Can anyone recommend good cooling for a Galaxy GTX 560 GC 2GB?

[jivetrky]

I've got a pair of Galaxy GTX 560 GC 2GB cards. They both need some better cooling. They were delidded and I've replaced the lids and am using the stock HSF's but it just doesn't create enough pressure on the lid. Because the stock lids are epoxied down, they get pressure that way. But the stock HSF isn't giving a lot of pressure.

Does anyone know a good option for this card? I really need it to not be super expensive. I know that Arctic has decent coolers but they are a little pricey for what I want (These are only $100 cards, I don't want to put a $60 HSF on each of them). Are there any better, cheaper options? I'm not looking for the best ever, just something that can give me what-stock-should-be temps. Right now, Furmark brings these cards right to the high 90's and if I let it run for a minute; it hits 99 (which is the chips recommended limit) and I shut it down, but it'd probably just keep climbing until it shuts down.

I've considered water. I have a pump but I'd also have to get a RAD. This, again, is adding to the cost.

Any good options? Does anyone know if this card uses a reference design? Maybe then someone would just have a couple reference HSFs laying around that they aren't using because of watercooling or something.

 

[Galaxy]

All Galaxy GC edition cards are non-reference design, but I'll ask Engineering if they can provide any helpful info for aftermarket cooling solutions.

You're running your two cards in SLI with zero gap between them, correct?

What temps are you seeing on each card in actual gaming outside of Furmark? I have a no-gap SLI test setup and had a very different experience with these cards myself.

Have you tried running each card in single just to make absolutely sure the cooling is working properly on both of them? High temps on open shroud cards in SLI is not uncommon, but it never hurts to double check and make sure there's not something amiss with the hardware. Feel free to shoot me a pm if you have any reason to believe something's not right. Also, it's pretty common for one card to run a couple of degrees cooler than another, and switching positions can help even out the temps.

 

[jivetrky]

All Galaxy GC edition cards are non-reference design, but I'll ask Engineering if they can provide any helpful info for aftermarket cooling solutions.

You're running your two cards in SLI with zero gap between them, correct?

What temps are you seeing on each card in actual gaming outside of Furmark? I have a no-gap SLI test setup and had a very different experience with these cards myself.

Have you tried running each card in single just to make absolutely sure the cooling is working properly on both of them? High temps on open shroud cards in SLI is not uncommon, but it never hurts to double check and make sure there's not something amiss with the hardware. Feel free to shoot me a pm if you have any reason to believe something's not right. Also, it's pretty common for one card to run a couple of degrees cooler than another, and switching positions can help even out the temps.

My board is a Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4P, the PCIe x16 slots are 3 slots apart, so there is a full slot width apart. I did, however, try both as single cards; one card was running much hotter than the other. I've tried reseating the IHS and HSF but it just doesn't create enough pressure. I assume this is because there was a thicker thermal pad under the IHS before (I assume this just based on pictures I saw of the card before I bought it).

I think I've just got to find a compatible heatsink with a backplate that will work for this card, so I can get some pressure. Or I'll have to suck it up and buy some waterblocks and a radiator.

BTW, I want to say that Galaxy has some really great support. I emailed support a couple times, asking questions in preparation when I was buying this card (asking questions about what to use under the IHS, etc.). They got back very quickly and were super helpful! And then here you are too. You guys have definitely made me heavily consider Galaxy in my future purchases.

 

[Galaxy]

Thanks for the compliments, glad your experience has been good so far. I'm a bit surprised you're getting such high temps with the cards spaced out like they are, though. When I used this card I never even broke 60C no matter what I did, and I even had it crammed in a tiny mid tower at the time. The twin fan solution on the 560 GC and 560 Ti GC is one of the best I have ever used, with the only better one in my opinion being the one we use on the 670/680 GC. Your case gets pretty decent airflow, right? The only other thing I can imagine being a problem is bad contact between heat sink and GPU. How did your changing the lid affect the GPU temps? What were they before and after? Have you removed or replaced the heat sink itself at any point?

 

[jivetrky]

Thanks for the compliments, glad your experience has been good so far. I'm a bit surprised you're getting such high temps with the cards spaced out like they are, though. When I used this card I never even broke 60C no matter what I did, and I even had it crammed in a tiny mid tower at the time. The twin fan solution on the 560 GC and 560 Ti GC is one of the best I have ever used, with the only better one in my opinion being the one we use on the 670/680 GC. Your case gets pretty decent airflow, right? The only other thing I can imagine being a problem is bad contact between heat sink and GPU. How did your changing the lid affect the GPU temps? What were they before and after? Have you removed or replaced the heat sink itself at any point?

I bought the cards with the lids off already. The previous owner removed them because one of them was apparently not making contact with the core. Here is the thread from him: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=703387

It seems that one of the lids came loose for some reason (maybe the epoxy somehow came loose, IDK?) so he just removed both of them and had the blocks mounted directly on the cores.

My case is an Antec Three Hundred with all fans populated. The two front and one side (over the cards) is blowing in and the back and top are blowing out.

EDIT: Oh, before I got the cards, I was concerned about finding thermal pads for the RAM. I assumed the RAM was being cooled by the HSF, does the GDDR5 run so cool that it's unnecessary for more than just the airflow from the HSF? Should I be concerned with putting on RAM sinks when going with aftermarket cooling?

 

[Galaxy]

Hmm. That can't be a coincidence. It sounds like despite both your best efforts, something's just not making good contact somewhere. After reading that thread I'm reasonably sure that the problem is in the GPU moreso than the fansink. I haven't dealt with a case where the lid came loose from a GPU like that, and so I'm not entirely sure what it would take to restore it back to perfect running shape (or if it can even be done by an end user).

It also falls into a dicey category as far as getting it fixed; on one hand it seems perfectly clear that the previous owner's over-handling and excessive heatsink swapping caused the break to happen, and on the other it's still unusual and shouldn't have happened regardless. You didn't happen to get a copy of the original receipt from him when you bought the cards, did you?

 

[jivetrky]

Hmm. That can't be a coincidence. It sounds like despite both your best efforts, something's just not making good contact somewhere. After reading that thread I'm reasonably sure that the problem is in the GPU moreso than the fansink. I haven't dealt with a case where the lid came loose from a GPU like that, and so I'm not entirely sure what it would take to restore it back to perfect running shape (or if it can even be done by an end user).

It also falls into a dicey category as far as getting it fixed; on one hand it seems perfectly clear that the previous owner's over-handling and excessive heatsink swapping caused the break to happen, and on the other it's still unusual and shouldn't have happened regardless. You didn't happen to get a copy of the original receipt from him when you bought the cards, did you?

No I didn't. I could contact him and see if that's available. I kind of figured I'm beyond warranty because I tried lapping the bottom edges of the IHS to help it make better contact. Just to eliminate the possibility of that surface hitting the bottom before the inside hit the die.


Unfortunately, the original owner maybe should have just contacted Galaxy right away (although I don't know your policy on using aftermarket heat sinks).

 

[wagex]

No I didn't. I could contact him and see if that's available. I kind of figured I'm beyond warranty because I tried lapping the bottom edges of the IHS to help it make better contact. Just to eliminate the possibility of that surface hitting the bottom before the inside hit the die.
View attachment 114497

Unfortunately, the original owner maybe should have just contacted Galaxy right away (although I don't know your policy on using aftermarket heat sinks).

try using TIM instead of a thermal pad?

 

[jivetrky]

try using TIM instead of a thermal pad?

Yeah, I used that first and it didn't look like it was squeezing it down enough. That's why I thought maybe the thermal pad would work better. The IHS's just don't seem to be making good contact, I don't know if they somehow are warped or what the deal is.
The problem with the HSF is that it has a set depth it can go, so I can't tighten it down more. But without a backplate, I don't think that would be a good idea anyway.

 

[jivetrky]

Hmm. That can't be a coincidence. It sounds like despite both your best efforts, something's just not making good contact somewhere. After reading that thread I'm reasonably sure that the problem is in the GPU moreso than the fansink. I haven't dealt with a case where the lid came loose from a GPU like that, and so I'm not entirely sure what it would take to restore it back to perfect running shape (or if it can even be done by an end user).

It also falls into a dicey category as far as getting it fixed; on one hand it seems perfectly clear that the previous owner's over-handling and excessive heatsink swapping caused the break to happen, and on the other it's still unusual and shouldn't have happened regardless. You didn't happen to get a copy of the original receipt from him when you bought the cards, did you?

I was wondering, Galaxy, if you guys have some sort of backplate or support bar that would fit this card? I've seen that arctic sells backplates to use with their HSF's but I'm just not sure how it could work on this card because of the components behind the GPU. I would think that pressure from a backplate could crush them.
Some manufacturers (I've seen Asus and MIS) use a stabilizer bar that runs across the top of the card:

Pic for reference

I think I could grind down the standoffs on the heatsink and it would allow me to tighten it further, but it would bend the card and I don't want to damage the card. I thought maybe a backplate or stabilizer bar could solve this problem.

This is so frustrating, I thought I could just buy these cards and put the IHS back on and all would be fine.

 

[JeremyCT]

Did you ever replace the thermal pad or are you attempting to reuse the one what was on there?

If you never replaced, see if Galaxy will give you the spec and get a new one in there. I bet that's why it's not making good contact.

 

[jivetrky]

Did you ever replace the thermal pad or are you attempting to reuse the one what was on there?

If you never replaced, see if Galaxy will give you the spec and get a new one in there. I bet that's why it's not making good contact.

I tried paste and it didn't seem like it was squeezing it enough so I used some good .5mm thermal pads I have: Fujipoly Extreme System Builder Thermal Pad - 60 x 50 x 0.5 - Thermal Conductivity 11.0 W/mK

When I had the paste in there, it went to 99c super fast. With the thermal pad it jumped to high 80's and then climbed to 99c in less than a minute.

 

[JeremyCT]

Thermal pads are available in different thicknesses, that might not have been the correct pad. 0.5mm is the thinnest pad. There are also 1.0mm, 1.5mm, and 2.0mm pads available. That's why I suggested asking Galaxy to give you the spec for the factory pad.

 

[jivetrky]

Thermal pads are available in different thicknesses, that might not have been the correct pad. 0.5mm is the thinnest pad. There are also 1.0mm, 1.5mm, and 2.0mm pads available. That's why I suggested asking Galaxy to give you the spec for the factory pad.

I emailed them and they recommended using paste.