Are VGA Coolers BAD To Use?

No, they are not bad to use as long as the cooling they offer is better than the company fitted cooling solution. My advice would be to change the cooler only if the temps were not in the range you wanted them to be in. If the bundled cooler works perfectly fine then there is no need to try to change the cooler, sometimes better air circulation in the case itself helps the cooler of the GPU.
It is always wiser to not fix something if it ain't broken.
Sapphire is known to have one of the most efficient cooling solutions on nearly all it's GPUs.
Here's a list or one of the many benchmarks out there for you to figure out for yourself.
Compare current temps which you do get on your card with the bundled cooler and then check what temps this link shows with the cooler you got as a gift.
http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/...
It will help you decide....
Also keep in mind ambient temps of your room make a lot of difference and so does the ventilation in the cabinet....

im going to! i asked this question before i got your answer

okay thanks. WEll idk, I have it and want to use it, its not that its to hot right now, its around 40 ceclcius which is good, but if i were to do it, would you happen to know where or what the Warranty seal is? is it unavoidable to break? Or is it easy to not break? sticker glue...idk


thanks

Nah, there's nothing of that sort..... just make sure you don't have any screwdriver marks on the PCB or the Bundled Cooler.....
It'll void the Warranty only if you were to tell them that you changed the cooler and then something went wrong.... other wise , it doesn't have anything of that sort.
Also remember to keep the Thermal Paste that is on the heatsink so that just in case you need to claim it under the warranty if doesn't clash with your new thermal paste....

I really don't know if I should be encouraging this sort of activity or not. But what the heck...... I'd still be me and answer truthfully only those questions that I have been asked..... when it came to replacing or warranty.

okay, well dont worry, everyone seems to do it, lol. Also, one last question, you seem to know your stuff: The arctic cooler did not come with any RAM or VR heat spreaders, is it okay to leave the STOCK ones on, and only replace the GPU chip cooler?

Thanks

Certainly, you can only leave them on if they don't hinder the new cooler in anyway.....
 

wow, just got this message from another user saying: "They'll know.

Normally on GPUs they have either a couple of stickers that rip and have the word "void" across them, or they have painted screws.

In my GTX 260s I've noticed they have the painted screws, which means when you take the card apart the paint (that was wet when teh card was put together) is now all chipped and often comes completely off if you take the card apart more than a couple of times.

There's few ways you can "unvoid" a GPU.. but after saying all this, it all depends on how strict the brand is. I've voided warranties before and had no issue sending it back as they just never checked and sent a replacement straight the way.

Best not to try and unvoid, you could do more damage painting screws or putting stickers all over it yourself"


oh well, im gonna do it anyways.

Yeah , you certainly don't want to touch something that says Warranty Void if torn.....
But they usually don't have them anywhere close to the CHIP on the card, it's usually on the backside...... and with the heat it usually comes off...  
Painted screws are not a problem cause you can always repaint them  
And anything else is bound to get torn or void when they themselves open up te card to check for errors.... 
So 99% of the time you do get away with that sort of stuff..... 

Okay I agree, well Sorry for all the questions, but it helped a ton! THANKS!!!!!! http://img.tomshardware.com/forum/uk/icones/tongue.gif

Some vendors, like EVGA have no problem with oem coolers. If you have a problem and need to RMA, just put the original cooler back on, and return it.

In this case, check the Sapphire policy.

That said, I am not a big fan of most oem coolers for graphics cards. They do a fine job of getting heat off of the gpu die, and show up well in open testbeds.
The problem comes when you install them in a case. The hot vga air needs to be exhausted by a very well ventilated case. If not, the hot air heats up BOTH the vga and the CPU.

For this reason, I will not buy a high powered graphics card that does not have a dual slot direct exhaust cooler.

I suggest you measure both your cpu and gpu temps before and after, and tell us how you do.

yap, i agreee. I already measured before temps, now i got to do after once i install it today