Super Scary VRM Temperatures on R9 290 (update now with custom vrm cooling)

[ross06187]

Ok so i just put a kraken g10 on my hair-dryer of a gpu an ASUS r9 290 with stock cooler.

Having just watched the video on the 290x with the wind-force cooler i put those setting in and ran the Unigine Valley Benchmark to max out the gpu.

 

Went well no artifices but man those vrm temps!

 

GPU Settings

based on 

 

 The graphs below should show it all 

 

 

 

My questions are;

1. what are the maximum safe temprture for the VRM

2.  which chips on the board are VRM 1, so i can put bigger mini heat sinks on them.

 

Raw Data

1189.txt

 

Full Spec's 

[Alex780]

The issue you hve is very common with the kraken G10. You need to install little heatsinks on your vrm.

[ross06187]

The issue you hve is very common with the kraken G10. You need to install little heatsinks on your vrm.

 

I new this issue before karkening, and i put some mini heat sinks on but did not have enough to do all the chips.   So i only put them on chips which did not have direct fan air cooling.

 

 

Does anyone have a digram showing what vrm 1 is?  which chips/parts

[Face2Face]

Ummm... let's look at your voltage and power limit first. Is that much voltage needed to hit 1189Mhz?

[paulsterio]

@ross06187, how did you get the VRM measurements, I want to find out what mine are now!

[BallaTheFeared]

Ummm... let's look at your voltage and power limit first. Is that much voltage needed to hit 1189Mhz?

Doesn't the ASUS bios disable the power limit?

[Jumper118]

The vrm's should be rated up to 105c continuous but they wouldn't last a few years at that. At over 115c they might be ok for a few hours so you might want to buy some more little heatsinks in the next few days. Its not worth killing such an expensive card for the cost of a few heatsinks.

[ross06187]

Ummm... let's look at your voltage and power limit first. Is that much voltage needed to hit 1189Mhz?

 

 

The voltage does not seem to mater as long as you have enough.  its not a fixed value but the gpu uses what it needs.

 

 

you can see it never got near the max

[ross06187]

@ross06187, how did you get the VRM measurements, I want to find out what mine are now!

 

I am using GPU-Z has a sensor tab.  make sure to check continue  to refresh check box and you can also log to a file.

[ross06187]

Doesn't the ASUS bios disable the power limit?

 

 

Not on this one its a voltage unlocked bios 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-321-AS

 

the price is going up and down by about £60 lol.

[ross06187]

The vrm's should be rated up to 105c continuous but they wouldn't last a few years at that. At over 115c they might be ok for a few hours so you might want to buy some more little heatsinks in the next few days. Its not worth killing such an expensive card for the cost of a few heatsinks.

 

That's the plan but i want to know what the vrm is? is it the large square black chips?  ideally i want the vrm under stock cooler temps

 

thanks for the info on temps any amd ref's?  seem other things on-line saying rated at 125c

[Jumper118]

That's the plan but i want to know what the vrm is? is it the large square black chips?  ideally i want the vrm under stock cooler temps

 

thanks for the info on temps any amd ref's?  seem other things on-line saying rated at 125c

The large black square chips aroung the core are the memory chips the vrm is the line of chips next to the line of caps. Its a bit hard to explain without a picture but i dont have paint on my tablet. Watch any waterbock installation video they normally show you on them.

[ross06187]

The large black square chips aroung the core are the memory chips the vrm is the line of chips next to the line of caps. Its a bit hard to explain without a picture but i dont have paint on my tablet. Watch any waterbock installation video they normally show you on them.

is it the chips with the red line over them?

 

[Jumper118]

is it the chips with the red line over them?

 

vrm.png

Nearly those are the chokes the vrms are the small silver ones next to them  you can see the print they leave in these thermal pad under the fan on this picture http://img.techpowerup.org/131229/20131229_131313.jpg

[Analog]

Nearly those are the chokes the vrms are the small silver ones next to them  you can see the print they leave in these thermal pad under the fan on this picture http://img.techpowerup.org/131229/20131229_131313.jpg

 

Aren't those the power delivery? I think that the VRAMs are big square chips around the core in the middle.  

[Jumper118]

Aren't those the power delivery? I think that the VRAMs are big square chips around the core in the middle.  

Vrm's are voltage regulation modules . The vram is the memory. I see where your confusion is, but if you think about it you have vrm's on your motherboard and your motherboard doesn't have vram

[Analog]

Vrm's are voltage regulation modules . The vram is the memory. I see where your confusion is, but if you think about it you have vrm's on your motherboard and your motherboard doesn't have vram

 

Ups, my mistake! I must have misread the post. Anyway, @Jumper118 is right! 

[Jumper118]

Ups, my mistake! I must have misread the post. Anyway, @Jumper118 is right! 

Well its 12:23am here so i think i might make some mistakes if I stay up much longer.

[BallaTheFeared]

The voltage does not seem to matte as long as you have enough.  its not a fixed value but the gpu uses what it needs.

 

Voltage.png

 

you can see it never got near the max

That looks more like vdroop in combination with thermal throttling or reduced load. Is it dumping clock speed towards the end?

[LinusTech]

My general rule is that anything with thermal pads or thermal compound on it needs to have a heatsink on it with something like the Kraken.

[Faa]

My 780 DC2OC hits 100° as well when mining.. 120° is just probably the max. I've had a 6970 in the past with arctic cooler but I didnt install the vrm heatsinks when stressing with Furmark the gpu just kicks out black screen requires a reboot - when gaming it was sitting around 100°.  Arctic sells some vrm heatsinks so give that a shot.

[ross06187]

Wow there has been a lot of fast responses

 

Bit of color-coding going here

 

The blue lines are memory chips that I already have self-advise ram heat sinks on.  The green don’t as I ran out.  (Going to get more to finish the job)

Having looked at the original cooler it has a strip of thermal compound (tape?) over VRM  (in red)

The yellow line is also VRM I think.

 

I going to guess and say VRM 2 is the smaller one at the front?  (This is the worst case)

The red line has to be the hot VRM 1 then.  The problem with putting heat sinks over the red line is it’s directly under the fan of the kraken.  It’s going to be very tight for space.  I am going to try cutting a bigger heat sink into a strip and using the hand screw holes to hold it in place if it will fit.  (see than on some other forums)

 

 

Nearly those are the chokes the vrms are the small silver ones next to them  you can see the print they leave in these thermal pad under the fan on this picture http://img.techpowerup.org/131229/20131229_131313.jpg

Thanks that what made all the vrm clear. finding the small set at the front was getting difficult.

 

My general rule is that anything with thermal pads or thermal compound on it needs to have a heatsink on it with something like the Kraken.

 

Hopefully VRM1 (the hot one) is not VRM under the fan as getting heatsink in there will be difficult.  I think for the price of the Kraken £30 in the uk £3 worth of self adhesive heatsinks would be a nice addition to V2. The price is overinflated in the uk (1 importer) though so possibly not at its intended price point.

 

 

 

[Face2Face]

Wow there has been a lot of fast responses

 

Bit of color-coding going here

 

 

The blue lines are memory chips that I already have self-advise ram heat sinks on.  The green don’t as I ran out.  (Going to get more to finish the job)

Having looked at the original cooler it has a strip of thermal compound (tape?) over VRM  (in red)

The yellow line is also VRM I think.

 

I going to guess and say VRM 2 is the smaller one at the front?  (This is the worst case)

The red line has to be the hot VRM 1 then.  The problem with putting heat sinks over the red line is it’s directly under the fan of the kraken.  It’s going to be very tight for space.  I am going to try cutting a bigger heat sink into a strip and using the hand screw holes to hold it in place if it will fit.  (see than on some other forums)

 

 

Thanks that what made all the vrm clear. finding the small set at the front was getting difficult.

 

 

Hopefully VRM1 (the hot one) is not VRM under the fan as getting heatsink in there will be difficult.  I think for the price of the Kraken £30 in the uk £3 worth of self adhesive heatsinks would be a nice addition to V2. The price is overinflated in the uk (1 importer) though so possibly not at its intended price point.

 

A VRM is made up of phases and A Voltage controller. The R9 290 has a 5+1+1 phase setup. 5 phases for the GPU - 1 Phase for the vram - 1 Phase for PLL

 

VRM # 1 is the long strip on the right side of the card. Each Phase is made up of - 2 Capacitors - 1 Choke - 2 Mosfets/Drivers

 

The top phase in VRM # 1 is the vram phase. The 5 below, are the GPU phases. Off the left side of the card is the one phase for the PLL.  Your main goal is to cool the mosfets on VRM #1, as they get the hottest when overclocking the core and raising your voltage. The best way to do so on air, is by installing a meaty heatsink and then applying pressure to it, so it can remove the heat more effectively.  The article on Anandtech shows you how to do it, not  the prettiest way, but it's pretty effective until someone makes some decent vrm cooling for these cards. A card like the R9 290X Lightning will be easier to cool the VRM's because there will be more of them to distribute power over more phases, which makes them easier to cool in theory.  My GTX 780 Lightning has 16 GPU phases and 3 vram phases - Using the NZXT G10 with 1.38v can keep my vrm under 80c. The more phases the less voltage ripple as well.

[Jumper118]

Wow there has been a lot of fast responses

 

Bit of color-coding going here

vrm2.png

 

The blue lines are memory chips that I already have self-advise ram heat sinks on.  The green don’t as I ran out.  (Going to get more to finish the job)

Having looked at the original cooler it has a strip of thermal compound (tape?) over VRM  (in red)

The yellow line is also VRM I think.

 

I going to guess and say VRM 2 is the smaller one at the front?  (This is the worst case)

The red line has to be the hot VRM 1 then.  The problem with putting heat sinks over the red line is it’s directly under the fan of the kraken.  It’s going to be very tight for space.  I am going to try cutting a bigger heat sink into a strip and using the hand screw holes to hold it in place if it will fit.  (see than on some other forums)

 

 

Thanks that what made all the vrm clear. finding the small set at the front was getting difficult.

 

 

Hopefully VRM1 (the hot one) is not VRM under the fan as getting heatsink in there will be difficult.  I think for the price of the Kraken £30 in the uk £3 worth of self adhesive heatsinks would be a nice addition to V2. The price is overinflated in the uk (1 importer) though so possibly not at its intended price point.

thats right. i would have tried to explain a bit better but my tablet is quite retarded so its hard to do long replies

A VRM is made up of phases and A Voltage controller. The R9 290 has a 5+1+1 phase setup. 5 phases for the GPU - 1 Phase for the vram - 1 Phase for PLL

 

VRM # 1 is the long strip on the right side of the card. Each Phase is made up of - 2 Capacitors - 1 Choke - 2 Mosfets/Drivers

 

The top phase in VRM # 1 is the vram phase. The 5 below, are the GPU phases. Off the left side of the card is the one phase for the PLL.  Your main goal is to cool the mosfets on VRM #1, as they get the hottest when overclocking the core and raising your voltage. The best way to do so on air, is by installing a meaty heatsink and then applying pressure to it, so it can remove the heat more effectively.  The article on Anandtech shows you how to do it, not  the prettiest way, but it's pretty effective until someone makes some decent vrm cooling for these cards. A card like the R9 290X Lightning will be easier to cool the VRM's because there will be more of them to distribute power over more phases, which makes them easier to cool in theory.  My GTX 780 Lightning has 16 GPU phases and 3 vrm phases - Using the NZXT G10 with 1.38v can keep my vrm under 80c. The more phases the less voltage ripple as well.

this is a good explanation^

[ross06187]

Bit of an update
 
After haveing a look around I cut up an old heatsink from a 10 year old vga card to fit over the VRM1.  Using the thermal pads from the gpu cooler.  Basically what I had lying around.
 

 
This is only temporary as I think the cabal ties holding it on will melt/have melted.  I am aiming to make a bracket to fit over the top so it can be held down using the bolt holes. 
 
So I reran the card 3 times on the Unigine Valley Benchmark to max it out see how it would go.


Benchmark results

1189 with vrm1 heatsink.txt

 

The temps VRM temps are better but I am not that impressed with the improvement but its allot better than it was.  It’s at least within stock cooler normal 95 zone.

 

 

I also ran Unigine Valley Benchmark 3 times on stock gaming mode oc mode.  Here the temps were really good the vrm never made it past 70.

 

Benchmark results

967 gaming.txt

 

What would you suggest to replace the thermal pads under the heatsink?  I not sure the one’s on the stock cooler are up to the job they were just what I had.  Should it be more like a paste as was on the cooler.  That paste did not seem very thick and I was worried about damaging the card with the heatsink, the pads seemed to offer more protection but probably worse thermally.

 

It looks like the card will do fine as long as you don’t overclock it to high I think the major problem is the power target setting.  150% is just too much.  I will try dialling it in the next week or so.

 

Anyway its almost 1am time to go to bed

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2014 by ross06187