Liquid for CPU but not GPU?

[Guest]

I keep seeing new builds with liquid cooled CPU's, but not GPU's, and I'm curious why people go this route. I air cool everything in mine, which works fine for me, but if I were going to liquid cool anything, it would be my GPU. It generates a heck of a lot more heat than my CPU does.

 

[Icaraeus]

Liquid cooling a video card is far more complex than liquid cooling a CPU.

 

[Guest]

Liquid cooling a video card is far more complex than liquid cooling a CPU.

Why's that? They have prefab brackets and cooling systems for GPU's, too.

 

[Icaraeus]

For those ones, you need to buy very specific brackets/cooling kits for specific video cards, and some might not even have their own custom one made. Mainstream/mid range video cards (in terms of single precision FLOPs and general performance) generally don't have "prefab brackets"

It's different for CPUs, as the liquid coolers fit with most modern LGA sockets.

 

[Guest]

For those ones, you need to buy very specific brackets/cooling kits for specific video cards, and some might not even have their own custom one made. Mainstream/mid range video cards (in terms of single precision FLOPs and general performance) generally don't have "prefab brackets"

It's different for CPUs, as the liquid coolers fit with most modern LGA sockets.

Well, if it's that much more trouble to liquid cool a GPU, I can see why people don't want to. But at the same time, if your case has good cooling and airflow and you don't need to liquid cool your GPU, then you almost certainly don't need to liquid cool your CPU either.

 

[rwoody]

It really depends on your GPU also. I have an AIO liquid cooler for my CPU, but my GPU is quite large with big fans. My GPU (under load) has yet to go above 70C, so there's no need to liquid cool it at this time. Down the road, as games become more demanding I may add my GPU to my liquid loop, but it's just not needed yet. My CPU however gets pretty warm with my overclock, and my liquid CPU cooler brings it down to about 65C under load.

The important thing to remember is that with so many different components, infinite configurations, and variable uses, everyone's situation is different. What works for you may not work for others, and vice versa.

 

[Icaraeus]

It really depends on your GPU also. I have an AIO liquid cooler for my CPU, but my GPU is quite large with big fans. My GPU (under load) has yet to go above 70C, so there's no need to liquid cool it at this time. Down the road, as games become more demanding I may add my GPU to my liquid loop, but it's just not needed yet. My CPU however gets pretty warm with my overclock, and my liquid CPU cooler brings it down to about 65C under load.

The important thing to remember is that with so many different components, infinite configurations, and variable uses, everyone's situation is different. What works for you may not work for others, and vice versa.

Your GPU should already be running at 100% so more "demanding" games won't make a difference. You'll just run the games at a lower framerate.

 

[rwoody]

It really depends on your GPU also. I have an AIO liquid cooler for my CPU, but my GPU is quite large with big fans. My GPU (under load) has yet to go above 70C, so there's no need to liquid cool it at this time. Down the road, as games become more demanding I may add my GPU to my liquid loop, but it's just not needed yet. My CPU however gets pretty warm with my overclock, and my liquid CPU cooler brings it down to about 65C under load.

The important thing to remember is that with so many different components, infinite configurations, and variable uses, everyone's situation is different. What works for you may not work for others, and vice versa.

Your GPU should already be running at 100% so more "demanding" games won't make a difference. You'll just run the games at a lower framerate.

I don't recall saying anything about my GPU running at 100%. I guess you just assumed that.