Fastest Closed Loop Video Card

W

Weeth

Gawd
Joined
Sep 7, 2011
Messages
662
I need a closed loop video card to shred Adobe CS. I don't want to do my own watercooling I just want to open the box plug it in and work. Any suggestions?
 
The Mac said:
something is coming Thursday, it may be a 290x2 with a CLC.
Click to expand...

not bashing amd at all i love em....but im holding out for a die shrink or something like nvidias new cards with huge power efficiency....i would choose the more power efficient card unless there's huge difference in price no matter which company has it....but then again my current card does everything i need with only a couple titles like metro and crysis that need settings turned down
 
I've spent a whack of money on my i7 Octocore but I don't think I can stretch the budget for an x2 card. That 295 is over $1500. I'd like to come in somewhere around $500 or $600 for a closed loop card. If the 290x2 comes in close to that it could be a good choice, but IMHO I think it's likely to be closer to a grand.
 
^ the 295X2 has been $999 at several retailers for the past two weeks...
 
Other than 295x2, don't think there are any closed loop watercooled cards
 
Last edited:
There was the ASUS ARES II, but that was for 7990 (technically, I think theirs is 7970x2).

Their ARES III card is liquid-only, which IMO was a mistake since most guys running WC already bought 295X2's a long long time ago. No idea why they waited so long this time around, no matter how well it benches...
 
Weeth said:
I've spent a whack of money on my i7 Octocore but I don't think I can stretch the budget for an x2 card. That 295 is over $1500. I'd like to come in somewhere around $500 or $600 for a closed loop card. If the 290x2 comes in close to that it could be a good choice, but IMHO I think it's likely to be closer to a grand.
Click to expand...

it might actually come in at $600 if the rumors are true.

with the price drop on the 290 pro, it would make sense.
 
Are you doing any work with After Effects or Premiere Pro / anything that involves Mercury Rendering Engine? If so, stay away from AMD. CUDA has been thoroughly tested and well supported by Adobe for ages; OpenCL has not. Even recently I assisted someone who was using an AMD HD Radeon 6950 card and had problems rendering, and from my troubleshooting and research I concluded that it was an issue that stems likely from the fact that support for OpenCL is very new and virgin with problems experienced and reported by many. Installed an NVIDIA gaming card, whitelisted the card, modified project options, executed a render and watched it bulldoze through without issues.
 
Just get an air cooled card. If noise is a concern and your case cooling is reasonable, get an open air model that exhausts the air into the case (and lets efficient case cooling handle getting rid of it) rather than an inefficient one that tries to exhaust through the back.

As for a closed loop system, I don't see the point of going fake water cooling if you're not going to do it properly. Either do it properly or go air.
 
Either go custom or don't do it at all. If this is about noise, asus's strix cooler on the 970 is getting glowing reviews (quietest aftermarket cooler).
 
Did you guys not read the part where he said he has a budget and would like the card to come in at $500-600? A custom loop will cost at a very minimum $200, and that's using bargin-bin grade components.

Not everybody can afford to blow $500+ to run a custom loop, and this "custom loop or bust" attidue is very elitist to say the least.
 
n=1 said:
Did you guys not read the part where he said he has a budget and would like the card to come in at $500-600? A custom loop will cost at a very minimum $200, and that's using bargin-bin grade components.

Not everybody can afford to blow $500+ to run a custom loop, and this "custom loop or bust" attidue is very elitist to say the least.
Click to expand...

It may sound that way, but you can count on one finger the number of CLC cards out right now that come that way from the factory. In the past four years, I can think of three total. So basically OP has no options other than A) not get a CLC card (why the hell he needs one in the first place is a mystery) or B) Go custom and/or throw a Kraken G10 at something with a CLC unit himself.
 
Asus strix gtx970 - $349.99
Msi gaming gtx970 - $349.99

Both have extremely silent and effective coolers. They go in and out of stock constantly.

LigTasm said:
It may sound that way, but you can count on one finger the number of CLC cards out right now that come that way from the factory. In the past four years, I can think of three total. So basically OP has no options other than A) not get a CLC card (why the hell he needs one in the first place is a mystery) or B) Go custom and/or throw a Kraken G10 at something with a CLC unit himself.
Click to expand...
Correct.
 
And what's wrong with the Kraken G10 CLC over a custom loop?

In any case I was referring to comments like these:

As for a closed loop system, I don't see the point of going fake water cooling if you're not going to do it properly. Either do it properly or go air.
Click to expand...

There are plenty of reasons for "fake water cooling" -- money being a big one, the other being case/build restrictions, and some people might just not have the time for it. CLCs exist for a reason, and for what they are they do it well. The best air coolers can match a CLC, but do so at the cost of extreme weight/bulk + noise. Nobody is suggesting a CLC is better than a custom loop either, so I'm not sure why there's all this animosity towards CLCs.
 
Nothing wrong with clc's, they make solid stop-gaps. Especially the expandable ones from swiftech (h220x).
 
n=1 said:
And what's wrong with the Kraken G10 CLC over a custom loop?

In any case I was referring to comments like these:
Click to expand...

As an owner of three G10 kits, its a pain in the ass, that's what is wrong with it. CLC's on GPU's in general are annoying and you have to take into account the tube length for your case and where you have fan mounts available. OP still hasn't stated why he feels he needs that anyways.
 
I would like to see more AMD OpenCL and Nvidia CUDA benchmarks before suggesting any particular card.
 
PcZac said:
I would like to see more AMD OpenCL and Nvidia CUDA benchmarks before suggesting any particular card.
Click to expand...

In general AMD does better in double precision compute as nvidia gimps the double precision on their geforce line.
 
Except the Titans, which of course will run you a pretty penny.
 
Darakian said:
In general AMD does better in double precision compute as nvidia gimps the double precision on their geforce line.
Click to expand...

I've seen a huge variation in the benchmarks I've seen, such as Nvidia cards doing better in After Effects, but worse in Premiere Pro for the same tasks. Also in generally I see a bit more applications that take advantage of CUDA than OpenCL. I kinda wish software companies were a bit more transparent about what GPU is going to work better in their application, or give us some benchmarks.
 
n=1 said:
Except the Titans, which of course will run you a pretty penny.
Click to expand...
True. Titan's do not have the gimp.

PcZac said:
I've seen a huge variation in the benchmarks I've seen, such as Nvidia cards doing better in After Effects, but worse in Premiere Pro for the same tasks. Also in generally I see a bit more applications that take advantage of CUDA than OpenCL. I kinda wish software companies were a bit more transparent about what GPU is going to work better in their application, or give us some benchmarks.
Click to expand...
As do I. I really wish there were better open source tests as well. That way us readers could be sure of what's being tested.
 
n=1 said:
Except the Titans, which of course will run you a pretty penny.
Click to expand...

If price was no object, I would rather buy a FirePro/Quadro.

OP wants a closed loop system so the 295X2 is a no-brainer even if we're doing a GPGPU price/performance ratio.
 
I can't stretch the budget for an X2 closed loop R9 but for around $500 I'd buy a single GPU version today (AMD or Nvidia). Any idea if anything like that is out yet?

This may be out as late as June 2015 so I don't want to wait that long!

R9-390X
 
Last edited:
Weeth said:
I looked at the G10 but it's still got a fan on it. I wanted the only fan to be external on the rad as I have it mounted at the rear of the case to attenuate as much sound as possible (facing away from me).
Click to expand...

Stick some heatsinks on the VRMs and aim an intake fan at them? 5v mod the G10's fan? Sometimes you have to compromise.
 
Ozymandias said:
Stick some heatsinks on the VRMs and aim an intake fan at them? 5v mod the G10's fan? Sometimes you have to compromise.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've done enough compromising on this build that it's nowhere near what I wanted when I started so I'm borderline pissed off at it. I think in that case I'd rather just go with a GTX980 or 970 with the quietest fan there is and just skip the whole closed loop thing. Any suggestions on the quietest fan or a model where the fan is easy to replace with a supersilent one?
 
There have been a lot of GTX980 tests but I can't find any comparison on sound levels. I'm desperately trying to find the quietest card that's air cooled as it looks like we're still many months away from a closed loop factory card. Any suggestions?
 
Weeth said:
I looked at the G10 but it's still got a fan on it. I wanted the only fan to be external on the rad as I have it mounted at the rear of the case to attenuate as much sound as possible (facing away from me).
Click to expand...

All CLCs will have a fan on it to cool the VRMs.

nor really any way around it without going for DIY full coverage blocks
 
The Mac said:
All CLCs will have a fan on it to cool the VRMs.

nor really any way around it without going for DIY full coverage blocks
Click to expand...

Yeah, looks like my quest for the CLC card is over. I'm trying to find a 980 Strix now, but of course, no one in this country has one in stock.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top