Interchanging Third party heatsinks

[PrinnyExplodes]

So I have a couple of graphics cards lying around and was wondering has anyone ever tried mix and matching heatsinks off different generations? The only reason was because I got a GTX 1060 6GB ASUS TURBO from a mining auction and my only complaint it is loud as fack (french for fuck). But I have a Zotac GTX 780 lying around and it has a 3 fan heatsink that runs much quieter. The bolt pattern seems to be the same from the GTX 1060 to the GTX 780 (I will have a better look at it later)

 

Just out of curiosity for older cards...I also compared the PCBs off an EVGA GTX 480 and Zotac GTX 780 3 fan edition and they seem to have the same bolt pattern and GPU core position. Just seen if anyone tried something this ridiculous or if it is a worthwhile endeavor? I mean even if it is for comical value (the GTX 480 is probably the heaviest and most dense heatsink I ever seen....it might be amazing for cooling lol)

[Fasauceome]

I think it makes for a great experiement. You might need some xxtra thicc thermal pads to reach the hear sink for whatever needs cooling, but in general it's a good idea because the real drawback of mining cards is that they have run down coolers 

[RollTime]

Can't hurt to try. Make sure to use thick thermal pads for good heat transfer off of non-core things.

[Skiiwee29]

Bolt pattern may be the same, but likely the VRM/Mosfets and Memory chips are in different places so it wont line up with the cooler properly and could cause damage from improper mounting as a result. 

[PrinnyExplodes]

4 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Bolt pattern may be the same, but likely the VRM/Mosfets and Memory chips are in different places so it wont line up with the cooler properly and could cause damage from improper mounting as a result. 

Alright. i will take off the heatsinks (since i want to reapply new paste). Just to see if it is possible

 

[PrinnyExplodes]

The answer is unfortunately no you cannot.

 

-The GTX 480 is physically too far apart from VRM and cooler mounting to accommodate more modern cards

- The GTX 780 and GTX 1060 heatsinks are actually interchangable but because of VRM and memory module placements it would not work properly or without modification. The blower style card has uneven transistors on the board so the heatsink for the memory module would not sit flush. If you used bigger thermal pads for the memory it would work but....then high heat for the memory making it unrealistic

 

So ya sorry but trying coolers from different generations does not work.