question regarding universal GPU blocks

anfor68 · April 16, 2017

Greetings.

I was not able to find good information (most of what I found were too outdated) on universal GPU blocks, so I am hoping to get some help here.

I know so far that universal GPU blocks cool the core only, so I need SOME method of cooling the VRM and the VRAM. What I don't know is if those little heatsinks that can be attached to them are effective enough on a custom PCB GPU, specifically the ASUS Strix RX 480 OC Edition.

What I want to ask in addition to that is whether or not cooling (as in, with water - how full cover blocks are deisgned to do so) the VRM and the VRAM is critical for out of the factory settings of the GPU, and if the little heatsinks are able to cool them sufficiently without it causing a fire.

Now, some people have stated before that I am better off getting a better card for the money I would be spending on the GPU+block. I am not saying that they are wrong, but my argument is that you are spending more money overall for the block for that more expensive GPU. Not only that, the GTX 1070 8GB alone costs more than what I have paid for the card I have now AND the full cover block - had mine were to be compatible - which puts the GTX 1070 out of my budget (plus, I think it would be weird to have an AMD CPU and a nVidea GPU).

Thank you guys in advance.

edit: I accidentally posted this on the Graphics Cards subforum. if a moderator can move this thread to the Watercooling section, I'd appreciate it. Thnaks and I apologize.

0ld_Chicken · April 19, 2017

-thread moved to liquid cooling-

Heatsinks come in a lot of different styles/sizes and materials so it depends. I haven't done any direct cooling of vram/vrm but I've seen several others use them. Ideally you want something with a lot of surface areas like these i linked below. Direct airflow on the card is definitely not a bad idea, especially if you plan on overclocking farther than the factory oc. One thing to keep a close eye on is the heatsinks falling off the chips. Most gpu's will have these hanging off the card with gravity trying to pull them off. When they heat up the thermal tape is prone to giving out and leaving components with no cooling.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708012&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Memory+%26+Chipset+Cooling-_-N82E16835708012&gclid=Cj0KEQjw8tbHBRC6rLS024qYjtEBEiQA7wIDeXZS-HDLNlm0egz5Gfx4GQn98LN0Q0OHm_k8lbvB0tYaAgaj8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds