Quietly Cooling the eVGA GeForce 7900 GT?

Shining Arcanine · Post by **Shining Arcanine** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 6:01 pm

I am planning a major system upgrade (my PC's CPU, Motherboard RAM, and Video Cards are being replaced) later this year, and the card I want to put in my system is the eVGA GeForce 7900 GT. I will be upgrading from a ATI AIW 9700 Pro with a VGA Silencer Rev. 3. Is there anything out there that is just as quiet and provides either the same or better cooling charcteristics?

TD22057 · Post by **TD22057** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:43 am

I ordered an XFX 7900GT Extreme from Monarch last week so I'm in the same boat (not sure when they'll actually ship it of course). I'm going to try the Thermalright V-1 Ultra on it. The V-1 seems to have a very flexible mount system (which of course makes it a hard to install) and it looks like it may fit fine. Assuming it fits, I'm going to put a Nexus 80mm on it w/ a fan controller (T-Balancer).

Assuming the back order on the 7900GT isn't too long, I should know in a week or so...

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 12:47 pm

I also have an XFX 7900GT Extreme on the way, I plan to install a passive Zalman ZM80D-HP. Will let you know how it works out.

Shining Arcanine · Post by **Shining Arcanine** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 3:29 pm

Cool, thanks. I look forward to reading how things go for you two.

HiFi · Post by **HiFi** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 10:32 am

Arctic Cooling Accelero X1. It is made to fit the 7800 GT, so it will work with the 7900 GT as well because it is the same design.

TD22057 · Post by **TD22057** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 10:49 am

HiFi wrote:Arctic Cooling Accelero X1. It is made to fit the 7800 GT, so it will work with the 7900 GT as well because it is the same design.

Do you know they're the same design or are you just assuming that? They look similar but the 7900 GT is a smaller card with a smaller core so I'm not sure the holes are going to be identical.

Ackelind · Post by **Ackelind** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 2:49 pm

Why dont go for a passive solution? The BeQuiet! Polar freezer or the Aerocool VM-102 should work just fine.

The 7900GT is actually consuming LESS power than my 6600GT acording to the tests I have seen.

I have no problem running my 6600GT passive with the Polar freezer. My CPU is running passive as well, in my P180 with the top fan hole blocked and the rear fan exchanged for a Nexus running at 650RPM.

Idle temps of 45C, loads at 71C in a 23C ambient room.

ROcHE · Post by **ROcHE** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 1:46 pm

I also have an XFX 7900GT Extreme. The thing is so loud.

I removed the stupid small fan an attached a 7volts 80mm on the heatsink. It runs hotter tough. Around 70c at full load. Is that too much?

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 3:43 pm

Nope, 70C at load is perfectly fine.

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 3:52 pm

Aerocool VM102:
Not sure how well it will work with a 7800/7900 class card though.
They seem to be hitting 70c just with a X300:
http://hi-techreviews.com/reviews_2006/VM102/P4.htm

Thermalright V1 would be a fanned alternative.

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 7:32 pm

The Zalman ZM80D-HP doesn't seem to have much trouble cooling an XFX 7900GT Extreme. Loads temps have never gone above 75*C, but they're usually around 70*C.

Ackelind · Post by **Ackelind** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 4:34 am

That is nice to hear!

Can you tell something about the airflow in your setup, so we can compare it to our systems?

The fact that Zalman ZM80D-HP is rather "old" and surpassed by some newer passive coolers make it even more interesting for me to go for passive cooling combined with a higher end card!

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 6:16 am

The case has two exhaust fans, one Yate Loon D12SL-12 in the back @ 5V (600RPM, something like that) and another D12SL-12 in the power supply at roughly the same speed. There is no direct airflow over the video card and heatsink, but the PCI slot cover under the card has been removed to allow the can fans to pull room air into the case and over the card.

diver · Post by **diver** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 6:57 am

I am using he Zalman ZM80D n a 7600GT, and used it previously on a 6600GT. The 7600GT and 6600GT have about the same power draw, around 50 watts, but the 7900GT draws more like 65 watts.

Maximum observed temperature on my setup has been 72C. The best program to test for this is the real-time hdr ibl demo.

Available here:

http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/

This runs in a window so you can monitor the temperature applet. You will observe that when the rendering stops there is an immediate 5C drop in temperature which would be missed if using something like 3dmark or a game.

I have found that leaving the slot covers off on either side of the VGA card brings in cool air. Also, moving air comes from the Zalman 7700 that is nearby. This effect would be available with any cooler that blows down (XP/SI 120), but not with those that blow across (Ninja, especially in passive mode).

In any event I would choose a cooler that an 80mm fan can be easily added to, just in case it is needed.

Let the games begin...

jjm052 · Post by **jjm052** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 9:27 am

Guys there are other posts commenting on the fact that people seem to under estimate the power draw of the 7900gt. Its good but not less than a 7600gt? why would it have a psu power connector, which is for GPU's drawing 75watts+? Also the 7600gt, at peak, draws just a couple of watts more than a 6600gt. Read reviews carefully and use sites with respected measuring methods.

...Anyway just wanted to say that I used to have a 6600gt with a ZM80D-HP and it worked for a while but blew the card out after a prolonged half-life 2 session, so be warned. I replaced that with a fantastic alcu vf700(overclock and silent option) When passive cooling a powerful card you have to have lots of airflow so then the case fans end up producing lots of noise - my advice is use an efficient fanned option - vf700-900 or the thermalright V1.
Whilst waiting for a new copper vf700 for my 7600gt I decided to put my fan controller on the stock cooler - result is that at 5 volts it is only very slighty more noisy (really very slighty) than my old vf-700 alcu at 5 volts.
Maybe the answer is just plug the new stock cooler into a fan controller. I'm gonna stick with it so I can use my last remaining PCI slot for a second tv card! RESULT! Personally I dont mind a bit of fan noise while gaming but I want it quiet at all other times so this is a perfect solution.

openwheelformula1 · Post by **openwheelformula1** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 12:46 pm

same here. I had a 6600GT with same zalman zm80d heatpipe. I got greedy and decided to undervolt both 120mm Nexus intake and exhaust. After a few hours of UT2004 my comp shut down. I looked down into the case and saw a puff of smoke. After a simple bench test realized the graphic card is dead. Why it died I am not quite sure but it appears to be heat related. My temps were actually better with the Zalman than the stock cooler. I didn't check the temp after I undervolt both Nexus though. I had to RMA to MSI and DHL dropped it off at the wrong location. Package was stolen. Now I am waiting for a hdcp ready 7600GS from Asus. Meantime I got a temporary 6800GS which btw sounds like a jet engine.

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 1:11 pm

i got a 6600gt with the zm80-d on it, been runnin no problems for over a year. but i do have good case ventalation.

Gentoo · Post by **Gentoo** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:32 am

I'm planning on putting a Zalman vf700 on each of my cards, a 7900gt oc'ed and a 6600gt.

I'd like to go passive, but since I mostly game, I suppose I have no choice but to live with some noise until I go watercooled.

The stock fan on the 7900gt is actually decently quiet for a stock fan, it must be temperature controlled because it only runs at full speed until Windows loads the Nvidia driver.

HiFi · Post by **HiFi** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:02 pm

i want to get the VF900-CU but since it just came out a couple days ago, the only online places carrying it are inflating the price to 50 dollars...when in reality it should cost the same as the other coolers by zalman, which is around 30$.

jmke · Post by **jmke** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:33 am

the price difference can easily be explained by the presence of the heat pipes, performance is also remarkly better at lower fan voltage.

TD22057 · Post by **TD22057** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 9:43 am

FYI I got my 7900GT on Monday and it works fine. Idle is about 50C and load is around 60C or so (haven't tried to measure it very well - just checked after an hour of gaming).

It's a great card - I've been playing Oblivion w/ my old 9800Pro and now that I can use high-res textures and other things, it's like playing a completely different game.

I should have time to pull the card and put on the V1 Ultra tomorrow night or Friday. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

I may try to use a 120mm fan pulling air through the V1 which might then blow up and over the passive coolers for the NB and SB on my MB (Abit AN8 32X). Since I'm using a Ninja, there's no downward blowing air around the CPU and those heat sinks are quite hot to the touch. If that doesn't work out, I'm planning on an 80mm Nexus w/ the V1.

neslepax · Post by **neslepax** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 3:33 pm

frostedflakes wrote:The Zalman ZM80D-HP doesn't seem to have much trouble cooling an XFX 7900GT Extreme. Loads temps have never gone above 75*C, but they're usually around 70*C.

I have the exact same card and was contemplating putting on the cooler.
It is running at 44/45 idle and 69/70 under load with the stock cooler.

Anyone think it is feasable to run the ZM80D-HP on it with those temps with stock cooler? I have an additional Arctic Cooling 120mm fan i can put in the rear end of the case to help case airflow. And i also have the slim 80mm Zalman fan that is an optional extra for the ZM80D-HP. I would like to avoid both, but i guess at least the 120mm is unavoidable.

I got the APLUS Xclio case with the 250mm side panel fan and a NorthQ 500watt psu with a 140mm fan as the only airflow generators at the moment.
(And yes, i know. The 250mm fan is not that good. Nor is the case, but i wanted a cheap case which can hold 120mm fans and i thought the 250mm fan would at the very least be funny, hehe. And hey, the fan might even be half-decent undervolted with any luck

)

cAPSLOCK · Post by **cAPSLOCK** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:25 am

For those of you who are interested in an active, heat-exhausting cooler (i.e. A-C Silencer series), look here: http://htpcnews.com/forums/index.php?sh ... 0869&st=15 (scroll down a bit).

Basically the hole (and memory) layout on the 7900 series is the same as for the 7800, but are moved up a bit to the back of the case, so for the silencers you need to cut off a bit of the plastic exhaust.

TD22057 · Post by **TD22057** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 11:10 am

I got my V1 Ultra installed today (7900GT factory OC'ed at 550/1630). I'm using a Nexus 80mm quiet case fan pulling air through the heat sink. In a word: AWESOME!

My temps dropped 10C at idle and load - idle went from high 40's to high 30's and load from high 50's to high 40's! The noise change is enormous. The stock 7900GT cooler sounds like an airplane. The 80mm Nexus at full load is pretty quiet.

My TBalancer isn't working right now for some reason but after I get it working again I plan on ramping the fan down even more - with 10 deg of play to hit the stock cooler, I think the Nexus will probably easily be silent except when gaming.

neslepax · Post by **neslepax** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:17 pm

My fanless Zalman ZM80D-HP currently runs my XFX 7900GT Extreme at 44-45 degrees idle and 67-68 degrees under load.

Granted, I have pretty good airflow in my case and need to undervolt my chassisfan. I will report back when i have undervolted my fan

neslepax · Post by **neslepax** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:27 am

I have undervolted my chassisfan, and it is PURE heaven. the XFX 7900GT Extreme is still behaving nicely and not exceeding 75 degrees under load. CPU and NB are still reporting well below 40 degrees under load.

Now I just need to put a Nexus on my Zalmann 9500 since i can hear it even at 5 volts. And I need to find a nice way to shut up my Spinpoint (which i thought until recently was pretty quiet, hehe)