Air cooling a 8800 gts 640 mb

[thelonerangers]

im looking to bring the temps down for my 8800 gts, the temp idles at like 140 F and when playing games goes upto maybe 160 F. What are my options for an aftermarket air cooler for this card or is there a way to upgrade just the fan on the stock cooler? any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dougie_boy]

www.akasa.co.uk/akasa_english/spec_page/vga_cooler/spec_ak_vc03_bluv.htm

fits the 8800gts nicely and will lover your temps and noise levels for about £14.99 bargain.

 

[geofelt]

im looking to bring the temps down for my 8800 gts, the temp idles at like 140 F and when playing games goes upto maybe 160 F. What are my options for an aftermarket air cooler for this card or is there a way to upgrade just the fan on the stock cooler? any help would be greatly appreciated.

First of all, your temparatures are not out of line. 60c while idling, and 71c under load is normal. The cards run hot, and they are designed to do so.

On my previous PC, I had a 8800GTS and wanted to improve the cooling, both with the vga card and the cpu.
The case had adequate ventilation.
The stock cooler on the 8800GTS is actually very good. It sends most of the hot vga air out the back of the case.
There are, however four slits in the card through which some hot air escapes back into the case. This heats up the intake cooling air to both the vga card and the cpu, resulting in an increase in temperatures until a steady state is reached.

What I did was very simple and effective. I installed a slot cooler directly under the 8800GTS. This picked up the hot air escaping the vga card and sent it out the back of the case. The net result was about a 5c drop in both vga temperatures and cpu temperatures.
I used this unit which has a speed control knob, allowing you to control the fan speed:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999704
At $6, I would try it first. Most oem 8800 coolers do a good job of getting heat from the vga chips, but they don't finish the job because the heat is just dumped back into the case.

 

[outlw6669]

im looking to bring the temps down for my 8800 gts, the temp idles at like 140 F and when playing games goes upto maybe 160 F. What are my options for an aftermarket air cooler for this card or is there a way to upgrade just the fan on the stock cooler? any help would be greatly appreciated.

60-71°C is just fine for your card.
GPUs are designed to take a lot of heat.
Until you get in the 95°C+ range, you have nothing to worry about.
If you really want to bring your temps down a little, use Rivatuner to raise your fan speed.

 

[swifty_morgan]

there's a tool put out on the EVGA web site called precision. You can set your fan speed with that.

 

[thelonerangers]

would u guys recomend re-applying newer thermal paste to the heat sink on the video card? I have some left over from a cpu upgrade i just did, or can i upgrade the fan on the video card. I am fairly handy so i am open to some options. thank you for the answer so far.

 

[outlw6669]

Re-applying the thermal paste will probably shave a few °C from your temps.
Most likely nothing major but for a free cooling upgrade it may be worth it.

Just make sure and do it twice...
The first time, apply what you think is just enough to cover the GPU core and re-assemble.
Afterwards, take it back apart and make sure you have used the proper amount of thermal paste.
You want the entire GPU core to be covered with a thin layer of thermal paste.
To thick and it will act as an insulator, to little and it will not cover the entire core.

Also, DO NOT put thermal paste on the RAM chips!
Re-use the existing thermal pads on them.

Your temps really are just fine so I would not waste the $$ on a new cooler.
If you are still feel the temps are higher then you would like after changing the TIM, take a look at your cases cooling setup and raise the fan speed on the GPU cooler.

 

[geofelt]

would u guys recomend re-applying newer thermal paste to the heat sink on the video card? I have some left over from a cpu upgrade i just did, or can i upgrade the fan on the video card. I am fairly handy so i am open to some options. thank you for the answer so far.

Why do you want to fix a problem that you don't have?
Your temps are normal.
Re-applying thermal material will void your warranty, and you risk not doing it properly.
The stock fan is fine; why replace it?

 

[thelonerangers]

I was not aware that the normal temps were so high for the video card. I downloaded rivatuner and i upped the fan speed to 100%, it sped up all the fans in my case and im assuming the vid card. All of the temps in my case went down, my gpu went down to 124 at idle, i haven't had time to play a game and run it hard. but thanks for all the help i appreciate it.