Corsair hg10

[xnoobftw]

Would the hg10 solve the VRM Issue present in kraken g10 in a 290x?

[N4dez]

It is just a cooler, so i don't see how it would affect the vrm's.
Maybe cool them a bit more, but that's it

What is wrong with your vrm's ?

[xnoobftw]

It is just a cooler, so i don't see how it would affect the vrm's.

Maybe cool them a bit more, but that's it

What is wrong with your vrm's ?

There is a VRM tempt issue if i were to attach my 290x to a kraken g10

I would like to know whether attaching hg10 would negate the problem!

[xnoobftw]

Is compatible with your 290X Tri-X

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=154&v=c97OgnuK5V8

 

If you noticed, the HG10 structure does have thermal pads that make contact with the VRMs, but it is on the pump side where there is no fan blowing onto it.

And you don't have a reference cooler fan to put into the HG10 anyway.

 

On the other hand, the Kraken G10 comes with its own fan, but leaves the VRMs completely exposed. This is still preferable as you get to put your own mini heatsinks onto the VRMs although you will be hard pressed to find those in SG

 

I suggest sticking with Sapphire's cooler. Is it not doing its job well enough?

My 290x peaks at 88 C..... 

Yeap LOL 

[xnoobftw]

Just reapply thermal paste? Or improve the case air flow situation?

I have it heavily OCed.. I dont think it is the thermal paste problem~ (it is idling at 50C like right now)

I have 3 fans blowing in and 2 fans blowing out in a spec 03

[Faceman]

Would the hg10 solve the VRM Issue present in kraken g10 in a 290x?

There is no VRM issue with the G10 as long as you have a well ventilated case.

 

The HG10 will not work with your card because you need to have a reference card with a blower fan.  Your card is non-reference.

 

People often have reduced VRM temps when going from stock cooling to G10.

 

The Kraken G10 gets a lot of bad publicity because people claim that it has insufficient Voltage Regulation Module(VRM) and Video Card RAM(VRAM) Cooling. For starters, the VRAM never gets hot enough to be worried about, so lets focus on the VRMs. Does the GPU need additional heat sinks for the VRAM and VRMs? In short, no.

The whole "insufficient VRAM/VRM cooling" began with a review of the G10 by Puget Systems. This review is probably the most critical review of the G10 out there. While it makes an interesting point, I have to explain its critical flaw to a certain extend. To begin, their Unigine temperature test, which is most closely related to video game performance, their measured temperatures are perfectly fine, they are lower with the G10 than with the stock heat sink for both the GTX Titan and Reference R9 290X(Notorious for high heat). The only time when we see the temperatures higher with the G10 than the stock heat sink are when they run Kombustor.

Also, when reading their test setup portion of the review, they state that their X41 is set as intake, which blasts very hot air over the GPU, further increasing the temperatures recorded. Normally AIOs won't produce much heat on the business end because they are cooling lower TDP CPUs in the 80-90 range, but these are 250-290 TDP cards and the heat being pushed out of the radiator is hot. It is always, always recommended to set your radiator to exhaust when used in conjunction with the G10 because the air being pushed out is so hot. The radiator set to intake could very well be increasing the temperatures by an additional 5-10C as witnessed by other members on the G10 Owner's Club. Switching their radiator fans from intake to exhaust worked wonders for them, so their test system is not set up in a recommended manner.

Kombustor/Furmark is a program that should NEVER be run. It puts unnecessary load on the GPU that is completely unrealistic. It is a card killer. It is uncommon, but happens enough that it needs to be mentioned. Kombustor can and will brick your card. It happened to me earlier this year, and it happens to many others. Let me provide a quick analogy so that you can better understand what Furmark is, and how it compares to how you would regularly use your graphics card.

When you are gaming, changes are going on in the game, your GPU is basically using "adaptive mode" similar to your CPU to ramp up and down as the game calls for it. Depending on the action, or lack thereof that is going on in game, the GPU adapts to that scenario. It isn't going to use excessive amounts of power on a loading screen, or a cut scene, or something non-demanding. When something demanding does happen, then the GPU will ramp up to meet that demand.

Think of a Nascar Race, imagine the car as your GPU. When you are racing, your car is always adapting to the situation around you. You speed up, you slow down, you turn, you pit stop, things are going on that your car has to adapt to similar to your GPU when you game.

Now, what Furmark does is not like a game, or a Nascar race. Furmark is like a drag race. A pedal to the metal, push the car/GPU as hard as it can possibly go in a straight line, no turning, no stopping, just full on, all out go, go, GO! In a realistic scenario of GPU use, you would never, ever encounter this type of load. It is entirely unrealistic. I understand why reviewers use it, to get a worst case scenario idea, but it is so far outside the real of realism, that it should not be used. If your cooling cannot keep up with this excessive heat and load applied to the GPU, or there was a bad solder job done at the factory, or any number of things related to power delivery, that is when Furmark has the potential to break or degrade your GPU.

For most people, Furmark doesn't do anything to their GPU. But for a small percentage of people, Furmark has broken their card, including myself. A quick google and you will see that this is an issue. Not a big one, but large enough that it needs to be talked about.

I like to give my components 2 weeks of break in time before overclocking to make sure everything is working properly. This is what I did with my brand new, MSi GTX 770 Lightning. I had used the card for 2 weeks, no problems, everything going fine. As you know with a Lightning, this is a card built specifically for overclocking. Without knowing what I know now, I ran Kombustor at stock settings to get a baseline for my overclocks. It took all of 3 minutes running Kombustor on a brand new, factory settings card for it to break. I am not the only one this has happened to, so I always tell my story whenever I get a chance because Kombustor is a dangerous program, and should not be used. If you want to run some benchmarks for your GPU, use Unigine, 3DMark, and In-game benchmark utilities. Not Furmark/Kombustor.

Back to the Puget review. They ran Kombustor during their test, which as a reviewer, they should do in order to review the G10 in all scenarios to give the reader an idea of what to expect. My problem with the review and the negative perception it has created is that it is an unrealistic scenario, one which I would not recommend anyone do at home, and you are unlikely to encounter that type of load during regular use. I'm not aware of any real world applications where your GPU would be put under that much stress. So lets look at the part of the review that pertains to real world scenarios, their Unigine portion of the test. The VRM temperatures are perfectly fine, even lower with the G10 than the stock heat sink. This is with "naked" cards. A lot of non-reference cards which a lot of people own come with mid-plates that passively cool the VRAM and VRMs.

To give you an idea of what VRM temperatures are like for those of us at home, we asked members of the OCN G10 Owner's Club, who have cards that can monitor the VRM temperatures to run some tests. Simple before and after tests. There are two reviews that I will point to. The Asus DCUII GTX 780Ti, Post #1147 and a reference R9 290 Post #1486 & Post #1500

You will see that the guy with the Asus GTX 780Ti was getting DCUII temperatures of 86C on the Core and 104C on the VRMs, his card was overclocked. You can look at the link to see specifics of his OC, nothing major, very average. Once he did the G10 modification without extra heat sinks, he was able to further overclock his card to the max allowable under stock BIOS and temperatures dropped to 49C on the Core, and 81C on the VRMs. This tells us two things. #1, the VRMs can withstand a lot of heat, #2 the G10's Fan does an excellent job of cooling the VRMs on its own.

There was another test done with an R9 290. They went as far as to do a before and after test with heat sinks on their G10. that they went from something like 90C on the core with the reference cooler all the way down to 55C with G10 + H55. VRMs went from 110C down to 75C. Most importantly, when they added heat sinks the VRM temperatures dropped from 75C to 60C. So adding heat sinks does help out if you are concerned about VRM temperatures. This was with a reference R9 290, so it was a naked card without mid-plate to passively help cool VRAM and VRMs. These are just two examples, if you read through that thread, there are many more.

In summation,VRM temperatures are not a concern as long as you don't run a dangerous program like Kombustor/Furmark. For awhile now people have been thinking that its a hardware problem, when in reality, its a software problem. You will be perfectly fine buying just a Kraken G10 + AIO of your choice without extra heat sinks. Any extras you decide to buy are optional, but I still do recommend picking up a pack of aluminum heatsinks and thermal tape to air on the side of caution. It is only $10 and will give you the peace of mind that your card is safe.

[xnoobftw]

Then there's no problem. You are the problem.

 

Overclocking a 290X for a 1080p display?

It's more of a "why not" scenario

 

There is no VRM issue with the G10 as long as you have a well ventilated case.

 

The HG10 will not work with your card because you need to have a reference card with a blower fan.  Your card is non-reference.

 

People often have reduced VRM temps when going from stock cooling to G10.

 

The Kraken G10 gets a lot of bad publicity because people claim that it has insufficient Voltage Regulation Module(VRM) and Video Card RAM(VRAM) Cooling. For starters, the VRAM never gets hot enough to be worried about, so lets focus on the VRMs. Does the GPU need additional heat sinks for the VRAM and VRMs? In short, no.

The whole "insufficient VRAM/VRM cooling" began with a review of the G10 by Puget Systems. This review is probably the most critical review of the G10 out there. While it makes an interesting point, I have to explain its critical flaw to a certain extend. To begin, their Unigine temperature test, which is most closely related to video game performance, their measured temperatures are perfectly fine, they are lower with the G10 than with the stock heat sink for both the GTX Titan and Reference R9 290X(Notorious for high heat). The only time when we see the temperatures higher with the G10 than the stock heat sink are when they run Kombustor.

Also, when reading their test setup portion of the review, they state that their X41 is set as intake, which blasts very hot air over the GPU, further increasing the temperatures recorded. Normally AIOs won't produce much heat on the business end because they are cooling lower TDP CPUs in the 80-90 range, but these are 250-290 TDP cards and the heat being pushed out of the radiator is hot. It is always, always recommended to set your radiator to exhaust when used in conjunction with the G10 because the air being pushed out is so hot. The radiator set to intake could very well be increasing the temperatures by an additional 5-10C as witnessed by other members on the G10 Owner's Club. Switching their radiator fans from intake to exhaust worked wonders for them, so their test system is not set up in a recommended manner.

Kombustor/Furmark is a program that should NEVER be run. It puts unnecessary load on the GPU that is completely unrealistic. It is a card killer. It is uncommon, but happens enough that it needs to be mentioned. Kombustor can and will brick your card. It happened to me earlier this year, and it happens to many others. Let me provide a quick analogy so that you can better understand what Furmark is, and how it compares to how you would regularly use your graphics card.

When you are gaming, changes are going on in the game, your GPU is basically using "adaptive mode" similar to your CPU to ramp up and down as the game calls for it. Depending on the action, or lack thereof that is going on in game, the GPU adapts to that scenario. It isn't going to use excessive amounts of power on a loading screen, or a cut scene, or something non-demanding. When something demanding does happen, then the GPU will ramp up to meet that demand.

Think of a Nascar Race, imagine the car as your GPU. When you are racing, your car is always adapting to the situation around you. You speed up, you slow down, you turn, you pit stop, things are going on that your car has to adapt to similar to your GPU when you game.

Now, what Furmark does is not like a game, or a Nascar race. Furmark is like a drag race. A pedal to the metal, push the car/GPU as hard as it can possibly go in a straight line, no turning, no stopping, just full on, all out go, go, GO! In a realistic scenario of GPU use, you would never, ever encounter this type of load. It is entirely unrealistic. I understand why reviewers use it, to get a worst case scenario idea, but it is so far outside the real of realism, that it should not be used. If your cooling cannot keep up with this excessive heat and load applied to the GPU, or there was a bad solder job done at the factory, or any number of things related to power delivery, that is when Furmark has the potential to break or degrade your GPU.

For most people, Furmark doesn't do anything to their GPU. But for a small percentage of people, Furmark has broken their card, including myself. A quick google and you will see that this is an issue. Not a big one, but large enough that it needs to be talked about.

I like to give my components 2 weeks of break in time before overclocking to make sure everything is working properly. This is what I did with my brand new, MSi GTX 770 Lightning. I had used the card for 2 weeks, no problems, everything going fine. As you know with a Lightning, this is a card built specifically for overclocking. Without knowing what I know now, I ran Kombustor at stock settings to get a baseline for my overclocks. It took all of 3 minutes running Kombustor on a brand new, factory settings card for it to break. I am not the only one this has happened to, so I always tell my story whenever I get a chance because Kombustor is a dangerous program, and should not be used. If you want to run some benchmarks for your GPU, use Unigine, 3DMark, and In-game benchmark utilities. Not Furmark/Kombustor.

Back to the Puget review. They ran Kombustor during their test, which as a reviewer, they should do in order to review the G10 in all scenarios to give the reader an idea of what to expect. My problem with the review and the negative perception it has created is that it is an unrealistic scenario, one which I would not recommend anyone do at home, and you are unlikely to encounter that type of load during regular use. I'm not aware of any real world applications where your GPU would be put under that much stress. So lets look at the part of the review that pertains to real world scenarios, their Unigine portion of the test. The VRM temperatures are perfectly fine, even lower with the G10 than the stock heat sink. This is with "naked" cards. A lot of non-reference cards which a lot of people own come with mid-plates that passively cool the VRAM and VRMs.

To give you an idea of what VRM temperatures are like for those of us at home, we asked members of the OCN G10 Owner's Club, who have cards that can monitor the VRM temperatures to run some tests. Simple before and after tests. There are two reviews that I will point to. The Asus DCUII GTX 780Ti, Post #1147 and a reference R9 290 Post #1486 & Post #1500

You will see that the guy with the Asus GTX 780Ti was getting DCUII temperatures of 86C on the Core and 104C on the VRMs, his card was overclocked. You can look at the link to see specifics of his OC, nothing major, very average. Once he did the G10 modification without extra heat sinks, he was able to further overclock his card to the max allowable under stock BIOS and temperatures dropped to 49C on the Core, and 81C on the VRMs. This tells us two things. #1, the VRMs can withstand a lot of heat, #2 the G10's Fan does an excellent job of cooling the VRMs on its own.

There was another test done with an R9 290. They went as far as to do a before and after test with heat sinks on their G10. that they went from something like 90C on the core with the reference cooler all the way down to 55C with G10 + H55. VRMs went from 110C down to 75C. Most importantly, when they added heat sinks the VRM temperatures dropped from 75C to 60C. So adding heat sinks does help out if you are concerned about VRM temperatures. This was with a reference R9 290, so it was a naked card without mid-plate to passively help cool VRAM and VRMs. These are just two examples, if you read through that thread, there are many more.

In summation,VRM temperatures are not a concern as long as you don't run a dangerous program like Kombustor/Furmark. For awhile now people have been thinking that its a hardware problem, when in reality, its a software problem. You will be perfectly fine buying just a Kraken G10 + AIO of your choice without extra heat sinks. Any extras you decide to buy are optional, but I still do recommend picking up a pack of aluminum heatsinks and thermal tape to air on the side of caution. It is only $10 and will give you the peace of mind that your card is safe.

Hmmmm wow this is a really good and detailed post!

I'll keep that in mind!

Do you think that the g10 is worth it on a 290x?

[Faceman]

It's more of a "why not" scenario

 

Hmmmm wow this is a really good and detailed post!

I'll keep that in mind!

Do you think that the g10 is worth it on a 290x?

Absolutely.  Wait until you can get it for $10-$20 from either Newegg or Tigerdirect.  But even at $30, the bracket is a good deal.  Then buy an H55 for ~$50.  Grand total, you shouldn't spend more than $100, and that is on the high end of the spectrum.

 

Unfortunately, your GPU doesn't come with a pre-installed heatsink over the VRMs, so you should most definitely look into buying some thermal pads and heatsinks.

 

 

 

What I recommend you buy if you go through this is thermal pads.  These are non-electrically conductive, so its safe to use directly on the circuitry.  The adhesive is also double sided, so it will stick to your card, and to the heatsinks.  The heatsinks you should buy are aluminum.  If you don't have a molex to 3pin adapter, you should buy a VGA to PWM adapter so you can plug the 92mm G10 fan into your GPU.

 

Lets tally it up:

G10 Bracket $10-$30

H55: $50-$60

Aluminum Heatsinks: $6

Thermal Pads: $6

VGA to PWM Adapter: $6

[xnoobftw]

Absolutely.  Wait until you can get it for $10-$20 from either Newegg or Tigerdirect.  But even at $30, the bracket is a good deal.  Then buy an H55 for ~$50.  Grand total, you shouldn't spend more than $100, and that is on the high end of the spectrum.

 

Unfortunately, your GPU doesn't come with a pre-installed heatsink over the VRMs, so you should most definitely look into buying some thermal pads and heatsinks.

 

 

 

What I recommend you buy if you go through this is thermal pads.  These are non-electrically conductive, so its safe to use directly on the circuitry.  The adhesive is also double sided, so it will stick to your card, and to the heatsinks.  The heatsinks you should buy are aluminum.  If you don't have a molex to 3pin adapter, you should buy a VGA to PWM adapter so you can plug the 92mm G10 fan into your GPU.

 

Lets tally it up:

G10 Bracket $10-$30

H55: $50-$60

Aluminum Heatsinks: $6

Thermal Pads: $6

VGA to PWM Adapter: $6

Hmmmm alright I'll consider on getting it when i have the money!

Thank you for your help man! Much appreciated!