Lamptron HM101 review
Lexar SL100 Pro Portable SSD 500 GB review
ASUS ROG Maximus XII Hero review
Intel Core i9-10900K processor review
Intel Core i5-10600K processor review
ASRock Z490 Taichi review
ASUS ROG Maximus XII Extreme review
MSI MEG Z490 ACE review
Z490 Aorus Master review
G.Skill TridentZ NEO DDR4 3600 MHz (2x32GB) review
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 ACX has misaligned GPU vs heatpipes
Interesting, the cooler of the EVGA GeForce GTX 970 ACX series graphics cards seems to be somewhat poorly designed. Well that or somebody forgot to look up the GPU placement on the PCB and didn't compare it to the cooler spec sheet. Photos from reviews with the cooler removed show clearly that the GPU is mounted way off the position of the heatpipes.
Redditors point out, the ACX cooler on last year's EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC had pretty much the same design with just two of the three direct-touch heatpipes actually touching the GPU. This could explain why EVGA's ACX cooler performs more poorly and noisier in reviews versus other custom cooling solutions. They are missing almost a third of the cooler performance.
Above examples where you can see the problem, basically only two pipes are in contact.
And above an example from the ASUS Strix, the way it should look like (photo's are courtesy of the respective owners Bit-Tech).
You just have to wonder, how stuff like that passes QA (quality analysis) control? Didn't they really notice that when designing the GPU placement on the PCB they needed to compare that with the cooler specs ? Now in defense of EVGA, the cooler still offers enough cooling performance, so if you own one .. don't worry. It's just that it could have been a good notch better isn't it? It will also be interesting to see how this pans out with the EVGA GTX 980 ACX cards, with a similar cooler and PCB design, that product might be effected similar to the EVGA GeForce GTX 970 ACX series.
An EVGA Step Down ?
EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN-Z Graphics Cards - 05/28/2014 03:14 PM
EVGA unleashes the most powerful graphics card. The GeForce GTX TITAN Z is a gaming monster, built to power the most extreme gaming rigs on the planet. With a massive 5760 cores, 12 GB of 7 Gbps GDDR5...
EVGA GeForce GTX 780 with 6GB Available - 03/23/2014 09:46 AM
EVGA has added a SKU in their GeForce GTX 780 line-up, this model comes with 6 GB of graphics memory making the card a bit more future proof allowing more eye candy and UHD resolutions a notch better...
EVGA GeForce GTX 750 and GTX 750 Ti - 02/18/2014 06:36 PM
EVGA released their GeForce GTX 750 and GTX 750 Ti line up as well. Step up to EVGA GeForce GTX gaming with the new GTX 750. Its ultra-efficient, next-gen architecture makes the GTX 750 the weapon of...
EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Kingpin Edition Graphics Card (updated new photo added) - 12/04/2013 04:22 PM
EVGA apparently is working on a special edition GeForce GTX 780 Ti. The card is labeled as Kingpin Edition Graphics Card as their facebook is showing with a teaser photo. k|ngp|n is a well-known p...
EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti SC SuperClocked ACX test and review - 11/26/2013 01:18 PM
We review the EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti SC SuperClocked ACX. Oh and hey, SC means a factory overclock - this thing is fast! NVIDIA unlocked the GPU completely meaning all 2880 Shader processors are avai...
naedtrax
Junior Member
Posts: 9
Joined: 2013-07-30
Junior Member
Posts: 9
Joined: 2013-07-30
#4919929 Posted on: 09/23/2014 09:35 AM
Official EVGA response.
"The way the EVGA GTX 970 ACX heat sink was designed is based on the GTX 970 wattage plus an additional 40% cooling headroom on top of it. There are 3 heat pipes on the heatsink – 2 x 8mm major heat pipes to distribute the majority of the heat from the GPU to the heatsink, and a 3rd 6mm heatpipe is used as a supplement to the design to reduce another 2-3 degrees Celsius. Also we would like to mention that the cooler passed NVIDIA Greenlight specifications.
Due to the GPU small die size, we intended for the GPU to contact two major heat pipes with direct touch to make the best heat dissipation without any other material in between.
We all know the Maxwell GPU is an extremely power efficient GPU, our SC cooler was overbuilt for it and allowed us to provide cards with boost clocks at over 1300MHz. EVGA also has an “FTW” version for those users who want even higher clocks.
Regarding fan noise, we understand that some have expressed concerns over the fan noise on the EVGA GTX 970 cards, this is not a fan noise issue but it is more of an aggressive fan curve set by the default BIOS. The fan curve can be easily adjusted in EVGA PrecisionX or any other overclocking software. Regardless, we have heard the concerns and will provide a BIOS update to reduce the fan noise during idle.
Thanks,
EVGA"
In short they know it's a **** design and are trying to get out of it
Official EVGA response.
"The way the EVGA GTX 970 ACX heat sink was designed is based on the GTX 970 wattage plus an additional 40% cooling headroom on top of it. There are 3 heat pipes on the heatsink – 2 x 8mm major heat pipes to distribute the majority of the heat from the GPU to the heatsink, and a 3rd 6mm heatpipe is used as a supplement to the design to reduce another 2-3 degrees Celsius. Also we would like to mention that the cooler passed NVIDIA Greenlight specifications.
Due to the GPU small die size, we intended for the GPU to contact two major heat pipes with direct touch to make the best heat dissipation without any other material in between.
We all know the Maxwell GPU is an extremely power efficient GPU, our SC cooler was overbuilt for it and allowed us to provide cards with boost clocks at over 1300MHz. EVGA also has an “FTW” version for those users who want even higher clocks.
Regarding fan noise, we understand that some have expressed concerns over the fan noise on the EVGA GTX 970 cards, this is not a fan noise issue but it is more of an aggressive fan curve set by the default BIOS. The fan curve can be easily adjusted in EVGA PrecisionX or any other overclocking software. Regardless, we have heard the concerns and will provide a BIOS update to reduce the fan noise during idle.
Thanks,
EVGA"
In short they know it's a **** design and are trying to get out of it
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Don Vito Corleone
Posts: 37873
Joined: 2000-02-22
Don Vito Corleone
Posts: 37873
Joined: 2000-02-22
#4919932 Posted on: 09/23/2014 09:37 AM
Yeah we have seen EVGA statements like that in the recent past. Talking their way out of things. Laughable is all I can say.
Yeah we have seen EVGA statements like that in the recent past. Talking their way out of things. Laughable is all I can say.
Corbus
Senior Member
Posts: 2385
Joined: 2009-04-27
Senior Member
Posts: 2385
Joined: 2009-04-27
#4919933 Posted on: 09/23/2014 09:39 AM
Could it be that they used the same cooler thats on the 980 to cut down costs? Seeing that the 970 doesnt emanate as much heat,they thought it will do ok ...either way, d**k move.Curious to see how it looks on the 980.
Could it be that they used the same cooler thats on the 980 to cut down costs? Seeing that the 970 doesnt emanate as much heat,they thought it will do ok ...either way, d**k move.Curious to see how it looks on the 980.
TheDeeGee
Senior Member
Posts: 6500
Joined: 2010-08-28
Senior Member
Posts: 6500
Joined: 2010-08-28
#4919935 Posted on: 09/23/2014 09:40 AM
All you need is a reference design card and a Arctic Accelero Xtreme
They are the Noctuas of GPU Cooling.
All you need is a reference design card and a Arctic Accelero Xtreme
They are the Noctuas of GPU Cooling.
Click here to post a comment for this news story on the message forum.
Senior Member
Posts: 11465
Joined: 2014-07-21
Hmm, looks like something went wrong there. I wouldn't be surprised if the performance suffered if all the 970 ACX models are like that.