water cooling GPUs. worth it?

I absolutely think it's worth water cooling GPUs. Over the past 10 years or so that I've had custom water cooling loops, I've found the main benefit to be in noise reduction, not so much performance. I hate anything above almost a whisper. You can get a lot of cooling potential if you're willing to go with a big case and good amount of radiator capacity (lots of fans at lower speed) and maintain noise levels below the ticking of a wall clock. Even well cooled AIB GPUs tend to get pretty noisy when you're running them at 100%. On the other hand, due to the way GPU manufacturers lock voltage and find other ways to limit performance through overclocking, I've never found that water cooling buys more than maybe 5-10% performance above an air OC with a good fan setup.
 
Will it fit in my Borg like case? Is there a best brand to use with a water block?

With a water block it’s also nice to get some of the card slots back.

I wish someone would just do a brown box with just the card and nothing on the card. Then you can by the heatsink or water block you like.

I've not had issue selling my old ones. You never get what you paid but my old cards with block sell fast.

I like to water cool the CPU too for a very quite rig and even if the CPU can't OC that much there is never any thermal throttling.


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https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPFZzwhvIjpCYtErMa1fEkIeGBCpghevzVcbHR_
 
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Tanquen said:
Will it fit in my Borg like case? Is there a best brand to use with a water block?

With a water block it’s also nice to get some of the card slots back.

I wish someone would just do a brown box with just the card and nothing on the card. Then you can by the heatsink or water block you like.

I've not had issue selling my old ones. You never get what you paid but my old cards with block sell fast.

I like to water cool the CPU too for a very quite rig and even if the CPU can't OC that much there is never any thermal throttling.


View attachment 275740View attachment 275744View attachment 275746
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPFZzwhvIjpCYtErMa1fEkIeGBCpghevzVcbHR_
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What are you cooling with all those rads?? As for blocks, some brands do sell cards with blocks on them already albeit at a slight premium but you get an included warranty.

https://www.gigabyte.com/FileUpload/Global/KeyFeature/1046/index.html


Here's my cube.

https://hardforum.com/threads/build-3970x-dual-2080ti-8tb-m-2-raid-render-monster.1990145/
 
Dude that is sweet if my 1000d didn't have 2 480 and 2 360 rads in it I would think of doing something like that
 
thesmokingman said:
What are you cooling with all those rads?? As for blocks, some brands do sell cards with blocks on them already albeit at a slight premium but you get an included warranty.

https://www.gigabyte.com/FileUpload/Global/KeyFeature/1046/index.html


Here's my cube.

https://hardforum.com/threads/build-3970x-dual-2080ti-8tb-m-2-raid-render-monster.1990145/
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Nice cube I love having the horizontal motherboard.

I have all the rads and fans because I had more video cards and the CPU cooled. Right now I only have one video card and CPU though but it's nice having all the fans on super low and it still just dumps out heat.

I've seen the ones that come with the water block already on it but it seems way more expensive and then you don't have the option of putting the fan back on if you need to. It's been awhile since I checked but I thought some of the companies let you put a water block on. I've never seen seen a sticker or anything stopping you from taking the fan off.
 
somebrains said:
There should be a sticky that just poses the question, and answers "yes"
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somebrains it is case and use specific, so the answer is not always "yes"

There is 0 reason to spend the money to water cool my RX580, which i instead modded with 2 120MM fans on it that make it silent.....and saved me a ton of money for the same performance.
 
MrGuvernment said:
somebrains it is case and use specific, so the answer is not always "yes"

There is 0 reason to spend the money to water cool my RX580, which i instead modded with 2 120MM fans on it that make it silent.....and saved me a ton of money for the same performance.
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G12 bracket, maybe a copper shim, and a 120mm aio may not change your mind a month before Big Navi press event, but there were plenty of gamers at launch thru last year that value staying under 70c.
 
somebrains said:
G12 bracket, maybe a copper shim, and a 120mm aio may not change your mind a month before Big Navi press event, but there were plenty of gamers at launch thru last year that value staying under 70c.
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they do work great. i had one on my 470, transplanted it to my 580 and was gonna try it on my 5700 but its keeps itself cool enough. my 580 setup would top out in the low 50s, the 5700 as is tops out in the low 60s.
 
pendragon1 said:
they do work great. i had one on my 470, transplanted it to my 580 and was gonna try it on my 5700 but its keeps itself cool enough. my 580 setup would top out in the low 50s, the 5700 as is tops out in the low 60s.
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Nzxt posted on Reddit or Twitter that they were test fitting G12s to 30x0, and I'd imagine 6x00.
I'm excited, I like alternatives.
I think about dropping $ parting together a loop now and again, but eating a gpu block in value every upgrade got old.

Edit: I'll stick with aio gpu peasant cooling. Did a quick calc of my 9700kf + 3080 and I'm looking at a rad combo that dramatically increases my case size.
 
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somebrains said:
G12 bracket, maybe a copper shim, and a 120mm aio may not change your mind a month before Big Navi press event, but there were plenty of gamers at launch thru last year that value staying under 70c.
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somebrains for sure, but that is personal preference, so again a specific use case and not even one based on actual scientific proven benefit behind it more a "just cause...", it was like the days of people assuming they had to keep their cpu's below 50c to keep them lasting forever, when they had a TDP of 90c. Yes heat kills parts, but you will likely sell that or kill it from over clocking long before it dies from its own heat issues.
 
MrGuvernment said:
somebrains for sure, but that is personal preference, so again a specific use case and not even one based on actual scientific proven benefit behind it more a "just cause...", it was like the days of people assuming they had to keep their cpu's below 50c to keep them lasting forever, when they had a TDP of 90c. Yes heat kills parts, but you will likely sell that or kill it from over clocking long before it dies from its own heat issues.
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Let me clarify my take on enhanced cooling for a gpu:

There are set temp pts where you will see your gpu throttle.
Game builds don’t even have to be running, I’ve had titles like BO4 temp spike thru to thermal shutdown when you started the game.
BF has had its issues, various WoW builds, it either affects you or it doesn’t as an issue with the build starting.

Now BRs have become popular, and we are seeing map sections in traditional FPS multiplayer that exhibit the same temp spike/FPS or frame time lag when just looking at a certain direction.
Ive heard reports from friends that play other genres of AAA games that see or post clips that show the same behavior.
Witcher and Assasins Creed were particularly bad, Destiny I think was just bad bc it was a poorly optimized port, etc.

Many choose throw brute force upgrades to power thru their games.
I choose to tune what I’ve got with cooling.
I don’t care about component life bc I’m off components within months, the 1080ti I was using is an oddity bc I kept it for years.
I’ll take breaks from gaming, but when I come back it doesn’t change much.
New parts, same old problems.
 
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