While cards may be able to run at these temperatures it seems to me that their longevity might be a cause for concern. Also it's likely to increase the overall ambiant temperature in the case so I am always leary about the single slot cooler design on cards that typically need something better.
We saw it with the 8800GT, the 3850, and so forth.. If the card warrants a bigger beefier cooler I'd like to see it on there as I won't even consider buying it otherwise.
Other than your mere opinion that hot cards will die quicker, do you have any justification on hot cards dying sooner? I agree they may die sooner...but how about quantifying that...the card dies in 50 years as opposed to 100? 10 instead 12? I've not heard of video cards dying or artifacting randomly in a long time so a mere heuristic is they're getting better.
And your case gets hotter with this card? If anything it's designed to run at lower voltages to keep power down. A 100 watt card will put out 100 watts of energy regardless if it has a massive 5 lb heatsink or 5oz heatsink.
I build aproximately 50 computers a year.. give or take. I've seen my fair share of video card related problems because of that. Usually to do with shoddy fans, or just overall poor cooling designs. I'd say a good 20% of cards that sent up alarm bells with their heat died out (on me) just over a year in.. Or caused untold problems that led to them being replaced fairly quickly. Because of this, I've learned to be a little distrusftull of cards heading up past 75 degrees and I really don't care what the documentation says.
Capacitors are rated to run at a specified temperature at up to a specified number of hours before their properties detoriate
A common high quality capacitor will be rated for example 105°C and 2000 hours That means that it would take much less than a year to cook it! Now every time you reduce the temperature 10° you double the life expectancy (roughly) And hopefully they put the capacitors well enough in an airstream and used high quality models However I've replaced so many dead capacitors on mainboards and graphics cards that I'm not holding my breath! But hey; it gives me stuff to work on so I don't complain!
From my experience video cards are one of the more common PC components to die. It's very rarely the GPU itself but other components on the card like capacitors or VRMs etc. While the GPU itself can probably handle 90 degrees C for many long years the other components really don't like the massive amounts of heat they get being so close to the GPU.
Yea, 2 EVGA 8800GT's, The told me it was rated to run at the 105C. Both had to be returned 3 times until I decided to put on an after market cooler. No problems since. Thanks to EVGA's policies they are still fully under warrenty.
But, That sealed it for me. I will never get an egg cooking videocard ever again. When the heat is warping the PCB boards what do you expect to happen when the heatsynk starts pulling away from the GPU. It was one part of the problem for the Xbox360.
I suppose it'll be interesting to see how hot it actually runs. In my case, I'm not overly concerned about venting the heat back into the case, because the CPUs are water-cooled. If I got a Fermi card or two, I could water-cool them too, but something like this might be a good alternative (depending on heat and sound issues).
They don't appear to need air-cooling of the power circuitry, at least not judging by the full-cover water-cooling blocks already available from EK, BitsPower, Koolance, etc.
So this card is power hungry and makes huge temps.... um anyone else not impressed? Cmon NVIDIA try another strategy. I am still trying to keep the temps on my 8800gt under control.
I have a workstation that this would be great in. Because of the setup of the slots, I need to use the slot immediately next to the x16 slot, so this will allow me to have something better than my current 9600GT in there. Being a workstation chassis, it has good cooling already, and is likely louder on its own than this card. (Dual redundant 800W PSUs aren't exactly quiet... They're louder *OFF* than my gaming desktop computer is under full load.)
It always seems kind of funny how people slap massive tower heatsinks on their CPUs, but then expect the GPU to have a cooler half an inch wide. The GPUs are drawing more power then the CPU these days, so I don't envy the engineers who had to design this thing.
This is an interesting card because I always use single slot cards in all of my rigs.
If AT has an opportunity to test this new single slot GTX 470 from Galaxy, I would like to know:
The operating frequency of the GPU The operating frequency of the Memory The operating voltage of the GPU The operating frequency of the Memory The GPU temperature Idle The GPU temperature Fully Loaded The operating power Idle The operating power Fully Loaded
For this particular card. I do not believe a GTX 470 is really designed for single slot heatsink solutions at standard operating frequency and voltages. So I suspect this card is downclocked and undervolted to control the thermal loadings.
I would also like to know whether this card can operate at lower voltages successfully. It would be interesting to see how low a voltage and how low a frequency this card can run. If I can get this card to run at 65W fully loaded and be 3x more powerful than a 9600GT, then its worth the money for me.
It's possible; but their singleslot 260 card runs at stock speed; so galaxy does have a proven record in squishing two slots of cooling into a single slot without having to cripple the card.
I wouldn't, in my wildest dreams, buy card that runs this hot. As some comments have already mentioned, the longevity of a chip running at these kind of temperatures should be seriously questioned.
I run a 5850 at 1050MHz at 30C (40C fully loaded), on water. Even if it were on air, I'd be worried at 80C
I guess I admire the engineering required by Galaxy to make this happen, but it was a wasted effort - the market for such a product is what, a few dozen cards worldwide?
A single slot HD 5670 is already extremely loud compared to a double-slot HD 5770 in idle mode and it only has a 64W TDP. I can't imagine how loud is this GTX 470.
I would be much more interested in a shorter videocard than a single-slot card. I've got room for a six-slot cooler if that's what Nvidia needs for their next card, but even my Radeon 4850 is almost touching the hard drives...
I don't mind having a huge graphics card with a big cooler - there's plenty of room inside my case. I just have these annoying easy-release mechanisms on the card slots on the case that get in the way and stop me from putting in any card with a double-slot backplate.
For my current graphics card, I put on a backplate I salvaged from an older, broken, single-slot card, which has worked out fine, but that won't fit on the newest cards.
I don't suppose anyone here knows where sells graphics card backplates?
The slot brackets should be sold by the crad makers but im not sure that all card makers do this. I found last night that EVGA does sell them for the GTX 480/470 on site. I dont know that I would try to use it for this card but I guess you could try.
This is good for BTX cases where the video card gets mounted in reverse.
In those cases (i.e.: any Dell Optiplex 3xx or 7xx case), there's no slot to use for the other half of the card. The HSF on double-slotted cards tends to run into the northbridge heat sink and other components on BTX motherboards.
This is a good thing as im thinking i will only use single slot cards with liquid cooling. Almost all other GTX 400/500 cards are dual slot and the expansion plate is too so this will help make things easy.
This is a good thing for liquid cooling as im thinking of only using single slot liquid cooled cards. I hope to see more of these in the future such as gtx 570 or gtx 560. Good sli liquid cooled choise.
I plan a -------> Asus Rampage 3 Gene with intel core i7 950 liquid cooled and 2 gtx 500 liquid cooled dual loop. I want this to happen.
The slot brackets should be sold by the crad makers but im not sure that all card makers do this. I found last night that EVGA does sell them for the GTX 480/470 on site. I dont know that I would try to use it for this card but I guess you could try.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
29 Comments
Back to Article
just4U - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
While cards may be able to run at these temperatures it seems to me that their longevity might be a cause for concern. Also it's likely to increase the overall ambiant temperature in the case so I am always leary about the single slot cooler design on cards that typically need something better.We saw it with the 8800GT, the 3850, and so forth.. If the card warrants a bigger beefier cooler I'd like to see it on there as I won't even consider buying it otherwise.
ATC9001 - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
Other than your mere opinion that hot cards will die quicker, do you have any justification on hot cards dying sooner? I agree they may die sooner...but how about quantifying that...the card dies in 50 years as opposed to 100? 10 instead 12? I've not heard of video cards dying or artifacting randomly in a long time so a mere heuristic is they're getting better.And your case gets hotter with this card? If anything it's designed to run at lower voltages to keep power down. A 100 watt card will put out 100 watts of energy regardless if it has a massive 5 lb heatsink or 5oz heatsink.
DanNeely - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
Electromigration is a common killer of older chips, and since it's (among other things) thermally dependent hotter chips will die from it faster.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromigration#Ther...
The0ne - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
Common sense tells you DON'T run things too hot or they will die on you, quick! You don't have to be an engineer to understand this.just4U - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
Act,I build aproximately 50 computers a year.. give or take. I've seen my fair share of video card related problems because of that. Usually to do with shoddy fans, or just overall poor cooling designs. I'd say a good 20% of cards that sent up alarm bells with their heat died out (on me) just over a year in.. Or caused untold problems that led to them being replaced fairly quickly. Because of this, I've learned to be a little distrusftull of cards heading up past 75 degrees and I really don't care what the documentation says.
Per Hansson - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
Capacitors are rated to run at a specified temperature at up to a specified number of hours before their properties detoriateA common high quality capacitor will be rated for example 105°C and 2000 hours
That means that it would take much less than a year to cook it!
Now every time you reduce the temperature 10° you double the life expectancy (roughly)
And hopefully they put the capacitors well enough in an airstream and used high quality models
However I've replaced so many dead capacitors on mainboards and graphics cards that I'm not holding my breath!
But hey; it gives me stuff to work on so I don't complain!
iamezza - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
From my experience video cards are one of the more common PC components to die. It's very rarely the GPU itself but other components on the card like capacitors or VRMs etc. While the GPU itself can probably handle 90 degrees C for many long years the other components really don't like the massive amounts of heat they get being so close to the GPU.SlyNine - Friday, May 21, 2010 - link
Yea, 2 EVGA 8800GT's, The told me it was rated to run at the 105C. Both had to be returned 3 times until I decided to put on an after market cooler. No problems since. Thanks to EVGA's policies they are still fully under warrenty.SlyNine - Friday, May 21, 2010 - link
But, That sealed it for me. I will never get an egg cooking videocard ever again. When the heat is warping the PCB boards what do you expect to happen when the heatsynk starts pulling away from the GPU. It was one part of the problem for the Xbox360.sdolson - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
I suppose it'll be interesting to see how hot it actually runs. In my case, I'm not overly concerned about venting the heat back into the case, because the CPUs are water-cooled. If I got a Fermi card or two, I could water-cool them too, but something like this might be a good alternative (depending on heat and sound issues).Calin - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
Fermi cards might need air cooling of the power circuitry even if the graphic chip is water cooledsdolson - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
They don't appear to need air-cooling of the power circuitry, at least not judging by the full-cover water-cooling blocks already available from EK, BitsPower, Koolance, etc.sloothy - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
So this card is power hungry and makes huge temps.... um anyone else not impressed? Cmon NVIDIA try another strategy. I am still trying to keep the temps on my 8800gt under control.Breathless - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
Apparently you have a pretty crappy 8800gt, or the thermal paste wasn't properly applied.wwwcd - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
Noise to kill peoples!CharonPDX - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
I have a workstation that this would be great in. Because of the setup of the slots, I need to use the slot immediately next to the x16 slot, so this will allow me to have something better than my current 9600GT in there. Being a workstation chassis, it has good cooling already, and is likely louder on its own than this card. (Dual redundant 800W PSUs aren't exactly quiet... They're louder *OFF* than my gaming desktop computer is under full load.)Mr Perfect - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
It always seems kind of funny how people slap massive tower heatsinks on their CPUs, but then expect the GPU to have a cooler half an inch wide. The GPUs are drawing more power then the CPU these days, so I don't envy the engineers who had to design this thing.ClagMaster - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
This is an interesting card because I always use single slot cards in all of my rigs.If AT has an opportunity to test this new single slot GTX 470 from Galaxy, I would like to know:
The operating frequency of the GPU
The operating frequency of the Memory
The operating voltage of the GPU
The operating frequency of the Memory
The GPU temperature Idle
The GPU temperature Fully Loaded
The operating power Idle
The operating power Fully Loaded
For this particular card. I do not believe a GTX 470 is really designed for single slot heatsink solutions at standard operating frequency and voltages. So I suspect this card is downclocked and undervolted to control the thermal loadings.
I would also like to know whether this card can operate at lower voltages successfully. It would be interesting to see how low a voltage and how low a frequency this card can run. If I can get this card to run at 65W fully loaded and be 3x more powerful than a 9600GT, then its worth the money for me.
Thanks
DanNeely - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
It's possible; but their singleslot 260 card runs at stock speed; so galaxy does have a proven record in squishing two slots of cooling into a single slot without having to cripple the card.AlexKitch - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
I wouldn't, in my wildest dreams, buy card that runs this hot. As some comments have already mentioned, the longevity of a chip running at these kind of temperatures should be seriously questioned.I run a 5850 at 1050MHz at 30C (40C fully loaded), on water. Even if it were on air, I'd be worried at 80C
Taft12 - Thursday, May 20, 2010 - link
I guess I admire the engineering required by Galaxy to make this happen, but it was a wasted effort - the market for such a product is what, a few dozen cards worldwide?kallogan - Friday, May 21, 2010 - link
A single slot HD 5670 is already extremely loud compared to a double-slot HD 5770 in idle mode and it only has a 64W TDP. I can't imagine how loud is this GTX 470.JimmiG - Saturday, May 22, 2010 - link
I would be much more interested in a shorter videocard than a single-slot card. I've got room for a six-slot cooler if that's what Nvidia needs for their next card, but even my Radeon 4850 is almost touching the hard drives...dananski - Monday, May 24, 2010 - link
I don't mind having a huge graphics card with a big cooler - there's plenty of room inside my case. I just have these annoying easy-release mechanisms on the card slots on the case that get in the way and stop me from putting in any card with a double-slot backplate.For my current graphics card, I put on a backplate I salvaged from an older, broken, single-slot card, which has worked out fine, but that won't fit on the newest cards.
I don't suppose anyone here knows where sells graphics card backplates?
Samurninsai - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
The slot brackets should be sold by the crad makers but im not sure that all card makers do this. I found last night that EVGA does sell them for the GTX 480/470 on site. I dont know that I would try to use it for this card but I guess you could try.killerb255 - Tuesday, May 25, 2010 - link
This is good for BTX cases where the video card gets mounted in reverse.In those cases (i.e.: any Dell Optiplex 3xx or 7xx case), there's no slot to use for the other half of the card. The HSF on double-slotted cards tends to run into the northbridge heat sink and other components on BTX motherboards.
Samurninsai - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
This is a good thing as im thinking i will only use single slot cards with liquid cooling. Almost all other GTX 400/500 cards are dual slot and the expansion plate is too so this will help make things easy.Samurninsai - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
This is a good thing for liquid cooling as im thinking of only using single slot liquid cooled cards. I hope to see more of these in the future such as gtx 570 or gtx 560. Good sli liquid cooled choise.I plan a -------> Asus Rampage 3 Gene with intel core i7 950 liquid cooled and 2 gtx 500 liquid cooled dual loop. I want this to happen.
Samurninsai - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
The slot brackets should be sold by the crad makers but im not sure that all card makers do this. I found last night that EVGA does sell them for the GTX 480/470 on site. I dont know that I would try to use it for this card but I guess you could try.