[SOLVED] Fan beside GPU intake or exhaust?

[Evan7899]

I currently have my setup with 2 front 120mm intakes, one top 140mm exhaust, 2 120mm fans on a rad in push/pull intaking air from the back, and one 120mm fan exhausting on the side by the GPU. I am wondering if the fan on the side by the GPU should intake cool air for the GPU to suck up or should it exhaust the hot air that it spits out. Which config do you think will be better for cooling the GPU. CPU is on water so it is not an issue.

 

[royalcrown]

Do you have your rad in the front of the case ?

Look @ around 6:30, I don't water cool, but it seems to make sense and it might help temps enough to not have to worry about the side fan. Just a thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaDrf3XNpeU

 

[IInuyasha74]

It would depend on your GPU cooler. If your cooler is one of the closed designs that tries to vent air out the back of your case, then you are best to have the side-panel case fan as an intake. If it is a design that just blows air out into the case, it is hard to say which setup would actually be better. I haven't had the time to test and see, but I tend to set it as an exhaust in this situation. My thoughts are that since the heat is pushed down by the GPU, that you want to pull that air out, or it will just drift back up and get re-circulated by the GPU. Although, like I said, I haven't had time to test it.

 

[Evan7899]

Do you have your rad in the front of the case ?

Look @ around 6:30, I don't water cool, but it seems to make sense and it might help temps enough to not have to worry about the side fan. Just a thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaDrf3XNpeU

Rad in the back.

 

[Evan7899]

It would depend on your GPU cooler. If your cooler is one of the closed designs that tries to vent air out the back of your case, then you are best to have the side-panel case fan as an intake. If it is a design that just blows air out into the case, it is hard to say which setup would actually be better. I haven't had the time to test and see, but I tend to set it as an exhaust in this situation. My thoughts are that since the heat is pushed down by the GPU, that you want to pull that air out, or it will just drift back up and get re-circulated by the GPU. Although, like I said, I haven't had time to test it.

Sorry I should've mentioned that it is the G1 Gaming 970 so definitely not a blower style. The air is actually sucked up by the GPU and vented out of holes all around the card. So that is why I am wondering do I feed it cold air or remove its hot air.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Yea, that is going to be a hard one to say which way it would be better. If both fans are sucking air up, and blowing it onto the card, and the air is then vented around the sides...I'd think in that situation having the side fan as an intake is best. Especially if you have a full sized ATX system with the side fan sitting just below it. Not to mention the hot air should drift up, get exhausted by your CPU cooler and other fans. I'd say set it as an intake.

 

[Evan7899]

Yea, that is going to be a hard one to say which way it would be better. If both fans are sucking air up, and blowing it onto the card, and the air is then vented around the sides...I'd think in that situation having the side fan as an intake is best. Especially if you have a full sized ATX system with the side fan sitting just below it. Not to mention the hot air should drift up, get exhausted by your CPU cooler and other fans. I'd say set it as an intake.

It is not a full size ATX and I have the CPU rad blowing air in to the case. The 140mm up top should exhaust it though. The fan is sitting just below the GPU so it will work really well supplying cool air. Tomorrow I will test it out and see if it makes any difference. Thanks.

 

[Ganakas]

I have a full size case (780T from corsair) maybe a bit more than full size but anyway This is still applicable.

If u are on air for GPU cooling , the plan ofcourse is to get to a point where u can either turn the fans to zero (to free up power for the core clock) or lower them as much as they can be lowered for the same purpose. This is very difficult from what Ive seen with the last generation of Nvidia cards.

It took me ALONG time to figure out how to deal with the 16 series and im just now working on the RTX 20 series. But BOTH will lower the core clock as soon as they hit 52 degree's Celcius .. doesn't matter if monitoring software reports thermal throttle or not THEY WILL DO IT. then they again drop the core clock by 15 at 61 Degree's celcius. or right at it.

So realistically the plan is to keep the card under 52 ...if that is impossible atleast under 61 so u can retain the 2nd best clock in your voltage curve.

With dual fan cards atleast Ive found the best method is to have the CPU AIO exhaust air out the top. normal fans pulling cold air into the front , removing place holder tabs (The little slats u take off wen u add more expansion cards if u had any) S tick a 120mm fan inside the case blowing air out those slots , make sure the best fan in your system is the one that exhausts air ABOVE the graphics card in the rear of the case . Every case for the past 15 years since bottom mounted PSU's became popular has had an exhaust fan in the top rear of the case ....that fan is the fan u want to have the best air flow rating you can afford . As the graphics cards with open coolers tend to force air up in that direction thru their backplate positioning fans inorder to move air ACROSS the backplate and out the rear of the case is the best.


The reason having the cpu rad as an intake isn't ideal , is due to that air already being heated . With gaming the graphics card is king and should take priority anyway so u want large amounts of cool air in thru the front , and getting sucked up the top across the GPU.

The only reason I would install my CPU Radaitor in the front as an Intake is if that were the only mounting point in my case that allows for push/pull configuration. But for 65 dollars you can get the case I have which has push pull mounting top ...front and even the bottom. I currently have 11 fans total in my system. as time goes on i replace 1 after the other with higher quality fans and it always pays off.

regardless what tech channels suggest , Air flow fans > static pressure with the exception of push/pull for water cooling applications obviously. with regard to the front mesh/top mesh using static fans as case fans hasn't worked so well vs fans with huge AF ratings. Keeping in mind I have really nice headphones and sound isn't a problem for me as i run fans at 100% usually , I don't lower the fans on my card for silence , I lower them so i can use those volts for clock frequency haha.