How To Extra GPU Cooling

[Dr3ams]

I have a Radeon RX 6700 XT from Sapphire that's installed in a Bequiet! Dark Base 900 tower. The GPU temps at idle are between 42°C to 47°C. When gaming (e.g. The Division 2), they will hover between 65°C to 70°C. Lately I've been thinking of a way to lower the temps without having to buy and install a water cooling solution. Fans on the GPU pull in surrounding air to cool the components and then expel it out the side or the back of the card. So I thought, what if I install fans underneath the GPU that blow cool air towards the card's intake. I looked around on the net for a solution and found one from the company Akasa. The PCI slot bracket allows the mounting of one or two 120mm fans. The fans I chose are 2 Silent Wings 4 from Bequiet!.

After assembly

Installed

After installing the fan kit, the GPU temps are between 30°C and 35°C at idle. When playing The Division 2 on 1440p at around 130 fps, the temps hover between 55°C and 60°C. Of course this will improve if I use the case's fan controller to raise the fan rpms. Also, the temps will vary depending on the game and settings. I purchased the Akasa fan kit on Amazon for around 8 Euros.

 

[Viking2121]

Its a cool setup for sure, But its going be much less effective if it can't get fresh air from out side of the case, I always find that these sort of GPU's will tend to run hot if there is no sort of intake at the bottom area, it just blows already heated air back into in to itself.

Your case has enough ventilation in the back where this may help somewhat with a side panel installed, but most cases that don't have vent in the rear like that with a glass side panel, I can't see them fans being any help at all.

I wish they didn't do away with side panel vents, and even blower style cards that would suck in hot air and blow it out the back, they did good in the right scenario.

 

[Dr3ams]

Its a cool setup for sure, But its going be much less effective if it can't get fresh air from out side of the case, I always find that these sort of GPU's will tend to run hot if there is no sort of intake at the bottom area, it just blows already heated air back into in to itself.

Your case has enough ventilation in the back where this may help somewhat with a side panel installed, but most cases that don't have vent in the rear like that with a glass side panel, I can't see them fans being any help at all.

I wish they didn't do away with side panel vents, and even blower style cards that would suck in hot air and blow it out the back, they did good in the right scenario.

Yeah. you're right about having proper vents for GPUs and this kind of mod. Luckily the Dark Base 900 has a vent specifically for the GPU.

Here is the temp at idle with the case fans set at minimum. Without the mod the temps used to be in the low to mid 40°C range. This is because the fans on the Sapphire GPU are off until the card reaches a specific temp.

During gaming at 1440p at around 130 FPS, with the case fan speed turned up 50%, the temps hover between the low 50°C and 60°C. Before I installed the mod, temps would easily hit 70°C. The GPU fans were also very audible at that temperature. Now I don't hear the Sapphire fans at all. Overall, it's a 10°C improvement.

 

[geofelt]

I think you fixed a problem that you don't have.
Graphics cards do run hot, but they are designed to do so.
Under load, they will target 80c and adjust cooling and performance accordingly.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I've seen similar coolers on ALIEXPRESS.

 

[Dr3ams]

I think you fixed a problem that you don't have.
Graphics cards do run hot, but they are designed to do so.
Under load, they will target 80c and adjust cooling and performance accordingly.

It wasn't really a problem. But, I think lowering the temps prolongs the life of the hardware and drastically reduces the GPU fan noise. It was also fun to tinker around with. In addition, I live in an area of Europe that doesn't have air conditioning in most older houses.

 

[Dr3ams]

I've seen similar coolers on ALIEXPRESS.

I've taken a look at some of those that include the fans, but the fans didn't look like they were of adequate quality. Buying the brackets and installing them on quality fans prevents a RMA.

 

[Phaaze88]

I think lowering the temps prolongs the life of the hardware...

Negligible when things were already well within operating spec.

It was also fun to tinker around with.

Now posts like this I love to see, so kudos to you. Too many out there now asking whether this or that idea will work or not... folks too afraid to just TRY something? Speculation just goes in circles.

I live in an area of Europe that doesn't have air conditioning in most older houses.

In such a scenario, folks should utilize lower power limits and bump up clock speeds a little to counteract.
Forcing more air through PC will heat the room up at a faster rate if system power use remains the same.

 

[scout_03]

since your case fans are pwm and run only at 50 % why you dont use bios to ajust them to run all full speed over 60 c in system you could made a curve settings for your fan speed and temps .

 

[Dr3ams]

since your case fans are pwm and run only at 50 % why you dont use bios to ajust them to run all full speed over 60 c in system you could made a curve settings for your fan speed and temps .

The fans are 3 pin, not pwm. I run them at 50% (800 rpms), because that's all I need to cool the hardware to the temperature I want. I prefer to manually control the fans, that's why all six fans are connected to the case fan controller.

 

[thestryker]

Its a cool setup for sure, But its going be much less effective if it can't get fresh air from out side of the case, I always find that these sort of GPU's will tend to run hot if there is no sort of intake at the bottom area, it just blows already heated air back into in to itself.

Your case has enough ventilation in the back where this may help somewhat with a side panel installed, but most cases that don't have vent in the rear like that with a glass side panel, I can't see them fans being any help at all.

This type of fan setup will usually help temps no matter what as long as it doesn't cause too much turbulence for the video card fans. It keeps the air from holding in the area, but ventilation certainly makes it a lot better.

I wish they didn't do away with side panel vents, and even blower style cards that would suck in hot air and blow it out the back, they did good in the right scenario.

I wish PSU shrouds never became a thing because even the one sided vents Antec uses are decent and the ones on the Lian-li Lancools are great. They also allow for mostly solid side panels at the same time.