4850 nonreference cooler-any good

[Dapman02]

Hey all,
I bought a 4850 today and to my dismay, it came with this cooler (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261027). Now I noticed that the RAM chips and MOSDEF's arn't covered. I do have some of those stick on coolers for the MOSDEF's, but there is no way I can cover the RAM. My question is, shoud I keep it or bring it back and look for something with a better cooler.

[Alien432]

If you got some sinks I say put them on as it can't hurt. I also would check with vendor if any warranty concerns by adding sinks but then they built it that way without them so it should a least last through warranty period. Load GPUZ and watch those temps for awhile to see how hot ram gets and report back.

[Dapman02]

Well I decided to take the trek (1 hour drive) back to micro center on sunday and return this piece of junk. The temps were great(barely broke 50 at 700 mhz), but I would get driver failures when ever I overclocked to the fullest (675 CCC). I blame the lack of cooling for the Voltage regulators and the MOSDEF

[watchthisspace]

I've got the exact same card but i put my Zalman VF900cu on it, haven't got any sinks on the Voltage Regulators or the MOSDEF. Even with this on it still doesn't overclock well at all (using 8.11 Drivers which maybe why)

[BossBorot]

if the origional pcb for the 4850 was designed properly it wouldnt need aditional cooling to the vrm. This design could easily not need cooling to this area like tons of cards that came before it.

As for the memory, cooling gddr3 is not required but certainly is helpfull when overclocking.

In this case the manufacturer decided that cooling of these components wasnt worth the additional cost to every card compaired to the total additonal rma cost of a few additional falues.

Personally I see nothing wrong with not cooling these components, in this case, because the manufacturer didnt see that pressing of a need to cool them. Also if it did die you would be covered under warranty.

[Cuiiey]

What tempretures are you getting with that cooler right now?

[ziggo0]

Thats also a non-reference PCB...perhaps the new design didn't need it.

[Rich'[ard]]

i've got a Powecolor PLAY!
i say just don't get one. the cooler makes little difference to the stock cooler. it's only about 10 degrees C better at load (which is like 80c).