Cooling my 9800 Pro

[SubKamran]

I bought a Sapphire Tech video card awhile back (when it was $360). I can only OC it about 10mhz before I get artifacts.

I think for $360 it shoulda been better, but whatever. Anyways, I was wondering if someone could recommend a good VGA cooling solution?

I was thinking about the Arctic Cooling Silencer 3 for ATI.

 

[Raiders]

ThermalTake Giant III,,Hands down

 

[farmer]

Sorry to jump in here late Sub. I have the AC Silencer on my vmodded 9800Pro, and it does an excellent job of cooling. Can't believe there is anything out there better, short of water!

Later....

 

[Bug]

Ok, I like both models, and here is why.

Arctic Cooling Silencer
PRO - is quiet and blows the hot air directly out the back of the system.
CON - No cooling solution for the RAM (which is probably where your issue is with the Sapphire card...)

Giant III
PRO - has RAM cooling solutions included. Large heatsink for disapating a lot of heat
CON - heat stays in the system and must be exhausted by 80mm fans

Either one should work fine for your card. I recommend getting RAM sinks with the Silencer.

Bug

 

[farmer]

Right you are Bug about cooling the memory. I used the TweakMonster ramsinks on my built by Ati card, and the do get quite warm to the touch.

Later....

 

[Justin]

The earlier 9800 pros, especially if you have the R350 and not the R360, may have higher latency ram. I have a sapphire 9800 pro with the R350, and I can get a good 40mhz increase to RAM and 60mhz to GPU with no problems, but mine is a later revision. If you have the earlier memory used, there is not much you can do - the ram is just of inferior quality.

 

[vegasgmc]

I have the VGA Silencer and It works perfectly. Ive got the card clocked at 425/710 and it only gets warm. I bought a package of BFG RAM heatsinks at Circuit City for $15. They fit perfectly under the cooler.
The stock HSF on this card was huge but it was worthless. The card would overheat and lock up even at stock speeds.