2080 Ti Kraken G12 Installed. VRM/VRAM Cooling Issue?

Covert Lion · December 2, 2020

Hello all. I know this is a long post but hear me out. I picked up a 2080Ti the other day. It was a EVGA blower so I replaced it with a NZXT Kraken G12 bracket and AIO. My temps went from 50c idle to 30c idle and 85c load to 55c load. So great temps.

I started playing RDR2 and with the power of the 2080 Ti I realized I could play 1440p and bump up the resolution scaling to 1.25 to sharpen up the vaseline TAA that this game has.

Now this is where my issue starts. After about a half hour of play I get a hard crash where I lose signal with the monitor. This isn't just a driver crash. My computer power cycles after crashing but I still need to hit the reset button to get a full restart.

This does not happen with any other game, I can play valhalla maxed out at 1440p.with 1.3 resolution scaling and not get a crash ever.

I read somewhere that RDR2 puts immense stress on the memory of the card and my suspicions are that maybe my VRAM and/or VRM isn't getting sufficient cooling on the GPU. There is a little fan included on the right side of the bracket but it only hits the right side of the card, the left side has no.cooling.

My PSU is sufficient at 750W Gold EVGA Supernova. I tired two power supplies anyways so I don't think that's an issue.

Does anyone know if the VRM and VRAM overheating would cause such a crash? Its funny because before I bumped up the resolution scaling in RDR2 I wasnt getting a hard crash.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Mark Kaine · December 2, 2020

can't you check memory temps etc with precision x?

Otherwise, who knows it seems likely yeah... does the nzxt cooler not come with a fan? I thought those were kinda mandatory for cooling a gpu even with an AIO

The_Other_Cody · December 29, 2020

You are correct that overheated VRAM can cause crashes. Even with the blower cards, the VRAM has thermal pads to dissipate heat into the blower heat sink. The mounted fan on the Kraken bracket works well for the 10 series cards ( I got one on my 1070ti originally blower too) but I have heard of the 20 series cards running that much hotter.

I would recommend getting some mini heatsinks and thermal tape/pads to attach the to the VRAMS. This would help wick away more heat than the fans pushing airflow across the top. I put heatsinks on my card and replaced the Kraken G12 stock fan with a Noctua fan to match ascetics of my case and increase static pressure. Overclocked the card and now I can max everything at 1080 and 1440, 4k is a little shaky depending on the age of the title.

It would be a cheap easy fix that would allow you to push the card to its full potential. Let me know if you have any updates