Do I need heat spreaders on my GPU ram

[RainColt]

I've replaced the stock cooler with an after market on on my 7970 and it came with little glue on heat spreaders but one of them fell off, will it burn up without it or should adequate airflow cover it?

[Darkman]

You need those exact ones, they are specific in terms of dimensions, and squishiness... You will kill that ram pretty quick if you don't use them...

[W-L]

I've replaced the stock cooler with an after market on on my 7970 and it came with little glue on heat spreaders but one of them fell off, will it burn up without it or should adequate airflow cover it?

 

It's recommended since they can get fairly hot, I would use some thermal interface adhesive instead of those glue on ones.

[Imabigmac]

It's recommended since they can get fairly hot, I would use some thermal interface adhesive instead of those glue on ones.

I wouldn't use either. Thermal tape would be my choice. But to each his own. 

 

 

 

 

I've replaced the stock cooler with an after market on on my 7970 and it came with little glue on heat spreaders but one of them fell off, will it burn up without it or should adequate airflow cover it?

The GPU rsm doesn't need much as it doesn't get that hot on its own, but of course it depends on the cooler. 

So what after market cooler did you put on it? 

[RainColt]

I wouldn't use either. Thermal tape would be my choice. But to each his own. 

 

 

 

 

The GPU rsm doesn't need much as it doesn't get that hot on its own, but of course it depends on the cooler. 

So what after market cooler did you put on it? 

I put on a deep cool dracula, the heatsink doesn't make any contact with the ram so they give you little heat speaders to glue on and the thermal adhesive I got just doesn't want to play nice

[Cheddle]

I've replaced the stock cooler with an after market on on my 7970 and it came with little glue on heat spreaders but one of them fell off, will it burn up without it or should adequate airflow cover it?

 

If it was a RAM chip - no, heat spreaders are not required but can help keep the RAM cooler, leading to higher overclocks and longer life...

if it was a VRM chip - yes, heat spreaders are required and you will have serious problems without adequate cooling on the VRM...

 

Many cards have RAM chips on the rear side of the card with no cooling at all... this is accepted and they generally reach 95-105 degrees - so don't touch them

[Imabigmac]

I put on a deep cool dracula, the heatsink doesn't make any contact with the ram so they give you little heat speaders to glue on and the thermal adhesive I got just doesn't want to play nice

Well I wouldn't say yes it is totally fine without the heatsinks, they were included for a reason. That said if there is enough airflow they will probably survive. However I would NEVER in this case recommend leaving the VRMs (deals with the power delivery on the card) without the heatsinks. 

 

With something that I have which is the NZXT Kraken G10, I don't have anything on the memory or VRM's however It watercooled and the heat from chip doesn't get transferred or blow at the rest of the PCB. So temps haven't been an issue for my VRAM. So the vram/vrm heatsinks in mind are not necessary, but in your case I think I would use them if I could. 

 

Also if you do use something better to secure the heatsinks make sure you do it to all them because if one fell off the other probably will to and you probably don't want that. 

[RainColt]

If it was a RAM chip - no, heat spreaders are not required but can help keep the RAM cooler, leading to higher overclocks and longer life...

if it was a VRM chip - yes, heat spreaders are required and you will have serious problems without adequate cooling on the VRM...

 

Many cards have RAM chips on the rear side of the card with no cooling at all... this is accepted and they generally reach 95-105 degrees - so don't touch them

 

 

Well I wouldn't say yes it is totally fine without the heatsinks, they were included for a reason. That said if there is enough airflow they will probably survive. However I would NEVER in this case recommend leaving the VRMs (deals with the power delivery on the card) without the heatsinks. 

 

With something that I have which is the NZXT Kraken G10, I don't have anything on the memory or VRM's however It watercooled and the heat from chip doesn't get transferred or blow at the rest of the PCB. So temps haven't been an issue for my VRAM. So the vram/vrm heatsinks in mind are not necessary, but in your case I think I would use them if I could. 

 

Also if you do use something better to secure the heatsinks make sure you do it to all them because if one fell off the other probably will to and you probably don't want that. 

Would you advise me to not turn it on with out heatsinks on the VRM, I'm right now looking to just install the make sure it all runs stable and Install the OS

[Imabigmac]

Would you advise me to not turn it on with out heatsinks on the VRM, I'm right now looking to just install the make sure it all runs stable and Install the OS

I wouldn't do anything intensive, but if all your doing is making sure it turns on then it probably won't kill it. I would make sure the fans on the cooler are running. perhaps if you are concerned turn up the fan speed on it. I think the true problem is when you start to dump more heat and utilise the components more.  

 

On AMD cards using something like GPU-Z you can monitor the temps of the VRM's. 

 

Now if its the VRAM (video ram) I wouldn't worry about it for installing windows. 

 

However its your risk, your choice.  I just  wouldn't recommended it to someone, (but that doesn't mean the card will die) I don't have experience with this cooler so I basing my knowledge on other experiences. And I don't want someone coming back to this thread and saying based on my advice their card is dead, so you can understand my hesitation. If someone else wants to comment on this thread and say they do it all the time then you would have your answer. 

[RainColt]

I wouldn't do anything intensive, but if all your doing is making sure it turns on then it probably won't kill it. I would make sure the fans on the cooler are running. perhaps if you are concerned turn up the fan speed on it. I think the true problem is when you start to dump more heat and utilise the components more.  

 

On AMD cards using something like GPU-Z you can monitor the temps of the VRM's. 

 

Now if its the VRAM (video ram) I wouldn't worry about it for installing windows. 

 

However its your risk, your choice.  I just  wouldn't recommended it to someone, (but that doesn't mean the card will die) I don't have experience with this cooler so I basing my knowledge on other experiences. And I don't want someone coming back to this thread and saying based on my advice their card is dead, so you can understand my hesitation. If someone else wants to comment on this thread and say they do it all the time then you would have your answer. 

Fair enough, I can wait until tomorrow to run the setup

[RainColt]

Well, I wasn't going to do it but then I thought "What would Linus do?" He'd throw some noctuas at it and do it anyways consequence be damned,it'll work just fine with out heat spreaders as long as I got atleast one 120mm noctua on it and Im going to have two so not so worried anymore

[Cheddle]

Well, I wasn't going to do it but then I thought "What would Linus do?" He'd throw some noctuas at it and do it anyways consequence be damned,it'll work just fine with out heat spreaders as long as I got atleast one 120mm noctua on it and Im going to have two so not so worried anymore

 

 

The VRM's are circled, this may not be the same as your card, but make sure the circled thingos have a heatsink on them, the far right one actually  has a heatsink on it already in this picture.

 

the RAM (the larger chips around the actual GPU) do not really need coolers on them but as mentioned it is beneficial to cool them.