[SOLVED] Can the rx6900xt memory and vrm be cooled just by blasting it with air?

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Dec 11, 2021
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I saw an older video of Gamers Nexus watercooling a 2080ti with an AIO and no VRM or Memory heatsinks.

Link to the video:

View: https://youtu.be/NyAlo5lB7u0


In the video he said that all you need is to blast the memory and VRMs with plenty of air and his temps were pretty good surprisingly!
Does the same stand for the rx6900xt?
Has anyone tried it?
Also are those Ebay small copper heatsinks enaugh to cool down the memory and VRMs.

Buying a proper GPU block is off the list.

Give me your wildest suggestions and advice!
 
Solution
In the video he said that all you need is to blast the memory and VRMs with plenty of air and his temps were pretty good surprisingly!
Nothing really surprising there: GDDR6 chips are only ~2W each and most of that heat goes into the PCB, easily cooled by airflow across either side of the PCB.
The VRM is 90+% efficient, which leaves you with 3-4W of losses per stage, most of which sunk into the PCB, again manageable by airflow across the PCB.

The main problem with relying on air across the PCB is guaranteeing sufficient airflow across every part of the board under all conditions to keep all components happy, otherwise you can easily have a cluster of components in one spot that are needlessly cool while another cluster nearby is...
That's the whole premise of air cooling: run air over the part so that the air carries away heat from it. How much heat the air carries away from the part depends on two things: how much air flow is going on the part and how much surface area the part is exposing. Heat sinks dramatically increase the latter so you don't have to have as much air flow on it. However, the opposite is true: you can blast a lot of air on the part without needing a heat sink.
 
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Titan
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In the video he said that all you need is to blast the memory and VRMs with plenty of air and his temps were pretty good surprisingly!
Nothing really surprising there: GDDR6 chips are only ~2W each and most of that heat goes into the PCB, easily cooled by airflow across either side of the PCB.
The VRM is 90+% efficient, which leaves you with 3-4W of losses per stage, most of which sunk into the PCB, again manageable by airflow across the PCB.

The main problem with relying on air across the PCB is guaranteeing sufficient airflow across every part of the board under all conditions to keep all components happy, otherwise you can easily have a cluster of components in one spot that are needlessly cool while another cluster nearby is overheating inside a pocket of still air. With a heatsink soaking heat from a bunch of components and moving it to whatever parts of the heatsink are colder, you only need to worry about the heatsink as a whole having adequate airflow.
 
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Solution
Dec 11, 2021
81
2
45
Nothing really surprising there: GDDR6 chips are only ~2W each and most of that heat goes into the PCB, easily cooled by airflow across either side of the PCB.
The VRM is 90+% efficient, which leaves you with 3-4W of losses per stage, most of which sunk into the PCB, again manageable by airflow across the PCB.

The main problem with relying on air across the PCB is guaranteeing sufficient airflow across every part of the board under all conditions to keep all components happy, otherwise you can easily have a cluster of components in one spot that are needlessly cool while another cluster nearby is overheating inside a pocket of still air. With a heatsink soaking heat from a bunch of components and moving it to whatever parts of the heatsink are colder, you only need to worry about the heatsink as a whole having adequate airflow.
My original idea was to use an AIO on the card combined with Alphacool's copper heatsinks For the VRMs and Vram(the goal here is to fit the 6900xt in a 1U form factor) some direct air channels(ducting) over the memory and Vrm Heatsinks should do wonders!
The fans I will be using are Noctua NF-A4x20(40x40mm) server fans which are static monsters.
Thank you for your time!
 
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Dec 11, 2021
81
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"plenty of air" means a constant flow.
Which comes from somewhere....an always running compressor of some sort.

You're chasing a solution for a problem that does not really exist.
Well my original intensions were to make it(6900xt) as compact as possible to fit inside a 1U case!
And the problem that I'm facing is every single purpose made GPU waterblock simply does not fit!
 
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