ATI HD6970 TEMP

[Bizman]

There's several brands of GPU coolers on the market. I was very satisfied with Arctic Cooling way back when gaming was synonymous to Voodoo... Didn't have problems with the heat, but the noise was unbearable. The prices don't seem too high (Newegg), either, compared to that of better GPU's.

[TequilaChaser]

I have a MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III. The cooler on it is outstanding which is why I bought this particular card.

that was what we noticed when researching our parts for our i7 builds..... recently

Drano and I opted for the 6950 2 gig series instead of the 6970 because the 6950's ( MSI / XFX ) offered the double coling fan setup... to where the 6970 models  offered that old reference single fan/turbine whining cooler....

My XFX6950 2 Gig VC, is running at full/max load  is at 60% fan speed and stays right arond 43 celcius

[Krusty]

How hard is it to remove these coolers and put water plugs or custom cooling on there?

In the past I've tried taking fans off old vid cards and they are always cemented on to the point you risk busting the card in half or damaging components just to get the fan/heatsink off.

I don't mean they had thermal grease, I mean they had thermal cement!

If I choose to water cool or whatever in the future will it be hard to remove the stock reference cooling on my 6970?

[gyrene81]

not sure about the 6970 you have krusty but i have a 4870 and the heatsink is held in place by 4 screws. should be the same for the higher end cards.

[zack1234]

HD6970 card has vapour vent cooling built into it.

Putting fan speed up brings temp down

[guncrasher]

Bought ATI HD6970 couple of months it seems to get quite hot.

I have put the fan speed up to get it down to 60C, does anyone have any views on temp the card should be set to?

max temp is 110 for your card, so somewhere below 80 is great.  mine runs at between 60 to 70, it's an invidia 465 and no problems with it.   I understand your concern as I freaked out yesterday when one of the cores on my 2500k hit 50.  i promptly shut down my computer in the middle of flight, then i learned that the max safe temp is 98, so I laughed about it turned computer back on and kept playing. other cores were near that temp so i found no problem, as it gets hot in my room anyway.  have your gpu's fan on auto, see how the temp gets as you play, if it keeps it below 80 then you are good to go.  i bet most of the time it will be below 70.  i use speedfan on my second monitor to glance at it while playing.  it also has a log and an option where it can beep if temps go about whatever threshold you set up.

semp

[zack1234]

 

[Charge]

"If I choose to water cool or whatever in the future will it be hard to remove the stock reference cooling on my 6970?"

Very easy as I presume it is fairly similar to 5850. I put a universal water block on mine from my old GForce and it was an easy task. It seems that memories on card do not need any additional cooling (although some sets include cooling kits for those too) as the water block is able to cool the GPU to a point that it does not really add to the thermal level of the card anymore. Normal operating temperature seems to be about 50C under load.

If you want efficient air cooling opt for a large surface (and heavy) cooler and a large fan and you can keep the noise down. It also seems that centrifugal fans used on some cards are fairly efficient and they do not have the turbulent sound of the bladed fans especially if those are mounted too close to cooler. Bladed fans can be silent and efficient too but they need to be large (90-120mm).

I recall that the coolers were glued on only on cheaper GPUs or passive ones but usually not on more expensive cards.

-C+

[Chalenge]

Koolance kit for the 6970:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/12417/ex-blc-863/Koolance_VID-AR697_Radeon_HD6970_VGA_Liquid_Cooling_Block_No_Fittings.html?tl=g30c309s1373

FrozenCPU 

[Masherbrum]

A water cooled PC will still need a good case with excellent airflow.  Everything else is irrelevant unless the case is up to task.

[Stellaris]

My old box ran watercooled for many years with the side of the case off for good air circulation.  I still have to get watercooling going for my new 2600K with 6970 - but I only need that so I can OC both chip and video.  I currently ramp my 6970 fan to hit 100% at 60 degrees - yes it will endure more, but cooler is always better.

And yes, the fan is loud, but I crank my 7.1 surround till the house shakes anyway.  You're simulating some 2000 supercharged horses hauling you through the sky at 350 mph, so to me a loud howling turbofan is just part of the scenery.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

A water cooled PC will still need a good case with excellent airflow.  Everything else is irrelevant unless the case is up to task.

Even more so than aircooled because watercooled PC doesn't have a cpu / gpu fan blowing air inside so all other motherboard components will have to be cooled using conventional airflow inside the case.

[Ack-Ack]

are there Graphic card cooling kits? if so itd be nice to know for the future 

In most cases the stock cooling is good enough for 99.99% of the gamers out there and the majority of heat issue related problems stem from either insufficient power to keep the fans running or their computer has insufficient airflow to cool your machine down.

The only after market stuff I get for my video cards are heat sinks for the memory chips on the card, I've found the fans to be good enough to cool the video cards.  The only fans I've replaced are on the Geforce 480 cards I have as the fans that came on those cards are loud as Hell and I replaced them with far more quieter fans.

ack-ack