Radeon R9600 XT - better cooling

[trodas]

I bought the nice Thermalright HR-03 Rev. A cooler, because this older suxxka support 2 holes GFX cards, like most of the old AGP ones are. As well, as the Radeon R9600 XT from HIS.

 

I wanted serious, but quiet cooling, so I also wanted to stick a 120mm Noiseblocker 1000 RPM fan, but the clips supported only 92mm fans. I was considering many possibilities, but when I get the Noctual NH-C14S cooler for my experiements, there are clips for second 140mm fan, witch are just great to use... and I get THIS idea:

 

 

And it worked! Easy to install, possible to remove (replace fan, for example for something powerfull, when need maximum cooling for overclocking) the fan and it looks reasonably as well.

 

A "bit" costy clips, but they do the job more that well. Another material was used from older Thermalright clips that I have plenty of spare ones from old Socket A coolers. Quality steel, hard to cut, but easy to work with.

 

The only problem I have is, that I did not believe that the contact on the die is as good, as it can be. That is because the die protection rubber, that I stick on the GPU naked small core, is IMHO too high. When I pressed on the heatsink against the core as hard, as I can, I get only a very tiny track of the core on the cooler, so I probably need to take a sand paper and shave the rubber a little down, that the contact is good.

 

Temperature in iddle after power-on is 29.5°C, under load it go to 43, 44.5°C with is IMHO proving my point about bad contact. R9600 XT cannot run that hot with THAT overkill cooler.

[xxbassplayerxx]

I bought the nice Thermalright HR-03 Rev. A cooler, because this older suxxka support 2 holes GFX cards, like most of the old AGP ones are. As well, as the Radeon R9600 XT from HIS.

 

I wanted serious, but quiet cooling, so I also wanted to stick a 120mm Noiseblocker 1000 RPM fan, but the clips supported only 92mm fans. I was considering many possibilities, but when I get the Noctual NH-C14S cooler for my experiements, there are clips for second 140mm fan, witch are just great to use... and I get THIS idea:

 

And it worked! Easy to install, possible to remove (replace fan, for example for something powerfull, when need maximum cooling for overclocking) the fan and it looks reasonably as well.

 

A "bit" costy clips, but they do the job more that well. Another material was used from older Thermalright clips that I have plenty of spare ones from old Socket A coolers. Quality steel, hard to cut, but easy to work with.

 

The only problem I have is, that I did not believe that the contact on the die is as good, as it can be. That is because the die protection rubber, that I stick on the GPU naked small core, is IMHO too high. When I pressed on the heatsink against the core as hard, as I can, I get only a very tiny track of the core on the cooler, so I probably need to take a sand paper and shave the rubber a little down, that the contact is good.

 

Temperature in iddle after power-on is 29.5°C, under load it go to 43, 44.5°C with is IMHO proving my point about bad contact. R9600 XT cannot run that hot with THAT overkill cooler.

 

You could also use a small copper shim like people had to use with the 7970's with aftermarket cooling since the GPU was recessed.

[trodas]

Well, I had no idea such shim exist. The rubber one have that was supplied with the Thermalright HR-03 Rev. A had to be cut on the left side (looking from the AGP connector up on the card), because there are components (little SMD caps/resistors) that prevent it's install anyway.

 

Dunno, if the cooper shim fit the 9600 XT core and where to got it. Or with what cooler it come...?

[I.nfraR.ed]

Copper shims are widely used in laptops between chipset/graphics chip and cooling, when someone complains about overheating.

This is how everyone fixes poor contact.

You can get them from ebay. There are different sizes and thickness.

Edited July 16, 2015 by I.nfraR.ed

[trodas]

Good, but cooper shim will surely shortcut the components on the top of the GPU chip. Look at it:

 

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/30/radeon-9600-xt.html

 

On the card is upside down, so the right part is the left one on the card, where I have to made the cuts. The rest seems to fit well, but I did not dare use cooper shim there. It is much easier now to shawe the rubber a bit using sand paper, IMHO. And safer, too.

 

I would even think about laping the core to get rid of these engravening on it, but that is probably going too hardcore on the 22W TDP card. But still, the temperature does suggest that there is a BIG thermal problem.

[Guest TheMadDutchDude]

The issue is most likely not poor contact, but rather just a tiny chip which doesn't have much area to dissipate the heat into the cooler.

 

I had a TRUE mounted to my 5450 and that ran warmer than I thought it would. Probably due to the size of the die.