Hey there fellow Tech-Tippers!
I recently bought a used GTX 780 with an Arctic Accelero Twin Turbo cooler on it. When I unmounted the cooler and the plate that is mounted on the PCB, which obviously cools the VRAM and voltage regulators and stuff, I discovered that some of the paint on the PCB-Plate appears to be a bit burned, it has a brownish hue. However, when the 780 is under full load it barely reaches temperatures of over 53 degrees Celsius (20 deg C ambient).
Since there are no fins on the plate that cools the PCB, I wonder whether or not the VRAM and voltage regulators get enough cooling.
Obviously 53 degrees Celsius on the GPU would leave me hella space for overclocking, but this would also mean extra heat that has to be taken from the rest of the PCB, wouldn't it?
My question now is, since there are no fins on the PCB heatsink, is it safe to overclock the GPU (and/ or the VRAM), or may it damage the PCB components?
