Re: Which EVGA GTX 780Ti Model to get?
2014/09/01 13:52:15
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Just a few months ago, i was pretty clueless about the different cooling designs and i have learned a lot since. Maybe this will help you a bit.
I've learned very recently about the difference of having good airflow and then maximizing your airflow.
My PC was put together by the computer shop and it has good airflow. I have just enough knowledge, but i have never built one myself. The case was designed for airflow and it has a front intake fan lower down and rear exhaust fan toward the top(120mm). Never had heat issues with my 02G-P4-2660-KR (vanilla 660). Sometimes it was warm inside the case, but very rarely! The heat from the card goes out through the slot at the back of the pc and i'll get warm air back there in heavy use.
From my recent RMA of the card, i thought about upgrading and i did take the plunge to the 770 2gb ACX. I picked this one because it was on sale at a local shop. Did my research and found out the main issue i will have is the heat will stay in the case. And after a lot of deliberating, i concluded that i may need more fans and the suggestions i saw talked about having 200mm fans in your case. Picked up the card and one 200mm fan for $12Cdn.
So i installed the card only and checked the heat it was giving off. I used GPU-Z render test as reference and it climbed to 60c and was very slowly nudging itself up. I quit the test at this point because it had been so long and i thought it may only go up a few degrees more. Now when i checked the case, i could feel very warm air from the side vent with the panel still on. Took the side panel off and i felt very warm, almost hot air all around the card. With the GTX 770 topping out at 60c, i was happy with that and i think other people would as well. BUT..... I did not like the heat hovering around the card and near the MB/CPU.
So after all that, i finally installed the 200mm fan at the top of the case and it was well worth it. Using GPU-Z again, the card got up to 52c and stopped. It wouldn't budge any higher and i noticed only a little bit of warm air with my hand almost touching the card. Just FYI, i am not currently using Afterburner or Precision so no custom fan profiles.
So now i understand good airflow and trying to maximize the airflow. And i feel happier about my purchase.
Good luck on your build!