EggXpert

Hi everyone!

I am looking for a replacement for my 4850 stock fan/heatsink because I am fed up with the noise and the sorta high temps of 70 -90C. Yes I did change my fan speed incase you were wondering. I was looking at some heatsinks and fans for GPU cooling but there are so many options and it is hard to tell if they will even work with a 4850. If I could spend as little money as possible on this that would be great. I was wondering if I could just get a heatsink and then I could mod some good left over fans under the heatsinks. I have an Armor and it has some holes at the bottom which allows me to stick a screw in there and a fan on top and boom a horizontal fan under my GPU. I already tried this with my stock but it only gives me a 5C lower temp max probably because how badly the 4850 heatsink system is designed. I look forward to your suggestions. Thanks.

futbolistmaks:

 sorta high temps of 70 -90C.

Assume this is load right. I have 2 4850s, a Visiontek and a Gigabyte, I've run them solo and in Xfire, there's an optimum fan speed, and I noticed turning it up full blast actual doesn't mean cooler. Weird how it workd really, but I found if you set the fans to around 70% you'll get the optimum temps, anything higher didn't cool any better, and certainly cranked up the whining of the fans, if you do got them cranked ver 75-+% turn them down a bit. If not! Then you may have a faulty fan/card. If you don't have a fanspeed % anywhere near 70% then again, and its making noise, may be bad fan/card.

 

futbolistmaks:

Yes I did change my fan speed incase you were wondering.

Wasn't wondering, but would hope so.

 

futbolistmaks:

  but there are so many options and it is hard to tell if they will even work with a 4850.

Actually there aren't very many after market fans that will actually fit the 4850s, but the AC Twin Turbo is a pretty good one. Arctic Cooling Accelero TWIN TURBO Quad Heatpipe Universal VGA Cooler and it looks like this ZALMAN VF1000 2 Ball VGA Cooler - Retail is working for people, though I don't like the single fan myself.

 

futbolistmaks:

  If I could spend as little money as possible on this that would be great.

Unfortunately, not for this card, the good ones run $50ish and up, anything under would probably be suspect.

 

futbolistmaks:

I was wondering if I could just get a heatsink and then I could mod some good left over fans under the heatsinks.

Proceed at your own risk.  

futbolistmaks:

 I have an Armor and it has some holes at the bottom which allows me to stick a screw in there and a fan on top and boom a horizontal fan under my GPU. I already tried this with my stock but it only gives me a 5C lower temp max probably because

Was this direct cooling? Confusing, because I noticed the fan hovering over the GPu from my side panel didn't really help that much, When I had the side panel off.

 

futbolistmaks:

 how badly the 4850 heatsink system is designed.

Um, IDK about this man, the fans on mine seem fine, could be better I guess, but mine were hot before the fan profile fix, but after, they was fine as pie. Like I said, just had to find that optimum fan % sweet spot, but again, may be something wrong with the card. How ar games, at load, the card doing the job?

Penewah!

- Thanks for the suggestion of 70%. I had begun to suspect that there might be an optimum fan speed. Before I had my card do 60% at 60C, 80% at 65C and 100% at 70C through the ASUS Smartdoctor yet temps still kept rising. Will try playing with 70% then.

- What do you mean here by 

"Was this direct cooling? Confusing, because I noticed the fan hovering over the GPu from my side panel didn't really help that much, When I had the side panel off."

 If you were wondering how my horizontal fan was setup I had it right under the fan of the 4850 forcing air in there.

- You also say that having a heatsink and the modded fan under the 4850 is risky? Why? The fans that come with after market coolers are a waste of money since they are tiny and get like 30CFM. I was just hoping to maybe save some money this way and hopefully achieve better results. From my experience a good heatsink doesn't even really need a fan, just as an added bonus to get an additional 10C or so cooler.

- Everything seems to be OK with my card, running games at good FPS such as Crysis at High at 30+ FPS

 

Thanks for the help.

No, i just couldnt picture what you were saying in the wohle brain bucket dude, I mean it was 4 AM this morning! lol. If it works for yah, then bu all means. What I was getting at though, with my Antec 1200, the side panel fan points right at the GPU, well one when not in Xfire, and I checked the temps with and without and it didnt do anything. I got a nice Scythe S-Flex SFF21G 120mm  on there too. So I figure other setups may be the same. But again, won't know till you try it. Definitely try heatsinks, agree, a well place heatsink do wonders (I missed the heatsink thing this morn. lol)

Follow up, Pene

Ok lol.

I tried putting the fan at 70%, temps got worse. If you were to help me find a good heatsink kit somewhere that would be great.

Thanks again. 

For a card like this, that requires serious cooling, it'll cost you a bit. The cheapest I can find is around 50$ with shipping.

Like Penewab said, you could get something like the arctic cooling: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8100/vid-117/Arctic_Cooling_Accelero_TWIN_TURBO_Quad_Heatpipe_Universal_VGA_Cooler_NVIDIA_and_ATI.html?tl=g40

Personally, I've used arctic cooling before in a lot of my builds and they're always quiet and great performing. I would buy that one.

Also, shop around. Frozen CPU is a good site for coolers, but check out other places- you might be able to save a few bucks. 

 

what do people around here thing of EBAY? I did some quick searches I think might be able to snatch a bargain over there. Thanks for the help!

Ebay should be fine. Just beware of scams.

Yeah, I do all kinds of transactions on ebay, not just all PC stuff, and I'e found, as long as you stick to people with great, not just so-so, but great feedback, you should be alright. And watch out for shipping, which tends to be people's biggest tool for jacking up them "great deals", lol.

Tread carefully.

I'd +3 that Twin turbo, b/c it seems something is up, you're getting higher temps than me for sure.

Penewah!

 

I found a Zalaman VF1000 on EBAY which I found also has great reviews all over the internet like the arctic cooling. Do you guys have anything against buying used coolers since they have the liquid inside the tubes and stuff? I just don't want to buy a used cooler if it might gives me bad temps. Thanks for great suggestions so far!

i would go with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118037 i was getting 70-90c now i am running ZALMAN VF1000 and now i get 30c and at 100% load i get 46c max is all i have seen i love it, i used mx-2 compound with it instead of the compound that comes with it very easy to install works great gl

Have to agree with TNT.  I have 2 4850s that were hitting 65-70 under load at 60% speed on the stock fan.  Now with the VF1000 they max out at about 48 with the fan on max (which is nearly silent btw).  Well worth it since my computer is no longer a furnace!