VGA Cooler

[Samuknow]

I want to WC my 6800 card to get it to run above 350/750 without wories. I have been looking at this block. I really cant afford a high end Danger Den or the like. I would like to water cool the mem also but I have found nothing under 90 bucks or so.

Also been looking at this from Zalman. Ram sinks are a little wimpy.

Thought of using my homemade cooler and some ramsinks. I did that on my 5900 @ 5950U speeds and all was fine.

Any ideas????


Sam

[yogurt_21]

well i can say that the coolermaster looks really good, but I've seen many people run them for merely a wekk and the case cracked and fryed their gpu, which isn't ideal lol.
http://www.dangerdenstore.com/produc...&cat=48&page=1
this and some ramsinks would be more recomended and 50$ for a block that'll last isn't too bad.
however.
http://www.directron.com/zmgwb2.html
complete with ramsinks and fully aluminum so no cracking.

[Samuknow]

Originally Posted by yogurt_21

however.
http://www.directron.com/zmgwb2.html
complete with ramsinks and fully aluminum so no cracking.

This is the other way I was leaning. It seems to perform ok with the Reserator passive water setup. It should do better on a system with a fan cooled radiator.....

Do you think the ram sinks are ample?????

I still have a fan blowing across my card even with water cooling. Can never cool enough...

[MONKEYMAN]

You dont need watercooling for the 6800NU ran mine at 410/930 with no worries, you can't overheat them without voltmodding it.
Ramsinks are ample and in some cases not even necessary, the ddr memory on the card is 2.8ns in most cases ( rated at 714mhz ) you wont need more than basic ramsinks on that memory.
As long as your loaded temps arent constantly over 80c then just leave it as it is, my current card which is basicall a 6800Nu on an 6800GT board has ddr3 memory on it and runs fine under the stock cooler at 400mhz+ on the core and 1050mhz+ on the ram and the ddr3 runs hotter in most cases.

[Samuknow]

The problem I am having is it locks up over 360 or so on the GPU and the fan on this thing is murder. Plus I just like having it all under water cooling. You know cool factor...

I have been looking at the maze 4 and some sinks. Anyone using this combo? if so, what performance did you get out of it? Temp drop, and possible overclock increase.....

[MONKEYMAN]

I cant comment on the watercooling you choose but I would suggest that you will see very little little or no increase in its overclockability and I cant see the lock-ups being caused by high temps unless there is a problem with the mounting of the heatsink, what temps does it show idle and under load?

[Samuknow]

Only it the mid to high 50's I beleive.

I am going by the increase I observed with my 5900. I was not able to reach 5950U speeds at all with the flash mod until I water cooled. Then it ran flawlessly. I kept the stock ram sink and by water cooling the GPU still managed to get the mem running at 5950U speeds. So it appears that there was an overall cooling of the card by lowering the GPU temps. Whinch were about 29 @ idle and 38 @ load.....

[Samuknow]

How are you managing those speeds? My card has been fine unlocked @ 16x1 and 6vp, but I can't run much higher than 360 or so GPU speeds.....

[MONKEYMAN]

Its down to the individual core as to how high it will clock, basically the cores are speed binned so if one card will run at the full ultra speed but has a damaged pixel quad/vertex shader then they label it a 6800NU if it is fully functional but wont reach 400mhz on the core the make it a 6800GT.
The best thing to do is try disabling the vertex shader you unlocked, often if this is very slightly faulty it will not affect images on screen but will severely limit your overclock, the performance gained by say an extra 30/40mhz on the core(which could happen) will more then make up for the extra vertex shader, however you need an extra 25mhz and 200mhz on the memory to make up for a pixel quad so I wouldnt leave that unlocked unless you can clock FAR higher.

With some tweaking I had my Leadtek A400 TDH 6800NU hitting 12700 on 3dmark03, I can get about the same with my new 12 pipe card but only becasue the clocks are much higher on the memory.

The Nvidia auto detect sucks but it is a ROUGH guide, try doing auto detect (to save time) at:

12pp/5vp
16pp/5vp
12pp/6vp

and see what clocks it comes up with, sometimes running at 16/6 is not the best plan.

[Samuknow]

Very good info...

Thanks

[MONKEYMAN]

Let us know how you get on

[Samuknow]

I have tried OC with the listed variables. I did not gain anything. 16. 6 still gave the best bang for the buck on my card...

I will see what happens after water cooling.

[Samuknow]

I am still kicking this around a bit....

I may be able to come up with enough for an NV-45 or perhaps a coolmatic NV45 cooler.

Are these worth the extra 40-50 bucks above say a DD Maze 4 and some copper ram sinks?