Passive high-end: XFX GeForce7950GS/T

NyteOwl · Post by **NyteOwl** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 10:01 am

Looks a bit like a copper version the HR-03 with two instead of four heatpipes.

Pahuus · Post by **Pahuus** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 7:04 am

Okay, so I got the MSI 7950gt. It's doing quite nicely, idling at 55C's and topping out at about 85C's. Hot, yes. Silent, yes.
On to my question. On the heatsink, you can see (if you look closely at the pictures) on both ends these plastic "sleeves"... Now what are these for? And should I remove them. I would assume I'd get much better airflow through the fins if they were not there. What do you people think?

edit: Okay, I was an idiot. Of course they had to be removed, dropped my temps by 3C's idling 10C's load. Should trust common sense more often. It's funny that they don't tell you to remove those things on the manual.

abyssinianson · Post by **abyssinianson** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:25 am

Pahuus wrote:Okay, so I got the MSI 7950gt. It's doing quite nicely, idling at 55C's and topping out at about 85C's. Hot, yes. Silent, yes.
On to my question. On the heatsink, you can see (if you look closely at the pictures) on both ends these plastic "sleeves"... Now what are these for? And should I remove them. I would assume I'd get much better airflow through the fins if they were not there. What do you people think?

edit: Okay, I was an idiot. Of course they had to be removed, dropped my temps by 3C's idling 10C's load. Should trust common sense more often. It's funny that they don't tell you to remove those things on the manual.

when running at full load, do you notice jittering when you are doing gaming or anything else? I would like to know how these things peform at such a temprature.

Mikey · Post by **Mikey** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 5:32 pm

hey cobalt, can you do us a favour and measure how long that card is ?

I'm curious as to wether it will fit in my htpc

Cheers

Sizzle · Post by **Sizzle** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 4:57 am

Mikey wrote:hey cobalt, can you do us a favour and measure how long that card is ?

I'm curious as to wether it will fit in my htpc

Cheers

This is not a good card for a desktop PC if that is the type of case you have. It's more suited for a tower with good airflow.

I have my card in and it works well, but it sure does run HOT.

Pahuus · Post by **Pahuus** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:49 am

when running at full load, do you notice jittering when you are doing gaming or anything else? I would like to know how these things peform at such a temprature.

Haven't experienced anything like that. Works well even at 85-90Cs. Now loads are more like 70-75Cs, though. That's not bad for a GPU I understand.

rdvd · Post by **rdvd** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 12:24 pm

Hi to all, last week i got this XFX 7950GT
some test in my lian-li V1200+ with 2 120 noisblocker fan

idle aroung 64 and in 10 minutes with a game ( gothic 3 ) the card went up to 92 !!!! the next day another 30 minutes of game and the card reach 109 !!
CRAZY !
i trashed that stupid passive cooling system and bought a zalman VF-900 cu
now the card idle at 44 and even after 3 hours of game the max temp was 54 !!! with the zalman fan at the minimun.

So if you think to buy this card think that it run TOO HOT

Hope that my little experience can help.

Bye
this is my pc : http://rudavide.googlepages.com/mypc

Mikey · Post by **Mikey** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 7:40 pm

rdvd - perhaps you don't have good enough case flow as sizzle has alluded to?

Sizzle : What setup have you got at the moment ? Be interesting to compare your story with the others on this card

rdvd · Post by **rdvd** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 4:39 am

Hi mikey, i have installed 2 120mm noisblocker fan that do around 38cfm
and i think that this XFX need abolutely a fan close to it for stay with normal temp.... so why do a passive card that need a close fan ?
The passive cooler is insufficient for this card...IMHO

Sizzle · Post by **Sizzle** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:01 am

Mikey wrote:Sizzle : What setup have you got at the moment ? Be interesting to compare your story with the others on this card

I have my card in a CM Stacker 830. Input and output fans are 120mm Scythe S-Flex E's. I let my BIOS determine the fan control to use (either Intel fan control or the gigabyte).

The mess front and sides of the case make it really open.

There is a thread at htpcnews.com in which someone tried to run this in a htpc case and it was a crashfest. One would assume it was due to temp's.

I don't game, but I've had no problems with MCE watching movies or TV. No problems burning media either.

rdvd · Post by **rdvd** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:06 am

Well if you don't play games and dont' use application that make the video-card hot, you have no problem, but if you do it you will see the temp jump up in no time.

rdvd · Post by **rdvd** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:08 am

Well if you don't play games and dont' use application that make the video-card hot, you have no problem, but if you do it you will see the temp jump up in no time.

nick705 · Post by **nick705** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:04 pm

rdvd wrote:Hi mikey, i have installed 2 120mm noisblocker fan that do around 38cfm
and i think that this XFX need abolutely a fan close to it for stay with normal temp.... so why do a passive card that need a close fan ?
The passive cooler is insufficient for this card...IMHO

hmm... you said you have a Lian Li V1200+, which has an upside-down motherboard arrangement, and the XFX looks like it was designed to be used in a "normal" orientation.

Do you think the fact that the main part of the XFX's silver heatsink will be beneath the PCB could be having an effect on your temps? Maybe the heatpipes aren't working properly (unlikely admittedly), or maybe there's a pocket of hot air trapped under the card stopping the fins from shedding heat fast enough.

Just a thought...

rdvd · Post by **rdvd** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:26 am

maybe you are right but, i made all the possible free space around the card, open the back slot put the creative x-fi away form it ecc ecc
nothing work, this card need air directly on it.
The passive cooler is insufficient, if with just 10 minutes of game the temp is 92 and with 1 hour 109.... with room temp of 18.

Maybe in a casa with a lot of airflow (that in most case mean NOISE ) the temp is lower, but what will happen in an hot summer ?

This is just my experience and hope it can help.

If you are thinking about buying this card i sugget you to go for the 7950 zalman edition, with the zalman at the min speed the temp are just great and the noise is not so bad, I'd like to be able to even lower the fan of the zalman under 1300rpm ( that is the min ). Cuz with fan at the min i have 45 idle and 53/54 full load, so i think that even with a slower fan the temp will still be good with less noise.

Bye
and sorry for my bad english

markot86 · Post by **markot86** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 6:45 pm

I don't understand how this card is getting so much of a beating! Maybe if you don't know how to set up good airflow in the case it's a problem, but right now, I'm running one of these (the extreme version) in my p180 with 3 yate loons at 5v (one on the harddrive cage and two as exhaust) and the card idles at 62 degrees C and never gets hotter than 73 degrees C. Even if i turn off the fan on the front, this card reaches at max 76 degrees C, and that's after hours of world of warcraft. In all honesty, this is by far the best card I've ever used noise ratio/effectiveness wise and consumes so little power that it's pretty amazing. To the people with heat issues, maybe you should RMA/ get it looked at by xfx; my guess is that the stock cooling may not be properly on there.

Honestly, after fiddling with about 200 dollars of aftermarket cooling on my 6800 ultra, getting a card that has a well cooling passive solution that has a warranty for life is just absolutely amazing. I can honestly say that I've never been happier with a purchase and would recommend this card for everyone out there.

rdvd · Post by **rdvd** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 10:52 pm

Maybe I don't know how to setup the airflow... maybe
But in idle i had 64 and you 62 so it is very similar.... and WoW is not a stressing game, try some benchmark that really make the GPU work then we will see the temp, and in an hot summer add 10Â°.
I am glad you are happy with this card, I am not, it is different hopinion. IMHO it run too hot and the passive cooler is insufficient.
Instead of a long RMA, i prefer a Zalman solution and now I am happy

My 2 cent

Sizzle · Post by **Sizzle** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 4:43 am

rdvd wrote:Maybe I don't know how to setup the airflow... maybe
But in idle i had 64 and you 62 so it is very similar.... and WoW is not a stressing game, try some benchmark that really make the GPU work then we will see the temp, and in an hot summer add 10Â°.
I am glad you are happy with this card, I am not, it is different hopinion. IMHO it run too hot and the passive cooler is insufficient.
Instead of a long RMA, i prefer a Zalman solution and now I am happy

My 2 cent

I am not that familiar with your case, but does that white plastic fan bracket in the top back area move up and down on the back of the case? If so, I would place it right over the video card.

rdvd · Post by **rdvd** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 5:15 am

i didn't install that super noisy fan and even if I would i can't cuz the passive cooler is too high, a zlaman at minimun is much better solution for me.

markot86 · Post by **markot86** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:07 am

rdvd wrote:Maybe I don't know how to setup the airflow... maybe
But in idle i had 64 and you 62 so it is very similar.... and WoW is not a stressing game, try some benchmark that really make the GPU work then we will see the temp, and in an hot summer add 10Â°.
I am glad you are happy with this card, I am not, it is different hopinion. IMHO it run too hot and the passive cooler is insufficient.
Instead of a long RMA, i prefer a Zalman solution and now I am happy

My 2 cent

With all due respect, if you're telling me that I don't know how to stress my gfx card, then you are sadly mistaken. Despite your idea that it doesn't "stress" the card, I have found in comparing it to several other games and even 3dbenchmark programs that it consistently makes my graphics card the hottest of any program I've ever used.

And those numbers were based off of a room temp of 74 degrees F; I guess if you don't have air conditioning then the room would get considerably warmer, but in my case the temperature stays relatively similar during the summer and the winter months.

Again, I'm not saying that you don't know how to set up proper airflow, but the case you have is very alien to me and I would not be surprised if it does not give adequate cooling for the gfx card with a layout like that.

EDIT- Oh, I just realized I misreported my idle temp; it's 52 degrees C, not 62, typo on my part, so maybe that might be making you think my numbers are BS.

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:55 pm

Is the 7950GT much hotter than the 7900GT? I had no problem cooling my 7900GT with a passive cooler (Be Quiet! Polar Freezer) during the summer. The only fans (beside the PSU fan) in my system was two Adda 120mm @ ~450RPM in the back and top of my P180, both sucking air out of the case. I don't remember the exact temperatures but I know the 7900GT never reached 70C.

rdvd · Post by **rdvd** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 6:39 am

markot86 wrote:
rdvd wrote:Maybe I don't know how to setup the airflow... maybe
But in idle i had 64 and you 62 so it is very similar.... and WoW is not a stressing game, try some benchmark that really make the GPU work then we will see the temp, and in an hot summer add 10Â°.
I am glad you are happy with this card, I am not, it is different hopinion. IMHO it run too hot and the passive cooler is insufficient.
Instead of a long RMA, i prefer a Zalman solution and now I am happy

My 2 cent
With all due respect, if you're telling me that I don't know how to stress my gfx card, then you are sadly mistaken. Despite your idea that it doesn't "stress" the card, I have found in comparing it to several other games and even 3dbenchmark programs that it consistently makes my graphics card the hottest of any program I've ever used.

And those numbers were based off of a room temp of 74 degrees F; I guess if you don't have air conditioning then the room would get considerably warmer, but in my case the temperature stays relatively similar during the summer and the winter months.

Again, I'm not saying that you don't know how to set up proper airflow, but the case you have is very alien to me and I would not be surprised if it does not give adequate cooling for the gfx card with a layout like that.

EDIT- Oh, I just realized I misreported my idle temp; it's 52 degrees C, not 62, typo on my part, so maybe that might be making you think my numbers are BS.

Well good for you if you can take this BBQ Card at those temp, for me it run too hot and the passive cooler is insufficient if it doesn't have a fan close to it. So instead find a crazy way to add a fan in my case that i dont' need i prefer use a zalman that is really a good cooler.

This is only my hopinion and my experienze about this card, and max respect to you.

Mikey · Post by **Mikey** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 5:48 pm

Would you expect that one of these would be able to survive in an antec P180 ?

markot86 · Post by **markot86** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:00 pm

Mikey wrote:Would you expect that one of these would be able to survive in an antec P180 ?

I'm running it in my antec p180 right now with 3 yate loons at 5v and it runs flawlessly with no artifacting. Obviously I can't say for sure whether it'll work for you or not, but for me it's working fantastically.

Mikey · Post by **Mikey** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 4:30 pm

Sorry markot86, must have missed your post there. Thats fantastic news as its what i think i'll be going for in my next system

kryft · Post by **kryft** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 2:08 am

I got my MSI NX7950GT yesterday, and the temperatures seem fine for a fanless card. The card idles at 54C and didn't go higher than 80C during two hours of playing Oblivion. I would assume that the XFX card performs similarly.

I have a standard Antec P150, and a Scythe Ninja with a 12 mm fan that is slowed down by a Fanmate.

nikolair · Post by **nikolair** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 9:58 am

pmcguire wrote:I just noticed though that it is a pretty tight fit, anyone here used this with the Zalman HD160, or the Origean X11/X15?

I can confirm, from first-hand experience that XFX PVT71JYHF9 GeForce 7950GT (fanless) card fits Zalman HD160 case. It was a tight fit, the top of heat sink is touching the inside of the case's top panel (aluminum). I am not aware of any reason why contact between the card's heatsink and the case would be bad - anyone?

Mikey · Post by **Mikey** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 2:16 pm

Heat transferrance possibly might affect the material its touching perhaps.. ?

Do you know how well it ran with regards to temperatures?

rei · Post by **rei** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 10:54 pm

Hmm? I wonder if this will run with the NSK3300's 300W PSU?

rei · Post by **rei** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:35 am

Is it single slot or double?

orihara · Post by **orihara** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 8:22 am

It's double slot, kinda. The front of the card fits within the single slot space, but the heatsink on the back takes up some extra room, too. It might interfere with stuff put above it in the case.

Passive high-end: XFX GeForce7950GS/T

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