bsmegreg

iNoToRiOuS
The heatsink needs to be removed to look for damage or any signs of trouble.

Its safe to assume that would violate any warranty on the card and you should probably just RMA the card if you're really that concerned about the issue at hand.

It doesn't void any warranty unless you damage the pcb. Basically, don't use a hammer to remove it.

Also, iNotorious, there is no full heatplate on the pcb, like on the higher models, so there is a major issue of heat dissipation as there is no heat spreader to help out. If you can imagine, without heat dissipat I on and spreading, temps in more direct areas will be noticed. If EVGA says it is a problem, the card needs to go in for an rma.

Since there is only one point of contact, the core, for the heat sink, and the small area of the heat plate, there isn't much that can be done.

http://www.hardwareluxx.d...0-im-test.html?start=4

If the issue is under the heat plate, tightening it would be one of the only options, or RMA. Seeing as the heat plate screws are on the back of the card, removing the heatsink would only show that it needs to be RMAed.

Good deal. All of the lower end/mid range cards have the exact design you are referring to, unless it specifies a cooling plate is attached. Rarely is it specified honestly.

Let us know about the post change temperatures.

bcavnaugh

Haans249
Update:

I decided to watercool the card and was really curious how good the stock cooling solution works.

I'll be honest, I was significantly disappointed with the poor cooling design of other components. The poor cooling design I'm referring to is that there was NOTHING cooling other components. They included a plate on the right side of the card, but guess what... It wasnt cooling anything. There was no thermal pads on any VRMs or memory chips.

The water cooling block and back plate included contact with the exact location where I spotted the extreme temps. Infact, the backplate had a thermalpad contact point directly on the PCB where I read the 111C temp.

EK got it right, EVGA dropped ball on this.

Did you happen to take photos of the card after you removed the Stock Cooler?
The GPU PCB side and the Stock Cooler Side That show no thermal pads installed?
Every EVGA Graphics Card I have installed a Water Block on has had them.
Also all the Back Plates from EVGA had thermal pads installed as well, that is part of why they make and sale them.
 
Can you also post some photos of the EK Water Block install on your GTX 970 FTW Graphics Card.
This one of the Models I would like to get and add a Water Block.

http://forums.evga.com/download.axd?file=0;2220503 that is the link to what a 970 ftw with the cooler looks like. It won't let me get the jpg link for some reason.

P.s. Ignore the thermal paste on that one, it wasn't the focus of the picture I was sending over, lol.

There you go.

Edit: sorry upload from an iphone isntt working...

bsmegreg

iNoToRiOuS
The heatsink needs to be removed to look for damage or any signs of trouble.

Its safe to assume that would violate any warranty on the card and you should probably just RMA the card if you're really that concerned about the issue at hand.

That's not what i have heard. I have seen posts that people removed the ACX profile, and installed a 3rd party cooler (watercooling/air cooled). When it came to RMAing the card they put their original heat sync on it and EVGA took the card back, and shipped them a new one.