8800 GTS (G92) cooling conundrum

willrob72 · Post by **willrob72** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:44 am

Anyone have any feedback on the stock cooler noise of a XFX 8800 GTS 'triple X' 8800 GTS card? The dual-slot stock cooler is very 'neat' insofar as it exhausts directly out of the case. However, if it produces much noise it will not be acceptable!

I would like to swap for a high quality aftermarket cooler but know 2 things for sure:

1) Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 won't fit my HTPC case; it will foul the back end of the DVD drive or in the other PCI-E slot, the 'bridge' across the case.

2) Thermalright HR-03 GT is possible but only in passive / semi-passive mode - with a fan strapped directly to the heatsink I run out of room...

I'm reluctant to stick RAM heatsinks on the card etc. for the HR-03 only to then find it runs too hot and I need to go back to the stock cooler (how do you get 'em off?)

For info. the rest of the setup is: all-aluminum HTPC case with 2 X 92mm intake fans low at the front & 1 120mm at the rear. Thermalright SI-128SE CPU blow-down cooler with 120mm Scythe PWM fan & Corsair 620HX PSU.

Do you think there's likely to be enough airflow from the case, CPU & PSU fans to work the HR-03 'passively' in this sense? I'd regard any improvement on stock temps as positive... I could rig up an extra fan above the graphics card but it would be blowing down rather than directly across / through the fins of the VGA cooler....

Any thoughts / advice much appreciated.

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:54 am

Welcome to SPCR!
Since the XXX probably stands for heavily overclocked, the max power of that 8800 GTS may rise upto 120W.
IMO it's not possible to cool it passively with existing hardware, including TR HR-03 or AC S1.
I sugest to use the Zalman VF1000 (on low), check SPCR review: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article769-page1.html
Since the max power of the X1950XTX used in the review is similar to your overclocked 8800 GTS, expect similar temps.
You better use ramsinks, the GDDR3 at 2000 MHz is on the hot side. The Zalman RHS88 is not compatible with the G92 layout AFAIK.

willrob72 · Post by **willrob72** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:16 am

Thanks!

I had a look at the Zalman VF1000 but I think the cooler & heatsink (ZM-RHS88) is designed for the G80 8800 GTS / GTX not the newer G92 I have? They don't seem to have a solution for the G92.

PS You're right, the XxX is a 'factory overclock' card. Most people seem to say it's a waste of money & you're better off doing it yourself but I thought a) it was only a few Â£Â£ more b) I don't really know what I'm doing & c) the overclock is under warranty (although debatable if I start dismantling the card!)....

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 4:48 am

AFAIK the VF1000 works OK on the G92 cards, but you have to use extra heatsinks for VRM cooling.
Check this review: http://www.digit-life.com/articles3/cpu ... part1.html

weemies · Post by **weemies** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:23 pm

Slightly off-topic... Can the HR-03 GT actually be used on the G92-based 8800 GTS cards?

WR304 · Post by **WR304** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 2:10 pm

The HR-03GT fits onto a G92 8800GTS card.

Compatibility list:
http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/ ... gt_mcl.htm

It might work with no fan fitted, but you'll probably find it needs a fan if there isn't a lot of case airflow.

Darren555 · Post by **Darren555** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 2:42 pm

I have an 8800GTS G92 with stock cooler & it is only noticeable for the first few seconds when the pc starts up. After that it is silent, even during long gaming sessions.

cienislaw · Post by **cienislaw** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 11:31 pm

i have 8800GTS rev2 by BFG in pretty silent box (2x120 fander at 720rpm, corsair 620W below half load). for 2D i use 40% 546rpm, which makes card fan equal in terms of noise with other fans in case, and gives 61-62C of gpu. at 3D i use 52% 821rpm (at 3D mode there is auto fan control in 40-52% duty), and card fan is easly audible from others, but still quite pleasant for my ears, especially when sound is on, but it is not silent. the trick is to keep gpu temp below 90, because there is some emergency high priority fan control rule, which speeds up fan to 100% (2000rpm, very, very noisy) for short while to cool down gpu below 90, and then gets back to set max. from my tests on various new games 52% duty is enough to keep temp below 90, and still acceptable at gaming.

i will try to underclock card in 2D mode ie set core voltage to 1.0V, and gpu to 400Mhz or less, the same with memory, to reduce power use and temp at 2D, but this needs bios editing. most of the 8800GTS rev2 has no other bios settings than extra (there are 2d, throthle, 3d and extra), so card dont save power at 2D, dont lower clocks automaticly. i will let you know if this is working.

so - do you really need change stock cooling, especially in HTPC case?

tehfire · Post by **tehfire** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:11 am

I have an XFX 8800GTS "Alpha Dog" (G92, stock clocks) and I have to agree that the standard HSF is not very quiet. I too have a case that's too small to fit an Accelero S1, so like you I'm hoping to run the HR-03GT pseudo-passive. I'm planning on mounting it so it wraps over the card and basically stands above my northbridge. I have a Scythe Andy so our systems are similar in that they have limited space and a down-blowing cooler (as opposed to a tower). Heh, so...do you wanna be the guinea pig and update me, or should I buy it and update you, or should we do this thing together?

From what I was able to gather online yesterday with a decent amount of pseudo-passive airflow our cards may be able to handle it. I saw online a guy who was trying to cool a G80 8800GTS in a not-so-well ventilated case and temps got around 90C, but we're using the G92 so it should be cooler-running. By how much though I'm not sure...

Wiker · Post by **Wiker** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 3:09 am

The 8800 GTS (G92) is not quiet out of the box, but the stock cooler has potential to be very quiet if you put in some work tweaking the BIOS. After experimenting in RivaTuner, I finally found a profile for automatic fan speed adjustment that I was satisfied with. Used NiBiTor to put the profile into the BIOS. At the same time I lowered the voltage (in BIOS) from default 1.15V to 1.00V, which significantly reduced heat production under load (GPU temp down from 80C to 70C) - tested and found no stability problems after reducing voltage.

My XFX 8800GTS 512MB (stock clocked) now runs at 58C idle with fan at 36% (465rpm), and 70C load with fan at 46% (685rpm). At idle I can hardly hear the fan when putting my ear onto the card, and itâ€™s pretty silent at load too.

cienislaw · Post by **cienislaw** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:50 am

wow, its quite large jump from 1.15V to 1.0V - no stability issues ever?

Blood · Post by **Blood** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:08 am

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127329

Above is a link to a MSI 8800gt with a narrower version fo GV1000. It should have similar noise characteristics to the VF-1000. If not, It'd always be possible to do a fan swap since it's a 80mm on it.

Wiker · Post by **Wiker** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 3:44 am

cienislaw wrote:wow, its quite large jump from 1.15V to 1.0V - no stability issues ever?

Iâ€™ve run Crysis demo with AA and high settings in loop for an hour, and ATITool error checking for a couple of hours, with no problems at all.

If I remember correctly, NiBiTor is showing four voltages to select from â€“ 1.0V, 1.05V, 1.10V, and 1.15V. The voltage setting in NiBiTor is a bit unclear to me. There is also a voltage table in there, which use I donâ€™t understand.

However, as I understand it, the voltage shown in NiBiTor may not be actual voltage values, but just text labels for four voltage states. Maybe Iâ€™m wrong, but I got the impression that the voltage generator on the card can be set to four different states (0, 1, 2, and 3). What voltage the generator actually produces in these states may not correspond to the text labels (â€œ1.0Vâ€

willrob72 · Post by **willrob72** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:31 am

because I have the dreaded 'Nvidia Sentinel reports insufficient power...' messages. The card almost certainly does have sufficient power going to it but that's not the point - it thinks it doesn't.

Casting around the web it seems it's a difficult one to solve; various PSU & motherboard combinations exhibit it so changing one of those components is not necessarily the answer.

The common element is the Nvidia GPU. There appears to be tacit acknowledgement but there's no solution from them / their resellers yet.....

Unwittingly it seems I'm at the bleeding edge, having paid to be at the leading edge. Do these manufacturers have any idea how difficult this scenario is to explain to one's wife / bank manager, let alone the personal frustration it entails?

8800 GTS (G92) cooling conundrum

8800 GTS (G92) cooling conundrum

It's all academic at the moment....