Discussion Radeon VII on water is how it should be run

[pitogo]

So after Bykski announced the first Radeon VII waterblock here, I immediately purchased one and received it Monday the 25th. Out of the box the Bykski was horrible. I was thinking I should have waited for the EKWB version they just announced right after my unit came. I wanted to cry I was getting worse performance. Stock with the washer mod, Junction Temperature was (JT) 101C. With the Bykski watercooler out of the box 122C JT. I drained the loop and looked at what was going on.

I had to lap the waterblock where it meets the GPU! I dry lapped with 800 grit sandpaper then wet lap and washed it smooth. After it was smooth and you can see where the nickel was shaved as high spots exposed raw copper. There were very sharp ridges where the waterblock was milled on the surface where it meets the GPU. I ran my finger nail across the surface and it was getting hung up on those walls where the milling bit left an indentation. This was causing serious thermal issues as it left the thermal paste to fill the gaps. I also decided to replace the stock paste with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut. Its now done some serious wonders. Can you believe I went from temp of 75C with a junction temp of 122C using this waterblock to now max 52C and junction temp 88C peaking at 1991MHz on the GPU with its own autoboost after more than half an hour of gaming. Stock cooler junction temp was 101C and never went about 1900Mhz.

With the stock cooler I was also unable to undervolt, I didn't win the GPU lottery with a good sample. As funny as that sounds, my system was crashing on undervolt. Now no issues as it stays cooler. Stock was 1139,

The included manual was in a foreign language. I e-mailed support and promptly got an English version but it was also just as horrible. I used intuition and did it my way. I removed the springs from the short screws they included to clamp down the board. And I used the original GPU X bracket with the longer screws and the springs removed from the shorter screws to clamp it down similar to the original method. I also reinstalled the original back plate. I was skeptical at first but its doing a pretty good job.

The RGB is just an added bonus. If you can live with those two issues then its worth it, just use code "holdup" for an extra 10% off.

 

[Eximo]

Hmm. They must have rushed to production to produce rough milling at the most important point. Hopefully it gets better.

I've always bought my water blocks with the intention to use the OEM backplate. Hasn't failed me yet.

 

[pitogo]

Hmm. They must have rushed to production to produce rough milling at the most important point. Hopefully it gets better.

I hope that is the case.

At stock speeds, gaming in The Division 2, GPU 1802Mhz (undervolt) and memory at 1000Mhz, junction temp never goes above 88C.

At overclock speeds, ditto, GPU set at 2000Mhz (1146mv) and memory at 1200Mhz, junction temp gets to 96C still below thermal throttling. Both clocks actually boosted farther than the preset reaching 2093MHz GPU and 1293MHz memory. I did see power peak past 300W so this thing was getting hot!