So I rewatched the livestream for the Titan X because I was wondering **** people were talking about when they were quoting the dude as saying a backplate would hurt thermal performance.
 
The answer is the backplate hurts performance if you're running multi-gpu with the stock cooler because the backplate restricts airflow to the card above it.
 
Not a problem for me since I'm going watercooled anyways.  I designed my backplate to work with both the EK waterblock screws and the stock cooler screws.

AnonymousGuy
So I rewatched the livestream for the Titan X because I was wondering **** people were talking about when they were quoting the dude as saying a backplate would hurt thermal performance.
 
The answer is the backplate hurts performance if you're running multi-gpu with the stock cooler because the backplate restricts airflow to the card above it.
 
Not a problem for me since I'm going watercooled anyways.  I designed my backplate to work with both the EK waterblock screws and the stock cooler screws.

 
I'm not sure if/where it was in the official livestream. Someone said Tom Petersen in a separate interview, IIRC, said it was a "tough call" but they needed the airflow on the back or it would suffer performance wise. Maybe it was only true for SLI setups, but my SLI setup has single slot spacing, so it's not much of an issue. I still think there is more to it though, otherwise they would have put them on the cards and warned us about SLI performance.

donta1979

Nitemare3219
 
You're making a pretty big deal about these backplates. Is your PC in a warzone? How often do you take your GPUs out? I literally have had zero practical use out of having backplates on my 570's, 780's, and 780 Ti's. I'll probably buy them for the Titan X's, but only for aesthetics. They aren't "protecting" the cards inside my PC from something dangerous, lol. I am more concerned about it being beneficial to the memory or not for cooling purposes. I feel like NVIDIA would have included a backplate if it were feasible, and as Tom Petersen said, it wasn't. I hope EVGA knows what they're doing with the design on this one...

Some are accident prone, hands dont work too well like in my case, so a backplate for me is kind of mandatory, since I am swapping out stuff inside case, taking fans out for cleaning 1-2 times a month. also great when you take your card out and just in case you drop something, you have that protection on the back.

In your case it would be beneficial. I never take things out of my case because it's pretty wide open, so I just use a swiffer to dust around and my electric duster datavac to blow the dust out. I have external fan filters all over the case and I clean those... that's about it, so I don't really NEED them.

xarot
I definitely want backplates once I can get any EVGA Titan X here. However what I don't like if they start leaking oily stuff on the card from the thermal pads, this happened with my GTX 580 backplate. If the RAMs run really hot on the Titan X, this can probably happen.

This happened with my 570's, but didn't happen until very recently on my 780 Ti's... think it happened when my monitor refused to downclock after I did some tweaking, so it was always running at about 50 degrees. Or maybe the timing was just right... but it was fine for the year it was in my PC, and the bottom card never did it. The VRAM is hotter than the back of the GPU where pads are usually placed, so I guarantee it will be the same story unless they change the material.

I know what oily stuff he's talking about, but it usually just creeps a thin layer on the backplate and leaves a film on the memory chips that I've never had a problem with.

Kinfet
is the leaking thing a real problem? does it hurt the card? I was considering getting a back plate for my Titan X SC now not so much.

my 690 had 'em under the GPU's they just sweat a bit of oily residue, no harm done. just needs alcohol cleaning every few months but it never seems to get 100% clean. I do hope they use better pads this time around, especially with how hot that memory and pcb gets.

for anyone else waiting for backplates, I noticed PPC offers 12packs of low profile 5mm high black vga ram sinks now (thermal adhesive tape included)
 

 
http://www.performance-pcs.com/watercooler-passive-cooler-for-vga-ram-heatsinks-12-pack.html
 

ericc191

LeetMiniWheat
for anyone else waiting for backplates, I noticed PPC offers 12packs of low profile 5mm high black vga ram sinks now (thermal adhesive tape included)
 

 
http://www.performance-pcs.com/watercooler-passive-cooler-for-vga-ram-heatsinks-12-pack.html

I may give these a shot over the black plate option. I wonder how much they actually help..

There's also the cheaper option of fleebay but you'd need to find some thermal adhesive too (3M 8805, 8810, or 8815 work well) but they ship by row boat out of china. wish I'd seen these on PPC earlier.
 
Edit: and they should help a lot, those GDDR5 chips get REALLY hot. I'm sure it's within nvidia's tolerances but if you're overclocking, I think every bit helps. the way GDDR5 works is dependent on thermals (i.e. the error correction and such) some ICs will slow the link and add additional latency as temperatures increase. at least that's what I gathered from reading samsung's spec sheets, probably the same for hynix and elpida.

Ah, that good question of functionality vs appearance... I'm positive those heatsinks will cool better, but the question is, how much more over the backplate. Looking online elsewhere I'm seeing these made out of actual copper - again, looks vs functionality. Wonder how much better those would be over aluminum.

AWK16

I'm seeing these made out of actual copper - again, looks vs functionality. Wonder how much better those would be over aluminum.

 
I could be wrong, but as far as I know copper is and always has been better heat dissipator than aluminum, sorry i had that backwards 
I had this exactly on one of my Titans and it had dropped few c degrees, it is very good product.

 
Dropped the whole card by a few degrees, or just the RAM chips? These chips are hitting close to 100~ degrees. I hope it'd drop by more than a few!

Backplate theoretically will cool the card because of the heat pads right behind the GPU, but it won't be much at all. Add 12 100 degree VRAM chips, and it should still cool them a bit... but probably not anywhere near what 12 individual heatsinks would.
 
I measured the VRAM chips pretty roughly, and came up with result of 14.3mm x 12.5mm. The only thing holding me back from buying those heatsinks from performancepc's is the price. $12x2 (two cards) plus $8 shipping... hitting $30, whereas I can get 40 heatsinks for $12 on eBay. Only downside is I can't find any black ones - they're all copper, blue, or silver.

Nitemare3219
Backplate theoretically will cool the card because of the heat pads right behind the GPU, but it won't be much at all. Add 12 100 degree VRAM chips, and it should still cool them a bit... but probably not anywhere near what 12 individual heatsinks would.
 
I measured the VRAM chips pretty roughly, and came up with result of 14.3mm x 12.5mm. The only thing holding me back from buying those heatsinks from performancepc's is the price. $12x2 (two cards) plus $8 shipping... hitting $30, whereas I can get 40 heatsinks for $12 on eBay. Only downside is I can't find any black ones - they're all copper, blue, or silver.

These should work http://www.ebay.com/itm/141343841813 and are in black. I bought a couple sets. 14mm x 14mm, I don't thikn the vram is larger than 14mm unless hynix is slightly larger than samsung. you'd need a sheet of thermal adhesive too though. They're aluminum but I don't think It'll make a huge difference between copper. received them but I'm still waiting on my thermal adhesive tape. bought some arcticsilver stuff but didn't realize it was a permanent bond.
 
Edit: seller shipped them pretty fast too, received in 2 weeks which isn't bad from china. as for the thermal adhesive I bought a sheet of this http://www.ebay.com/itm/181196406643 but I somehow doubt their claims of 1.5W/m.k , I can't seem to find any 3M products that match their exact specs unless it's something custom made. 3M's 8805 is rated 0.90 IIRC, but I'm not familiar with their other products. most ram sinks come with 8815 which is 0.60
 
ebay heatsinks, FWIW

Decisions decisions... thought I might just buy some copper heatsinks off Amazon to get them quick, and have better thermal performance (hopefully) - but I thought about painting them black, which may very well negate any benefit over aluminum. Then I think I don't want to wait 2 weeks for eBay to send me some cheapo China ones. Then I think a backplate should probably do the job just fine and look better doing it too.
 
Oh I just don't know. 

Count me in for one 

/getscrystalballout   

I'm with you on that.