Aftermarket cooling for a GTX 1080

[SpaceOctopus]

Hi there,

 

I have a Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8G.

The cooler on this card has never been on the quiet side, but with the sub-par fan control and the fans deteriorating over time it has become really loud.

 

Are there any good options to swap out the stock cooler for an aftermarket one?

I have looked at custom liquid cooling, but the prices are hardly worth it for a card that I will probably swap in a year or two. 

 

There are of course various options for third party coolers out there. From full cooling blocks like the Arctic Accelero Xtreme line to adapter solutions like the Kraken G12, I'd be willing to consider any of them.

Does anyone have any experience with these aftermarket solutions? I don't know what to even really look for. Is there a recommended / common option?

 

Thank you!

[Skiiwee29]

Kraken G12 and an AIO would be the route to go honestly.

[Princess Luna]

Why not wait nVidia's 7nm RTX 3000 series and just buy a new video card altogether? Sounds a bit pointless invest on a high end aftermarket cooler for a 4 years old card.

[SpaceOctopus]

@Skiiwee29 Do you have any experience with these adapters? They look like a good option, but I am not sure what radiator size I would need. Also they seem to require some sort of VRM heat sink.

 

@Princess Luna Like I said, for me there is probably still a year or two of life in that card. I mostly found the adapter brackets for normal AiOs quite interesting since I could still use the AiO for other projects afterwards. That way I'd only lose the cost of the adapter. Even then, I could also use the adapter for other cards.

[Princess Luna]

AiO's also cost money and they aren't exactly all that better noise wise, you'll need to buy aftermarket fans as well to try getting it silent... and the layout on cards are always changing so I don't know about this "use it afterwards" idea.

 

Not only that you have to ensure the card still gets air flow for the VRM and Memory as the AiO will only cover the GPU die.

 

The solution is not really good to the point I can recommend it but you're free to try it out.

[Whiro]

1 hour ago, SpaceOctopus said:

Hi there,

 

I have a Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8G.

The cooler on this card has never been on the quiet side, but with the sub-par fan control and the fans deteriorating over time it has become really loud.

 

Are there any good options to swap out the stock cooler for an aftermarket one?

I have looked at custom liquid cooling, but the prices are hardly worth it for a card that I will probably swap in a year or two. 

 

There are of course various options for third party coolers out there. From full cooling blocks like the Arctic Accelero Xtreme line to adapter solutions like the Kraken G12, I'd be willing to consider any of them.

Does anyone have any experience with these aftermarket solutions? I don't know what to even really look for. Is there a recommended / common option?

 

Thank you!

Did you tried contacting Gigabyte ? Maybe they can send you new cooler if this one is faulty. 
If not than yes G12 and aio will be your best option, just check for compatibility before you get any aio for that

 

[SpaceOctopus]

Hi @Whiro,

 

I have not contacted Gigabyte yet. Mostly because I find the idea of alternative GPU cooling solutions interesting and thought I'd use the opportunity to gather some experience in that area.

The G12 really seems like the way to go. Looks like this is one of those things that everyone except me already knew about (going by the wealth of videos about that thing).

I have looked into what other users reported on gtx1080 + G12 combinations and the results look rather impressive.

Seems that even a small AiO like the X42 or even the H55 will work just fine.

 

I should also mention that I am not looking for a super budget solution here, this would be a project that I am willing to put some money into. I just found full custom liquid cooling to be far too expensive to make any sort of sense for me.

 

[Whiro]

6 minutes ago, SpaceOctopus said:

Hi @Whiro,

 

I have not contacted Gigabyte yet. Mostly because I find the idea of alternative GPU cooling solutions interesting and thought I'd use the opportunity to gather some experience in that area.

The G12 really seems like the way to go. Looks like this is one of those things that everyone except me already knew about (going by the wealth of videos about that thing).

I have looked into what other users reported on gtx1080 + G12 combinations and the results look rather impressive.

Seems that even a small AiO like the X42 or even the H55 will work just fine.

 

I should also mention that I am not looking for a super budget solution here, this would be a project that I am willing to put some money into. I just found full custom liquid cooling to be far too expensive to make any sort of sense for me.

 

Yes you right full custom loop is usually quite expensive ( if you going proper way, not trying to hunt cheap af parts from ebay or similar sides). 
If you want to have a bit of fun than yes the G12 is way to go, great solution to replace faulty cooling on the gpu. 
In the past I’ve used g12 and it worked great. Also I went different way and just attached normal 120mm fans into gpu heatsink using cable ties looks junky but worked amazingly well. There is always some solution to the problem if you willing to have a try with different options. 

[Lordofcheez]

Hi, I have the G12 with there 180mm aio from nzxt. I have it hooked up on my 1080ti that I bought used. It runs at lower noise levels now. It never goes over 60c. I love it and it keep my system really quite.

[SpaceOctopus]

@Lordofcheez that sounds really nice.

 

Did you use any additional heatsinks on the VRAM and/or VRMs?

It appears like it's not necessary to do so, but I am thinking about using some anyway since they are really cheap to add.

[Lordofcheez]

@SpaceOctopus No just have to make sure the fan is set to the gpu temps. My vrms bare nothing on them just air cooling don't go over 60c.

So as far as I'm concerned you don't need it. 

[SpaceOctopus]

@Whiro, @Lordofcheez

 

Update on this matter:
I have installed the G12 yesterday with a Corsair H55.
Surprisingly easy to set up.

 

Idle temps are amazing so far, 34°C on the desktop and 35°C when running a light load like Factorio. (at 20°C room temperature)

Now I only need to find a fan control of some sort that allows me to bind the cooling to the gpu temperature.
What did you use for that?

 

late udpate:

I just found the "OpenFanControl" tool in another thread on here, gonna try that later.

[SpaceOctopus]

@Whiro, @Lordofcheez

 

Probably final update:

 

Got OpenFanControl to work, gonna submit my patch for the mainboard to Libre Hardware Monitor asap to get it generally supported.

 

Cooling is working perfectly. I am getting constant 56°C at 100% load which is a lot lower than before while the cooler is also much more quiet than the original one.

 

Thank you all for your help with this.

[Whiro]

3 hours ago, SpaceOctopus said:

@Whiro, @Lordofcheez

 

Probably final update:

 

Got OpenFanControl to work, gonna submit my patch for the mainboard to Libre Hardware Monitor asap to get it generally supported.

 

Cooling is working perfectly. I am getting constant 56°C at 100% load which is a lot lower than before while the cooler is also much more quiet than the original one.

 

Thank you all for your help with this.

Glad it worked for you