How much room should I give my GPU's fans to properly cool it?

[Pocketmouse]

I installed an AIO in my rig about a month ago. I hate how most of the time AIO pipes rest on top of the GPU and stick out (depending on where the radiator is mounted) to me it looks just as bad as having power cables unmanaged. In order to make room for the AIO tubes and have a sleeker look I moved my GPU down a slot and there's room for the piping- the only draw back I'm seeing so far is now that my GPU is down lower there's only about an inch to an inch and a half between the GPU and the bottom of my case. Here's a picture of my current set up as of 2 weeks ago. You can see the GPU mounted on the lower PCI Express 3.0 X16 slot- the perspective of the photo makes it look kind of like it's on the ground but there's about 1-1.5 inches between the GPU and the PSU shroud.

 

Is this enough room? I'm also curious because my case can do a vertical mounted GPU which looks great but also puts the GPU's fans really close to the tempered glass on my case.

[jorenc]

Enough room = yes. If you do vertical mount, it will run hotter, but unless your GPU is clocked to where every degree counts, you'll experience no issues whatsoever. Modern GPU's are great at handling heat. Even if it was pressed up against the tempered glass, you're not going to even get close to 70C. 

 

Imo, the GPU down a slot looks worse than tubes pressing against a GPU in the top slot.

 

Listen to Luke, "Just do it. It'll probably be ok."

[Dedayog]

15 minutes ago, jorenc said:

Enough room = yes. If you do vertical mount, it will run hotter, but unless your GPU is clocked to where every degree counts, you'll experience no issues whatsoever. Modern GPU's are great at handling heat. Even if it was pressed up against the tempered glass, you're not going to even get close to 70C. 

 

Imo, the GPU down a slot looks worse than tubes pressing against a GPU in the top slot.

 

Listen to Luke, "Just do it. It'll probably be ok."

I'm going to say his 1080Ti is hitting 70c+ all the time. They're not cool cards at all.  If you put it on the glass, you're looking at reaching 90c easily.

 

1" is minimum IMO, I wouldn't want it closer than that if I could help it.  I don't have the best airflow case but as long as you have air movement around it, you're good.  So vertically mount it but try to get at least an inch clearance if you can.

 

They're good cards.  Just need to breathe, in my opinion.

[jorenc]

11 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

I'm going to say his 1080Ti is hitting 70c+ all the time. They're not cool cards at all.  If you put it on the glass, you're looking at reaching 90c easily.

 

1" is minimum IMO, I wouldn't want it closer than that if I could help it.  I don't have the best airflow case but as long as you have air movement around it, you're good.  So vertically mount it but try to get at least an inch clearance if you can.

 

They're good cards.  Just need to breathe, in my opinion.

HAHA I disagree! Whatever, GPU heat issues aren't really issues anyways. Front mounted radiators aren't good for GPU's anyway - but CPU's don't deal with heat as well so I always front mount.

 

Either way, I think buddy is fine. Unless he's crashing all the time, it's nothing a good ol' fan curve can't fix

[Pocketmouse]

15 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

I'm going to say his 1080Ti is hitting 70c+ all the time. They're not cool cards at all.  If you put it on the glass, you're looking at reaching 90c easily.

 

1" is minimum IMO, I wouldn't want it closer than that if I could help it.  I don't have the best airflow case but as long as you have air movement around it, you're good.  So vertically mount it but try to get at least an inch clearance if you can.

 

They're good cards.  Just need to breathe, in my opinion.

My 1080 TI is currently idlilng at 33-35C and on Superposition benchmarks it usually hits 84. but I haven't seen it hit that high while actually gaming.

[jorenc]

2 minutes ago, Pocketmouse said:

My 1080 TI is currently idlilng at 33-35C and on Superposition benchmarks it usually hits 84. but I haven't seen it hit that high while actually gaming.

Just give it chill pill

[Pocketmouse]

1 minute ago, jorenc said:

Just give it chill pill

I'll mount it on the top again just to see what temperatures I get, but I honestly haven't really run into any issues on the bottom slot- I just wanted to make sure I wasn't putting any unwarranted stress on it- I want to make sure my investment lasts.