Alright, so I accidentally bought a Radeon 5700xt reference card

[Kanrail]

Just wondering, would it be best to go with the Gamer's Nexus fix to get a little better performance out of it, or commit to a full water loop and just put a water block on it? I definitely want the 5700 xt, just I know the reference card gets has a bad rap in regards to its cooling. Had I not gotten so trigger happy on my new build I would have remembered to check for the new cards that are out. Any and all suggestions are welcome, and yes, I know I'm an idiot for not double checking before finalizing the purchase, lol.

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

imo, just use it to see if you care bare its noise & temp.

not big issue if your case setup is good enough

[glenalz81]

It's probably worth your while returning it and buying the model you want.

[Fasauceome]

You should still be in the return period correct?

[Labeled]

1 minute ago, Kanrail said:

since its a no refund RMA

This confuses me a lot. I understand No refund, and RMA individually. Do you mean it was an open box so they wont take it back again? It's just really rare for a new product to not have the option of even returning it for in-store credit towards an exchange.

 

It depends on how you'll be using the card, it really isn't cost effective to go full loop, you won't magically get a load more FPS.

[Kanrail]

I've edited to reflect the correct RMA. Part of the purchase was replace only, the other part, card included, I could get a refund. Just wondering from other people's experiences if the situation with it has gotten any better in the month since through driver updates and such. I could refund the card, just weighing my options. Again, still appreciate the input.

[Herman Mcpootis]

with mine it's either nearly silent at 90-95 degrees, or loud at 80-85 degrees with a manual fan profile. ambient temperatures are usually around 30 degrees celsius here.

[Labeled]

2 minutes ago, Kanrail said:

I've edited to reflect the correct RMA. Part of the purchase was replace only, the other part, card included, I could get a refund. Just wondering from other people's experiences if the situation with it has gotten any better in the month since through driver updates and such. I could refund the card, just weighing my options. Again, still appreciate the input.

The card runs hot, as long as you aren't playing in like a 35c room, you really don't need to worry. refunding for a better after market cooler will be way cheaper than going custom water-cooling. The heat isn't a driver issue, so that hasn't changed anything, all they could change with that is more aggressive fan curves or less clock boosting.

 

So think of it this way, Water cooling is fun, and can look cool. Really expensive.

You aren't losing any performance if you just leave it as is, however it might be louder than you like.

Refund to swap to a 3rd party cooled card will be your most cost effective option aside from just leaving it as-is.

[Kanrail]

Thanks all for the input. The noise from the card isn't something I'm worried about as I have a window air conditioner almost always going beside my computer, I was more worried about thermals. If it just runs hot, but doesn't throttle, that's something I live with, so with that said I'll probably just keep the card then. Thank you all for the input.

[MahtXL]

1 hour ago, Kanrail said:

Thanks all for the input. The noise from the card isn't something I'm worried about as I have a window air conditioner almost always going beside my computer, I was more worried about thermals. If it just runs hot, but doesn't throttle, that's something I live with, so with that said I'll probably just keep the card then. Thank you all for the input.

See the problem i have is they are using the newly added hot spot temp. Use the edge temp like every other gpu released to date, and stop worrying over a new sensor AMD added. It wont throttle until 110c on that hot spot temp, ive had my 5700 xt for a week now and the hot spot has never gone over 85, and ive been really cranking the settings and or frame rate. Keep the stock card, mines a stock blower and i love it. No thermal issues at all. I came off an R9 390 which would game at 85 to 94 edge temp, i cant even fathom how spicy the hot spot was (because it wasnt reported on older gen gpus) Why worry over a temp thats reached by every single gpu out their, but just not reported to the user due to lack of a sensor. Its silly.