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EVGA Video cards...
- Thread starter JCNiest5
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dragonstongue
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umm this goes with more or less all reference coolers save the Titan style one which is not really reference in its design. Cooling potential.
The reference style coolers from AMD and Nvidia are just crud. They might be designed well in the regard that they blow the hot air directly out of the case and card, but they are also very constrained due to the rad design, and the blower they need to use to push enough air through this constrained rad ends up being very loud because it needs a high rpm to generate enough pressure to overcome this.
So why would one pick any "custom" cooler over a reference cooler? I don't know possibly cooling potential at a much lower noise level. The only downfall as stated, you are not expelling hot air directly out. Funny I have not seen a single maker come up with a better designed blower style. If you mod said blower to releave some of the backpressure and reduce the tight fins used on the heatsink it does have quite good cooling potential as many of the stock heatsinks are quite good in regards of the pressure they get on the various heat producing parts and the vast surface area.
So yeh, I like blower style myself but at this point they simply do not compare to any decent custom cooler that blows the heat into the case which is a shame, though any decent case has enough airflow to deal with this.
The reference style coolers from AMD and Nvidia are just crud. They might be designed well in the regard that they blow the hot air directly out of the case and card, but they are also very constrained due to the rad design, and the blower they need to use to push enough air through this constrained rad ends up being very loud because it needs a high rpm to generate enough pressure to overcome this.
So why would one pick any "custom" cooler over a reference cooler? I don't know possibly cooling potential at a much lower noise level. The only downfall as stated, you are not expelling hot air directly out. Funny I have not seen a single maker come up with a better designed blower style. If you mod said blower to releave some of the backpressure and reduce the tight fins used on the heatsink it does have quite good cooling potential as many of the stock heatsinks are quite good in regards of the pressure they get on the various heat producing parts and the vast surface area.
So yeh, I like blower style myself but at this point they simply do not compare to any decent custom cooler that blows the heat into the case which is a shame, though any decent case has enough airflow to deal with this.
"special" or non reference coolers do a much better job keeping the the card cool. Also you will have less noise.
If you live in a cold house, have great case air flow and don't mind the sound of a leaf blower while you play games reference coolers are not bad.
Noise is the biggest reason why I choose to go with non-reference style coolers.
If you live in a cold house, have great case air flow and don't mind the sound of a leaf blower while you play games reference coolers are not bad.
Noise is the biggest reason why I choose to go with non-reference style coolers.
dragonstongue
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buddy of mine has a gtx660, it gets into the 90s without a problem, constantly, he changed drivers many times, I cleaned the god awful amount of wax thermal paste off of it, tried changing his fans, cleaning up wiring etc, it still hits average of 92c at 35-80% fan no matter the game he tries to play or resolution it is at, he said it seems stable but obviously VERY hot. I looked at the cooler myself granted I did not rip it apart, it seems like t should do a decent job of cooling, hell my 4870 and 6870 at same fan speed got nowhere near that hot and their coolers were even less better as far as "looks" so yeh, a lot of folks talk bad about AMD having hot cards for nothing 
cannondale06
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well that is not normal at all for even the crappy reference cooled 660. temps should be low to maybe mid 80s in very worse case scenario. hardly anyone fools with reference cooled 660 cards though. a 660 with a typical non reference cooler that will top out in the mid to upper 60s. my MSI 660ti with its non reference single fan cooler never went over 70 even when oced. it was also basically dead silent.buddy of mine has a gtx660, it gets into the 90s without a problem, constantly, he changed drivers many times, I cleaned the god awful amount of wax thermal paste off of it, tried changing his fans, cleaning up wiring etc, it still hits average of 92c at 35-80% fan no matter the game he tries to play or resolution it is at, he said it seems stable but obviously VERY hot. I looked at the cooler myself granted I did not rip it apart, it seems like t should do a decent job of cooling, hell my 4870 and 6870 at same fan speed got nowhere near that hot and their coolers were even less better as far as "looks" so yeh, a lot of folks talk bad about AMD having hot cards for nothing
Some non-reference cards had custom PCBs, others do not. It entirely depends on the card. All of the high end (Classified, HOF, Lightening, etc) cards in a series use custom PCBs.
shadyqwerty
Gawd
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can suck it. BOTH times I've had EVGA cards I've had to RMA.
If you are going to sli, get the blower style. If you are going to just do a single and/or have great air flow then get a ACX cooler.
Please tell us how you really feel. We all had to rma something at one point in time.
Please tell us how you really feel. We all had to rma something at one point in time.
bigbeard86
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When I had my 780, I was very pleased with the blower style Titan cooler. My 780 evga sc did 1.2ghz on stock voltage with max load of 55c.
cannondale06
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so either you forced higher fan speed in some way or that was not max load. even stock the reference 780 will go to 80 C.
Not a stupid question. It is something you really need to pay attention to if you should ever go to replace your card's cooler.
Question I would like to know is how much of an increase in case temperature will you see with a ACX vs a blower?
Evga clearly shows and it's been shown in reviews the ACX tops out around 20F cooler then the reference but takes into no account how much of that hot air is being blown into the case.
If you have good case flow it most likely won't be more then a few degrees and twin fans are quieter.
One would need a card type of each to test this theory to get an actual number.
Evga clearly shows and it's been shown in reviews the ACX tops out around 20F cooler then the reference but takes into no account how much of that hot air is being blown into the case.
If you have good case flow it most likely won't be more then a few degrees and twin fans are quieter.
One would need a card type of each to test this theory to get an actual number.
theonlybabyface
Weaksauce
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I've had both the ACX and the blower style and prefer the blower style. It's such a well designed cooler and looks fantastic.
shadyqwerty
Gawd
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Well, I've been buying cards since the OG Voodoo and have only had to RMA twice. Both were EVGA. I know, silicon lottery and all, but one of the RMA's took 6 months. YMMV of course.
I've got the ACX coolers on my cards and really didn't find them to be a whole lot better than what the stock ones can do. And unfortunately the stock one this time around looks better too.
The SC/Classified GPUs should be binned as well. To some extent they have to in order to get the higher stock clocks with enough of a safety margin not knowing the temps and system configurations they'll end up in.
buddy of mine has a gtx660, it gets into the 90s without a problem, constantly, he changed drivers many times, I cleaned the god awful amount of wax thermal paste off of it, tried changing his fans, cleaning up wiring etc, it still hits average of 92c at 35-80% fan no matter the game he tries to play or resolution it is at, he said it seems stable but obviously VERY hot. I looked at the cooler myself granted I did not rip it apart, it seems like t should do a decent job of cooling, hell my 4870 and 6870 at same fan speed got nowhere near that hot and their coolers were even less better as far as "looks" so yeh, a lot of folks talk bad about AMD having hot cards for nothing
Our stock "blower" 660 runs fine! Is that an OC model possibly? Something wrong there, I think.
On the EVGA "SC" debate, I have not had a good time with their SC cards. I don't think they are binned well, if they are binned.
Good chart which also solidifies what other reviews have shown, the ACX can keep the GPU core a good 15-20F cooler.
twin 80mm fans vs a 72mm blower, it's only logical.
As for how much your case temps go up using an open ACX cooler vs a sealed blower, still have not seen any stats.
shadyqwerty
Gawd
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Not sure just how similar the ACX is to the DC2 in terms of how it does w/ cases that have fan filters, but simply by removing mine, the DC2 will drop 8C, from 80C to 72C. Perhaps it's time for a top exhaust.
clownshoes
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I thought the new nvidia reference coolers were suppose to be pretty decent. Didn't they redesign the cooler for the titan and then use that same cooler for the entire 700 series? I read the reference cooler is overkill for the 770 and 780 (considering it was designed for titan) so the fan never needs to spin up and it runs very quiet.
If that is true would the part number change to reflect the changed cooler perhaps?
They did this with the new gtx660 with ACX, it's a new number.
In reality the ACX is just an upgraded version of their FTW2.
I actually like blower styles, just wish they used a larger blower fan like a 92mm, more air, less noise.
They did this with the new gtx660 with ACX, it's a new number.
In reality the ACX is just an upgraded version of their FTW2.
I actually like blower styles, just wish they used a larger blower fan like a 92mm, more air, less noise.
According to the tests I read, the noise difference between ACX and stock cooler is 3db - ACX is 38, stock is 41 at load, so propably you won't be able to distinguish noise between those two. The only notable difference is in temps - as ACX can get card down to 65C, while stock keeps it at 80C
How are your case temps? Besides the rear open fin the rest of the card is fairly enclosed. The first fan most should go out the rear of the case with the trailing secondary fan exhausting into the case.
As they idle at room temp you would only see a spike in case temps during gaming so probably not that big of deal.
As they idle at room temp you would only see a spike in case temps during gaming so probably not that big of deal.