Changing fan on the HD6950

[quakes]

There does not seem to be any third-party coolers that support the HD69xx series as of yet, but the stock cooler on the HD6950 is a bit loud for my tastes.

Would it work to simply rip out the fan it ships with, remove the cover off of the cooler (exposing the heatsink), and then zip-tie one or two silent 120mm fans to it? It would be quieter, but would it cool the card adequately, do you think?

[walle]

I see no reason for why that wouldn't work.

You wouldn't even have to remove the fan, simply disconnecting it should do just fine.





Edit:
I suppose you could mount three 92mm fans on there also.

The fans would be within the width of the card whilst also provide "spot" cooling, could perhaps be desired.


By the way.

Welcome to SPRC!

[quakes]

I see no reason for why that wouldn't work.

You wouldn't even have to remove the fan, simply disconnecting it should do just fine.



Edit:
I suppose you could mount three 92mm fans on there also.

The fans would be within the width of the card whilst also provide "spot" cooling, could perhaps be desired.

I might try it out. Depends on how hard it is to get the cover off. I don't have any 92mm fans available however, so if so I will probably use the 120mm fans that I do have available.

By the way.

Welcome to SPRC!

Thanks. Long time lurker, first time poster.

[zyrobs]

Not a bad idea, but I don't think it would cool the VRMs adequately. Also, I don't think that heatsink is fixed - though I suppose it would be fairly trivial to ziplock it.

I am looking for a way to make my 6950 less noisy too, but in a way so I can re-add the stock cooler if needed (it's harder to sell the card if its modified). The main problem is that Thermalright stuff is not available here, they had some awesome dedicated Radeon VRM heatsinks last time I checked.

edit: If I could just lock the automatic fan speed minimum to 20% (it's hard locked to that minimum speed), that would be enough... I had no luck with custom bios flashing so far, automatic fan speed is still 25% at lowest. Manual can be set to 20%, but then it's locked at 20% all the time and it can reach the Tmax of 105c very easily even when just playing games.

[quakes]

Not a bad idea, but I don't think it would cool the VRMs adequately. Also, I don't think that heatsink is fixed - though I suppose it would be fairly trivial to ziplock it.

I am looking for a way to make my 6950 less noisy too, but in a way so I can re-add the stock cooler if needed (it's harder to sell the card if its modified). The main problem is that Thermalright stuff is not available here, they had some awesome dedicated Radeon VRM heatsinks last time I checked.

edit: If I could just lock the automatic fan speed minimum to 20% (it's hard locked to that minimum speed), that would be enough... I had no luck with custom bios flashing so far, automatic fan speed is still 25% at lowest. Manual can be set to 20%, but then it's locked at 20% all the time and it can reach the Tmax of 105c very easily even when just playing games.

When you say it's not fixed, you mean it's not screwed to the PCB? If so, that would certainly be a bummer. The VRMs could indeed pose a problem, I'm not sure how much airflow they require to cool adequately.

I don't think you're going to be able to re-add the stock cooler unless you don't remove the baseplate; not unless you replace the thermal pads on the baseplate. I don't think they're reusable. This is just speculation, however..

Edit: Meant baseplate, not backplate...

[zyrobs]

Oh, nevermind, the heatsink is screwed to the pcb like any other cooler. For some reason, I thought it was just swinging there in the plastic case. I'm not sure why, probably after-xmas effects (beer, et al.).

Based on the pictures, the stock cooler is built up the same way as with the 5850, not counting the aesthetic and functional improvements, and the backplate. That would mean that its easily possible to disassemble / reassemble it, as long as you do NOT try to remove the fan from the baseplate, which uses extremely thin and long screws. I actually wore out 4 brand new mini screwdrivers to remove 2 of the screws when I disassembled my 5850 cooler, and the third screw wore out so the only way I could remove it was by physically breaking it apart. If the 6950 is built the same way, there is no way in hell you can get the baseplate out, and most vga coolers would get in the way of the stock fan.
But I've yet to try to disassemble my 6950, I'm not touching it until I have a concrete plan on what to modify and how. Don't want to make the card look like it has voided warranty, so I'll need a setup that is interchangeable with the stock cooler & leaves minimal trace of the modifications (ex. no thermal adhesive pasta on the chips, etc).

[quakes]

Oh, nevermind, the heatsink is screwed to the pcb like any other cooler. For some reason, I thought it was just swinging there in the plastic case. I'm not sure why, probably after-xmas effects (beer, et al.).

Based on the pictures, the stock cooler is built up the same way as with the 5850, not counting the aesthetic and functional improvements, and the backplate. That would mean that its easily possible to disassemble / reassemble it, as long as you do NOT try to remove the fan from the baseplate, which uses extremely thin and long screws. I actually wore out 4 brand new mini screwdrivers to remove 2 of the screws when I disassembled my 5850 cooler, and the third screw wore out so the only way I could remove it was by physically breaking it apart. If the 6950 is built the same way, there is no way in hell you can get the baseplate out, and most vga coolers would get in the way of the stock fan.
But I've yet to try to disassemble my 6950, I'm not touching it until I have a concrete plan on what to modify and how. Don't want to make the card look like it has voided warranty, so I'll need a setup that is interchangeable with the stock cooler & leaves minimal trace of the modifications (ex. no thermal adhesive pasta on the chips, etc).

How are you planning to make it interchangeable, then? Removing the baseplate would pretty much ruin the thermal pads on it, right? If so, you're stuck with it, and if what you say about the fan is correct, then you're stuck with the fan as well. I don't see that many options left if you're stuck with both the stock fan and baseplate; other than simply zip-tying some other fans on top, as was my original idea..

Edit: After looking at some more detailed pictures of the heatsink, I am convinced that simply zip-tying some fans to it will not work well. If you look at images like this:

you can clearly see that the heatsink is like a closed tunnel. Thus, zip-tying some fans on top of it will likely achieve extremely little. Maybe I'll simply have to wait until a third party cooling system is determined to be compatible...

Edit2: According to this review on Tomshardware, the Thermalright Shaman is compatible with the HD6950. Might be interesting to check out. Though they do mention having issues with the VRM sticky tape not being strong enough; wonder if one of their standalone VRM cooling products (such as the VRM R5) fits the HD 6950 (though it feels rather overkill...)?

[appletree]

Edit2: According to this review on Tomshardware, the Thermalright Shaman is compatible with the HD6950. Might be interesting to check out. Though they do mention having issues with the VRM sticky tape not being strong enough; wonder if one of their standalone VRM cooling products (such as the VRM R5) fits the HD 6950 (though it feels rather overkill...)?

Hello, it's probably only matter of time before the other universal fitting GPU coolers are either officially announced to support 6950 or some new mounting kit will allow them to support it. You can also try to contact Thermalright tech support, they were kind enough to answer my similar question about VRM G2 compatibility with GTX 580.
PS: I would rather go with "overkill" than improper VRM cooling - if that was an option on 580.

[boost]

The Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus fits.
I am not a fan of Arctic Cooling, I dislike the mounting mechanism on the Accelero S2.
However the reviews of the Accelero Extreme seem quite favorable.

[quakes]

The Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus fits.
I am not a fan of Arctic Cooling, I dislike the mounting mechanism on the Accelero S2.
However the reviews of the Accelero Extreme seem quite favorable.

This is looking like a very interesting option, then. The fact that I can get an Accelero Xtreme Plus with the proper mounting kit for about half of what a Thermalright Shaman + VRM-R5 would cost me makes it even more tempting. The only reservation I have is that the VRMs might not get adequate cooling (especially since I plan on flashing my HD6950 to a HD6970, which won't exactly help regarding VRM temperatures). A shame that the VRM temperatures cannot be easily checked (yet?).

Edit: According to Thermalright, the VRM-R5 does not fit the HD 6950 ("No, it don’t fit, we are working on the new solution, it shall be available in the market around February").

[boost]

Edit: According to Thermalright, the VRM-R5 does not fit the HD 6950 ("No, it don’t fit, we are working on the new solution, it shall be available in the market around February").

Thanks! I was almost ready to pull the trigger on a 6950 myself. Now I'll wait.

[zyrobs]

How are you planning to make it interchangeable, then? Removing the baseplate would pretty much ruin the thermal pads on it, right? If so, you're stuck with it, and if what you say about the fan is correct, then you're stuck with the fan as well. I don't see that many options left if you're stuck with both the stock fan and baseplate; other than simply zip-tying some other fans on top, as was my original idea..

I don't know, I've yet to disassemble the thing. If it's like the 5850 cooler, then it'll be trivial matter to readd the cooler, since there is no thermal paste to apply.

Zip-tying another fan sounds like a fair idea to me, someone should try it out and post results so we know if its worth anything or not - there should be some heat transfer even with the lack of heatpipes, and a 12cm fan can surely push more air than that red whiner they put on the thing.

Right now I'm waiting for the Radeon Bios Editor to support Cayman, so I can scale down the fan and nuke that annoying delta throttling that keeps the card going +/-1% all the time even on idle. At the base 20% I'd say it's silent enough, but by default, the card is kept at some 26-27%, which is noisier, plus the non-stable rpm makes the pitch go up and down randomly. There is also some Sapphire tool that allows you to do custom fan control in software, which should be a nice idea too but I don't want to run yet another app just for this. I'll either mod the bios or wait for Ati Tray Tools to do the same thing as that Sapphire tool.

Thermalright stuff is not available where I live, importing would be cost prohibitive, and the Accelero Xtreme Plus looks absolutely hideous and probably wouldn't fit in my case. And costs a lot too. I sort of miss my 5850 already, I just put the stock baseplate, an Accelero S1, and a 12cm cooler on it, and it was dead silent with 36/70c idle/load.

[Fire-Flare]

The Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus fits.
I am not a fan of Arctic Cooling, I dislike the mounting mechanism on the Accelero S2.
However the reviews of the Accelero Extreme seem quite favorable.

This is looking like a very interesting option, then. The fact that I can get an Accelero Xtreme Plus with the proper mounting kit for about half of what a Thermalright Shaman + VRM-R5 would cost me makes it even more tempting. The only reservation I have is that the VRMs might not get adequate cooling (especially since I plan on flashing my HD6950 to a HD6970, which won't exactly help regarding VRM temperatures). A shame that the VRM temperatures cannot be easily checked (yet?).

This is AC's heatsink kit for using the Accelero Xtreme on ATI/AMD cards: http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/spare ... tml?c=2208

[quakes]

I don't know, I've yet to disassemble the thing. If it's like the 5850 cooler, then it'll be trivial matter to readd the cooler, since there is no thermal paste to apply.

Hm, I see. I would've thought the coolers thermal pads would not be reusable.

Zip-tying another fan sounds like a fair idea to me, someone should try it out and post results so we know if its worth anything or not - there should be some heat transfer even with the lack of heatpipes, and a 12cm fan can surely push more air than that red whiner they put on the thing.

Did you see the detailed image I posted? Since the whole heatsink is a closed tunnel, I think it'd be extremely hard to get good cooling with a zip-tied fan - you'd have to somehow force air into the tunnel. I doubt it'd work well anyway.

Thermalright stuff is not available where I live, importing would be cost prohibitive, and the Accelero Xtreme Plus looks absolutely hideous and probably wouldn't fit in my case. And costs a lot too. I sort of miss my 5850 already, I just put the stock baseplate, an Accelero S1, and a 12cm cooler on it, and it was dead silent with 36/70c idle/load.

I'm currently looking at getting the Accelero Xtreme Plus. I'm hoping the VRM cooling will be sufficient, but I guess the only way to know for sure is to try it out.

[maxxxim]

My solution on 2GB Club3D Radeon 6950 using Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2. I used 2 VR Heatsinks from Arctic Cooling and 3 heatsinks from Zalman:


Then I attached two 12cm Nexus fans to Accelero with zipties:


And finally installed VGA cooler to VGA:


I reduced fan speeds to 600-700rpm so I barely hear them using Akasa fan controller. Temperature is about 15-20 degrees lower then using original VGA cooler but bit too high when I flashed VGA card to 6970 (about 92 degrees when playing example GTA4). But no artifacts so probably temps are safe.

[quakes]

My solution on 2GB Club3D Radeon 6950 using Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2. I used 2 VR Heatsinks from Arctic Cooling and 3 heatsinks from Zalman:


Then I attached two 12cm Nexus fans to Accelero with zipties:


And finally installed VGA cooler to VGA:


I reduced fan speeds to 600-700rpm so I barely hear them using Akasa fan controller. Temperature is about 15-20 degrees lower then using original VGA cooler but bit too high when I flashed VGA card to 6970 (about 92 degrees when playing example GTA4). But no artifacts so probably temps are safe.

Did you not put any heatsinks at all on the RAM chips (the big black rectangles)? If so, interesting that it apparently still doesn't get too hot.

[maxxxim]

Did you not put any heatsinks at all on the RAM chips (the big black rectangles)? If so, interesting that it apparently still doesn't get too hot.

No and even if card is flashed to 6970 they doesn't get hot probably because fan is blowing straight to them.

[zyrobs]

Unbelievable how the S1v2 can still cool everything right with some creativity.

Can you post gpu-z temps under a stresstest please?

[alecmg]

My solution on 2GB Club3D Radeon 6950 using Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2

Impressive
I might have to resort to same solution if I don't like how 6950 behaves in idle

[maxxxim]

Unbelievable how the S1v2 can still cool everything right with some creativity.

Can you post gpu-z temps under a stresstest please?

OK, I did some testing, example Crysis GPU test:
Running as 6950 max temp 64.5 degrees (GPU-Z: GPU Temp #2);
Running as 6970 max temp 99 degrees (GPU-Z: GPU Temp #2);

So I strongly advise to keep card as 6950 or change fans to more powerful ones.

[zyrobs]

What about the VRMs, and idle temps?

[maxxxim]

What about the VRMs, and idle temps?

As 6950:
idle 39
I think VRM is this GPU Temp #3 on GPU-Z so it is 64 degrees then.

As 6970 VRM idle is 49 and GPU Temp #3 is 103.

[swaaye]

I really dislike this stock cooler. It spins up like a hair drier in quite a few games. There's nothing for ATI to brag about here IMO.

MSI Afterburner can control the fan but there's little benefit unless you actually want it cooler (increase fan speed). There's no headroom for slower fan speeds other than at idle. RBE BIOS editing of the fan parameters doesn't seem to work.

I am considering that Accelero S1 Rev 2 solution. I've used a few Acceleros over the years. It does look like this card is pushing it near the limit though if 2x 120mm fans at 700 RPM are on the edge. I really should have been smart and ignored the stock cooler and waited for the cards with aftermarket coolers. I really don't like adding extra costs to already expensive video cards.

[swaaye]

I made some useful discoveries.

It's possible to enable all of the GPU's hardware with even the 6950 BIOS by using a mod tool and flashing the modified BIOS. The power increase is negligible and this is apparently safer (and quieter) than using a 6970 BIOS on a 6950 card.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost. ... tcount=381

Secondly, RBE can edit the voltage table in the BIOS for these cards. I found that my 6950 with all enabled hardware can run stably at 1.025v (VID3 and 4) compared to the stock 1.100v. This results in lower load heat output than even a stock 6950. Much lower than a 6970. Keeps the fan a bit slower.

I'm pretty happy now. The card no longer enters vacuum cleaner mode even in Furmark.

[alecmg]

Secondly, RBE can edit the voltage table in the BIOS for these cards.

Don't forget to change voltage for "video playback" mode. I got dual screens so the card would always stay in that mode and the voltage for it is way higher than required.

[falcon26]

Are you sure the Artic Cooling Extreme fits on the 6950? It only says the 6970 not the 6950..

[maxxxim]

Are you sure the Artic Cooling Extreme fits on the 6950? It only says the 6970 not the 6950..

Board layout is identical.

[falcon26]

Oh that's right Duh Hum now I wonder if I should get this for my XFX 6950. Does it come with all the ramsink and vrm's too? Looks like its about $65 that's pretty expensive. I had the twin turbo pro on my 5870 and loved it. But it came with everything and was like $40.

[alecmg]

My solution on 2GB Club3D Radeon 6950 using Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2. I And finally installed VGA cooler to VGA:

How thick is the total setup?
will it block 3 or 4 slots on motherboard?

[maxxxim]

How thick is the total setup?
will it block 3 or 4 slots on motherboard?

4 slots.