Is a 120mm Radiator enough for a GTX 1080?

[kozato]

I've found that when running games my gtx 1080 hits 85c and to keep it going further i need to set the fan up very loud through the software (my case has solid panels and little airflow). I've decided to set up a custom loop for it, but I'm not sure if a 120mm Radiator will be enough. Mounting a 240mm would be really difficult due to the lack of space. So would a small radiator (I'm buying a copper/brass one) be enough for a fairly heavy overclock on a gtx 1080?

 

[Dunlop0078]

Yes, more than enough. Most pre built 1080s with 120mm water coolers I have seen barely crack 55c under load. 1080s are voltage locked so even with as heavy of an overclock you could get at stock voltage it wont produce much more heat than it would with stock clocks.

 

[kozato]

Yes, more than enough. Most pre built 1080s with 120mm water coolers I have seen barely crack 55c under load. 1080s are voltage locked so even with as heavy of an overclock you could get at stock voltage it wont produce much more heat than it would with stock clocks.

If you're referring to hybrid coolers, don't they only cool the processor? this is a full water block and i'm not really knowledgeable here

 

[Dunlop0078]

Yes, more than enough. Most pre built 1080s with 120mm water coolers I have seen barely crack 55c under load. 1080s are voltage locked so even with as heavy of an overclock you could get at stock voltage it wont produce much more heat than it would with stock clocks.

If you're referring to hybrid coolers, don't they only cool the processor? this is a full water block and i'm not really knowledgeable here

Well you only asked about core temps, the water block covers the entire GPU core in a hybird card. The fan cools things like the VRM and memory, which generally don't need to be water cooled to work as they should.

With a full cover water block, depending on which one, things like the VRM and memory will be cooled by water. Depending on which card you have you may not even have thermal sensor for things like the VRM and memory.

 

[kozato]

Yes, more than enough. Most pre built 1080s with 120mm water coolers I have seen barely crack 55c under load. 1080s are voltage locked so even with as heavy of an overclock you could get at stock voltage it wont produce much more heat than it would with stock clocks.

If you're referring to hybrid coolers, don't they only cool the processor? this is a full water block and i'm not really knowledgeable here

Well you only asked about core temps, the water block covers the entire GPU core in a hybird card. The fan cools things like the VRM and memory, which generally don't need to be water cooled to work as they should.

With a full cover water block, depending on which one, things like the VRM and memory will be cooled by water. Depending on which card you have you may not even have thermal sensor for things like the VRM and memory.

I will not be buying or setting up a hybrid card. I just need to verify somehow that a 120mm Radiator can cool all features of a gtx 1080 (core, memory VRM).with some overclocking headroom.

 

[Dunlop0078]

Yes.

 

[diellur]

Yes, it will. Your temps may be higher than the average for a water loop, but even with a 120mm rad you can have much lower noise and good cooling for that card.

 

[rubix_1011]

Since the 1080 has a TDP between 180 and 220watts (depending on where you look) you're pushing the bounds of a 120mm radiator with a low-flow AIO cooler pump. In order to achieve good deltas, you need close to .75 or 1.0 gallon per minute flow rates, otherwise, the cooling delta curves downward. Given that most 120mm rads are good for about 150 watts at these flow rates, anything slower means lower cooling potential, but you can make up for it with very high-performance fans.

In short - a 120mm with good flow is probably going to be better cooling than the factory air cooler. This is also dependent on flow rates and fan airflow.