True or false - Does vertically mounted (bracket up) GPUs have cooling issues?

[DeerDK]

Hi everyone. 

I've been eyeing the Silverstone Alta G1M for some time but when I read some user reviews, some people mention that there is an inherent issue with GPUs being mounted vertically in pillar style cases, with the bracket up (the end the dport/hdmi cables are coming out of). Something about the pipes not being designed for it. 

I tried researching the topic but had trouble finding anything specific, apart from older vids and articles touching on the general subject of vertical gpus and the issues connected to the being too close to the case side ect. 

 

Does anyone know some solid research on this topic, or some hands on experience? 

[8tg]

It does not matter at all, heat pipes don’t work like that and the contents aren’t affected by gravity in any meaningful way. 
 

[PDifolco]

13 minutes ago, 8tg said:

It does not matter at all, heat pipes don’t work like that and the contents aren’t affected by gravity in any meaningful way. 
 

I suspect it may play a small negative role as putting the heatsink vertically may make cooling slightly less effective, but nothing to worry about indeed 

[Agall]

13 minutes ago, DeerDK said:

Hi everyone. 

I've been eyeing the Silverstone Alta G1M for some time but when I read some user reviews, some people mention that there is an inherent issue with GPUs being mounted vertically in pillar style cases, with the bracket up (the end the dport/hdmi cables are coming out of). Something about the pipes not being designed for it. 

I tried researching the topic but had trouble finding anything specific, apart from older vids and articles touching on the general subject of vertical gpus and the issues connected to the being too close to the case side ect. 

 

Does anyone know some solid research on this topic, or some hands on experience? 

There's a few layers here:

 

The GPU cooler's orientation has no significant impact on cooling, although might be better since most GPUs will exhaust out the 'top' of the card. Flow through in a normal orientation being a comparable example to the 'top' exhaust if vertically mounted.

 

Heatpipes operate at saturation and use the difference in pressure between the heat source and heatsink ends to circulate fluid. Its not like the Icegiant Thermosiphon that does require a specific orientation. They're dependent on a difference in temperature to operate since that's what produces the work on the fluid.

 

The 'being too close to the side panel' is the major problem a lot of vertically mounted GPUs run into especially if they have tempered glass side panels. As long as that's not the case where the GPU is physically mounted optimally, then you're fine. The other related problem you could run into is with tall M.2 coolers or CPU coolers, if you're using an air cooler. Those could physically impede you from vertically mounting your GPU.

[DeerDK]

15 minutes ago, Agall said:

There's a few layers here:

 

The GPU cooler's orientation has no significant impact on cooling, although might be better since most GPUs will exhaust out the 'top' of the card. Flow through in a normal orientation being a comparable example to the 'top' exhaust if vertically mounted.

 

Heatpipes operate at saturation and use the difference in pressure between the heat source and heatsink ends to circulate fluid. Its not like the Icegiant Thermosiphon that does require a specific orientation. They're dependent on a difference in temperature to operate since that's what produces the work on the fluid.

 

The 'being too close to the side panel' is the major problem a lot of vertically mounted GPUs run into especially if they have tempered glass side panels. As long as that's not the case where the GPU is physically mounted optimally, then you're fine. The other related problem you could run into is with tall M.2 coolers or CPU coolers, if you're using an air cooler. Those could physically impede you from vertically mounting your GPU.

Thanks for the explanation.

The good thing about the Alta G1M is that it doesn't use riser cables. It's simply rotating the motherboard 90 degrees. So there shouldnt be issues about components being too close. 

 

My current case is the Node 304, which also have a "natural" vertical GPU structure, as the mobo is placed horizontally on the bottom of the case. Luckily there is a big air intake in front of the GPU. 

[Agall]

1 hour ago, DeerDK said:

Thanks for the explanation.

The good thing about the Alta G1M is that it doesn't use riser cables. It's simply rotating the motherboard 90 degrees. So there shouldnt be issues about components being too close. 

 

My current case is the Node 304, which also have a "natural" vertical GPU structure, as the mobo is placed horizontally on the bottom of the case. Luckily there is a big air intake in front of the GPU. 

There's a few things that might matter, like adding some foam ducting from the side panel to the GPU so that it forces the negative pressure the GPU fans generate infront of them to grab air from outside the case. Simple mods like that can go a long way.

 

I spent 7 years exclusively doing top tier mITX builds, what I learned from that is always having a negative pressure bias. The low internal volume of air reduces the overall heat capacity of the system, where without negative pressure, it'll disproportionately increase the temperature of the air inside the case.

 

Even the mITX builds I have now, like the Asrock Deskmeet B660, I had to chop a hole in to mount an exhaust fan, and PSU swap it to have a normally exhausting PSU fan to keep the temperatures under control. That happened when I swapped the Intel Arc A380 out for a RX 6600 which draws another 75W or so.

[SteveBinLaden]

If anything, I would think that mounting in that way would be better for the GPU since all the weight is supported by the bracket. That said, it may have something to do with the force being on the faceplate screws weirdly. I don't think that would be enough to cause issues though as the faceplate is probably under less load overall due to torque things. Overall, the sag prevention makes it better I would say given you can get enough good airflow.

[DeerDK]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I didn't expect it to hold water myself, but it's good to hear from the rest of you. 

Stay awesome and stay safe