PCB Swapping?

PC Player · June 22, 2023

So, I recently found a good deal on a PowerColor Liquid Devil RX 6950 XT. However, I wouldn’t like to watercool my gpu. And then I remembered seeing a seller on eBay that was selling an EVGA FTW3 Ultra 3080 without the gpu’s PCB itself. So, my question is, can I use the heat sink and case and led shroud and fans and just attach the RX 6950 XT PCB onto the rest of the PCB - less 3080

adm0n · June 22, 2023

That would require both cards to have a similarly sized GPU die (so it has contact on the whole die), same memory chip location and VRM locations as well as height. And nothing else on the board, like power connectors, can interfere with the cooler either.

If all of those criteria are met, you could theoretically jank mod the cooler onto your PCB. For it to seamlessly work, you'd also need screw holes in the correct spaces as well. And the fans would need the same connector.

GPU coolers are in no way standardized! So unless you want to spend a lot of work on this, I wouldn't recommend it.

You could look into aftermarket GPU coolers, but they are pretty hard to come by.

DoctorNick · June 22, 2023

25 minutes ago, PC Player said:

So, I recently found a good deal on a PowerColor Liquid Devil RX 6950 XT. However, I wouldn’t like to watercool my gpu. And then I remembered seeing a seller on eBay that was selling an EVGA FTW3 Ultra 3080 without the gpu’s PCB itself. So, my question is, can I use the heat sink and case and led shroud and fans and just attach the RX 6950 XT PCB onto the rest of the PCB - less 3080

Its not compatible. Nowadays it's hard to get third party air coolers. I would just get a radiator and pump+res combo and use it with the Liquid Devil card. Also the Liquid Devil doesn't even use the AMD reference PCB, so that makes it even harder to get another cooler as you couldn't even use the stock amd cooler.

Reference card:

MeDownYou · June 22, 2023

You'd have to pay attention to mounting holes, capacitor clearance, and shim height. If it all checks out then yes, but for your specific cards the 3080 has 66.25x 58 mounting, and your 6950xt has 54x54 mounting, so it won't line up at all.