up from 1266mhz/2000mhz, which I was never able to hit at stock on top of the cards still never getting above 52'C.
 
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Seem to be getting diminishing returns on overclocking, now running Firestrike @ 1370mhz/2250mhz and only bumped up 239 points from last night's run: I scored 19 639 in Fire Strike

I know 3D Mark is far from a definitive test, but it is interesting. Will have to boot up Doom this weekend and compare my FPS notes I had with my Furys at stock and 480s at 1335mhz.
 
cageymaru said:
The fact that you are sitting at 49c is impressive in itself.
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It is - definitely something to get excited for when Vega comes and I would think has an AIO from the get go or maybe a Powercolor Devil version. (Hoping for a EK block from XFX or another manufacturer so I can keep my warranties in tact).

Just did some Doom team deathmatch @ 4k everything on Ultra running at 1370/2250 was getting 50-60fps. This is with Vulkan.

My Furys for comparison (in OpenGL so take this for what it's worth), was getting 40-50fps. Single player on the Foundry was getting 50-51 same settings, Furys were getting 42-45. I don't think any of the AIB cards are going to be clocked at 1370, but for folks wanting to play reasonably at 4k with a 480 at least in Doom can clocked that high.
 
MotionBlur said:
Highest stable clock for Firestrike until we get more voltage control is 1370mhz/2175mhz: I scored 19 400 in Fire Strike

Never went above 55'C during that run.
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Flash the bios, GPU Tweak 2. Don't forget to back the bios up first.
AMD Radeon RX 480 Unlocked Air BIOS - Overclocking.Guide

This looks interesting, but it is cheaper elsewhere.
Amazon.com: XSPC Blade Radeon RX480 Waterblock: Electronics

$66.95 here.
XSPC Blade Radeon RX480 Full Cover Waterblock for Radeon RX480 by XSPC (Black color)

Buildzoid got 1480 out of his card.
 
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I'm at 1430MHz and 8400 @1300mV. I think that Quantum Break is the most intensive game to test for stability with. If I can get through a level and load the next, then it's good.

With that said I'm going to try some higher speeds as I can play 99% of my library @1470.
 
cageymaru said:
I'm at 1430MHz and 8400 @1300mV. I think that Quantum Break is the most intensive game to test for stability with. If I can get through a level and load the next, then it's good.

With that said I'm going to try some higher speeds as I can play 99% of my library @1470.
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Have you tried the recently released and unlocked powercolor bios?

PowerColor Outs "Unlocked BIOS" for RX 480 RED Devil
 
cageymaru said:
Not yet. The Asus one unlocks everything from what I've seen.
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The asus one still caps tdp at 225w with 1.4v. The ln2 asus changes the power reporting factor to get 450w and 1.6v, but it has temp monitoring disabled making it not for the faint of heart. I'm guessing or hoping this bios here ups the tdp ante.
 
cageymaru said:
I'm at 1430MHz and 8400 @1300mV. I think that Quantum Break is the most intensive game to test for stability with. If I can get through a level and load the next, then it's good.

With that said I'm going to try some higher speeds as I can play 99% of my library @1470.
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Nice OC! I have the EK block on my 480 as well, but I'm at 1370/2125 with the stock bios. I've thought about flashing the asus one, but was hoping for a breakthrough on the bios modding soon.

I have QB as well, but have yet to re-install and test it. How's the performance?
 
Performance is pretty good in Quantum Break as long as you don't go crazy with the settings. :)
 
Interesting video on water cooling a reference RX 480. It's in 4K so make sure that you choose your proper resolution.

I found it interesting that the video card's power usage went from 190w when OC'd to 140w with the same settings. That is comparing the aftermarket Gigabyte card to the reference with a WC loop. I went with the XSPC block so it was much cheaper for me than the EKWB full cover in the video. You can do an even cheaper generic core only block on a reference card as AMD chose way overbuilt components for the VRMs. The reference components are complete overkill, but I love things like that! The Gigabyte aftermarket that he compares the reference card to in the video seems to use much cheaper VRMs than what the reference cards use as it is mentioned that they can take 25% less abuse. I would do a little research on the aftermarket cards before purchasing them after hearing about the cheaper components on the Gigabyte.

If you buy a quality expandable water cooler like the Alphacool Eisbaer 240 CPU AIO Cooler that [H]ardocp reviewed recently, you can easily expand it to incorporate the video card. It is expandable and cools better than the other units mentioned in the test. Oh and it's the same price as the lower performing coolers that it defeated! So it's not some expensive component to add to your system for looks; it is priced right and has the performance to back it up. Once again if using a generic video card core only cooler like the ones from EKWB, you can lower the price tremendously and get the same performance improvements.

Here are an array of full cover and core only blocks from EKWB that fit the card. Remember that other manufacturer's blocks will work also.
Review and select water blocks | AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB GDDR5 | CoolingConfigurator.com


Wonder if I should add a second RX 480 to my loop? What do you think MotionBlur ? :)
 
cageymaru said:
Interesting video on water cooling a reference RX 480.
Wonder if I should add a second RX 480 to my loop? What do you think MotionBlur ? :)
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I watched that last night, found it pretty interesting! I couldn't believe how much juice the fan takes, the wattage drop was huge! I was also very disappointed with the GB card, what were they thinking?! if they want to make a cheap card fine but DONT give it the performance name(G1, ROG etc).

I think that adding WCing to these cards using just a gpu block in an existing setup or adding a cheap aio is a viable and not too costly option. its also fun!
full cover is still a little expensive, cheapest ive found was the xspc for $80ish.
 
The XSPC block doesn't actively cool the vrms though, so its something to keep in mind. About the custom cards like the gigafail, that's ironic or is it? AMD has always produced overbuilt reference designs. The ref rx480 is pretty compelling on water, not bad at all.
 
A good bit of the power is from the squirrel cage but not all. It's true as you surmised lower temps equal lower consumption as there is less leakage with lower temps. A hot n toasty card with a screaming squirrel cage is a lesson in waste!
 
Hmmm, looks like a finally found a ref 480 8gb for actual msrp, but there's tax grrr. Hmm... what to do? lol I have some rewards at the zon, so ek block and rx480 is 340...
 
thesmokingman said:
Hmmm, looks like a finally found a ref 480 8gb for actual msrp, but there's tax grrr. Hmm... what to do? lol I have some rewards at the zon, so ek block and rx480 is 340...
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Almost to GTX 1070 territory which is a much nicer card. I've seen AMD Nano and regular Fury for ~ $300. I thought I saw some Fury blocks on clearance a month or so ago; might want to see if that is a better deal. Black Friday is coming so might want to wait for that unless pressed to upgrade.

Never catch yourself worshipping at the temple of brand loyalty. I'll stick whatever is interesting at the time into my machines. For me to be interested in hardware, I need things like settings and buttons to tinker with. So the cost of a GTX 1070 is $405 + $120 for the water block in my world. For you it might be all about the games so a water block might not be as pressing an issue. Everyone is different. That's what makes this forum and hobby in general interesting! :)

Now if you have the resources, I'd say go for it! Hell yeah it's awesome! One time investment in the basic cooling loop and then add in the video card whenever you upgrade from generation to generation.


thesmokingman Look and see if the card has a seller that is not Amazon. That's how I got around that when I ordered my card off the Amazon website. Those dealers don't charge sales tax unless they are located in your state.
 
cageymaru said:
Heck yeah! Congrats!
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Thanks dude. Financially it was a smarter move. I got the card today and just finished doing some bench runs with it. Did some quick and dirty oc runs at 1515/2000 in valley and fsu with no volts added. It's crazy that both the 1060 and rx480 have to compete with flagship last gen cards. It's literally not fair but am so glad the values on the 980ti's just bottomed out.
 
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