GTX 480 - With a little money and creativity, you too can lower its temperature!! :)

Discussion in 'Videocards - NVIDIA GeForce' started by newr, Apr 23, 2010.

  1. newr

    newr Member

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    GPU:
    GTX 480 SLI Water Cooled
    I've got something I that need to share with my fellow GTX 480 owners. I love the card but there are two major drawbacks... It either runs too HOT or too LOUD! My comp case is the Antec P180 but I modded it with 2 extra 120mm fans on the side so I think the airflow is adequate.

    My temperature readings are pretty much the same as most reviews I've read. During heavy games and benches, the card is normally around 92-93 C (on auto fan 63%-72%). The P180 is pretty quiet because I can't hear the 480 fan until it reaches 65% or higher. @ 75% and above, it's just TOO LOUD for me. I can manually set it at 75% to lower the temp but it's just too loud.

    Why can't I have the best of both worlds??? less heat with less noise??

    So it got me thinking... :)

    Unlike the 470, the heat sink on the 480 is EXPOSED and it gets REALLY HOT (yes I touched it) during heavy gaming and there is no where for all that heat to dissipate quickly.

    I have a MiroATX board and the 480 is on the 2nd PCI-E so I have some room to play with. I thought if I could attach some kind of additional heat sink onto the 480 to transfer some of the heat over it would reduce the temp on the gpu.... but HOW? I wasn't sure if it was going to work. The area of the 480 heat sink is HUGE and has grooves so it isn't the best surface to tranfer the heat but I wanted to try it out anyway.

    After some searching, I found the thermaltake TR2-R1 ($14.99) heatsink for AMD cpu. Its contact surface is HUGE and FLAT (the more contact area the better). I also got some thermal paste (alot actually; 6g ($6) to be exact ) to fill up all those grooves on the 480 (again, the more contact area, the better)

    Tada....
    1.
    [​IMG]

    2.
    [​IMG]

    3.
    [​IMG]

    4. You can see the gap here at the corner because of the raised EVGA logo and I ran out of thermal paste to fill it all up. I did not have time to clean it up so it's a little messy there. :)
    [​IMG]

    Here is the result. After 1/2 hr of heavy testing, the thermaltake heatsink is just as HOT... really HOT.... as the 480 so the heat transfer is Working.

    Well.... after all this work and did it lower the temp?

    YES!!!!

    Without the extra thermal paste to completely fill the grooves and missing an active fan, it already lowered the GPU temp by 5-6 C on the same testing methodology

    Temp reading is now 87-88 C on auto fan @ 58-64%
    before the mod
    Tem reading was 92-93 C on auto fan @ 63-72%

    I can't wait to add a fan onto it and see how much more it will lower the temp.

    I am so excited!!! :)
     
  2. Wanny

    Wanny Guest

    I honestly like homemade mods for GPUs. Looks great. I did mod a 90mm side fan blowing air directly into GPU fans and it works wonderful.
     
  3. Markushka141

    Markushka141 Master Guru

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    GPU:
    Palit GTX470
    thats nice :) good work! *thumbsUP*
     
  4. fr33k

    fr33k Ancient Guru

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    GPU:
    MSI 4080 VENTUS OC
    Probably cheaper just to stick one of these below your card and have the hair blow directly on to the hot plate.
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835888112

    I had a thermaltake sl1 there and i got a good decrease in temps by having air blow directly on the cards surface. Put in my 8800GT for physx and temps went back to normal.
     

  5. newr

    newr Member

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    GPU:
    GTX 480 SLI Water Cooled
    Your solution is probably cheaper and quicker but it won't be effective in this case when the surface is so hot. There is only so much a fan can do. Without a large surface area for the heat to dissipate, the fan is useless.

    To dissipate heat quickly, you need a large SURFACE AREA, the more the better, for the heat to dissipate... look at any cooling devices...CPU cooler, GPU coolers, car radiators, AC units and etc.... you will see all those alluminum fins or copper fins to maximize surface area to effectively cool it down.
     
  6. fr33k

    fr33k Ancient Guru

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    GPU:
    MSI 4080 VENTUS OC
    you already have a large surface area XD which gets pretty damn hot so the only logical move is to cool the current surface area.
    This guy did it with an 8800 LOL.
    http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=242250

    *edit unfortunately he only tested ambient temps.
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2010
  7. IPlayNaked

    IPlayNaked Banned

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    GPU:
    XFire 7950 1200/1850
    Yikes.

    Wouldn't it be better to attach a fan to the new sink?

    EDIT: Just read the bottom, nevermind.

    DOUBLE EDIT: If you were really inclined there are adheisve thermal pastes you can buy.
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2010
  8. cowie

    cowie Ancient Guru

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    GPU:
    GTX
    i think you did good if it helped.:smile:
    i used to do this all the time,now i dont bother as much.

    a cupple of things i was wondering.ambient temps? did you replace the thermal paste?

    i just got around to taking the heat sink off mine yesterday a few things i noticed were
    1 the core screws were looser then normal check them..maybe cus of high fan speeds? lol

    2 it looked like they applied the stock plaste with workers that had work boots on thier hands as gloves :3eyes:

    3 the thermal pads were place with pinpoint accuracy.(but no software to monitor vrm temps)

    as for your mod ...
    i was thinking maybe less mess with aluminum foil as the paste?
     
  9. avivoni

    avivoni Ancient Guru

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    GPU:
    560ti 448 classified
    i love all mods. this one is cool. put that fan on and post the tests. good job.
     
  10. Adicto

    Adicto Guest

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    GPU:
    Gigabyte 9600GT 512MB
    Nice Hahaha
    I've always though of something like this, problem is.
    All my previous cards have always been mid end cards :banana:
    So no need for this:wanker:
     

  11. dune2

    dune2 Guest

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    GPU:
    RTX 4090
    Nice mod, man! Definitely add a little fan to that setip.
     
  12. slickric21

    slickric21 Guest

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    GPU:
    eVGA 1080ti SC / Gsync
    Good effort,

    Its hard to judge by the pics, but if you've got room i'd have rotated the heatsink 90' then have a fan placed vertically to blow through it and out towards the back of the case - I see you have some smallish holes in the bottom 2 pci slot blanks which can act as a kind of exhaust in this instance.

    anyway keep us updated how you get on !!!!
     
  13. sk8zophrenia

    sk8zophrenia Guest

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    GPU:
    GeForce GTX1060
    4 slots cooler :) lol
    anyway this is nice job, man!
     
  14. Capt Proton

    Capt Proton Member Guru

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    GPU:
    2 X GTX 570
    Got one of these. Mine is rather old, but, it has always been rather loud.
     
  15. sabind12

    sabind12 Member Guru

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    GPU:
    MSI HD6950 2GB @900
    nice job with the cooler i'd really like to see how it does with a fan on it.
    i was thinking of doing some hardware modding myself but with liquid cooling made with cheap copper tubing and aquarium water pump.
     

  16. WhiteLightning

    WhiteLightning Don Illuminati Staff Member

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    GPU:
    Inno3d RTX4070
    looking forward to your tests with the fan on.

    good job :thumbup:
     
  17. strangerd

    strangerd Member

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    GPU:
    EVGA GTX580 SC | XL2370
    I just have two 120mm fans blowing on the card and proper airflow.

    I played Metro 2033 yesterday, completely maxed out, and the temps only went to 68c with fans at 60%. This is with 98% GPU usage.

    My furmark test goes to 73c and 70% fan speed.

    Customizing you fan speed in MSI Afterburner plays a huge role.
     
  18. YuKsS

    YuKsS Guest

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    GPU:
    Asus gtx 1070 strix oc
    nice mod, but wouldn´t be better if you attache two more screws in order to press up uniform the heatsink to the vga ?
     
  19. newr

    newr Member

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    GPU:
    GTX 480 SLI Water Cooled
    Thanks for all the comments!!! Ok, I will try my best to respond everyone's questions & comments.

    Right after I added the fan, I could feel the heat BLOWING out from the Thermaltake heatsink. I took the measurement and sure enough, it lowered the GPU temp by another 3C!!!

    So here are the updated results.
    Notes:
    Room Temp 23C
    Internal Case Temp 32C
    Also keep this in mind. The 480 oc @ 810/1010 and has a dedicated 8800GTS(G92) as PhysX so it run hotter than without the 8800.


    Before
    92-93 C on auto fan @ 63-72%
    Exhaust air of the 480 = 74-76C

    added heatsink
    87-88 C on auto fan @ 58-64%

    After
    added heatsink + fan
    84-85 on auto fan @ 62-64%
    Exhaust air of the 480 = 64-66C

    So in summary, with everything else being the same, adding this ghetto mod reduced my GPU by 8C and exhaust air by 10C.

    Tested again this morning when the room is cooler

    Internal Case Temp = 28-29C
    79-80 C on auto fan @ 62%

    I thought of that too but since it's mounted upside down, I do not want it to fall off since it's quite heavy with the fan attached.

    LOL, I thought of that too but it would have too many air pockets (trap air = enemy of heat transer. Think dual panel windows) so thermal paste is best. Also, I think what I have is already ghetto enough.. LOL

    Thanks for the suggestion, but I have a two 120mm fans directly over the card so that is why i mounted it like that

    WOW, that is really nice temp. However, my case already have two 120mm fans blowing and its temps was around 92-93C with them. Keep in mind also that I am running it with the 8800GTS which makes the 480 runs hotter.

    Thanks, I will add one more screw at the front. There is a power cable in the back so the 4th screw is not possible.
     
  20. YuKsS

    YuKsS Guest

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    GPU:
    Asus gtx 1070 strix oc
    good. can you post some pics showing the fan please.
     

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