Hay,
I got this thread linked from someone on another forum.
And I'm susprised to see people dealing with the same issue.
I mean, I only got the card shorter ago and I didn't immediately bother with alternate cooling.
At one point I heard a "shoving" stopping-sound and I went pale thinking it was a drive dying.
But I went to check things like the temperatures and found that the GPU was quickly heading for 80-100 degrees.
Afterward it turned out that the spinning part was pushed against the blower's (top-)cover, thus couldn't keep turning.
So I just shut down the system and put the thing on a room-fan with the case open for a while.
Which "helped" to put the temperature at... I don't remember, but too high, until I found a replacement fan.
As the owners of this card probably know, it's quite a pain to find a fitting one.
I first tried the newer VF1000, but I think I misread or something and found that it wouldn't fit this card.
Then I also tried a similar cooler from Arctic Cooling, while they noted it should fit the 7900-series (while NOT noting NOT the AGP-version),
it of course also did not fit.
Then on to the VF900 while being 99% sure that it would finally fit the card and also being NO sign on Zalman's website it might not fit,
it AGAIN didn't fit the card... at least not the normal way, luckily by turning and using only two attachments.
It's so great, it's firm and stable and cools a lot better and is nice and "quiet" too.
At least much better than the cheap stock blower-type of coolers they even offered as a replacement at XFX.
I contacted their support about this and was like "No thanks, I'll try something different...".
Plus, they also said they couldn't tell me anything about this chip I didn't know what it was and only halfassed cooled by the stock cooler.
Apparently because "it's nVidia's design".
Well, guess what, we found out it's the HSI-chip, you're in so much trouble now XFX!
Anyway, that's my story with it, but I have some questions:
- First, is it necessary to cool this chip?
- If so, is it possible to mount a heatsink without any drilling and mutilating other parts?
Like I was also told I could use like permanent thermal adhesive from Arctic Silver:
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_thermal_adhesive.htm
- And, what size of heatsink would be recommended to cool this chip?
- Also, I see bongolo has added some heatsinks to some chips on the back.
What kind of chips are those exactly and is it needed to cool those or is that just extra?
I know, the cooler the better, but I rarely see it cooled like this.
- If needed, where do I get those or similar heatsinks?
Or rather, what are they called (type/model/brand) so I can find where to get them?
- And finally, would my card already have been damaged while being overclocked with only the VF900-set attached?
I don't think the overclock is thát much, but here you go: GPU: 450>500MHz / RAM: 660>709MHz
Also, I don't think the temperature, for at least the GPU since that's all I can read, reaches 60 degrees.
It's currently idling at around 37 degrees with the fan at about 1600rpm.
According to, again, bongolo's overclock I should be able to pump it up a lot more right?
But I'll wait a bit with that...
Oh, PS:
I think the weird design or layout of this card is to blame on XFX.
It seems like they want to stand our or something, or I don't know what...
But like the holes don't match with about any cooler, it seems quite intentional not to make them fit.
Indeed really weird...
Then again, I thought it might be the fact that it's one of the last AGP-cards.
But yeah, they could have still made it "normal" or more compatible or whatever.
